Crush the King (Crown of Shards #3)(79)

Jerome frowned. “Who the fuck is Lyra—”

With a loud shriek of rage, the strix flew out of her cage, zoomed across the tent, and drove her body straight into Jerome’s. The geldjager slammed into the ground, landing flat on his back. Lyra hopped up onto his chest, snapped her beak forward, and buried it in his throat like it was a sword she was wielding.

Jerome tried to scream, but all that came out was a choked, bloody gurgle.

Lyra threw her head back, flexed her wings, and let out a loud, triumphant cry. Then she started raking her talons across Jerome’s body, cutting through his clothes and opening up deep, bloody gashes across his chest and stomach. In less than ten seconds it was over, and Jerome died without making another sound.

When she was sure Jerome was dead, Lyra hopped across the ground to Leonidas, who was clutching his bruised ribs. She gently nuzzled her head against his free hand, and Leonidas reached out and hugged the bird to his side.

“Good girl,” he rasped. “Good girl.”

Lyra’s feathers puffed up with pride, and she snuggled closer to the boy. Leonidas didn’t seem to notice the blood coating her beak and talons. Or if he did, he just didn’t care that Lyra was smearing it all over him.

“What’s going on?”

“Was that a strix scream?”

“The queen! Check on the queen!”

More and more shouts rose up outside the tent. Lyra’s cries had been sharper and louder than the general camp revelry and had alerted the Bellonan guards that something was wrong.

Instead of lunging to his feet and trying to run away, Leonidas sighed and slumped back against one of the support poles, with Lyra still by his side. “You should have gone ahead and killed me. Your people will tear me apart for this. And Lyra too.”

The strix let out a sharp caw! and flexed her wings, as if ready to take on anyone who dared to threaten Leonidas.

“My only regret is that I can’t save the others,” the boy continued. “I should have found some way to open their cages before I came here.”

“Others? What are you talking about?”

Leonidas sighed again. “The other strixes that Uncle Maximus brought to the Regalia.”

I frowned. “You mean the ones the guards flew into the arena?”

The boy shook his head. “No. The other strixes. The ones that Uncle Maximus . . .” He didn’t finish his thought, but he didn’t have to.

My stomach roiled at the idea, but I pushed my disgust aside and forced myself to think about the king’s actions. Surely there was only so much blood and magic Maximus could drink and absorb at one time. So why bring that many creatures to the Regalia?

Unless . . . he was planning to unleash all that magic.

He’s never brought so many men and strixes to the Regalia before, Auster’s voice whispered in my mind. He has something planned, something bigger than just killing Evie.

Auster had said that after the opening ceremonies, and we’d taken precautions to make sure we wouldn’t be taken by surprise by the Mortan guards on their strixes. But if Maximus slaughtered more strixes, then he could potentially amass enough magic to blast through our defenses, leaving his men and their strixes free to swoop down and decimate the ranks of my guards.

He could potentially wipe out the entire Bellonan camp, which would leave him free to do something even worse—invade my kingdom.

“Where are these strixes?” I asked in a sharp voice.

Leonidas sighed for a third time. “In their cages. In our camp. On the Mortan side of the river.”

“Could you draw me a map? Show me where they are?”

He shrugged. “I could, but your people are coming to kill me, so what’s the point? I’ll be dead soon enough, and so will those strixes.”

I stared at the three dead geldjagers, thoughts and schemes whirling through my mind. Maximus had sent Leonidas to kill me, but he’d realized that the boy might fail, so he’d most likely told Driscol to send these assassins as backup. And not just to kill me, but Leonidas too.

But the assassins were Fortuna geldjagers, and they had wanted to kidnap me, rather than murder me. Once again, it seemed like the DiLucris were making promises to Maximus, but then ignoring his orders in favor of their own sinister plans.

Leonidas was right. Captain Auster would want to tear him to pieces for attacking me. So would Paloma, Sullivan, and the rest of my friends. It would be so easy to let them do whatever they liked to Leonidas, and Lyra too.

But once again, I couldn’t—wouldn’t—do that.

The boy had been trying to save his strix, as well as protect himself and his mother. If my own mother had still been alive, I would have done anything to keep her safe, even try to kill a queen.

No, I wasn’t going to kill Leonidas—but I could still use him.

At the very least, I needed more information about the strixes that Maximus planned to slaughter. And that wasn’t the only way I could use the boy. Maximus didn’t realize it, but he’d just given me the perfect tool to further my long game with Maeven, a game that might let me crush the king at the same time.

I looked at Leonidas. “Do you trust me?”

“Of course not. Why would I trust you? You’re the Bellonan queen.” He frowned. “And why would you even want me to trust you? I just tried to kill you.”