Dawn of Cobalt Shadows (Burning Empire Book 2) by Emma Hamm (free novels to read TXT) 📗

arm, and pressed a kiss to her head. “I’ll give you that. We were perhaps a little too foolish for our own good.”

As they strode toward the palace, she slipped an arm around his waist. “That’s the first time I’ve heard you speak about him without your voice cracking.”

“I suppose it was,” he replied. “Strange how I think of him now with fondness rather than a sense of guilt.”

Sigrid didn’t find it strange at all. She knew how death could linger in the back of someone’s mind until eventually that guilt dulled into a sense of fond memory. She’d seen it happen time and time again with so many of her friends.

Her only wish was that she could figure out how to do that herself. All the deaths here and around the empire weighed heavily on her shoulders. Perhaps someday she could wake up without having to worry. Perhaps someday she wouldn’t let the opinion of others affect her so.

They strode up the crimson steps into the palace halls. Sigrid had forgotten how golden this place was. Every corridor was lined with metallic hues. Swaths of red fabric hung from the ceiling and pooled on the ground, starting so high up it would have taken three men on each other’s shoulders to even reach the top.

This place was made for someone who shared divine blood. In her furs and strange outfit, she felt decidedly out of place.

Yet, it was her arm around their sultan. It was she who was married to the man who ruled these lands, not some creature who was covered in silken fabric and knew how to simper at the newest nobles.

He’d found something in her that called out to him. The wildness in her heart that made his sing. That was worth far more than the acknowledgement of the other people here.

They’d almost made it to his private chambers before a servant backed out of a room. Her arms were laden with laundry that dropped to the floor the moment she saw Sigrid.

The maid’s eyes widened in fear and then horror. How could she recognize Sigrid when she wasn’t wearing her mask? Was it the simple knowledge that a pale woman, clearly from Wildewyn, was here?

Nadir stiffened, opened his mouth, only to be interrupted by the maid who finally managed to gasp.

“Sultana,” the maid croaked. “You’re alive.”

Sigrid slipped her hand out of Nadir’s and stepped forward carefully. “I am.”

“We all thought… well, the great battle in the sky with the sultan, we didn’t think it was possible you had survived.”

She didn’t know how to process these words. The maid’s fear scented the air with blood and violence.

How could she reassure this woman? How could she when she was the one who had destroyed their city?

Sigrid bowed her head. “The battle did not leave any lasting scars. I appreciate your worry, however, after everything that happened.”

“War is war, Sultana. We all do bad things in its grip.” The maid gulped. “Have done bad things. We don’t blame you for that, you know.”

“I suspect many do.”

“You were kind to us while you were here. Many of us have family who…” The maid’s eyes flicked to Nadir then back. “Family who are like the both of you. It’s a start, some kind of acceptance and understanding that the Beastkin aren’t dangerous. They shouldn’t be killed. And they can protect us or harm us if we discard them.”

Sigrid’s tongue stilled and her heart stuttered. “I don’t know how to thank you for your kindness.”

“Please don’t.” The other woman bent to pick up the laundry, filled her arms, and then smiled. “Just keep changing the world, Sultana. It’ll thank you for it eventually.”

As the woman walked away, Sigrid looked over her shoulder at Nadir and wondered how they were going to do just that.

28

Nadir

“They remember you as a masked woman. Seeing you without one will be startling for them.” He hated even suggesting that she cover her face. Nadir had grown to enjoy watching the emotions play over her features. She had no idea he could read her like an open book when he could see her lovely face.

A delicate chain headpiece dangled from his fingers. He’d seen some of his own people wear something similar. It wasn’t a solid piece of metal like she was used to, but individual strands of gold with diamonds inset in each chain link. People would be able to see her face, but only slightly in comparison to what they were used to.

“Easing them into the change,” she said with a smile. “I understand it. I did tell them all if they saw my face, I would kill them.”

“Better to not have them worrying about that on top of everything else,” he replied dryly.

Not that they would worry. The maid had proven he was correct. His people were more tolerant of the Beastkin, especially when the army wasn’t on the premises.

Sigrid remained still and allowed him to weave the gold braid into her hair so it would stay secure. He didn’t tell her that nerves twisted his stomach into knots. That he wasn’t all so certain his people would accept her as readily as the maid.

Something else burned in his gut. A deep rage that they would ever try to hurt her. That they would again try to start a war where he couldn’t be at her side, where he couldn’t protect her because of these humans’ chains that bound him so thoroughly he didn’t know what to do with himself.

This was new. He hadn’t ever been possessive over another person. Nor did this make sense. She’d only returned for a few moments, just a couple days at his side. And he wanted to tear apart the world for her? That wasn’t like him.

The fire inside him burned hotter than ever before. It was as if the dragon didn’t know what to do with itself. It had melted the bars of the cage Nadir had placed around it, and now there wasn’t anything