Chapter 59

"A woman I loved was beaten, raped, and killed when I failed."

I staggered back from Arik's words as if I was slapped, initially because of the way he delivered them, staring me down with an arrogant glare. Then the meaning of them filtered through.

"Raped…"

I frowned, shook my head, wanting to deny what he was saying, but his expression didn't allow for it. That arrogant smirk didn't reappear, making clear he had fooled me. Instead, he watched me try to get my mind around what he'd said.

"Ariel…" Silas said, his eyes widening.

"Your father found out about her, did he?" Arik was a lot of things, but I would never have described him as brittle. That's how he looked now. As if a good tap would send him shattering into pieces. "Yes, Ariel, daughter of the Duke of Fallspire." He said her name with far more reverence than he ever had my title. "The woman I thought I was supposed to marry. The duke knew what Magnus had done to my father and who was the intended heir to the throne."

His lips twisted.

"Not my brother. The duke is the leader of one of the more powerful factions in Khean. I was sure with his help, with Ariel by my side, we'd make things right. Bring Magnus down. Make the entire court aware of his illegitimacy. Make clear what my father intended. I'd rule Khean fairly, justly. I'd be the king my father always said I would be."

I'm not sure if he realised it, but a fire seemed to light in Arik's eyes as he slammed his fist down on his chest. I watched it flare to life, then… die.

"If I failed, I assumed the burden of that would fall to me. I dreamed of going to the gallows with my head held high, knowing I did so in an attempt to avenge my father, but…"

His mask cracked then and shattered. A completely different Arik shouldered forward, one I'd never seen before. He was looking at me, but it wasn't me he saw, I was sure of it. This… Ariel, that's who stood before him. Otherwise, why would his eyes soften like that, then start to shine, a small sad smile twitching at his lips, then smoothing away? Why would he stare at me like I was the only woman left in the world?

"I didn't pay for my treasonous attempt to wrest the throne from Magnus, she did."

His fists went up, scrubbing at his eyes as his brows jerked down. He wasn't seeing his former love, but her desecration.

"Do you know how women scream when they're being raped? I've heard plenty of screams and wails, from that of mothers who've lost their sons, to women in danger or in childbirth, but I've never heard another woman's screams match hers. Magnus knew about the plot, about the duke, about everything, and he had everyone in place before we could even get started. He couldn't kill the duke or implicate him in the plot. The man was too powerful, so instead… Magnus took out his ire on the duke's daughter, my…"

His hand reached out and then curled inwards, as if all he had to do was reach out and tear her through the veil between life and death. A single tear rolled free of his staring blue eyes, dripping down his cheek.

"Magnus killed her, brutalised her, because she was my love. Because she was a woman and therefore expendable. He couldn't kill me, lest I become a martyr for the duke's men and all the other malcontents to rally around. My death would be a step too far, but Ariel's…"

He shook his head sharply, the tone of his voice deepening, becoming hoarse as he forced the painful words out.

"Hers was a lesson. To the duke, to remind him of his place. He could keep his lands, his power base, everything as it was, but he would not use his might to rise against the throne. To all the other nobles who had rallied behind me and the duke, that their own daughters might be next. But most of all, to me."

When he blinked, his eyes hardened, becoming sharp as a knife's blade. One he used to stab into each and every one of us.

"That if I dared care for anyone or anything, Magnus would tear that person limb from limb in front of my very eyes. I would watch them die screaming… No, worse than that. I would be complicit in all the torture I was forced to watch take place. I might not be the one with the whip or the flail in my hands, but I was the one that ordered their destruction because I didn't abide by the terms of peace hammered out."

"So what about us, brother?" Roan asked in a small voice.

"Silas is protected by the Guild. His father could bring the entire realm to its knees if his darling son was harmed." Arik's eyes locked with Silas as we both watched the other man's chin lift. "It's why he was placed in the army in the first place, right, Silas? Why you were put in my unit."

"That might've been a motivating force," Silas replied in clipped tones.

"And Creed is a wolf shifter. All the discipline of the beast men falls to those of their own kind. Any human that dares raise a hand against one of their numbers would have it chewed off shortly afterwards."

Creed nodded stiffly at that.

"And me?" Roan asked, the edge to his voice apparent. "What about me? I've got no wealthy or powerful relations. Just seven—"

"Sisters." Arik smiled bitterly. "Perfect hostages to ensure my compliance. As long as we do what's asked of us when it's asked of us, then nothing happens to them." Arik scanned the group. "To any of you. Magnus wanted to keep me alone and isolated, but he's no fool. The minute I started to forge bonds with others, I gave him yet more vulnerabilities to target. He tests my loyalty to see if I'm still compliant each time he takes a wife. If I bring her to him and allow him to kill her, as he has all those before her, then he knows I'm still upholding my side of the bargain. The fact that every time he does this it brings it all back—Ariel, the plot, her… death—well, that's just a bonus. So."

His crossed arms locked tighter.

"I appreciate the thinking behind your plan, princess. I'm sure I would only be marginally preferable to my brother as king to your queen, but in this, I fear I must disappoint you. I'll never be king of Khean. Never. My brother is many things, but he does have the most impressive spy network in the entire continent."

He glanced around then, scowling at the trees as if they'd personally offended him, but it took me a moment to realise why.

Fear.

Arik was terrified at the thought of being discovered.

"I sent word to him of our delay, used the mating games as an excuse, but he will have worked out why we're truly here." Arik's words came out faster and faster. "I'll need to go to the elders, ask them to break the pack bond. A shifter wife I could've gotten away with, but this…" He shook his head. "If you're thinking it, then so is he, and he'll—"

Before Arik could finish his thought, a sound had us all spinning around. Silas produced knives out of the air, each one of them falling into a ready stance, but it was Fern who came forward, hands outstretched.

"Don't shoot the messenger," she said. "The elders sent me. They said you all ‘needed some time,' but as the minutes ticked by, they started getting worried about Jess." She peered past the men to me. "Looks like you're still in one piece?"

"Yes." I waved back weakly. "I am, thank you."

"Well, the feast is supposed to take place, but it's hard to do that without your guests of honour. The girls and I were tasked with helping you prepare for it because your mates won the first game."

I fought the urge to laugh, the idea of primping and preparing for a banquet so utterly divorced from the bloody history that had just been vomited forth, but I stifled that hysterical urge. I was going to say no, that we needed to keep talking, but Arik made the decision for us to end this.

"I'll go and ask for an audience with the elders as soon as is humanly possible," he said, pushing past the lot of us. "You'll be free and will be able to pursue Jessalyn as a pack. I'm hoping that separating me from you, and the combined might of the wolf shifters will be enough to hold Magnus at bay, but I need to find out for sure." He shot us a sidelong look. "I'll keep you posted."

"Arik…" Silas reached for the prince, his hands curling back in with frustration as Arik walked away, so his focus shifted back to me. "Go with Fern and get dressed in something pretty. We… Creed won the day today and my father always said you should take your pleasures where you find them, because the gods know if there'll be any for the taking tomorrow." He watched my lips purse with a nod. "But we'll talk more after the banquet, I promise."

The mating games were an opportunity for males to prove their worthiness to a female, and I'd just set my ‘mates' the conditions they had to meet to win my hand, so I guess it made sense I would feel some disappointment when the three of them filed away. To do what? I didn't know, and that irked me all the way back to my lodgings.

"We have some pretty dresses picked out," Fern said, once we returned to our room. "But you've no doubt got a few in your bags."

"Many," I admitted with a nod, crouching down to sort through my bags and choose something, only to find this.

The bag my mother and grandmother had given me.

"What's that?" Fern asked, crouching down beside me. "Looks fancy, but it's not a dress."

"This?" I turned towards her, my eyes shining with a dangerous light. "This is something the women in my family gave me. They didn't send me to my death unarmed. I haven't looked at it, don't know what its contents are, but they said…" I sucked in a breath, feeling the vestiges of my conditioning rise and then fall to pieces, never to bother me again. "In it are the means to kill a king."