13. Idris

Chapter 13

Idris

V ale’s gorgeous green eyes met mine as Xavier lovingly laced up her corset. While she gripped the bedpost, he would drop kisses to her shoulder with each pull. Every hitch of her breath and secret smile sent a bolt of lightning down my spine, straight to my cock.

I’d thought sharing her would kill me. That first day when I’d scented them on her skin, I’d thought I would murder my closest friends, spill their blood all over my hands, and scare her away forever. It turned out, I not only didn’t mind sharing Vale, but I was beginning to crave it.

Watching her come apart between them had nearly driven me to claim her right then and there. The kiss we shared had almost broken my resolve, but I’d held onto my restraint by the finest of margins. When she’d reached for me, I’d almost forgotten everything.

My gaze trailed down the column of her throat to the pale-blue sleeve that was playing peek-a-boo with the mating mark at the crown of her shoulder. The magic had changed the teeth marks into a faint, sweeping, golden design embedded into her skin like our tattoos. It was delicate just like she was, and it would darken into its permanent form once we completed our bond.

Just looking at it made me hard.

“I can’t focus when you’re looking at me like that,” Vale murmured as a shiver seemed to work its way down her spine. “How am I supposed to keep my wits about me if you’re staring at me like you want to eat me up?”

Lifting my lips into a smirk, I dodged her questions. “But you look good enough to eat. Are you sure you don’t want to be our meal instead?”

“The sooner we do this, the sooner we can go home,” she taunted, the images in her head enough to make me come in my leathers if I let myself.

“Oh, I plan on wrapping this up as soon as possible just so I can watch you come over and over again. I have plans for you, Vale. Many, many plans.”

I didn’t know when her walls had crumbled, but I loved being on the other side of them. Her heart was warm and fierce, and I never wanted a single breath on this earth without it.

But the scent of her rising desire hadn’t just hit my nose. It was driving Xavier crazy as well. He’d stopped his lacing and seemed mere moments away from bending her over the bed and burying himself in her tight, wet heat.

If we were ever going to make it out of this room, we needed to focus. I just didn’t know how I would begin to do that with the flush of desire working its way up her throat.

When Kian waltzed through the bedroom door, it was almost a relief. He’d made sure we had safe passage through the castle with no obvious traps. We were late, but that didn’t matter.

What mattered was that we would catch Selene off guard.

“Sweet gods,” he growled, his pupils elongating into the slit of his dragon. “Are you sure we need to go to this thing?”

His words were almost a plea for mercy, but it had to be done.

“You mean, do we have to parade our mate in front of the bitch who tried to kill her? Do we have to inform Selene that she failed so spectacularly that she’s a walking, talking dead woman? Afraid so.”

Kian’s irises burned bright as his jaw turned to stone. “Right.”

Xavier curled his arm around Vale’s waist, tucking her into his side. “She won’t touch you, my love.”

Vale’s laugh tightened its hold on my heart. “Oh, I’m not worried about me. I’m more worried about what happens when you kill a siren queen on her own turf. Rune says that this plan is ill-advised, but he would love the chance to eat a few guards. He says he thinks they’ll taste like squid.”

I agreed with my dragon. This plan was shaky at best, but it was what we had. Rising from the bed, I held out my hand for Vale. “As always, Rune is wiser than all of us.”

Pulling her close, I curled her fingers around my forearm. She would never be farther from me tonight than right there.

Kian took point, exiting the room first with Xavier at our backs, the illusion of the corridor sweeping around us as we headed to Selene’s private dining chambers. I’d known coming here wasn’t the smartest idea I’d ever had, but not coming here was a risk I couldn’t take. The continent was on the tipping point. One move in the wrong direction could bring the whole thing down on our heads.

We’d barely survived the last coup. The last thing we needed was to waltz into another one. Had I realized Selene would try to hurt Vale—try to kill her—I would have brought more guards, more weapons.

Just… more .

As with every other room in this gods-forsaken castle, Selene’s private dining chamber was made of magic and falsehoods. Sirens were gifted magic-weavers, their illusion work powerful enough few could break through. Kian was the only illusionist I knew of who could sense each spell, each falsehood, each lie for what it was.

Selene hated him the most for that. She loathed that he would always have the truth of a situation, which was why she’d perpetually chosen other methods of subduing him. Vale, however, was another animal entirely, and now that the Veythara had failed, she would try to hurt her over and over again.

The siren queen did not like to fail—of that, I knew for certain.

Striding into the room, I enjoyed the gentle graying of Selene’s face as she recognized my mate was not only alive and well, but my mark was on her exposed shoulder.

The Herald snapped to attention, his gaze falling to Vale’s mark and back to his mistress. No one had expected Vale to survive Selene’s little trick—not even the man who announced us.

“Presenting His Majesty, King Idris Ashbourne of Credour, and Her Grace, Duchess Isolde Vale Tenebris.”

The room stood simply to bow, Selene’s reluctance less than a surprise. I couldn’t say I’d been a particularly good king. The lengthy list of my failures could paper the continent, of that I was absolutely sure.

I’d failed to recognize Zamarra for what she was. I’d failed to see that my brother had lost his heart to a madwoman. I’d failed to kill him when I should have. My people suffered while I tried and failed to find a cure for the curse that stunted their power, withered their lives, poisoned my kingdom.

The only thing I’d ever done right was to fall for the beauty at my side.

And I would protect her.

Vale’s eye barely twitched at the use of her sovereign name, but her mind buzzed akin to a hive of bees.

“Just one more thing to hate her for,” she mused, her attention never wavering as she stared the siren queen down. “It’s bad enough I know she did something to the guys, and I still don’t know what it is. Did she have to full-name me? Bitch.”

There was one thing about Vale that I absolutely adored and hated all at the same time. She knew the second she was being lied to. While Kian and Xavier hadn’t lied outright, they still knew enough about that night to tell Vale the truth.

Then again, if they had, Selene would be fish food the second Vale saw her. A part of me wanted to see what she would do. The other part wanted to salvage as much of this night as we could before I made sure Selene never breathed another second of air.

Had Kian and Xavier not made me vow not to breathe a word of their assault to anyone, I would have killed Selene ages ago. Now that she’d hurt Vale? There would be no stopping me this time.

“And the fact that she tried to kill you makes no difference to you.”

Gently, I guided Vale down the set of stairs into the bowels of this insidious room, her pale-blue confection of a dress glittering like diamonds as it fluttered about her gorgeous legs. Not an ounce of magic or glamour, and she was still the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.

“She’s not the first person to try. And she failed, remember? Spectacularly. It’s not my fault she’s sucks at trying to kill me.”

Selene stood to the right of the head of the table, her shoulders tight as her glamour flickered, her gaze never once leaving Vale’s faint golden mating mark. “So good of you to join us, my King.”

That sounded awfully like a reprimand. Considering what she’d done, she was lucky she was still breathing. I opened my mouth to respond, but Vale beat me to it.

Nearly shouldering Selene out of her way, Vale took her spot at the right of the head chair, exactly where she should be.

She gave the siren queen a guileless smile. “Oh, are we late?” Vale whispered, her grin widening. “That’s my fault. You know how it is when someone tries to kill you, sometimes it takes a few extra minutes to clean yourself up.”

The smile slid off Vale’s face as she stared Selene down. I relished the way the siren paled further when I pulled her chair out for her, seating her before the entire table. I dropped a kiss to the golden bonding mark before taking my own chair, allowing the rest of this farce of a dinner to continue.

Selene seemed at a loss when Kian let out a growl, his eyes flashing with his dragon as he took the spot next to Vale. Cowed, she swept to the foot of the table and lowered herself onto her seat.

Awkwardly, the rest of the retinue took their places, the breach in protocol casting a pall over the evening. I didn't care that I had sat my intended before myself. If anything, it told Selene just how fucked she was without saying a word.

“Thank you for having me,” I growled, my tone less than kind as I watched the vile woman paste a saccharine smile on her overly glamoured face. “So far, we have been threatened by your guard, you’ve breached protocol by attempting to impugn her status with me, and I won’t even touch on the rest. Do we have a problem, Selene?”

Her gaze flicked around the room, guilt dulling her glamour. “O-of course not, Your Majesty. We had no idea you were coming?—”

“Lie,” I snarled, cutting her off. “You knew exactly when and how we were coming. You knew why, too. Even if someone in my council didn't inform you, you're not showing up when an emissary was requested should have been a clue that we would arrive on your very doorstep. There never should have been guards in that courtyard, and yet, there were. You attacked my Hand and highest general, you attacked my bride. Remind me, Selene—what kingdom do you serve?”

Selene took a large gulp of her wine. “Y-yours, Your Majesty.”

Sitting back in my chair, I studied the siren. Shoulders hunched, she’d lost the confident, overly sexual quality to her speech, settling into the poor down-trodden damsel routine. But I wasn’t fooled.

“I don't think so. I think you serve someone else. Because if you served me so loyally, as you claim, you wouldn't have tried to kill my wife. Has anyone done that and survived?”

I’d caught the slip as soon as I’d said it, but calling Vale anything else didn’t feel right. She would be my wife in a few days, then she would be tied to me forever. I already considered her mine, and this woman needed to know it right before I made sure she knew nothing else.

“I-I don't think so.” Selene’s fingers fluttered over the table setting, gripping the opal-plated knife before setting it back down. That paltry weapon would do nothing but piss me off.

“I'll confirm it for you. No one has survived after taking a hand to my fateborn mate. Do you know why?”

“Because she's the key to breaking the curse?” Pitiful tears filled her eyes as she looked up from the table.

“Good try but incorrect. While she is very important to breaking my curse, that is not why they fail to keep breathing. Those that threaten my bride, my fateborn mate, my wife, your Queen die because a threat to her is a threat to me.” Shoving to my feet, the chair clattered to the ground behind me, making the siren jump.

“Do you see that mark on her shoulder? Not only is it a sign of our bond, but it is a sign of the end of the dark days of this kingdom. If the fateborn mates can rise again, then that means the curse is nigh. The power you long for is so close you can taste it. Why would you jeopardize that?”

“I—” She shook her head, her gaze flicking toward the open doors of the balcony, the sounds of the sea rolling through the room. The murals on the walls slipped and slid, their images reforming into new ones.

She waved her hand, breaking the illusion that her closest advisers were in the room with her. Even her glamour faded as the people at her sides disappeared. There was no one but Selene and us, and the siren queen stood, matching me.

“I did it to save us all,” she hissed, her gaze never wavering from the mural. “You should have bonded with her. I gave you ample opportunity. Why do you delay freeing us all?”

Rage had me seeing red. Kian ripped Vale out of her chair, moving behind me as I flipped the mammoth table out of my way. A second later, Selene’s scaled throat was in my hand as golden bonds wrapped around her body.

“Firstly, I don’t answer to you. I told you when I would complete our bond, and under no circumstances will it be a single minute before then. I have one chance to keep my promise to her, and I will not break it—not for this kingdom, not for you, or anyone else.”

Eyes bulging, her thick claws raked my skin, but I didn’t care. “Then how does she live?”

“You failed to realize something in the middle of your machinations and scheming. Vale doesn't have just one mate. She has three. Your little spell couldn’t follow through because she has three of us to make sure she stays breathing.”

“But—” Her gaze flicked to the mural behind me, and instantly, I felt the change.

There was a mage in this room.

A Girovian one to be exact.

Selene wasn’t just a bitch, she was also a traitor.

So much for playing nice.