Sixteen Camilla

Nismera sat at the head of a massive, carved stone table. I watched in awe from the shadows as living lightning danced beneath its surface. It whipped and coiled toward her and back, a physical manifestation of her power. I had heard stories of her, the other witches whispering her name in fear. Sweat rolled down my back at the thought of her catching me, but I needed answers. I’d felt a shift when we’d arrived here, and that harrowing feeling had done nothing but grow. Something old, powerful, and angry was stirring, and I couldn’t place a finger on it. A deep sigh parted her lips as she placed her hand on her brow and shook her head. Temper flared, and even the holographic image of a soldier in thick armor shuffled on his feet.

“The legion sent to retrieve her has failed, my liege.”

I watched her clench her jaw so tightly a vein pulsed on her forehead. A memory of the World Ender flashed through my mind. How similar yet so vastly unalike they were.

“How many casualties?” she snarled, her voice guttural.

The soldier paused. “All of them, my liege. There was nothing but ashes and scorched ground left.” A commotion behind the soldier had him looking behind him before refocusing on Nismera. “And Commander Fig’s eye was . . . detached, my king.”

Nismera covered her mouth with her hands and turned toward Vincent. A feeling I couldn’t quite name hit my gut as he placed a hand of comfort on her shoulder. Her loyal general in that damned dragonbane armor. So many spikes and rigid lines, just like him and his damned soul.

He had been by her side from the moment we’d arrived in this realm. If he wasn’t escorting me to and from my workstation, he was with her. He was more than her general, and it turned my stomach sick. I still hated how he was practically my damn shadow, and I was even more pissed that our rooms were practically conjoined, with only the hall separating us.

“But before the legion perished, they did collect her companion. He is being shipped to the prison.”

That got her attention.

“Companion?” Vincent asked, one perfectly sculpted brow raised.

“The fate,” Nismera corrected. “I did not kill him. He is the one helping her now. It has to be him.”

A member of the Order cleared his throat and said, “Perhaps we should focus on her, my king? While a nuisance, the Eye has not caused the mayhem she has.”

Nismera’s head whipped to the Order member. “I am not concerned with Samkiel’s whore. She has no one. Her friends are here under my thumb, her family slain, and Samkiel is dead. She has no protection. She is no longer a threat to me. All she is doing is acting like a hurt child, burning all in her path. It means nothing to me. We have more important issues to worry about. When and if she gets close to me, I will execute her. I will make such a display of it that any thoughts of defying me festering in anyone’s head will be extinguished.”

Nismera sighed and leaned forward, clasping her hands in front of her. The map she’d laid out shimmered on the table. The pieces were carved and imbued with witch magic. She watched mountains, small buildings, hills, and clouds smaller than my finger shift across the landscape, keeping an eye on her enemies. With a swipe of her hand, the image changed, and I sucked in a breath. Oh gods. She had a living map of the realms. How?

Vincent watched her like a starved beast desperate to feast. My lip curled at how entirely obsessed he was with her. He always watched her or was a hair away from her. I couldn’t believe the almighty, powerful goddess felt the same. My gaze locked on to him, and I swallowed hard, trying to picture it. With all the options she had tossed at her feet, why did she choose Vincent?

Secure in my invisibility, I allowed my eyes to linger on him a fraction longer. His long, dark hair spilled down his back, but he’d pulled it off his face on one side and woven it into a warrior braid. The dragonbane armor Nismera’s highest-ranking people wore added bulk to his already large, muscular frame.

I suppose he was handsome, but that beauty faded once you knew him, knew what he had done and was capable of. It was a shame, though, a shame to be so beautiful and ugly at the same time. Maybe that’s why they fit each other so well. I wondered if she would wed him, make him her consort officially. Would they rule over the wasteland she left in her wake?

My gaze returned to his face, and my breath caught. He was looking right at me. Impossible. I glanced down, noting the twitch of green flame in my pendant. The spell was still working. I was invisible, yet . . . I moved back, sinking deeper into the shadows. His eyes didn’t follow. Good. Maybe I was wrong. I took a deep breath and forced my attention back to the room.

Vincent leaned forward, clearing his throat. I could have sworn his eyes cut to me once more. All eyes immediately focused on him, but her armored guards didn’t flinch in his presence. He clasped his hands behind his back. “With all due respect, my king, I feel we should persist in seeking out Dianna’s whereabouts.”

Nismera rested her chin on her hand. “And why is that?” she all but purred. She only spoke to Vincent that way, and I didn’t know why, but it made me want to hurl.

“Because we are not dealing with Ayla. Ayla died the second Kaden got a hold of her. We are talking about Dianna. We are not dealing with Samkiel’s mate. We are dealing with Kaden’s.”

The room went deathly quiet, and I was lucky more creatures in here had heartbeats because mine pounded like a drum.

Nismera chuckled, but the room remained stagnant, the air clinging to itself and flavored with fear. Everyone watched her carefully. If those devilish eyes lit up, there would be no escape. All it would take was one flick of her hand, and everyone would burn, destroyed by the devastating god power she wielded so competently.

“Vincent, Kaden has no mate. He was not born of flesh.”

“He does now. He made her, crafted her when he found her. They spent a thousand years together. He trained her, made her a killer, and respectfully, my king, a damn good one. She killed Alistair with her bare hands. I was there when she flattened his entire organization. I was there when she came back from Yejedin, covered in the ashes of Tobias. There for it all. She may have been made for Samkiel, but she is Kaden’s blood, his anger, rage, and, above all, power. After what we did to Samkiel, she will not rest. She nearly leveled Onuna for Gabriella. What will she do for him?”

We waited. We all did. Even the Kings of Yejedin did not flinch.

Nismera took a deep breath as if contemplating, then leaned back in her chair. She tapped her perfectly painted nails on the table.

“You think I should fear her?”

“Absolutely not, my king, only that leaving her to continue on her warpath may bring your rule into question. You do not want to send the wrong message to those still poised against you.”

“The boy has a point,” Gewyrnon said.

My skin prickled at being this close to another King of Yejedin. Even the witches feared them. Gewyrnon could manipulate disease and spread a plague with his bare hands. The witches had long memories and remembered the last time he had wreaked havoc with his powers. His counterpart was just as dangerous. Ittshare could sculpt ice without so much as blinking. His hair was spiked with frost and I could feel the icy chill emanating from his skin from here.

“How so?” Ittshare interjected. “The Evunin realm may be a frozen wasteland now, but the bodies crystallized in my ice were not just those who would not bend, but rebels, as well. If she is of Kaden and she is against us, she will be seen as a weapon to dethrone you. Just as they saw with Unir.”

Nismera rubbed a hand under her chin, glancing at the others in the room. “She is Ig’Morruthen. No one, not even the Most High, would follow her.”

“The God King and his son may be dead, but she could be a beacon of hope no matter how violent. They do not need to follow her as long as she opposes you,” Ittshare said.

Nismera’s eyes bore into each one of them, and I held my pendant a fraction tighter.

“Very well. It will be taken care of,” Nismera said decisively. She stood, and that was that.

Vincent stepped back, and the others stepped forward. Nismera didn’t mention anything else of Dianna as she stood over her map of the realms.

My mind reeled. Rebels? Against Nismera and mention of the Most High? Who was that, and why did it give her pause? I listened as they spoke, but there was no more mention of rebels or the Most High. She only talked of places she wished to secure next, food for the palace and troops, and how to cut off supplies to certain areas. A messenger entered, telling her of a shipment heading her way in a few days.

The room shifted at last, and everyone started clearing out. I stuck to the corner of the room, waiting until every last one was gone before I moved toward the table. Checking one last time to make sure no one remained, I tried and failed to make the map move.

“Come on,” I whispered, and yet nothing. My magic hit a brick wall and bounced back into me. It remained just a cold, empty stone slab with indentations and scratches.

Shaking my head, I moved around the table, looking for anything I could use, a torn piece of paper, an item left behind, but there was nothing. I bent and checked under the table, but even the floor was scrubbed clean. I cursed and stood, my gasp cutting off when a large armored hand wrapped around my throat.

My back slammed against the unyielding stone of the table, his devastating grip unyielding. He forced himself between my legs and pressed his weight against me.

“What the fuck are you doing in here?” Vincent hissed.

The scales from his armored gauntlet cracked the pendant between my breasts. Magic flickered and crackled until it spluttered out. Cool air rippled over me as my form solidified. With his arm pressed between my breasts and his hips spreading my thighs, I struggled to ignore the brief flash of heat that burned deep in my belly. I shook my head. What was wrong with me? Holy burning gods.

“How did you know I was here?”

“I smelled haughty witch the second you walked in here. You’re lucky they didn’t,” he hissed in a whisper, and I realized even with the brute fucking force he was using, he wasn’t yelling or alerting anyone.

My hand wrapped around his wrist, and a soft emerald glow formed.

“Let go of me, or I’ll melt your cock off.”

A corner of his lips twitched, but he stood up and glanced at the open door before saying, “Do it. You’ll only be doing me a favor. Maybe she would leave me alone for a day.”

I rubbed my throat and looked down at my pendant. I grabbed it. “You broke this.”

“You’re a witch. Fix it,” he said, shrugging his massive shoulders.

He moved away from me and closed the door as I did just that.

“Why do you say I am a witch like it is a curse?”

“Isn’t it?”

I glared at him as the pendant in my hand slowly mended. “No.”

“They use you for your power, not caring what or who you are. They don’t care what your favorite food is or if you sleep with a light on for comfort in a strange new world. No one will ask about your dreams or your greatest fears. You are nothing but power to anyone here. Sounds like a curse to me.”

My head reared back, and I paused. Why would any of that matter to him? “Are we talking about me or you?”

Vincent glared at me. “What was your plan, anyway? Even if you eavesdrop and find whatever information you think you need, you’ll never escape this place. No one escapes Nismera.”

“Maybe no one has ever tried hard enough,” I said, folding my arms.

A haunted look flickered across Vincent’s features, disappearing as quickly as it came. We didn’t have the relationship, nor did I care enough to ask what it meant.

“Come on,” he said, tipping his head toward the door. “We’re leaving.”

“No,” I said. “I’m still looking.”

Vincent stalked toward me with the grace of a predator and gripped my arm. “That wasn’t a request.”

He pulled me to the door. After making sure it was clear, he opened it and tugged me into the hall.

I pulled against his hold, not liking the sparks that danced through me from his touch. “Stop dragging me around like a brute, would you?”

“I will when you start listening to me and go where I ask,” he said without even looking at me. I knew he hated this. Nismera had thrust us together the second we got here. I couldn’t even piss without Vincent or some other guard being in earshot. I was trapped here in more ways than one, and gods above, I refused to be treated like a barely tolerated pet.

“When you ask me nicely and not order me around like I am beneath you, I will,” I snapped back. His grip eased, but he didn’t let me go. “Where are we going, anyway?”

“To get you food,” he said, the guards we passed bending their heads to Vincent.

“Food?”

“Yes.” This time, he did glance at me over his shoulder. “You haven’t eaten today.”

My brows furrowed. “And how would you know that?”

He let me go near a dining hall, voices clamoring from within. “Because I am your guard, remember? And I haven’t escorted you today.”

Fair, but the way he said it had my magic standing at attention. Not in fear or an attempt to protect me, but in a whisper, almost a purr. I mentally slapped it. Stop that. He was a traitor, a betrayer. He’d do the same to us.

“Okay.”

Vincent opened the door, and the voices within died when they saw him. A few beings grabbed their trays and scurried out. Those that remained kept their heads down and their voices low, avoiding eye contact with him. I saw Vincent tense, but he said nothing. Maybe he didn’t like the negative attention, but it was his own damn fault. I didn’t feel bad for him, not for a second.

He held out his arm, inviting me to proceed with him. Varying beings mixed and mashed a plethora of food, but none was familiar to me.

I took a step forward and paused. “I don’t know what to get.”

“What do you like?” he asked.

“Eggs?” I shrugged. “It’s early, so breakfast.”

“Go sit down. I’ll be right back,” he said before leaving me alone in the center of the room. I swallowed the growing lump in my throat and found an empty table. I wrapped the silk skirt around my legs and took a seat. Eyes darted between Vincent, me, and then back, but nobody said anything, not even a whisper. A cook with three horns seemed uneasy just to be here, so much so that he discarded his apron and left. I wondered if they feared Nismera would not be far behind her precious second in command.

Vincent approached and slammed plates down on the table, the sound making me jump. He sat, and I blinked at the large pile of food in front of me, a mix of greens and what looked like orange eggs.

“Sorry, not scrambled. They are hard-boiled. I’m afraid it’s the closest you’ll get in this realm,” Vincent said. He reached for a glass in front of him, the clear, shimmering liquid dancing as he raised it to his lips and took a drink. He then slid it toward me, and I made a face.

“I have two arms. I can only carry so much.”

“Yeah, but I don’t know where your mouth has been,” I said. “Actually, yes, I do, so no, thanks.”

His eyes darkened. “I promise it hasn’t been anywhere your mind is thinking this morning. You’re safe.”

“With you?” I scoffed. “Doubtful.”

“If you’re so worried about my mouth and where it’s been, just drink from the other side.”

Heat flashed across my face. “I’m not!”

His brow only rose as he turned from me, grabbing utensils for his food. “You’re the one that brought it up.”

My lips quirked, and I sighed. “Fine.” I took the glass and drank from the other side.

I made a noise when the liquid touched my lips. “It tastes like orange juice.”

Vincent grunted as he went about cutting the food on his plate and eating.

“So why did everyone scurry away from you? I figured you’d be labeled a hero for what you did to The Hand and Samkiel.”

His fork stilled halfway between his plate and mouth, a haunted look creeping over his angular features. I watched the line of his jaw flex, and I wondered if he truly felt guilt for his betrayal. I knew a handful of killers who slept like babies after gruesome murders, yet here Vincent was, acting as if I just screamed a secret across the room.

“I am one of Nismera’s High Guards. They fear me, thinking she is only a step behind.”

“Oh,” I said and nodded. I had been right.

“And my word is also law. I could have the cook in the far right gutted tonight for how he’s staring at you, and Nismera would allow it,” he said, taking a long drink from our shared glass.

I looked up to see the tall, lean cook was doing just that. His pale skin flashed a shade of pink, and his three eyes widened before he quickly looked away.

I returned my attention to my plate. “Please do not gut someone for looking at me.”

He shrugged. “I won’t.” He leaned close for a second. “Besides, that would be half of the legion.”

I rolled my eyes at him and continued to eat.

“Since this place is practically empty, I do have a question,” Vincent said after a few moments of silence.

“Okay,” I said. “What?”

“You’re one of the strongest witches in your entire generation. Everyone knows it. So why haven’t you tried to escape yet?”

My face burned. “Is this a test? Something to take back to her?”

He shook his head. “No, just curiosity.”

I took a deep breath. To be honest, I had no reason but one. “Well, where would I go? My whole life was on Onuna. That’s gone now and has been for a while.”

Vincent only looked at me before nodding. “Fair.”

“My turn,” I quipped. “Why her?”

His posture went rigid. “Pick another question.”

“Fine. Why are you being so nice to me? I know you’re my guard and all, and I can’t even breathe without you near me, but why?”

He didn’t say anything for a moment, and I thought he would ignore me as he stabbed at his food. Then he sighed, not daring a glance at me as he said, “Because I think you feel just as alone here as I do.”

The tension in my shoulders eased because it was true. I had no one, no friends or family, nothing anymore. Our entire worlds were turned upside down, and now here we were in a strange new world with each other. He was right. I’d never felt so alone.

We sat in silence for the rest of the meal, but I couldn’t hide the fact that both of us, betrayers at our cores, seemed to bond over the silence. Maybe it meant nothing. Maybe it meant everything.