Page 52

Chapter

Fifty-One

A fter pulling Merrick aside and holding a hushed conversation Lessia couldn’t make out, the king disappeared as quickly as he’d come, leaving a freezing drizzle washing over them in his wake.

Spinning on his heel, Merrick stormed toward the castle, and Lessia stumbled after him, her limbs numb from the cold.

“Merrick,” she got out through shivering teeth as they neared the dimly lit town. “Merrick, wait.”

The Fae halted so fast she smacked into his rigid back, and Merrick had to catch her once more when she slipped on the snow-covered cliffs.

Lessia tried to back up when he trembled from barely restrained anger, but he didn’t release the strong grip on her arm, forcing her close to his side.

“You need to give the king the respect he demands,” Merrick hissed under his dark hood. “It’s not that difficult, Lessia. You bow, you don’t talk back, and you follow the orders he gives you.”

She ground her teeth, trying to keep her voice steady. “But he is wrong, Merrick. Loche has nothing to do with this. You must see it too. He is a good regent. He doesn’t deserve this!”

“A good regent?” Merrick snarled. “Tell me, was he not regent the past five years you lived here? How was that life, Lessia? I’ve seen how these humans look at you. How they talk to you.”

She shifted her eyes down and fixed them on Merrick’s black boots. “He didn’t know. He promised me it’ll be better if he wins this time. He’d make sure me and my…” She snapped her mouth shut as icy fear gripped her heart.

While Merrick had protected her back there, he had still told the king she wasn’t doing everything in her power to figure out what Loche knew. And she couldn’t risk those children more than she already had with Loche now knowing of them.

She cleared her throat. “He promised that those like me would be welcome here, that we won’t be disrespected anymore, and that we’ll be able to live like any other resident of Ellow.”

Merrick threw his head back with a growl, his grip on her arm tightening.

“You’re making excuses for him! Exactly like you did for me!

When will you understand that this world is ruled by power-hungry, evil, and ruthless males who should not be forgiven?

All Havlands is full of them. Making excuses won’t change that! ”

Glaring at him, she growled right back, “Tell me what else I can do! I won’t win this election. I have no power. I am at the mercy of the king you hold so dear, and whoever will rule Ellow. At least Loche isn’t threatening to kill me every time I see him.”

“Do you truly think Loche would let you live if he knew what you were? Why you’re really in the election?”

Her nostrils flared. “ He wouldn’t hurt me. He…”

Merrick let out a cold laugh. “He likes you? He certainly seems intrigued by you. But that man is not good, Lessia. He wouldn’t hesitate to have your head if he knew you were here to spy on him.”

Clenching her jaw, she swallowed the words threatening to burst out of her.

Merrick was wrong.

She wasn’t sure what Loche thought of her, but she couldn’t believe he’d actually have her executed if he found out about her.

At least if she found a way to tell him herself.

Tell him it wasn’t a choice she made but one she was forced into.

That she was trying to protect Ellow.

Protect him.

Merrick pulled her flush against him, his hood twitching as if he was struggling against boring his eyes into hers. “You will not find a way to tell him, Lessia. I can see you’ve softened to him, but this is not wise. You and him? It will never work.”

She’d opened her mouth to respond when commotion sounded behind them, and as she spun around, her eyes widened upon finding several black-clad figures sprinting through the streets, heading the same way they were.

“What…” she whispered, but her words cut off as Merrick pulled her behind him.

He released her and gripped his sword in one hand, the other pulling off his hood.

Unsheathing her daggers from her waistband, Lessia peeked around the stiff Merrick, watching several of the men close in on them. She widened her stance, clutching the hilts tightly, when the men faltered, one of them pulling back his hood .

A gasp escaped her when her eyes slammed into walnut ones. “Ardow?”

His rounded eyes flicked between her and Merrick before he stalked over, waving for the two other men to walk off back into the icy alley behind them.

Ignoring Merrick, Ardow reached out for her, a smile pulling at his lips when he realized both her hands were occupied by daggers.

“Look at you.” His smile widened, but it didn’t reach his eyes, and when he shifted them to Merrick, his features hardened again.

The Fae turned his back on them, moving a few steps away but not far enough that he wouldn’t hear every word they exchanged.

Slipping the daggers back into her breeches, she pulled off her hood. “What are you doing here, Ardow?”

He grinned at her again.

But there was something off about it, and her brows snapped together when he hesitated for a moment, his eyes shifting to Merrick.

“Ardow?”

He shook his head, his shoulders loosening. “There’s another attack on the castle. I was on my way to our home with a few friends ”—he wiggled his brows—“when people started screaming. I feared for you, so I was about to play white knight and come rescue you.”

His eyes moved to Merrick again. “Seems I was too late, though.”

Unease thrummed over her skin. “Did you hear anything from the castle? Did someone get hurt?”

“I don’t know. I only just heard of it.” Eyes narrowing, he swept his gaze over her. “You look like you’re one minute away from turning to ice, Lessia. What were you doing? ”

She opened her mouth, nearly choking when the blood oath constricted her throat. Ardow’s eyes trailed her hand as it flew to her neck, a flicker of recognition igniting within them.

“He’s here again?” His gaze sharpened, and he snapped it behind her as if the Fae king could somehow have been hiding there all along.

“We should get going.” Merrick closed the distance between them, shoving Ardow out of the way and nudging Lessia until she took a stiff step toward the castle. “They’ll be wondering where we are, especially if there’s been another attack.”

Turning her head over her shoulder, she mouthed “I’m sorry” when Merrick forced her to walk in front of him with one hand wrapped around her arm.

Ardow’s face remained hard, his eyes locked on the two of them until shadows veiled his features.

Torn between wanting to reassure Ardow and worrying about what they might face when they entered the castle, she hesitated, but Merrick’s grip on her arm tightened, and he made her continue the brisk walk toward the lights in the towering white castle.

“You don’t have to be so rude,” she hissed when the Fae growled at her for slowing the pace.

He stilled, then turned toward her, forcing them both to a stop.

Jaw twitching, he leaned in, his voice low but laced with such cold she shivered for a different reason than the roaring winter wind.

“You don’t seem to realize how serious tonight was, Lessia.

You are blood-sworn to follow our king’s orders, and while I have been trying to let you do it your way, it’s now out of my hands.

You will need to use that silver tongue of yours, and it will put both of us at risk, not to mention the regent you apparently hold dear. ”

Lessia swallowed, looking out over the dark sea behind him. “He didn’t say when.”

A snort escaped Merrick, and he shook his head. “Always looking on the bright side.”

Waving for her to follow him into the light of the metal lampposts lining the pathway to the castle, he continued. “You know as well as I do that it doesn’t matter. Our king will come back, and if you haven’t done it by then, he will tire of your disobedience.”

Silently cursing, she fell in step with him.

Merrick was right. There was no escaping it now.

She would only have to hope whatever she found out wouldn’t damn them all.