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Another text appeared to come several hours later.

Sir. They are not here. They have gone.

Lerris’s scream of frustration over not finding Gemma or Melissima rivaled that of his scream of pain. Relief filled me enough that I pulled out of his mind, but added a million more fire ants.

Noise from the spot where we had the mages and vampires tied up pulled my attention away from Lerris. Drak, Maxar, and I wandered over to find the mages and vampires stirring.

I glanced at Drak. “You ready?”

The look in his eyes as he stared at his cousin caught me off guard. It was more emotion than I’d ever seen from Drak before. The pain in his eyes, the betrayal. The anger. It was all right there. All bubbling hot and frothy on the surface.

I laced my fingers through his. “You’ve got this.”

He didn’t look at me, but he squeezed my hand in return. “No, I don’t. But I have to do it anyway.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Omaera

“Y-Your Majesty?” Anysa stammered as she found her voice and the ability to move her mouth again. She stared up at me, confusion swimming in her sapphire eyes. “Wh-why?”

I didn’t say anything. It wasn’t my turn yet.

Drak stepped forward as his cousin regained his motor skills and voice, anger burning in the Vampire King’s glare. “You betrayed me,” Drak said, his voice nearly breaking, but not quite.

Howar glowered at Drak. “You’ve let your mate sully your opinion of me, cousin. I would never.”

“Nobody knew we were heading to Hell. Nobody knew we needed a portal. I called you and asked for a portal location. You gave me one, and it was an ambush. You wanted me dead.” He glanced back at Zandren and Maxar, then finally at me. “You wanted us all dead. Then you sent the coordinates of Melissima’s cottage to Lerris, and he sent Phaceanesh mercenaries there to kill the mage and the human.”

With a derisive scoff, Howar snagged Raver’s eye. “Are you believing this?”

Drak pivoted to face Raver. “I asked you not to tell Howar where Gemma was located. I suspected him of treason. And yet, you went ahead and did it anyway.”

I’m not sure if Drak saw it too, but I certainly saw it in Raver’s dark-blue eyes—a flash of sadness? Pain, maybe? Or was it something else? Either way, it was there and gone. But it did give me pause for a moment. Like maybe Raver wasn’t the treasonous bastard we thought he was. Unlike all the other vampires who had dark hair, Raver’s was a dark blond. I would have to ask Drak of Raver’s lineage one day when the sting of betrayal wasn’t so fresh.

“Of course he did,” Howar said. “I’m his king. His oath, his loyalty, are tome.”

“Actually, his oath and loyalty are tome,” I chimed in. “I outrank you, Howar. As hard as you might try to behave otherwise.” Turning toward the blood cage where a semi-conscious Lerris was slowly having his powers sucked out of him, I smirked. “You conspired with my uncle to usurp my throne.”

“You what?” Anysa breathed.

Interesting.

This was all news to Anysa. Maybe she wasn’t in on it with Howar and Lerris. Maybe she would support my reign after all. Or, she was playing us like the rest of them, and just a better actor.

“I’m guessing Lerris wasn’t aware of yourotherplan though, hmm?”

Howar’s nostrils flared.

“That once I was taken care of, you were going to overthrow Lerris and take the throne for yourself.” This was all merely speculation, but judging by the way Howar’s face went ruddy and his eyes turned even more lethal, we all knew I hit the nail on the head. I could also tell when someone was lying, and there was no deception left on Howar’s face.

“You bastard!” Lerris tried to holler from his cage.

“Who?” I asked. “Me? Or him?”

Maxar chuckled behind me.

“Did you know any of this was happening?” I asked, directing my line of questioning to Anysa. “Did you know that Howar was threatening a challenge if I didn’t meet with you guys? And that he conspired with Lerris to take my throne?”