Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

Arkon had a skip in his step as they walked through the marble halls of the doge’s palace and into the narrow stone passageway that led down into the dungeons. He had been down there enough to be able to avoid banging his head on the low doorways and made sure to warn Zarya of any sloped marble steps. He hesitated at a heavy wooden door.

"Are you sure you want to come down in here? I’m happy to get guards to bring him up out of the darkness," he offered.

Zarya’s eyes gleamed with the wolf inside of her. "Do you really believe I haven’t seen worse places, sorcerer? You don’t have to stand on ceremony on my account. I don’t exactly have delicate female sensibilities."

"I know. It’s one of the many things I like about you. I only wanted you to know that the offer was there," Arkon replied and unlocked the doors. Zarya didn’t even flinch at the pungent aroma of unwashed prisoners. The ones they kept under the palace weren’t the normal rabble. They were the ones who were too dangerous to be left around other criminals or who had pissed Arkon off too much to let them out of his sight.

Arkon hadn’t been to see the troublesome mage for a few weeks, but he didn’t look like he was suffering too much. He looked bored. "Hey, Vlad, feeling talkative today?" he asked casually.

Vlad sneered. "What do you think?"

"Well in that case, good news! I have an old friend to cheer you up. Maybe you will want to talk to her?" Zarya stepped out from behind Arkon, and Vlad tried to physically claw his way through the stone wall on the other side of his cell. Arkon had never seen a man go from arrogance to pure terror before.

"Look at that, lupa. He remembers you."

Zarya snorted softly. "Open the door, Arkon, before he hurts himself."

"You are working with him?" Vlad demanded, whirling on her as anger took over his fear. "What have you done, Zarya?"

Gone was the charmingly disheveled mage that Arkon had seen upstairs. Zarya stepped into Vladek’s sparse cell and became the Wolf Mage of legend. The air dropped a few degrees as she stared at him like he was shit on her shoe. Zarya pinned the mage with a glare, and anticipation flickered in Arkon’s stomach.

"I have decided that the war is going to be stopped by winter, Vladek, and you are going to help me," she said, folding her arms.

"And how am I meant to do that?" Vladek was sweating. Arkon wanted to know what made him so afraid of her, especially when she was being so reasonable.

"You will tell me what you know of the camps. All of them. I have already destroyed one, and I need the locations of the other two," Zarya began. "I know you were close with General Zaytsev, and I need to know his movements and those of Stas Gusev."

"You really are mad, Zarya. You can’t kill them all," Vladek replied, a spark of anger in his voice. "The whole empire will collapse without them and for what? A few dead shifters?" Zarya’s eyes flashed, and Vladik was suddenly hanging in the air, clawing at his throat for air.

"They killed my sister Asa," she snarled, more wolf than woman. "The emperor has overstepped, and now they will all pay. I do not care if the whole of the Varangian government collapses. This war will end." The invisible force dropped Vladek, and he collapsed on the dirty stone. He dry-heaved a few times, trying to get air into his lungs.

"I t-told them not to go after your family. That you would know," Vladek gasped out. "Strahil, the one leading the mages, told the emperor that if he didn’t have any of your bloodline, he never would be able to take you down."

Zarya’s hands bunched into fists. "I was loyal! I don’t understand why Arkadi would believe I wasn’t. What did I do that made him think I would betray Varangia?"

Vladek laughed with his ruined voice. "You need to only look to your right to see the reason."

Arkon touched a hand to his chest. "Me? Darling, is there something you aren’t telling me? I thought we have been enemies this whole time."

"We have been," Zarya growled, but she hadn’t taken her eyes off Vladek.

The mage shook his head. "Everyone knew how much you liked it when he attacked us, Zarya. It’s like the only time you were alive. We could all see it. The emperor didn’t like it, and he felt like you were getting sympathetic feelings for the enemy. That you would leave the empire and go straight to him once a treaty was signed." Vladek looked Arkon over in disgust. "Looks like Arkadi was right because here you are. One argument, and you went straight into the arms of Arkon Ziani the fucking⁠—"

Zarya’s magic exploded in the air, and Vladek’s rant was cut off. He clawed at his mouth as his lips shut and then disappeared altogether.

"You keep his name out of your mouth," she snarled. "Or you will not have a mouth at all."

Arkon didn’t dare to breathe. He had never seen someone lash out on his behalf before. Zarya’s hair was moving in an invisible wind, her skin shimmering with magic and wrath. Arkon’s knees were going weak with the urge to fall on them before her. His hands were sweaty, and his dick was hardening, and he still couldn’t look away.

Zarya stood before Vladek and stared into his weeping, panicked eyes. "I’m done with all of the lies and accusations coming out of your mouth, so I’m going to do this the easy way. Fight as much as you wish. It will only make it hurt more."

Zarya grabbed Vladek’s sweaty face between her hands, forcing him to look at her. Arkon’s magic was dancing out of his skin in bright flames, desperate to play with the cold winter that was starting to radiate from her.

Arkon had never seen something so terrifyingly beautiful. Logically, he knew he shouldn’t have been turned on by such a display of torture, but he was harder than he’d ever been in his life. She owned the mage at her knees with a flick of her fingers, and he was helpless against her power. It was all that magic and restraint caught up in a single stunning woman that was making him feel desperate with want and desire. His magic was roaring in his ears, and he could do nothing to put the fire out.

Zarya rested her forehead against Vladek’s until their eyes were almost touching. Magic ripped through the air, wrapped tightly around Vladek’s struggling body. Arkon couldn’t see what was physically happening, but he could feel it. It was like a tearing of flesh as Zarya’s magic reached into Vladek’s mind and tore out everything that she needed from him. Blood began to pour from Vladek’s ears and eyes, but she still didn’t stop.

"There you are. You can’t hide from me," Zarya whispered before pulling her head back and letting Vladek go. His mouth returned, and he spat out blood onto the floor.

"A-And you wonder why they are afraid of you," Vladek whispered. He looked at Arkon. "Don’t f-forget that this is what she really is under her pretty face."

Zarya straightened her shoulders before turning to Arkon. She had an arrogant, violent gleam in her that dared him to be afraid of her and to run away as fast as he could.

"She did ask you for the information politely first. Perhaps next time you should just do as you are told, Vlad," Arkon said, refusing to look away from Zarya’s silver eyes. He had no intention of running. "Are you done with him, lupa? I’m hungry. How about you?"

Zarya blinked a few times, and some of the chill left the room. "I could eat."

Arkon opened the door for her and waited until she was through before looking back at Vladek. He was still staring at him with bloody eyes.

"Once she has what she wants, what’s going to stop her from killing you too, sorcerer?" Vladek wheezed.

Arkon only smiled at the thought. "Maybe by the end, it will be me she wants, and it will be worth the risk."

"You’re a damn fool," Vladek said, curling his knees to his chest. "Fall in love with her, and you deserve your fate."

Arkon locked the door behind him and found Zarya waiting for him at the end of the corridor. She was trying not to look at him, so he lifted her chin with his finger and forced her to.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

Zarya’s eyes clouded with some emotion before she locked it away again. "I’ll live. My brain is a jumble with new memories. It will take me some time to sort them out. You said something about food?"

Arkon brushed his thumb over her jaw, amazed that she would allow it, before he drew his hand away. "Let’s see what the cook is up to. I could eat a horse right now."

"You really aren’t disgusted by what I did?" she asked sharply.

Arkon’s self-control snapped, and he had her against the wall in a blink, his arms blocking her in on either side. "No, mia lupa, I’m not disgusted by what you did. Your ruthlessness and magic are like lava in my veins, and I would like nothing more than to let my power wrap around yours and drown in it. So, unless you are willing to unleash in the middle of a dungeon, I suggest we go and eat so I can calm the fuck down."

Zarya’s mouth had fallen open in surprise, her cheeks burning bright. Whatever she saw on his face didn’t frighten her either. "Well, you had best lead the way, sorcerer, because I don’t think now is the time to see which one of us will come out on top."

"I don’t know, I rather like the idea of you on top," he mused.

Zarya rolled her eyes at him. "And everyone thinks I’m the crazy one."

Arkon huffed out a laugh, diffusing the tension between them, and pulled away from her. "Don’t worry, I’m far worse than you. They just haven’t figured it out yet."