(eng) Morgan Rhodes - Falling Kingdoms 06 by Immorta Reign

Author:Immorta Reign [Reign, Immorta]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

MAGNUS

AURANOS

A week had passed since his father’s murder.

The city had not gone into deep mourning for their lost king. In fact, they were currently in the midst of a celebration. Auranians always seemed to be celebrating something.

The last festival had been called the Day of Flames, and citizens wore red, orange, and yellow to represent the goddess Cleiona’s fire magic. This festival was in celebration of her air magic, and it allegedly lasted for half a month.

Half of an entire month dedicated to a festival called the “Breath of Cleiona.”

Ridiculous, Magnus thought.

Cleo had explained to him that citizens of Auranos far and wide would come to the palace city during this time of celebration to read their poetry and to sing songs in praise of the goddess. The breath they used to speak and sing was their tribute to Cleiona’s air magic.

But really, she’d explained, it was simply an excuse for drinking great amounts of wine and boisterous social interaction that lasted until the wee hours of morning.

While such celebrations carried on in the city beyond the palace walls, Magnus stood in the royal cemetery, looking down at the patch of dirt that marked the king’s temporary grave. The king’s remains would eventually be returned to Limeros and buried next to Magnus’s mother. Until then, Magnus had had him placed into the earth by nightfall of the day of his death, true to Limerian tradition.

How odd that he now felt some strange sense of solace from leaning on the same traditions he’d all but ignored his entire life.

A small black granite marker lay upon the bare soil, chiseled with the Limerian crest of entwined snakes.

He’d dreamed about his father just last night.

“Don’t waste time mourning me,” the king had said to him. “You need to focus only on what’s important now.”

“Oh?” Magnus had replied. “And what’s that?”

“Power and strength. When news of my death spreads, there will be many who would fight to control Mytica. You can’t let them. Mytica is yours now. You are my heir, you are my legacy. And you must promise to crush anyone who stands against you.”

Power and strength. Two attributes Magnus had always struggled with, much to his father’s disappointment.

But he would do as the dream version of his father suggested.

He would fight. And he would crush anyone who opposed him and wanted to take what was his.

Beginning with the Kindred.

He sensed Cleo’s presence before he felt her lightly touch his arm.

“It’s so strange to me,” he said before she uttered a single word.

“What is?”

“I hated my father with every fiber of my being, yet I still feel this incredible . . . loss.”

“I understand.”

He laughed darkly, finally glancing at Cleo out of the corner of his eye. She wore a gown of pale blue today, the bodice trimmed in small silk flowers. Her hair fell over her shoulders in long, messy golden waves.

A vision of beauty, as always.

“I wouldn’t expect you to understand,” he told her. “I know how you felt about him.

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