4. Idris

Chapter 4

Idris

H er rage hit me square in the chest mere moments before the doors to the throne room blew apart. My ancestor, Orin, carved the wood of those doors by hand, refusing to use an ounce of magic to create them. In doing so, he inadvertently imbued them with his very essence. Before Vale destroyed them with her magic, they had hung in every Ashbourne castle since the dawn of time.

And my future Queen had just blown them apart like tissue paper.

I didn’t know if I should be frightened or turned the fuck on.

Both.

Probably both.

As the dust cleared, I met those gorgeous green eyes, the fury in them boiling over as brilliant magic sparked from her fingertips. Tendrils of her hair floated about her head as the heat of her power sizzled through the room, touching nearly everything with her light.

Was this how Orin felt when he gazed upon Lirael the first time? If so, it was no wonder he was willing to risk it all to be with her. Vale was fucking magnificent, and I was starting not to give a fuck that she’d blown a hole in my carefully crafted ruse.

Her dress fluttered around her legs as if she were caught in a tempestuous storm, and that light of hers got brighter, hotter, bigger, threatening to consume all of us with it.

“If you think I survived that fucking mountain to sit idly by while you kill innocent people, you’ve got another thing coming,” she growled through gritted teeth. “Not only will I not marry you, but you can kiss me breaking your curse goodbye. I’d have sacrificed damn near anything for the man I thought I knew, but I’ll be damned if I save a monster.”

I was right: she was magnificent. More than that, she was nothing like Zamarra. With that one statement, she proved to be exactly who I thought she was—exactly who Rune would choose, who Kian and Xavier would fall for, who I would be damn lucky to rule beside.

But she had it all wrong. This was just one big game of chicken, and I needed to see who would blink first.

Gently, I reached with my mind, but all I got was a blistering wall of her power shutting me out. A trickle of blood dripped from my nose as I staggered backward, the force of her rage more than I anticipated. She had shut me out—this little slip of a woman barely into her power had all but slapped me across the face with it.

“Vale, my Queen, you—” Xavier started, but when her eyes landed on him, he, too, staggered backward.

Tears filled her eyes as a lash of her magic turned the room from warm to sweltering, the stone under her feet blackening with the heat of it.

“I expected more from you, Xavier. Him? I never trusted. But you? How could you just sit there and say nothing? Do nothing?”

Xavier forced himself to his feet as he wiped the blood from his nose with the back of his hand. “Please, little witch. If you would just let us in, we could explain.”

The laugh that spilled from her mouth chilled me to the bone. She might be nothing like Zamarra, but her power was just as strong. A shockwave of it rocked the room, knocking men from their seats as chairs toppled to the ground. Tapestries fell from their fastenings and the candelabras blew out, their iron holders crashing to the stone floor.

“Don’t you dare call me that. What he’s proposing is genocide.” Her piercing gaze returned to me, and the heat of it was a punch to the gut. “That makes him no better than the guild. The same guild that sentenced me to death, who killed my parents, who murdered my people.”

Two hundred years ago, I’d faced down a witch in this very room, clinging to life—to my magic with all the strength I had. To see Vale here with her power so great, her rage so acute, it was as if I had traveled back in time. Back then it was I who had been betrayed by the woman I loved. Now I realized Vale thought it was I who had done the betraying.

All because she believed the lie.

“Is this why you keep me locked up? Why you refuse to tell me anything? Why you dodge every question?” Twin tracks of tears fell down her cheeks before the heat of her dried them.

Those tears opened up a pit in my stomach, making me forget the council, my crown, my purpose.

“No, Vale,” I whispered, realizing just how wrong I’d been. “We only wanted to protect you. Please, if you’d just let me explain.”

I should have kept her close, taught her about Credour, told her… well, everything . She should have been part of this plan from the start. I’d been wrong, so wrong, and I didn’t know how to fix it.

Violently, she shook her head. “I watched you say it. I watched you order their deaths. ‘Down to the last drop,’ you said. There is no explaining it away.”

She’d burn herself out if she kept going like this. Gritting my teeth, I allowed my volatile magic to rise, letting it consume every boundary and ward that kept it stable. The ache of it filled my bones, but the golden power filled the room, the tendrils of it surrounding Vale in a cocoon of energy.

Searing agony slammed into me, but I breeched her shield, curling around her much like I had in her dream. Only then could I find a crack in her mental wards.

“There you are,” I murmured in her mind, relief a fleeting memory.

“Get out of my head. You’re a monster.”

“I love that you think so, but I’m really not. All this is a ruse, Vale. A trick meant to flush out those in league with the guild.”

Blood dripped from her nose, and she let out an angry growl as she tried to shove me from her mind.

“I don’t believe you,” she hissed, her voice cracking. Her attention left me for a moment, her betrayal and blind fury not waning for a second as she met Xavier’s pleading gaze.

“Give me two minutes to flush a traitor out, and if you still don’t believe me, I’ll let you walk right out of my kingdom. I won’t even stop you,” I begged, hoping against hope that my plan would play out like I wanted it to.

“I swear it on Rune’s life—my life.”

Those brilliant green eyes finally landed on me, and it was as if the sun had returned after a long winter.

“I’ll play along this time, but I’m holding you to those two minutes. If I don’t believe you after that, then I don’t care what I promised, I will never break your curse—do you understand?”

Didn’t she understand that I didn’t give a fuck about the curse—not if it meant losing her? Didn’t she know by now that I would give anything for her to see me the way she saw Kian and Xavier?

That I would sacrifice anything?

That I cared less and less about a kingdom that had never once appreciated my sacrifice? About a council that was dead set on seeing magic die?

Of course not. Why would she?

I’d been the one to keep her in the dark. I’d been the one so scared someone would take her and torture her that I’d given her nothing—no knowledge, no preparation, nothing. If she stayed, she would be my queen in a few short days, and she knew she was wildly unprepared for the role.

Her lack of faith in me was my fault and mine alone.

“I swear I’m not lying, Vale. If you believe nothing else, please believe that I would never harm innocent people to save my own ass.”

Her face twisted into a grimace, but her light slowly dimmed, the wall of power flickering as she pulled it back into herself. She didn’t believe me—hell, she didn’t even trust me—but she would give me just enough rope to hang myself with.

“You really think this is the only way to protect me—killing whole families?” she growled.

A twinge of relief hit the back of my throat as I nodded, playing along. “They conspired with the guild to kill you. They’ve been right under our noses all along. We have to flush the rot from the kingdom.”

And while what I was saying had a grain of truth, genocide would never be on my list of options. Arden, however, had never stopped there, now, had he? He and Zamarra had been a team, and still he murdered her kin—Vale’s kin. Granted, not being my brother was a low bar, but I’d fucking clear it.

“And if it means saving your life,” I added, telling her the absolute truth, “then I’ll kill whoever I need to make sure you stay breathing.”

“Very well.” Her shoulders slumped as she bowed her head, selling it far better than I ever thought possible. “I won’t stand in your way. Do what you must.”

The five remaining members of the council peered at her over the debris, but it wasn’t until one seemed to shimmer from the ether did I realize just how close the danger was. Before I could warn her, Vale was caught in his snare.

I now remembered exactly why I’d kept her in the dark. Because the danger was everywhere—it was everyone—even in someone I trusted.

Ithran brought his blade to her throat, putting her small body in front of his as his magic crackled through the air. The High Lord ruled the Fae, his power rivaling most in the kingdom. As one of my closest advisers, outside of Xavier, he had been the least of my worries, and yet, here he was trying to take my world from me.

“What do you think you’re doing, Ithran? Let her go,” I thundered, readying my magic as Xavier drew his sword. “If you have a problem with me, I’m right here.”

“Oh, so now you pay attention,” he hissed, his midnight eyes flashing with his magic. Tendrils of darkness pooled at his feet, curling like ropes around Vale’s legs. “But only when I have what you want.” The Fae Lord tilted his head as he ran his thin, pale nose up the side of Vale’s neck. “Pretty little Luxa has too much power. She should share. You surely don’t.”

“Vale, don’t move. I’ll get you out of this.” It was a stupid platitude, and yet, I couldn’t stop myself from promising her something I didn’t know if I could deliver.

She let out a mirthless little laugh that had Ithran digging his metal-tipped fingers into the tender flesh of her middle. Vale hissed in pain as blood darkened her emerald dress.

Too much blood.

“Two hundred years living off of scraps of power, and this little whisp of a woman waltzes in here with a boatload of it, shining like a beacon in the dark. Call me crazy, but why would we let her waste all her magic saving you, when we could tap her neck like a keg and drain her dry instead? Cut out the middleman, so to speak.”

“I can get out of this,” Vale whispered in my mind. “I’m not dead yet, remember?”

I fought the urge to shake my head. The last thing I needed was Ithran realizing she was armed with more than her magic. “Don’t. He’s too powerful. Stay still and maybe I can talk him around.”

He brought those metal-tipped fingers to his lips, licking the blood from the razor-sharp edge. Ithran closed his eyes in bliss as he tasted her, and I couldn’t stop my magic from rocking the very castle underneath our feet.

I didn’t care if I brought the whole fucking thing down on our heads as long as she got out of this alive.

“Your brother makes promises he can’t deliver. You dawdle breaking your curse, following the rules when your kingdom is dying. No wonder everyone around you is gunning for your bride,” Ithran mused. “And fuck if she doesn’t smell good enough to eat. I wonder why you haven’t claimed her. I would have the first night.”

He ground his pelvis against her backside, and Vale’s pale cheeks reddened, her rage getting the better of her. Any other time I’d welcome it, but this time, I was helpless as she ripped the blade from her belt. Flipping the dagger in her hand, she jammed it into Ithran’s thigh, twisting away from the one at her throat.

But just like when Arden had her up on that mountain, she failed to protect her middle.

I watched in horror as Ithran’s blade went into her side. Vale staggered back, covering the wound with her hand, her legs crumbling beneath her almost instantly.

Xavier darted forward, but I was frozen for the longest second of my life. The roar that came out of me might as well have been my death knell. Power exploded from my skin, tearing through the room as Ithran staggered backward.

My golden magic and Xavier’s blue fire met a wall of Ithran’s shadows, jabbing like spears against the High Lord’s defenses.

And then it was as if everything just froze.

My magic.

Xavier’s flames.

Ithran’s shadows.

Sounds died, the wind stopped, the fight immobilized as a sword of light appeared in the middle of Ithran’s chest. He clawed at the blade for what seemed like far too long before glowing veins of magic snaked up his throat, filling his eyes, burning them out from the inside.

Then that blade hooked left, cutting through him like butter. The High Lord fell in pieces to the ground, revealing a bloody-but-very-alive Vale, the ripped bodice of her dress gaping to reveal the black scales of her armor. My knees hit the ground as relief weakened every limb.

Ithran hadn’t taken her from me.

Vale was alive.

She was alive.

She staggered, but before I could reach for her, Xavier had her in his arms, holding her up as he healed her middle. She wilted into him, relief hitting her face as she rested her head on his chest.

Her smile was wry, but she was looking at me without contempt for once.

“I don’t know how to tell you this, but you have an internal problem. You might want to get on with fixing it before it kills me.”

My laugh was mirthless as I took stock of the room around us.

“Tell me something I don’t know.”