Chapter 37

CHAPTER 37

Unsure of how much time I had, I didn’t want to risk anyone returning for me while I was undressed, so I grabbed the robe from the bedchamber, cinching it tightly around my waist. I kept the lunea blade on me, but moved it to my ankle. Having this on me was a risk. I doubted the Hyhborn would take kindly to seeing it, and the last thing I wanted to do was jeopardize Grady.

But I needed something to defend myself.

I hastily washed the cut on my foot. It had stopped bleeding, but I wrapped it with a piece of gauze. I returned to the antechamber, limping slightly. My scattered thoughts immediately went to Lord Samriel’s parting words.

I was to be given to the King? In what manner? Without my intuition, my imagination went to all sorts of places. I dragged a trembling hand through my tangled hair and stopped by the window. I pulled the curtain back. My bedchamber faced a part of the gardens and the front of the manor. Only a faint gleam of moonlight cast light over the dark grounds. There weren’t even any sōls in the distance, but I could make out just the hint of . . . of lumps scattered about the grounds. Bodies. I swallowed thickly. I couldn’t see the stables. Was Iris okay? I knew it seemed wrong to worry for a horse with the loss of so much life, but animals were often the most vulnerable.

Letting the curtain slip back in place, I closed my eyes, but the horror and the confusion still found me. I wasn’t so shocked that I hadn’t been able to read between what I already knew and what Lord Samriel had said. It made sense and yet didn’t.

What I didn’t understand was how Thorne was a risk to me despite what Lord Samriel had shared. How I could feel safe with him yet he would kill me to survive. I couldn’t believe it.

But Hyhborn couldn’t lie.

They spoke the truth. A shaky breath left me as I pressed my balled hand against my chest, where my heart . . . it ached from the loss, from the fear, and from the knowledge that . . . that Thorne would harm me, and I didn’t even understand why that would affect me so. I barely knew him. He wasn’t anything to me. . . .

Except that thought had never felt right.

Maybe it was because of this . . . this bond. Maybe it was something more. I didn’t know, but I had started to feel—

The chamber door suddenly opened, spinning me around as my heart lurched into my throat. It wasn’t a Hyhborn who entered and closed the door.

It was Hymel.

I couldn’t even feel relief then. I didn’t feel anything but rage as I crossed the floor and swung. I didn’t slap him. I punched him right in the jaw.

Hymel’s head snapped back as pain lanced my knuckles, and I welcomed that pain with a savage satisfaction.

“Fuck,” Hymel grunted, clasping his jaw as he straightened. He turned his head to me. “That was unnecessary.”

I swung again, but Hymel was prepared this time. He caught my arm. With a cry of fury, I went at him with my other hand, fingers curled into claws. He jerked his head back, but my nails scraped his cheek. He hissed as two bright red streaks appeared above his beard.

“Bitch,” he snarled, snatching my arm.

“Let me go!” I shrieked, pulling on my arms as he shoved me hard. The back of my calves hit the settee, taking my legs out from underneath me. I landed on the settee, and immediately started to stand, but Hymel still had ahold of my arms. He forced me down on my back, trapping my legs with his. “Get off me!”

“Stop shouting,” he spat, inches from my face. “You’ll draw one of those Hyhborn here— ”

“Get the fuck off me!” I screamed in his face. “You traitorous motherfucker!”

“Gods damn it.” He jerked my arms up, pressing them into the cushion behind my head. He pinned my wrists together under one hand. His other smacked down on my mouth, silencing my curses. “I swear to the gods,” he growled, pushing my head down into the cushion. “I would love nothing more than to choke the ever-loving shit out of you, but since they want you alive and I want to survive, I need you to keep it the fuck down. Fuck,” he snapped. “The only reason why I came in here was to make sure you were still breathing. I don’t know or trust that white-haired Hyhborn. Knowing my fucking luck, he’ll end up killing you and all of this will be for nothing.” The hand around my wrists tightened brutally. “So are you going to act right? Are you?”

Breathing heavily through my nose, I glared up at him as I nodded as best as I could.

He slowly lifted his hand from my mouth, his entire body tense as if he was ready for me to start screaming again. “Did you pick up anything from Lord Samriel?”

“Fuck you.”

“As I’ve told you before, not interested in where my cousin has been.”

“And where is Claude?” I demanded, shaking with anger. “I want the honest truth. Is he— ” My voice cracked. “Is he alive?”

“What? You can’t answer that yourself?”

My intuition wouldn’t tell me where he was, and gods, it hadn’t occurred to me until then that it could very well be because he was no longer a part of this realm.

His eyes squinted. “You too afraid to see if you can find out?” He laughed. “You care that much about him? Fuck. I told you before. I don’t know where the hell he is, but I can wager a guess.” He met my glower with his own. “He hit the road the first chance he could.”

Disbelief coursed through me. “You’re suggesting that Claude ran away? That he abandoned his home? His people— ”

“You? Gods damn, that is exactly what I’m suggesting. The fucker is a coward who has always been more concerned with getting off and getting drunk or high than he ever has running Archwood. He never should’ve been baron. You’d be lying if you didn’t agree with that.”

The thing was, I couldn’t disagree. Claude was terribly irresponsible, but reckless enough to run? Gods, I knew the answer to that. It wasn’t impossible.

“If he was here, though? If I could find him, he would be dead,” Hymel said. “I would’ve slit his fucking throat myself.”

And I knew he spoke the truth then. I could see it in those pale eyes that were full of so much hate and bitterness.

“Gods,” I whispered, wanting to be angry with Claude, but damn it, I couldn’t help but be relieved. At least he wasn’t here. He was alive.

And if I ever saw him again, I’d punch him too.

“So, what? Is that what this is about?” I asked, staring into his eyes as I opened my senses. Intuition shuddered through me. “You think you should be baron, and you helped orchestrate this so you can take the title?”

“Get the fuck out of my head.”

Disgust flooded me. “You did this because of your own envy? Do you know how many people died tonight?”

“Would’ve been more if it weren’t for me,” he said. “If the King learned of you, and came for you, while the Prince of Vytrus was here? The whole fucking city would be gone. Instead, I’ve saved people tonight. Not only that, I saved the title and the manor from going bankrupt. Those debtors? They need to be paid, and you? You’re going to bring in enough coin that every debt Claude has racked up will be paid and then some. So, yeah, I should’ve been the fucking baron.”

I stared at him. He didn’t know the King wanted Archwood wiped off the map anyway. I shook my head. “You’re a fool.”

“You really think that? You don’t know anything.” He pushed off me and rose. Lifting a hand to his cheek, he wiped away the faint trickle of blood from where I scratched him. “Fucking bitch,” he muttered.

I sat up, clutching the edge of the cushion. “You didn’t tell them I could read thoughts, did you?”

“No.” He glanced at the door.

“Why?” When he didn’t say anything, it occurred to me. “It’s because you don’t trust the Hyhborn, do you? You were hoping I would listen in on their thoughts and warn you if they were planning to betray you?”

Hymel didn’t answer, so I rose. He hadn’t gone far, and when he faced me, he likely thought I was about to hit him again. He lifted a hand, but I wasn’t about to strike him. Instead, I grasped his hand with my senses wide open and I pushed, shattering that shield.

I didn’t see or hear the answer to my question.

I saw something else entirely.

I felt it.

A laugh parted my lips, spilling out from me.

Hymel jerked his hand free, backing up as he stared at me. “What did you see?” The skin above his beard paled. “What did you see?” He took a step toward me—

The door behind him opened then, stopping him. My gaze lifted, and my laugh died on my lips. The sight of the cloaked Rae waiting in the hall sent my heart racing, but what came into the chamber behind Hymel caused me to take a step back.

The too-shallow breath I took felt heavier, thicker, and tasted of . . . of something I hadn’t thought about in years— mints the Prioress used to keep in the pockets of her robes. Power suddenly drenched the air, seeping along the walls and across the floor, soaking every nook and cranny of the space. My skin danced with static.

Cloaked shoulders almost too wide to fit filled the entrance; the male was so tall he had to dip his head to step through the door-frame. He straightened, revealing sculpted, sharp features, and hair a light, silvery blond.

I recognized him.

It was the Hyhborn I’d seen in the Great Chamber, earlier this evening. He’d looked at me and had smiled. The one I thought looked so much like Lord Samriel, and he did. His hair was shorter, though, reaching his shoulders, and his face even thinner, crescent-shaped.

“Lord Arion.” Hymel bowed quickly.

I would swear the lunea blade heated in its sheath as I took another step back.

“So this is her?” Lord Arion asked, his appraisal cooler than Lord Samriel’s.

“Yes, my lord.”

His head tilted in a distinctively serpentlike manner. “For your sake,” he said to me, “I hope he is correct. My brother seems to think so, but we shall see.”

Lord Arion was so quick, and there was no place for me to go. He was standing before me in a heartbeat, one hand at my throat, his eyes identical to Lord Samriel’s. “Well, let’s not delay this, shall we?”

“What— ?” I gasped.

His other hand flattened against my temple. His lips moved. He spoke low and quick in a language that sounded like Enochian—

A sudden sharp pain darted across the back of my skull, then over the front of my face. Pressure built inside me. I cried out, squeezing my eyes shut as the pain traveled there. Bright white lights exploded behind my closed lids. The agony, it felt like a fire. My legs shook, and I thought I would fall. That I’d fall and be burned from the inside—

Then the pain eased off as quickly as it had started, leaving only a dull ache behind, in my temples and below my brow.

“Open your eyes,” Lord Arion demanded.

I blinked them open, half afraid to discover that I was now blind, but I wasn’t. My eyes locked with the Lord’s.

“My brother tells me you were given to the Priory as a babe.” Lord Arion stared down at me, his lips parted. “He was right. They tried to hide you, but you’re no longer hidden. I see you for what you are.” The grip on my throat vanished. “Our liege will be very pleased that we’ve found him an unbound ny’seraph.”

I stumbled back, hitting the settee but keeping my balance.

Lord Arion smiled, turning away. He spoke to the Rae in Enochian. Half of them departed quietly, leaving two remaining.

“Where are they going?” Hymel asked.

The Lord turned his head to him. “They are going to share the good news.”

“All right.” Hymel nodded, a tentative smile appearing. “Then I should go to them, to close out our deal.”

Slowly, my gaze shifted to Hymel, and I knew when I read him moments earlier that whatever deal Hymel had struck with the Hyhborn, it hadn’t been a wise one. He hadn’t laid out whatever terms he’d agreed to clearly. He was a fool.

“You did well.” Lord Arion faced Hymel, his cloak fluttering over the floor as he approached him. “Our king will be forever appreciative of your service.” He cupped the man’s cheeks, pressing his lips to Hymel’s forehead. He lifted his head. “It will not be forgotten.”

Hymel’s tentative smile faded.

There was a quiet moment.

Just a heartbeat.

The crack of Hymel’s neck snapping shattered the silence.

I watched as Hymel . . . as he crumpled, just as I’d seen, dead before he hit the floor.