Chapter 24

Chapter

Twenty-Four

KEVA

M y upper lip curled in disgust as I glared daggers at the High Fae noble who lounged upon his dais with a gorgeous human woman—clearly no older than twenty-five—kneeling uncomfortably at his feet. Choppy blonde hair fell to her shoulders, aligning with the collar made of the strongest silver that was wrapped around her too-thin neck, a large chain weighing down the front of it.

Garreth Alebenac, the noble my departed husband had appointed to the Northern Border of Gambriel—the town of Xadrian to be exact—held her chain. He wrapped his hairy hand tighter around the end of the shackle as the woman shifted on her knees, trying to find a more comfortable position upon the marble floor.

I wanted nothing more than to take that chain and wrap it around his inflated neck until it cracked, but we needed willing access to his armory and his troops. We were alone within the assembly room of his sizable fortress, his guards gone to alert the barracks of the changes about to take hold. It would be the perfect opportunity to strike, to eliminate him and his odious opinions and vile morals.

Unfortunately, killing the bastard instantly wouldn't bode well for our plans, but from the way Ric was glaring at him, I knew I wasn't alone in my murderous line of thinking.

"Do you accept my terms, Consort ?" he drawled lazily and my eyes met his in a flash. There was mirth and humor floating in those ash-colored irises. Elric cracked his knuckles at the slight, his rage simmering at my side. I kept my fingers loose despite the desperate urge to curl them into a fist, and held the lord's derogatory glare.

I was no longer the Consort to the Crown of Gambriel, just the wife of some ruler.

I was the Crown of Gambriel.

Steadying my racing heartbeat, I reminded myself that time and place mattered along with pleasantries. We needed his trained warriors of Xadrian to be willing to fight by our side, and not just because we forced their hand by killing their lord.

Giving him the most saccharine smile, I imagined impaling his balding head on a spike like my late husband loved to do. "Ten thousand of your finest warriors and immediate access to your arsenal in exchange for your coffers to be filled to the brim with gold."

Lord Alebenac leaned forward, resting his elbow on his knee. "And that is all I get?" His eyes raked over my form, making my skin crawl the longer he stared. I was still dressed in the warm battle leathers that had made flying through the wintry sky possible, but they showcased every curve I possessed.

I was proud of my femininity and my sexual prowess as a High Fae female. But when a male like Garreth viewed my body as an object to be conquered, I felt like I was eighteen years old again, being sold off by my own father to the highest bidder. He had told me to thank the lucky stars that he waited for my mind and body to mature further rather than picking my suitor during my first blood. He had waited it out and because of that, the King of Gambriel had offered my family more gold and land than imaginable.

I had begged and pleaded not to go, already having heard the stories about King Harrington and his mistreatment, not only of his people but of his mistresses—and I was to be his wife. My father had refused my wishes, saying that it was my duty as his daughter to bring honor to our family by marrying a royal.

That my Divine purpose was to breed and nothing else.

"Yes," Ric interrupted my spiral of thoughts, his deep voice centering my being for the moment. "That was the deal."

"I was not speaking to you, vermin," Lord Alebenac snapped, his grip tightening on the chain, causing the woman at his feet to whimper in distress.

My cheerful demeanor dropped, stone-cold vexation taking place. "You will not speak to my Commander like that," I scorned with a curl of my upper lip, my head high despite the turmoil rolling in my gut.

This was not going according to plan.

The Rebellion had scattered, its leaders traveling across the continent to raise an army large enough to combat not only the High King's army of undead but also any other corrupt monarchs who aligned with him. We'd heard nothing but whispers and rumors about Insulam calculating with Atrium but even that chatter was enough to continue rallying the people of Ladon.

All of the Lords and Ladies of Jindera listened to their King and Queen without a question and continued their march up the coast and into Menodore's cursed lands. They'd fought alongside the Choryrth line for thousands of years, so their loyalty had never been in question. However, we were not as lucky with the scummy Lords of Gambriel and Argyll.

Most had already chosen a side, listening to the High King of Atrium and his promises of power while the others simply laughed in our faces at our warnings of the war that was coming. They could see the murky, hazy skies from all of the pyres that were lit throughout Ladon and all of the missing people who were taken without a trace.

But either they wouldn't listen or they simply did not give a fuck about the people they swore to protect. We'd handled those lowly assholes the same way we were surely going to have to handle this one.

"I will speak to it however I deem necessary," the Lord of Xadrian stood from his gaudy seat on the dais and threw the heavy metal chain onto the marble floor. "You come to my home. Demand my soldiers and weapons and then you have the audacity to disrespect me ?" He was seething, his face red and ruddy as if he'd just fought in a battle. "You are nothing more than a hole to fuck."

I was used to the insolence of males and how they thought whatever was in their breeches gave them more power. I could take their cruel words, unwanted touches, and lingering stares. I'd spent my lifetime having to sit there and smile while daggers were tossed my way, their vile words slicing into my soul.

The pitiless lord's words wouldn't affect me but it was as if a fuse had been lit when he called Ric that word.

Vermin.

As if one of the bravest souls I'd had the pleasure of meeting was just scum beneath his polished, barely used boot. That ice in my veins melted, turning to venomous lava as my emotions took over.

The flurry of rage and indignation only intensified as I took a deadly step forward and snarled, "Enough!" Sparkling marble cracked as vines covered in poisonous thorns rose from the earth, wanting to lash out at the male before me. The ground continued shaking, more greenery rising and coiling like ravenous snakes.

"You will not disrespect my Commander. He has earned his title and your respect. We have come here and asked only out of the kindness of our hearts. We did not need to ask," my vines snapped out, wrapping around his bulging form like an anaconda as the woman at his feet screamed out in shock, trying to scramble away. The collar still hung around her neck, the chain so heavy that her head fell forward to combat the weight.

"I've heard enough of your insolence. You forget your place, Lord Alebenac ," my tone dripped with condescension. " I am your queen," my voice echoed through the hollow hall for any remaining to hear. "You only sit upon your shitty dais in this stronghold because we put you there."

His ring-covered fingers grasped onto the vines, their prickly thorns cutting into his palms. Crimson cascaded onto the ground as the girl crawled away from the chaos, slipping in her master's blood before Ric hauled her up into his tattooed arms and gave me a single nod before leaving me alone with Garreth.

"You–You–You can't do that!" he sputtered out but I only tightened my powerful grip and smiled with a mouth full of white teeth bared to my prey.

"Oh yes, I can." Greenery wrapped around his neck, the color so vibrant against his reddening skin. "I can do whatever I please as your ruler ." More blood gathered onto the broken marble floor as he pulled and tugged at the venomous restraints. "And as your queen."

Garreth's gray eyes went wide but it wasn't from my title being spat in his face nor my powers suffocating him. It was from the demonstration we'd had to show lord after lord on our journey north, the only way we could get some of those pompous fucks to listen.

The muffled screeching got closer, along with the clanging of metal against metal as Ric pushed an iron cage into the room. Loosening my hold, Lord Alebenac fell to the floor in a heap of torn flesh as he panted out, pointing a bloodied finger in Ric's direction. "What in the Gods' names is that?"

"We have a common enemy in evil."

A decaying hand with serrated fingernails clawed at the air, trying to break out of its iron enclosure. Its jaw started to unhinge, the metal muzzle creaking and stretching as the Raken let out a large howl.

"This is a Raken. Once mortal, turned beast by dark magic. They do not eat, sleep, or breathe. This—" my foliage tightened on him again, taking the breath from his lungs as my vines drug him across the floor and up until he was at eye level with the Raken. His open wounds were still oozing, the Raken growing more restless with bloodlust as it scratched and clawed in an attempt to rip apart the Lord of Xadrian. "Is what we are up against. They cannot be killed by us, only by a God. We need numbers, weapons, anything to prepare for this."

My confines left him, making him fall to the broken floor. The Lord of Northern Gambriel's eyes glittered as he rubbed a hand on his neck over the slowly healing cuts. "An army of the undead, you say?"

My gaze went to Ric who had an exasperated expression on his handsome, brutish face. This also wasn't the first time we'd received a reaction like Garreth's. Rather than fear and concern, some of the lords had stared at the Raken with power-hungry expressions. The metallic gears in their brain worked overtime to see how they could use those same creatures to their advantage.

"This is what you will become if you do not heed my warnings." His head snapped back over to me, the look of greed shining on his face. "You cannot control it, Garreth. It will either kill you in an instant or take you to its master to change you into an undead creature as well." But the lord wasn't listening to the words coming out of my mouth, he only kept his avid gaze on the Raken that was screeching through the muzzle.

Ric let out a long sigh as he reached for the sword in his backstrap. "Keva…" he murmured, his voice dark and uneasy.

Closing my eyes in irritation, I listened to the scuff of Lord Alebenac's boots on the shattered floor. He reached towards the cage, his eyes glazed over as if in a trance as I warned him once more, "Last chance, Garreth." That time he didn't even acknowledge the words leaving my lips, too enamored with his thirst for more power. "Give us what we came for." The Raken pounded its decayed fists into the iron, its rotten flesh sizzling against metal and sending a putrid stench into the air. "Or we will kill you and take it."

Stormy gray eyes snapped my way, his breath coming in ragged as he smiled, "No." Before the word was finished, another vine covered in venom shot through the back of his head and out of his mouth, spraying us with his blood before his dead body crumpled to the floor.

The undead creature shook in its confines, the scent of fresh blood exciting it into a frenzy. "Mission accomplished," Ric muttered as he kicked the benevolent corpse with his boot before wheeling the iron cage away. "He was a fucking asshole anyway."

"Indeed he was." Sighing, I looked at Garreth's still bleeding remains and didn't feel an ounce of guilt for taking his life. "How is the girl?" I sought, referring to the poor woman who had been chained to his side for who knew how long. "Is she okay?"

"Her name is Linetta," his tattooed arms flexed as he shoved the cage out of the front entrance and onto the snowy ground. "She's with Ausra in the carriage, removing the collar and trying to soothe and heal her wounds."

Looking up into the murky clouds, I shook my head in contempt. "Some wounds you can't heal."

The trauma that woman had surely faced was more than enough of a lifetime's worth. More than any living being should have to suffer.

Ric's hand came down on my shoulder, his scent of bergamot calming my racing heart. "I know, babe," he turned me to face him before kissing my forehead gently. His soft caring touches were still so foreign to the harsh and sharp ones I was accustomed to. "But she will be okay. I'll make sure of it."

And I believed Linetta would be all right. She would be free and protected for the rest of her life. With the Rebellion growing in numbers, we would continue to free any still enslaved and kill any who wanted to uphold that ludicrous trade. It was progress, but a slow one. We knew that it would take years to dismantle a system that'd been in place for millennia.

As I leaned into Elric's touch, the Raken kept shrieking but we ignored it as Jude and Alwyn loaded the cage onto the back of the wagon. "And how is Ausra holding up?"

The bun on the crown of his head bobbed as he shook it. "She still won't talk to anyone besides the ones she treats."

Since we lost Phaedra, Ausra's wife, the assistant healer had been a shell of her former self. Understandably so but still… Watching someone you cared about go through that mourning and pain was heart-wrenching and harrowing.

She had lost the other half of herself but rejected the idea of time, of space, to grieve her dead wife. "She just keeps requesting more work and more distractions."

Grief gave you no reprieve, no break for a moment's relief, but Ausra refused to face it and I completely understood. "In her own time, she will grieve." And when that time came, all we could do was support her. Right now, we would give her what she needed, and that was work.

Brodby, one of the Gadlurs that had yet to be turned into a Pegasus, snuffed at my shoulder with his snowy nose. His hot breath fanned out in the wintry air as an apple grew from my palm, my foliage magic still forceful. The white stallion gave me a quick, grateful glance before snapping the fruit up with gusto.

Stepping a foot into the stirrup, I hoisted myself onto Brodby's saddle and took hold of the reins as he munched on his treat. "We only have one more lord in the north to visit before we hit Menodore."

Ric squeezed my ankle in comfort before hopping onto his chestnut steed. "Jude will gather the soldiers here and meet us there by sunrise." The ride would only take a few hours for those on horseback but rounding up ten thousand warriors and transporting them on foot would take all night. He gave me a cunning smile as he shifted the reins to one inked hand. "Maybe we could take our time… Camp overnight before we talk to another prick with a title?"

Brodby snickered, flicking his mane in the chilly air as he moved towards the next town of Mosvil where Lord Kessem Calbex resided. "As you wish, Commander," my voice floated on the wind, light and airy despite the vexatious situation we had found ourselves in.

"You can even pick the spot," Ric let out a chuckle that made the butterflies in my stomach come to life. His stallion, Faxon, trotted beside me, keeping an easy pace with Brodby as the stronghold of Xadrian faded behind us, along with the afternoon sun.