Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 25

He handed her a sapphire ring, dropping it into her palm, and brushing her skin with his fingertips. Cole shivered, despite herself, at the softness of his touch. She wasn't used to physical contact with anyone, much less a man with aqua eyes that looked into hers with a surprising sadness.

"W-what?" she asked, suddenly breathless.

He didn't respond for a moment, but then he slowly shook his head and took a step back. "Just try your best," he said. "We don't have much time, and this has to succeed. We can't fail. I can't fail."

It sounded like the words of an arrogant warrior, but Cole heard in them a strange tone. A desperateness that shouldn't be there. It was hidden and covered, but she still noticed the fear buried deep inside Tanwyn.

She didn't know how to respond, but it was apparent that she didn't need to as Tanwyn stepped back and held up his own hand. His ring glowed, and she felt the invisible stir of magic swell around her.

"I'll come back as soon as I have more time," he said. "I'll see you then."

With the sweet smell of wheat and rain, he disappeared from view and Cole was again alone in the kitchen. Only now, she had the sapphire ring weighing heavy in her palm.

Glancing at it, she wondered if she'd ever be able to use it. She was just a miner, someone who never learned anything useful and was barely able to be a lady, much less a magic-wielding assassin. What made her think she could use this ring?

She sighed as she looked up, and her eyes landed on the door down to the dungeon. The disappointment of the locked gate rankled in her chest, and she felt frustrated tears prick her eyes. All she wanted at this moment was to see the mother she had thought was long dead. She was so close, yet a bit of iron was keeping her away. The warm embrace that Cole longed for, the words of a parent that Cole hadn't heard since her father died. The knowledge that she wasn't alone in the world anymore. She had her mother alive and she just needed to get past a simple iron gate in order to have her family cobbled together again.

Without even realizing it, she closed her fingers over the ring and pressed it so hard into her palm that it cut the skin. She only looked down when she felt a trickle of blood carve its way across her palm and down the back of her hand. Hissing, she moved the ring to her other hand and wiped the blood on her skirt. She needed to get to bed before she hurt herself any further.

She stood and started toward the door, the ring gently cupped in her unwounded palm, but as she walked, her gaze kept going to the dungeon stairs. She paused, staring at them, her mind daring to think of the impossible. Or maybe it was just the improbable.

She had the magic ring now. If she tried... maybe she could unlock the gate with magic and get her mother out. She could use whatever power the ring had left in it to get out of the palace, and then she only had to disappear into the vast expanse of the countryside. She wouldn't have to murder the prince or take sides in a war that wasn't hers to fight. She could live with her mother again, normal and happy like they should have been doing all this time.

Before she could decide it was a stupid plan, she found herself marching back down the stairs and into the root cellar, pulling the ring onto her finger and bracing herself for what she knew was going to be a draining task.