44. Chapter 42 Arden

Chapter forty-four

Chapter 42: Arden

J arrah kisses me on the forehead before I leave his room. The simple gesture sends warmth cascading through my body. The warmth is welcome, since the thought of being alone with Zorvan is turning my blood to ice.

I approach Zorvan's quarters and linger at the door. I raise my hand to knock several times, but every time I lose my nerve. I suck in a deep breath and raise my fist one last time, and just as I'm about to knock, the door swings open.

"Oh!" I squeak.

Zorvan's brows shoot up before knitting together as he stares at me then glances up and down the corridor.

"Where's your guard dog?" he asks, his voice thick with suspicion.

"Running errands. May I come in?"

"Why?"

"Because we need to discuss something that isn't safe to discuss in the hallway."

He sighs and steps aside so I can enter before shutting the door behind me. Walking past the open office door, I glance inside. His normally neat desk is a mess and the chairs are piled up with books and papers.

"I guess we'll have to talk out here," I say with a snort.

"Yes, well, when you've lost something in Sangaris, it turns out that locating it is exceptionally difficult." He grinds his teeth together before adding under his breath, "Even if you have a vampire with a direct line to them, and seers at your beck and call."

"Livarius wasn't able to track me?"

Zorvan shakes his head. "I thought your mate bond with him would have been helpful for a change but someone used a powerful cloaking spell on you. Nev used one, but we probably would have found you eventually. But Cyndair's magic is so beyond ours…"

"Well, that answers the question of why Liv didn't come and get me."

"He didn't tell you himself?"

"I didn't give him the chance."

He considers me before he nods and takes a seat on his bed. My mind flashes to the single night I slept in this room. There were several times that night where I woke up and wished that Zorvan would move closer—that he would just reach out and touch me. The memory causes a sad smile to play on my lips.

"Where did you go just now?" he asks.

"Hmm? Nowhere…" I take a deep breath. I need to get to the point. "We need to figure out what to do about Cyndair," I blurt out. "I've called a meeting in the strategy room. Us, The Keepers, Liv, and Camus. I don't want to loop Nevidian in yet."

" You called a meeting?" He's surprised, but he doesn't seem angry.

"Yeah, I figured that was the best way to get everyone on the same page."

He stands and approaches me, towering over me and staring down into my eyes. His jaw tics and his fingers twitch at his sides like he wants to physically punish me. I hold his gaze in mine, daring him to do it. Standing off with him feels just like it did before I was taken. Challenging each other feels–

"Then let's go," he says, stepping around me with grace.

What ?!

He slides on a pair of shoes before leaving his room. My mouth hangs as wide open as the door he left through.

I hurry to catch up with him, slamming his door behind me. His long strides have closed most of the distance between him and the strategy room.

"So that's it?" I ask when I finally reach him.

"I'm not sure I'm following," he says, raising a brow.

"You're not going to yell at me, or punish me, or even… threaten to punish me? You're just okay with it?"

"You have a knack for leading, Arden. I trust your judgment."

What the fuck ?

I grab him by the wrist and make him face me. His gaze drops to where my hand is grasping on to him.

"Prove to me that you're Zorvan."

"What?" he asks, with an incredulous laugh.

"Prove to me that you're not someone else masquerading as the prince of Feldorn."

"Don't be ridiculous. Of course I'm me."

"In the last several weeks I have had multiple people present a facade to me, only to reveal that they were someone lying to me and keeping secrets. You're acting weird. Prove it to me." I cross my arms over my chest and wait while he decides how to proceed.

He stares at me, but I can't discern what emotion is lurking in his eyes. Then his face hardens with resolve, and his eyes smolder. He steps toward me, forcing me to retreat until my back is against the wall. Breathing in his cinnamon and bergamot scent reminds me that I'm finally where I belong.

"When I came to collect you from your miserable human life, I stole your memories and left a sunflower in their place. I chose that particular flower because they covered that device you used for reading.

"I grew you one the day we met as proof that we—Jarrah and I—were what we claimed to be. Of course you don't remember that part." He lowers his mouth to my ear. "Or the part where I fucked you so thoroughly that you were prepared to abandon Todd and come back here with me with relatively few questions."

My mouth parts and I clench my thighs. There he is. That's a glimpse of the Zorvan I know. He pulls away from me with a feral smirk on his face. He places his pointer finger on my chin and gently closes my mouth.

Camus steps out of the strategy room and steps toward us. "There you are! Are you coming?" He pauses and gives me a knowing smile.

"Yes, Arden, are you coming ?" Zorvan asks, tilting his head, pleased with himself. Then he walks into the strategy room.

"Did you two kiss and make up?" Camus asks in a hushed voice.

"Shut up," I grumble, and walk away.

He grabs my hand and pulls me back toward him. "You okay?"

"I will be. Let's just get this done so we can go eat and explore the castle some more."

"As you wish."

The guys are all standing around chatting when we enter the room. They all take their seats at the table except for Zorvan. He pulls out the large ornate chair at the head of the table and gestures for me to have a seat. I stand, dumbfounded and gawk at him.

"Have a seat," he says casually as if this isn't really out of character.

"Am I being punked?" I ask as I glance around at the others.

They're all wearing similarly shocked expressions. Seating in this room is extremely important. Zorvan always sits at the head of the table with his second, Jarrah, to his right and his head of council to his left. Jarrah is in his regular seat, but the one to the left of Zorvan's is empty.

"I can just sit here," I say and step toward the chair that used to be occupied by Falmir.

"No. You'll sit here," Zorvan says. "I will be sitting next to you."

My heart is thundering, and my stomach is doing flips. This feels like it's either a trick or a test, and I can't decipher which. I take a deep breath and straighten my spine before having a seat in Zorvan's chair.

Zorvan pushes it in for me, and hands me a piece of parchment and a quill before taking the space to my left. The chair feels big. It's the proper size for a full grown adult, but it makes me feel small. I'm not sure why this is making me so anxious.

Jarrah's hand takes up residence on my knee and I look his way. "You're fine."

Zorvan sits back in his seat, and crosses his arms over his chest. He looks relaxed; like this isn't bother him at all.

He clears his throat. "You called this meeting, so you should take point. That's all."

I nod and give him a small smile. "Right. Cyndair's impending visit. We need to come up with a plan of how to handle it. The guard cannot be trusted—"

"Eliott can," Emyth interrupts. "He had no idea about Walden's subterfuge. He begged us to wipe his memories."

"She's not a guard, but I think we can also trust Ruby," Jarrah says.

A pang of jealousy moves through me and I internally curse at myself. The jealousy has become more of an issue since my dragon started surfacing.

"Who is Ruby?" I ask.

"The girl who accosted us on the way to the hostage exchange while we were in Krean," Liv answers.

"Oh! Her! Where does she fit in all of this?"

"She was the one who helped us figure some stuff out about The Sentinels while you were gone. We wiped her memories, but I can replace them," Tavin says.

Lysander laughs. "She's going to be so mad."

We're interrupted by a knock at the door. I move to get it, but Zorvan holds up his hand. He stands and walks to the door before pulling it open, revealing Rupert to us. His eyes land on me, and my position at the table. His mouth parts in surprise, and he glances at Zorvan.

"You're taking lead?" he asks.

"She is. What do you need?" Zorvan answers for me.

He smiles at me sheepishly. "Is the invitation to help still good?"

"Of course!" I say. "Have a seat."

He pulls up a seat next to Camus, and claps him on the shoulder. The gesture doesn't go unnoticed by the others.

"So we're involving Ruby and Eliott. I think we should let Airen in on it too. Obviously Rupert is here. We can involve Solina, but Llewellyn should be left out of this. She's young. I don't think there's anyone else in the castle—except for Helena—that I trust. And I'm not involving her. She's been through enough because of me."

"I do think that we need to warn her to take extra care to not let anyone new into the kitchens while Cyndair and her crew are here," Camus says.

"Yes, I agree. Great. So we have all our players. Now what's the plan?" I ask with a laugh. "I'm not really good at strategy and that kind of thing."

"I disagree," Zorvan says. "You came up with the plan for the tunnel. It was a good plan for the circumstance. A great one even. You're doing fine."

His praise gives me butterflies. "Thank you. Okay. Where is everyone's strengths?"

Lysander speaks up, "Well, me, Jarrah, Tavin, and Emyth can all shift while indoors. I think we should just agree now that if things go to shit, we're shifting and fucking shit up."

I nod in agreement. "Can Cyndair teleport out of the castle once she's in here?"

"She shouldn't be able to," Jarrah says. "No teleporting in or out of the castle itself unless you're Zorvan."

"She can," Rupert says.

"How do you know?" Emyth asks.

Rupert looks to me with a question in his eyes.

"It's your call," I say softly. "It can't be undone."

"We said no more secrets," Jarrah growls.

"Yes, well, let's get it over with, I suppose."

Rupert sheds his ginger-haired visage. Lysander reacts the same way I did; pushing away from the table so hard he knocks his chair back. There are utterances around the table, all some version of 'what the fuck?' as everyone takes in what they're seeing.

Zorvan remains stone still. The only indication that he's registered what's going on is the glow in his eyes. I reach over and put my hand on top of his.

His gaze snaps to mine. "You knew about this?"

"She only just found out less than two hours ago. I wouldn't have even told her if Camus hadn't recognized my magical aura."

"What's going on?" Livarius asks, glancing around the table.

I want to be the one to tell him. "Livarius, this is King Esrend. And before you stress about it, it won't be a problem."

"What?" he whispers. "You've been here the whole time and didn't tell me?" He looks at me. "What won't be a prob—Fucking Stars above. He's your grandfather, too."

"Actually, she's the only one of my kin in this room."

Everyone at the table exchanges confused looks.

"Can I be the one to tell them?" I ask bouncing in my seat. When Esrend nods, I nearly shout, "Falmir is a bastard!"

"You've got to be fucking kidding me," Livarius mutters before doubling over in laughter. After a moment he wipes the tears from his eyes. "You got to tell us, but I get to be the one to tell Falmir."

Everyone is smiling and laughing except for Zorvan. I stroke my thumb over the back of his hand in hopes that it will help keep him calm. He glances down at our hands then looks up at me. His eyes are still glowing, and his posture tells me he's at his limit.

"I know that you're mad," I say, speaking in a soothing voice and with an abundance of caution. "But this is the best thing we could have hoped for. With him here, we have someone just as ancient and powerful as her if she tries to pull anything."

Zorvan's eyes slowly return to their standard blue, as he looks into my eyes and takes deep calming breaths. His gaze drops once more to where my hand rests on his and his brows furrow in confusion.

The magical buzz from the bond is there. It's so faint that I hadn't noticed it. I jerk my hand away from his. He's about to ask me something but I cut him off.

"Well I feel better having that all out in the open," I say with a nervous chuckle. "I can fill you all in on the finer details later, but for now, I think we need to focus on the more pressing issues."

The guys all collect themselves. Lysander returns to the table, and sets his chair right.

Esrend glances around the room, and asks, "Where's Nev?"

"I don't trust him," I say, not mincing my words. "I know that he wasn't aware of what was going on with the captives, but he hates Feldorn and its denizens almost as much as he hates Zorvan. He has a lot to unpack before I'll trust him with anything this important. His allegiances have been with Solardin for so long that I don't think he can be an asset to us."

"Does he know that Cyndair set up Nuvian?" Camus asks, not directing the question at any one person.

"I haven't told him," I say, and there's agreement from the rest of my guys.

"What do you mean?" Esrend asks. "Set him up to get taken in the mortal realm?"

"No. She set him up to take the fall for killing Zorvan's parents," Camus says.

"A fact that I still haven't been able to verify," Zorvan says. "I'm waiting on a new batch of truth serum for Falmir. I ran through the stores that Airen had along with her personal stash when I was trying to find Arden. I had to resort to old school torture techniques for a while after that, but I can't torture a royal."

"There should still be a vial in my things that I had packed for Kildara," I offer. "I didn't get a chance to use it on Todd."

"We'll save it for when Cyndair gets here," Zorvan says. "Should I question him about poisoning my parents while it's in his system? I feel as though I can't execute him without proving that. Pushing you into a would be kidnapper doesn't really qualify for the death penalty around here."

"I don't think that's a good idea. We need to keep some of our cards close to the vest or we run the risk of stirring up more issues," Jarrah says.

"I'm going to say something, and no one is going to agree with me. But I want you all to think about it, first," Camus says.

"Well, I already don't like it," Livarius says with a pout.

"Shut up and hear me out," Camus snips.

"Boys, that's enough," Esrend says as if he is in fact their grandfather.

"Please tell us your idea," I say. "I don't want this to take all day."

"What if we just...pretend that nothing is wrong? What if we act completely normal. She's here for the trial, and it's perfectly acceptable that her prisoner and her traitorous grandson are greeting her upon her arrival. We don't hide, we don't act like anything is wrong. We just act out our roles."

"Does she know about your mated status?" Zorvan asks.

"She knows that we're mated, but not that we were destined to be. As far as I know, she only knows that I chose Livarius. I made the mistake of telling Dira about him and she told Gormon who told Cyndair. Then Cyndair in her infinite wisdom sent Camus down to chew me out about it and...well...he chewed on something," I say absently rubbing my neck where the scar from our mating is.

"You forced the bond on her?" Zorvan snarls.

"At least I didn't reject it," Camus retorts.

Zorvan slams his fists down on the table and stands up. I grab his forearm and squeeze before he can say anything.

"It would have happened eventually anyway," I say. "It's fine . It was always meant to be."

"That's bullshit and you know it," he growls at me. "You could have severed the bond. You had a choice before he took it away from you."

"And it never occurred to me because there is no scenario in which I didn't choose him."