The Vampire & Her Witch

”Father, you can’t!” Reynold said, stepping forward to put an armored hand on his father’s shoulder. ”Let me fight for you...”

”No,” Tybal said, stubbornly shaking his head. ”I can’t send you to face that, that monster,” he said, looking up at the hulking figure who had gone to stand on the far side of the Imperial Box with Rastlan and a woman who came from the same clan as Dirar.

Reynold followed his father’s gaze, a hot retort on his lips, but that retort died the instant his eyes found the dark, murderous stare of Taghai. He thought that he’d prepared himself. After two nights spent facing off against Dame Sybyll and her nightmare horse, Poppy, he thought he was ready for anything.

He was wrong.

The sight of Taghai’s muscular frame with a lower body the size of an ox-cart and an armored torso to match, made even his resolve shake and tremble. Still, the sight of his opponent alone wasn’t enough to make him give up. Not when so much was at stake.

”If you die tonight, our line ends,” Tybal said as he placed a hand over his son’s gauntlet. He hoped, now that Reynold could see the man their enemies had sent to face him, that his son would know good sense when he heard it and accept his father’s arrangements.

”Even if the three of you manage to preserve my life,” Tybal said. ”If you’re crippled or killed, our family still loses in the end. It isn’t worth trading my life for yours just to watch everything we have taken by someone else. What point is there in ruling over endless fields if I cannot pass it down to my son?”

”You still have a second son,” a nondescript, amethyst-eyed woman said. ”I’ve been tending to Sir Rain for some time now. He will be returned to you soon, whole and in good health. Even if he falls, your line won’t end with Reynold.”

”But it will,” Tybal said bitterly before speaking the words he’d never once said in public. ”Rain is Reynold’s brother, but he isn’t my son. Reynold is my only son, and the only one who can carry on our line...”

On his shoulder, Tybal felt Reynold’s hand tighten, and he heard the sound of armor plates sliding over each other as he admitted to a truth he’d been unwilling to voice for more than twenty years.

Part of him wanted to look over his shoulder, to know that his son understood that it changed nothing between him and Rain. They were still brothers born to the same mother after all. But the thought of the look in his son’s storm-grey eyes at this moment, of the judgment or hurt he might find there, was more than Tybal had the courage to face after everything he’d already said.

”Husband...” Peigi said, her eyes brimming with unshed tears as Tybal finally admitted what she’d suspected he knew for many years. Even between them, it had been easier to pretend that Rain was truly his. To shove down the suspicions and carry on as if she’d never broken their vows.

”You knew,” Peigi whispered. ”How, how long have you known? And why, after all these years, why bring it up now?” Peigi asked with tears rolling down her cheeks.

”I’ve always known,” Tybal said, looking up just long enough to see Peigi’s heartbroken gaze.

”I know, it’s selfish of me,” Tybal added as gently as he could. ”I haven’t treated the boy very well. It isn’t easy raising another man’s son,” he said, his voice turning briefly sour before he shook off decades of resentment that no longer mattered here at the end. ”Let this make up for the years of neglect. Whatever happens next, being known as my son will only make his life harder, not easier. Let him be free of that burden.”

”You truly are prepared to die,” Nyrielle said, looking down at the lord of Aleese with midnight eyes that, for a moment, swallowed Tybal’s entire world. ”But this proposal of yours favors you too much, and deprives Dirar of a chance to claim true victory for his lords. Death would free you from responsibility to face the consequences of an alliance that would be diminished by your insulting sacrifice,” she said.

”My darling,” Nyrielle said, turning her attention to Ashlynn. ”The only suggestion that seems to have any merit is stripping this worm of a man of his title so a more worthy one can carry it. Thane and Sybyll have both said that Reynold shows promise. Cast this wretch aside; he has not earned this mercy.”

Nyrielle’s words fell on Tybal’s hopes like the blade of an executioner’s ax, all but severing them. Still, he held out the tiniest shred of hope as he looked at Empress Ashlynn, wishing with every fiber of his being that she would honor the plea of a man who was willing to die in order to give his son a chance at life.

”Nyrielle is right,” Ashlynn said, trampling on what remained of his hopes. ”I promised the Southern Steppe three duels to resolve the blood debts between you. I will not allow you to claim two victories for the price of one defeat without ever crossing swords. I will not break my word to you, or to the Southern Steppe.”

”I never suspected you would,” Dirar said smoothly. ”You have never once struck me as someone who would betray the confidence others place in you. I’m glad to see that my impression holds true.”

”It is time for the duels to begin,” Ashlynn declared. ”As to who sits on the throne in the Ride of Aleese,” she added. ”We’ll settle that question when the duels are done.”

”There are still stars left in your sky, Tybal Aleese,” Aspakos said, stepping up next to Reynold and placing a taloned hand on the young lord’s armored shoulder. ”You still have those who will fight to preserve what you hold dear.”

”If you turn away from the chance at a better path,” Aspakos said. ”Then you will only snuff out the chance of a brighter future. You may yet survive this night, and Reynold’s fate is far from sealed. Perhaps, if you can find a way to cling to life, you may yet see the next generation in your line,” he added with a wink at Reynold.

”Think carefully about what matters most to you,” Aspakos said. ”You may not keep everything, but the most precious thing,” he said, turning his gaze to ward Rastlan on the far side of the room. ”You may yet be able to preserve. Choose wisely when you decide what that is.”