Page 34 of A Taste For Lies (The Apex Kingdom #1)

Chapter 34

ALORA

I don’t remember getting back to my room.

Maeve must have maneuvered our way out of the crowd and through the palace. I vaguely recall Eleni shouting at her—notable in its strangeness—before someone thrusts a glass into my hand. I automatically take a draw of the bitter liquid, then erupt into a coughing spasm.

When I’ve finally caught my breath, Eleni’s worried face is peering up at me. She’s kneeling in front of me as I sit slumped in one of the blue armchairs. Maeve is ensconced in the other chair, and Mei is wringing her hands in the corner.

I risk another sip of the brandy and manage to keep it down this time. I rarely drink, but this is steadying. I must have been in shock.

“I’m sorry,” I mumble. I’m not sure why.

Eleni’s eyes widen. “Are you alright?”

I open my mouth to tell her I am, but instead, to my absolute horror, a sob bursts out. She doesn’t hesitate—she wraps me in her arms as I cry in earnest for the first time since that prick in Shanterra made me into a laughingstock.

It’s all too much. Ethan. My own fractured self.

Ethan. The look on Taran’s face when he saw me in the crowd .

Ethan. Caught between two opposing worlds when I want nothing to do with either of them.

And again, Ethan. Will his family ever learn what happened to him? Or will the letters just stop coming?

It takes me longer than I’d like, but I manage to reel in the emotion and pull myself back together. I wipe my face with the clean towel Mei hands me, her face stricken.

Certainly a crying jag is out of character for a notorious spy and thief. But letting go of the dam seems to have helped. I take a deep breath and, holding one of Eleni’s slender hands tightly, ask Mei to please give us a moment.

Hurt stains her dark eyes, and I’m sorry for it, but I need to tell Eleni the truth of my past, and I can’t do it in front of her.

Rule Number One: Trust in the Guild. And no one else.

“You can wait in my room,” Maeve offers. “Astrid will be along shortly, I’m sure.”

As soon as Mei’s gone, I recount everything that’s happened since Eleni left me last night, leaving nothing out. She stiffens and gasps and covers her mouth but remains, by and large, silent throughout, still clutching my hand.

And when I’ve finished choking out the entire story, my throat closing over, she rises to standing and envelops me in another hug. More tears streak down my face, and I wipe them away angrily. “I understand if you don’t want to be around me anymore."

She pulls back abruptly. “What are you saying? You’re my sister , Alora. In all the ways that count. I wouldn’t care if you transformed into a real, live lynx with pointed teeth and claws.”

“She won’t,” Maeve assures us. “I’ve been surrounded by Apex my entire life, trust me.” There’s something comforting in her no-nonsense, brisk manner in the face of all of this uncertainty.

I smooth a hand through my mussed hair. “But I could go feral. And hurt you. If I even want to, if I’m even able to get my connection to my creature back, it will be a torn, damaged thing.” My jaw clenches. “When a sweet soul like Ethan can go feral, it means it can happen to anyone. Especially someone with a broken connection.”

“Now you listen to me.” Eleni grabs my face in both hands, staring into my eyes with a fierce look. “You and I are family. We had each other when we had no one else, and I’m not letting anything get in the way of that.”

I shudder, pulling out of her grasp and looking away. “You didn’t see it, Eleni. His humanity was lost. He wasn’t even remotely present. He looked like a restrained wild animal.”

Her eyes soften, empathy settling into her features. “A mercy to have it end then.”

My head snaps up as her words register. A mercy. The only one Taran could give him by that point. A swift death.

For the first time, I am able to separate this horrible event from my own selfish worries and personal trauma to think about how the prince experienced it.

I catch Maeve’s gaze. She nods imperceptibly. I know you think you know him, but you don’t.

“How can he stand it?” I murmur. She knows what I mean. How can he serve as the figurehead for this reprehensible thing? How can he keep executing his own kind? For eight long years.

“He bears it because he must,” she replies simply. “Because it’s the only way to stay in the fight.” She leans towards me, her tone even. “And it’s why I must ask you again to help us. Every time he has to do this, I watch another piece of his soul chip away. I’m asking—” She chokes off. “No, I’m begging you. Help me save him before there’s nothing left.”

The wall of my sitting room swings open.

“Someone’s ears were burning,” Maeve mutters, but the prince only has eyes for me. He strides directly to my side, and Eleni jumps up, scurrying to Mei’s former spot by the wall. To my utter shock, he drops to his knees before me, grasping my hand in both of his large ones. His face is wiped clean, but his military uniform is stained from the pelted fruit.

“I’m so sorry you had to witness that,” he breathes.

My mouth pops open. “You’re apologizing to me?”

His silver eyes are shadowed with what might be self-loathing. “You only just learned you’re Apex, and you had to see one go feral. And watch me execute him in cold blood.” He bows his head, wavy dark locks falling, covering his face. “If you no longer feel safe in my presence and want to leave Veridia, I understand.”

Maeve makes an exasperated sound in the back of her throat.

I cut her a pointed look. “Maeve, Eleni, could you give us the room, please?”

“Where are we supposed to go?” Maeve protests, spreading her hands. “Mei is in my chambers.”

Eleni grabs her hand and shuffles her awkwardly to my bedroom. “Take all the time you need,” she assures us.

At the same time, Maeve snaps, “You have two minutes.”

It’s enough to quirk my lips, but Taran doesn’t react. His face remains downcast.

I reach out with my free hand, lifting his chin until his eyes meet mine. A sharp breath escapes me at the sorrow that blankets his face.

“It’s not your fault,” I whisper.

Taran barks a short, mirthless laugh, and it’s horrible. “Then whose is it? I’m the one who just removed an innocent sixteen-year-old’s head from his body.” I swallow a lump in my throat, and his hands tighten on mine. “You need to leave, Alora. You and Eleni. Get out of here while you still can, while you still—”

And all the rest of the numbness that’s enveloped me since yesterday evaporates like steam. I lift my chin. “I didn’t know any Apex before I came here. I believed the stories we were told.” I shake my head. “I don’t know if I’ll ever find my creature again. I don’t know if I want to. But I know it’s not right that the Elite control the Apex. And that’s not even taking into consideration the amulet.” The words come out defiant, sure. Perhaps the king really did love the former queen. Maybe this misbegotten crusade is all to avenge the woman who was taken from him. But that doesn't make it right. All of my earlier malaise has left, leaving resolve in its wake. “I’m not leaving. We made a deal. You held up your end, now I’m going to hold up mine.”

“I release you from our bargain,” he insists. “Please leave, please . I can’t—” He shakes his head.

“Can’t what?” My voice is barely audible.

Silver-gray hunter eyes meet mine, and the anguish in them takes my breath away. “I can’t let anything happen to you. Not again, not after…”

Oh, oh . After first his mother, then his friend—possibly lover—were killed.

“Nothing’s going to happen to me.”

“You don’t know that. You can’t know that.” He drops my hand and starts to stand, but I stop him with a hand on his cheek. He freezes at the touch.

“Taran,” I murmur. He shudders, a full-body shake that travels all the way down his large frame.

One of his hands reaches out and smooths my hair back from my face, gentle beyond what should be possible for this enormous male. His eyes, shining faintly with that predator glow, search mine for a long, silent moment. “I like it when you call me that.”

“Better than ‘Your Highness?’” I tease, but my heart is pounding, that invisible tether pulling tighter and tighter with every breath.

His eyes darken. “In certain instances, I could grow used to that, too. But I prefer it when you use my name.” And in that moment, I know, down in my bones, that I’ll never refer to him as the beast prince ever again. Almost tentatively, his hand reaches under the heavy curtain of my hair and cups the back of my head. He hesitates, then asks, “May I call you Alora?”

The sound of my true name on his lips when he’s looking at me like that—the room suddenly feels stifling. I clench my thighs together against the pooling heat, hoping he won’t notice my body’s reaction. But his nostrils flare, and I know there’s no hope of that.

“Yes,” I answer—anything to break the cloying tension.

That beautiful smile takes over his whole face.

“I’m not leaving,” I say again .

“Alora,” he says, like he’s tasting the sound of my name on his tongue and deciding how it feels. “Last night, when you asked me whether I thought this connection between us was something other than the linking—”

“So is she staying or not?” Maeve’s strident tone cuts through the air, and we pull away from each other self-consciously. I catch Eleni’s wide-eyed stare just beyond Maeve.

My cheeks heat. “Staying.”

Maeve releases a breath. “Good. Good. Then we need to plan our next steps.”

Before Taran can protest again, I say, “Maeve said you think you sensed the amulet.”

He frowns, leaning back into a seated position on my rug. “Yes. Near the old throne room. It was faint but…unmistakable.”

“How do you know what the amulet smells like?” Eleni asks frankly. “Have you ever seen it?”

“Once,” Taran replies, which fires up my curiosity, especially since the king and Lord Winters believe he knows nothing about it, but his tone warns us not to interrogate any further.

Rule Number Six: Plan thoroughly, act swiftly.

I jump up and begin pacing. “I need to start surveillance. I need to see for myself inside that room to learn what we’re dealing with in terms of security and begin to make a plan. No point in robbing the manor if there’s no coin in the safe. But we can’t tip anyone off, or they’ll only make it even harder to get in.” I turn to Maeve. “Is there something coming up? Some kind of social event for the court when I could slip in there unnoticed?”

Taran rises to standing and stops me with a hand on my arm. “I don’t want you anywhere near the amulet—I’ll do it.”

“You don’t need to worry about that anymore,” I remind him. “I suppose there’s one silver lining to my heritage; the amulet can’t force me to emerge.” The rest of the words get caught in my throat—the reason the amulet can’t hurt me is because I already emerged as Apex. It doesn’t feel real yet. It feels like something I can ignore and it will go away. The ache in my chest pangs as if to dispel my foolish state of denial.

“There’s a hunt day for the lords and ladies in three days’ time,” Maeve cuts in. “If Taran said he was going, Victoria would go, which means Lord Winters would likely attend too to ensure he doesn’t get too close to her.”

“No,” Taran growls.

Eleni tilts her head. “Alora may not be able to get into the room anyway.” We all turn and stare at her, and her cheeks pink. “I mean, there’s probably some kind of lock on the door that requires a key signature.”

I slap my forehead. “Gods, I’m an idiot. You’re absolutely right, Eleni. There must be some kind of ward dampening the scent if you’ve never noticed it before.”

Taran clears his throat. “That’s likely true, but that’s not why I didn’t realize it was in that room.”

My and Eleni’s brows furrow in unison.

“His mother died in that room,” Maeve tells us in a soft voice. My face slackens.

Taran releases a sigh. “I don’t go into that wing. Ever. For obvious reasons. Looking back now, it makes sense—that room would be an ideal place to hide the amulet, but—” He shakes his head. “I allowed my emotions about the…event to cloud my judgement.” His tone is measured, careful not to reveal too much.

I school my expression, not letting any trace of pity show. “Then it’s time.”

“Time for what?” Maeve asks.

Now it’s my turn to sigh. “Time to ask the damn key master for his help.”