Chapter 107

I did everything right.

My eyes might've strayed to the tent opening, gazing at the great gates of the Kheanian capital, but I stayed exactly where I was, pacing back and forth across the tent floor. I did not walk towards the city. I did not sit down and hatch a crazy plan, because I had learned my lesson.

The Jessalyn from before felt like a whole other person. Assuming that she could sneak off into the bushes and survive? I kicked a pillow, sending it skidding across the tent in irritation. What the hell was I thinking? I would have died from lack of food and water within days, that I was sure of. Then my brilliant decision to trust that bathing attendant and his cronies. As soon as I started flashing gold around, I made myself a target, just like my mother said. In believing I was in control, I'd ended up knocked unconscious, tied up and about to be raped and murdered.

"Jessalyn…" Creed stepped in front of me, arms wide. I admit, I rushed into them, because then I saw him—them—tearing my enemies apart and laying their bloodied corpses at my feet for the sin of trying to hurt me. That was strangely comforting. My fingers raked along Creed's ribs, leaving red welts behind, and that had me snatching my hands back before he set them right back where they were. He held me close and something tight loosened inside me, allowing me to let out a long sigh. "All will be well," he rumbled.

"But he has them…"

It wasn't hard to conjure visions of Selene and Desiree, their throats mottled with the sick purplish bruises Giselle had worn. It was all too easy to imagine them clawing at Magnus' hands, trying to stop him from choking the life out of them as he—

"Lass." I looked up into Creed's soft eyes. "When the commander's back is against the wall, he always comes through, always."

His attempt to soothe me was ruined as we both remembered Arik's failure to do just that for each and every princess that'd come before me.

Creed's brow creased. He sucked in a breath, ready to say something, then didn't. The frown grew deeper as I watched a war wage inside him, guilt and regret, fear and horror all flashing across his face, and then before it went perfectly slack. Creed lost all tension in his face as he crumpled to the ground.

"Cree—!"

A tear in the tent fabric, then a hand slapped down on my mouth, muffling my cries. I tried to bite down on his hand, stamp my foot down on his, reach for my knives, anything, but if I wanted a refresher on the lessons I'd learned about my own powerlessness, I got them now. The hand on my mouth tightened as an arm went around my neck, pressing down in a way that made me struggle to take breath, forcing me to suck air in through my nose then fight in earnest.

The king had come. He'd snuck into the camp at night and now he—

"Shh…" a very masculine voice said, ruling Magnus out. "Now you've got one of two choices, Princess. You can either come quietly with me, and I'll give that boyo of yours the antidote to the poison that's currently coursing through his veins—"

"That." I wrenched myself free to spin around and saw a most confusing sight. Silas' long dark hair, Selene's green eyes, but in a face far less handsome and much older. He grinned then, flashing his gold teeth and destroying any feeling of familiarity. "Do that, now." I stabbed my finger in Creed's direction, my eyes flicking between my mate's too still form and this man that wore Silas' face. "I will do anything—"

Maybe I hadn't learned my lesson yet.

"That's what I was hoping you'd say," he replied, his voice feeling so slimy and unctuous I had to fight the urge to brush his words from my skin. A small pipe was produced and a dart placed within it, but before he raised it to his lips, he stared at me. "No tricks now. I've got a good number of men planted in this camp and it'd be a real shame to kill a lot of honest soldiers for your sake."

I didn't want that, but I didn't want to go with this man either, so I nodded, even as my body trembled with tension. Once he shot the dart into Creed, once he revived my mate, I would…

The man turned then and shot the dart, not into Creed but me. There was a sharp sting then nothing as the world dropped away. Soft and formless, that's how I felt as I was swept up and carried like an old rag doll. My head bobbed, too loose on my shoulders, and then I lost awareness of that too.

Coming back to consciousness hurt. My head throbbed in time with my heartbeat, sending great pulses of pain rocketing through my skull, but I shouldn't have let out that little moan. I caught their attention, the two men moving closer. First as blurry shapes, my eyelids flickering rapidly to try and clear my vision.

And then I wished I hadn't.

The man with Silas' face swum into view, wearing that same sly smile, but the other? I jerked back with a hiss of fear as I saw Magnus standing before me. Not the same coolly confident man who invaded the packlands, this one stunk to high heaven, still clad in the stained clothes he'd had on during the stag hunt. His hair was greasy and sat flat against his skull, his eyes wild and bloodshot.

No, reddened with roseblood.

There was no white left of his eyes, only an irritated, inflamed looking pink.

"There she is…"

Magnus looked me up and down and that drew a little whimper from me, because I didn't want him staring at me at all, but when I went to pull away, my awareness widened. I jerked my eyes up to see that my wrists were bound above my head, tight enough so I was never going to get free and neither could they.

Desiree was in one piece, thank the gods, but her look of terror was a mirror of my own. No bruises on her, no marks other than the smear of dirty fingerprints across her cheeks, that and a swollen and split bottom lip. Along with that and all of her glorious hair was now cut close to her scalp. Selene, however, stood perfectly still, the enveloping robe she always wore having been stripped away, leaving a woman wearing the form fitting attire of an acrobat. The black garment revealed every line of her body while also covering her from neck to toe. She stared ahead stonily, not moving for a second. Both women were tied up just as I was.

"My thanks for bringing my playthings to me, Raven," Magnus purred, looking us over like we were sides of beef strung up at the butcher's, but his focus shifted to the man with Silas' eyes. "Apologies for including your daughter in this, but while your offer to retrieve the princess for me was a kind one, I needed some insurance to guarantee we continue to enjoy a mutually beneficial relationship."

"Of course, Majesty," the Raven of Khean said with a slow nod. "Who else understands the need for hostages like the prince of thieves." He gestured to himself with a little flourish. "As long as nothing happens to my Selene, you'll find me a willing participant in your scheme."

"Nothing happens to me?" Selene spat. "Silas will kill you for this. Gods, fuck him, I will. I'll wreath my brow with your blood, take the title of Raven and then proceed to destroy every single part of your empire—"

"Women." The Raven shot Magnus a world weary look. "Always more trouble than they're worth. Don't have daughters, that would be my advice to you, Your Majesty."

"So let me deal with her." My eyes swung left to watch Giselle step forth. Her eyes glittered like sunlight reflected off ice crystals, though twice as cold. I stared into them right now, even as I felt the urge to look away. "I admit I looked forward to seeing you choke the princess first," she said, her lips curving into a vicious smile. "You know how it affects me." Her hand landed on Magnus' shoulder as she snuggled into him, the gesture a grotesque parody of the moment Creed and I had shared. It wasn't content to stay where it was, her grin widening as she trailed it across his chest, ignoring the state of his tunic to slip her hand in through the unbuttoned front. "I'll make the same sounds when you fuck me, Your Majesty, but if we need to start with the Guild princess first—"

I wasn't sure what she expected. In some ways it was reassuring to see another woman act more recklessly than me for once. Magnus twisted around so fast he was a blur, his hand going to her throat and squeezing. No matter what she told me, I saw it then, the fear, the worry that this time, this time would be the one where he squeezed the life out of her, because it was long past time for her body to be dropped into the midden.

"They aren't to be played with… yet." His grip loosened a little, and Giselle sucked in breaths greedily. "Each woman will serve her purpose first. One woman brought my brother to his knees and forced him to forget his seditious urges, so what will three do?"

When his focus shifted to us, I didn't welcome it, because while it was easy to dismiss him as a madman, there was the same kind of cunning you would find in a rat's eyes right now.

"Bring Arik to me and I'll free your daughter." Magnus nodded, his head moving faster as he stared at the Raven. "The old kings killed a stag to take the throne, but I…" I flinched at the sight of his cracked teeth and bloodied gums as he bared his teeth. "I will kill a bastard who dared to think he could rise above his lowly station. A new crown will be formed, not of the antlers of some dumb beast, but of a reckless, unworthy one."

"Drugged, of course, Your Majesty?" the Raven asked as if inquiring if the king wished pepper ground onto his meal. "You wish for me to weaken the prince."

I watched the prince of thieves stroke the same pipe he'd used to dart Creed, my whole body tensing against the ropes that bound me.

"I wish him to be humbled." You could see the evidence of Magnus' breeding, his heritage, in the way his spine jerked straight. He peered imperiously down his nose at the Raven, but the majestic figure he sought to cut was undermined by his state. It wasn't just the fact he was filthy and his clothes were ruined but that urine dripped from his front like a leaky tap. "Ensure that Arik comes to a duel with me suitably prepared and your daughter will escape Giselle's attention."

The king's mistress stared steadily at Selene, something I would never have dared, because the Raven's daughter met her gaze and more. Giselle was disordered, some part of her brain destroyed by the need to survive the king, but Selene? She was like a knife's blade, honed sharp enough to cut you deep, it taking moments for you even to register it.

"Of course, Your—

The Raven's reply was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door, forcing the king to walk over and wrench the door open.

"Sire…" The guard's eyes shifted restlessly, like a mouse before a wolf. "I mean, Your Majesty, we're…"

He couldn't get the words out, the clarion call of a great horn blasting beyond the capital gates announcing what was happening.

"Under attack…" Magnus barely breathed that out, but if I thought him cowed by the news, I was wrong. That awful grin was back. "And so it begins. Send the town crier out, send ravens to all of the great houses of Khean. Let them know that the Bastard Prince commits treason against his king. Let everyone know exactly who is creating chaos here."

"But our defences—" the guard tried to say.

"Will stand." Magnus clapped the man on the shoulder, not noticing the way the guard winced. "The gods are on our side. This moment has been a long time coming, but now I will show the world…"

His speech would've been so much more convincing if there wasn't a puddle of piss forming beneath his feet, forcing the guard to step back lest he be tainted by it. It was almost as if his body knew what was coming: his death. Wars might be fought, soldiers deployed with expert precision, but I knew this. My mates would see Magnus' head torn from his shoulders in a bloody display that made what happened in the cave with the bandits seem like nothing.

"I am the true born king of Khean. All will bow before me, show me the deference that has always been denied me. Historians will struggle to record every golden moment of my reign. Now, I must prepare. Raven." He turned to the man who'd brought me here. "Keep my hostages safe while I take a bath. A bath!" he shouted to no one in particular, as if maids would appear from the rooms beyond this. "I require a bath."

"I will run one for you, Your Highness," Giselle said, stroking Magnus' hair. "Almost all of the maids have failed to report for duty and those that did…" She smiled up at him. "Well, we broke them."

"With the lavender bath salts..?" the king asked, their voices trailing away as they shut the door behind them, no one able to take a full breath until the lock clicked into place.

"What the fucking hell!" Desiree snapped. "I've never had any dealings with you, Raven. My man stays out of your stews and I've never borrowed a cent—"

"You lived a virtuous life," the Raven agreed with a nod. "But it doesn't do you much good when that brother of yours messes with powers far greater than him. You're lucky I persuaded the king that Roan had one sister, not seven."

"So what…?" I watched her bottom lip quiver, right before her chin firmed. "I'm to be the sacrificial lamb in a fight I know nothing about? I cooked the dishes asked of me. I laced those pastries with all of that poison in the spice box and more. I did as I was told."

My hands ached, not because of the way they were tied, but because I wanted to reach out and take hers. I knew exactly what Desiree was feeling, that if we women just did as we were told, fulfilled the roles dictated to us, that we would stay safe. But all of us, even Giselle, were perfect examples of how that wasn't true. If someone powerful chose to harm us, we had no means to protect ourselves.

Well, apart from Selene.

She shrugged the ropes off, flicking her hands to encourage the blood to rush back to her fingers, then moved to start untying ours.

"I see I taught you well, daughter," the Raven said with approval, watching Selene work, but not raising that pipe of his.

"You did." A knife was produced from nowhere, her arm shooting out so that the blade cut a perfect curve through the air, one that came within centimetres of the Raven's throat. I watched his Adam's apple bob for a second before he grinned at his daughter. "And you made sure I know how to slice a man's throat from ear to ear, a lesson I will prove upon your body if you don't start talking."

"Being a woman of the cloth hasn't softened you at all, I see, Selene," he replied.

"Nothing softens me." Her words were harsh, but her hands were soft as she gripped my wrists, checking the skin for injuries, then rubbing the pale flesh there. "You made sure of that." She turned slowly, her movements like a dancer's, with the same grace and precision. "I am the knife of the Raven of Khean. I cut down the enemies of the Guild without question, follow the directives of my Raven, until…"

Her hand moved slowly, holding the knife up blade out.

"Until his leadership fails to protect every member of the Guild. So, Father, explain to me how causing a civil war is good for business?"

The Raven's gold teeth glittered in the lamp light as he grinned.

"Revolution is coming one way or the other, thanks to the princess." He nodded at me, forcing me to take a step towards Desiree. Her hand found mine and we both clung to the other. "So I can either watch the wheel of change roll forward wildly, letting its own momentum carry it on, or…" His arms crossed his chest. "I can ensure the end result benefits everyone." He nodded to Desiree then. "But most of all, every member of the Guild."

"You think you have this all under control then?" Selene's knifepoint came to rest under her father's chin. "Start talking, Old Man, and we'll see if you walk free of this room in one piece."