Page 72

Chapter

Sixty-Nine

W hen she woke, her lips were swollen, and Lessia smiled as she brought her fingers to them.

Rolling over, she found that Loche had already left.

A quick glance out the window confirmed it was still early, but she jumped out of bed, slipping out of the dress and gloves and pulling on her usual tunic and breeches.

Lessia whistled to herself while she got ready, excitement whispering over her skin at how she’d tell Kalia and Amalise how everything had changed.

After pulling her hair back with a comb, she swung open the door to Merrick’s room.

His room was empty, the bed made.

When she peeked into his bathing chamber, she found it empty as well, and a frown replaced her smile.

Where had he taken off to?

If the king was coming today, he’d surely want to meet with them together.

The thought of the king had her skin tingle .

But not with fear.

No, she’d done what he asked of her, and he’d promised her her freedom.

She would be free today.

She sucked in a breath at the thought.

Walking into her own room again, she picked up the daggers from her dresser—she’d found no way to keep them on her while wearing the dress—and left the room.

Lessia smiled at the guards lining the walls outside her room, and while a few raised their brows, most grinned back at her as she made her way to the staircase.

“Lessia!”

She turned around at the top of the stairs, offering Zaddock, who rushed to her side, a smile as well.

“Did you hear?” Zaddock grinned from ear to ear.

She shook her head. “Hear what?”

“He won!” Zaddock nearly bounced from excitement. “He won again!”

She didn’t think she could be happier than she was right now, but more warmth spread in her chest as Zaddock shifted his weight from foot to foot like a child eager to go play.

“I need to tell our men, but you should go to his study. It’s on the floor below this one. He’ll want you there when it’s announced.” Zaddock waved to her before he sprinted down the stairs.

Lessia didn’t hesitate as she took several steps at a time down to the second floor, laughing to herself when she nearly fell in her eagerness to get there.

She asked a guard which door was his, and when he pointed it out, she forced herself not to run over. Still, her strides took her there in a few seconds, and she let her lips lift into a wide smile as she opened the door.

“Loche! I just heard! ”

She started toward him where he leaned on his desk, but her muscles locked when she realized he wasn’t alone, and the expression on his face wasn’t happiness, but shock and betrayal.

Lessia’s legs nearly buckled when she glimpsed her father, clad in the emerald uniform of the Fae guard and with an unreadable expression on his face. And beside him…

King Rioner.

Her uncle.

His features were darker than her father’s, the hair that tumbled down his expensive purple robe more brown than golden, but there was no mistaking they were related.

King Rioner’s eyes remained averted, fixed on a spot on the purple rug beneath him, but she knew they carried the same amber hue as her own—as her father’s.

While her father had kept her and Frelina hidden from his brother, he’d told them everything of the king who would stop at nothing to hurt them if he found they existed.

Her gaze shifted back to Loche.

He didn’t seek her eyes, and her stomach surged when he took a step toward King Rioner, placing the wooden desk between them.

“Loche…” Lessia pleaded. “I can explain. I don’t know what he’s told you, but—”

“Enough!” King Rioner’s voice rumbled through the room, the command surging through the oath tethering them together, and her lips snapped shut.

But when the king placed a hand on Loche’s shoulder, Lessia’s lips curled back in a silent snarl.

She couldn’t stand this male touching him.

Loche was too good to be anywhere near him.

King Rioner let out a humorless laugh. “Behave, Lessia. I know even halflings can act civilized when you want to.”

Her ears buzzed, and she went to take a step closer when an invisible rope stopped her, freezing her body with one foot in the air.

“That’s better.” The king smirked. “Now, where were we? Ah, yes! So, Loche, as I was saying, you have my sincerest apologies for nestling a spy into your midst. I am sure you can understand I needed to protect my people. But as soon as I realized it was one of my own who was the cause for the troubles in Vastala—like one of your own was the cause here in Ellow—I came straight here.”

The pull on the oath softened, and when Lessia could set down her foot, her eyes snapped to her father.

His jaw twitched as he briefly met her eyes before shifting them back to his brother.

Loche’s gaze moved her way as well, but as she desperately tried to get him to look at her, he locked down any emotion on his face and turned to the king again.

“Bringing her into this was an act of war, Your Majesty. I am sure you can understand I need to protect my people as well. As for Merrick, it might have been unbeknownst to you that he conspired with the people attacking us, but he is still one of your men, and you need to be held accountable.”

Lessia let out a sharp breath. “M… Merrick?”

Loche pursued his mouth, but the king didn’t move a muscle, his tone bored as he responded. “My dear Death Whisperer seemed to have whispered in more ears than mine. He was found trying to break out the two traitors last night.”

She shook her head as King Rioner continued.

“Loche, I am sure we can come to an agreement that won’t lead to bloodshed.

I did ask my spy to see what you knew of the situation, but I didn’t ask her to compel you to fall for her.

That was all her doing. I merely needed to understand if war was brewing again. ”

“No! Loche, I didn’t—” she started, but King Rioner closed his hand into a fist, and her voice drifted away.

Pushing against the blood oath, she tried to will Loche to look at her.

When he finally did, she held on to the small flash of pain in his eyes at seeing her gasp for air. Her eyes begged him to understand, pleaded with him to see that she had done everything she could to circumvent the king’s orders.

Loche closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again, determination blazed in them. “I knew there was something you weren’t telling me.”

Her mouth opened and closed, but the oath was too strong, and moisture lined her eyes at the little air making its way down her lungs.

“I need her to be able to speak,” Loche snarled at her king.

The fingers around her throat softened, and Lessia sucked in a breath. “I’m… I’m so sorry. I—I couldn’t,” she stammered.

His eyes bounced between hers, the dark swirls in them blazing, before he turned to the king once more.

“I will forgive this misstep if you free her and leave her in Ellow. I’ll figure out a suitable punishment.

Based on what my men are telling me, I don’t think these attacks are over, and we need to stand united against what’s to come. ”

“You’re not living up to your ruthless reputation, regent.” King Rioner laughed. “Will you allow a female—a halfling at that—to compel your love? Will she stay and rule with you? Whatever will your people say?”

“She hasn’t used her magic on me, king ,” Loche snarled. “I think you should worry more about what your people will say about your right-hand man betraying you.”

Ice filled her veins, and her hands started shaking by her sides as the king let out another dark chuckle. “Oh, Loche. She has. See, that’s why I brought my dear brother. His special gift allows him to undo any magic performed on someone. Alarin?”

No.

Loche’s eyes slammed into hers when her father stepped forward, and the air filled with the soft humming of magic.

She wanted to look away.

Didn’t want to see when he remembered what she’d done to him.

But she couldn’t.

She saw the exact moment her magic released its grip.

Loche’s knuckles whitened as he gripped the edge of the table, and he let out a loud huff when the memories she’d compelled away replaced the fake ones she’d given him.

Bile rose in her throat when the small flicker of care in his eyes vanished, the glittering gray shifting in the blackest of loathing.

“You…” Loche clenched his jaw, tearing his eyes away.

King Rioner grinned where he stood, his chiseled face bent down, but her father winced at the devastation that must be written all over her face.

“Loche…” Lessia took a hesitant step forward. “Please, let me explain.”

Her bottom lip trembled as she reached out for him, but he shoved her hand away.

“Take them away,” he snarled.

“W—what?” Lessia tried to reach out for him again, but he pushed off the table and backed away from her.

“I said. Take. Them. Away. Take my feelings away. Take every memory of us. I only want to remember you as the spy who snaked her way into our election. Nothing else.” Loche’s hands balled into fists as he glared at her.

“No.” She shook her head. “No, please, Loche. It was all real! Just let me explain. ”

His glare shifted to her king. “You can make her do it, can’t you? Make her do it, and there will be no war between Ellow and Vastala.”

“No!” Lessia fell to her knees. “Please!”

King Rioner’s teeth glinted in the light from the fireplace. “As you wish.”

He turned toward her, careful to keep his gaze somewhere on her leather boots. “Elessia, I order you to remove his memories of you, to remove the feelings he harbors for you.”

Invisible tethers wrapped around her, trying to force her upright, but she struggled against them, pushed against the oath burning on her arm.

“Don’t make me do this. D-d-don’t… Please! No!”

Something warm dripped down her face, and when she wiped at it, her sleeve came back red.

Light flickered before her eyes as she fought with everything in her, but as blood continued to gush out of her nose, another tug forced her to stand.

Her feet took a step toward Loche.

Then another.

Loche’s dark eyes fixed on hers, unwavering, unforgiving, as she closed the distance between them.

“Please,” she whispered as she felt magic build behind her eyes. “Please, Loche. I…” She sucked in a breath and forced herself to tell him. “I think… I think I’m falling in love with you.”

Loche didn’t flinch.

His gaze sliced to her king again. “I thought you had her on a tighter leash.”

King Rioner snorted. “It’s done.”

It felt like she was dying.

And she wished she was when the familiar warmth of magic filled her veins, when she opened her mouth with eyes locked on Loche’s glazed ones and heard herself utter the words “Forget me. Forget every moment we had alone. Forget you ever felt anything for me. You will only remember me as the spy, the traitor that tried to ruin your election.”

When the oath finally released its grip, her knees buckled, and a broken sob left her as Loche’s eyes cleared and only mild disdain clouded the gray as he watched her.

Loche stepped over her broken body, his lip curling with disgust when she whimpered his name.

“I will keep my promise. There will be no war between Ellow and Vastala over the spy. But you…” He pointed at her, his eyes empty when they collided with her tear-filled ones. “You are hereby banished from Ellow. If you ever step foot here again, I will personally hunt you down and kill you.”

Every word stabbed at her heart like a dagger, and she could barely see through the haze of tears as King Rioner stepped up to stand beside him.

“I made a promise to you, Elessia. You are hereby free of the blood oath. But you are also banished from Vastala, and I have informed my men that if they see you entering our waters, you are to be taken out immediately.”

Screaming at the fiery pain slicing through her arm, she pulled at her sleeve. The only thing that remained of the tattoo was blistered, angry skin, and a whimper left her as she wrapped a hand around it.

A freeing emptiness filled her to her core, and Lessia huffed a breath when the last traces of the oath left her veins.

“Leave,” Loche ordered, his gaze pinned somewhere above her body on the floor.

“Loche…” she pleaded.

“You heard the regent,” the king hissed. “Leave now, and your life will be spared.”

Sobs racked her body as she clumsily got to her feet, and she stumbled her way to the door, wondering if death wasn’t preferable to the pain that burned through her, that seemed to seep into every pore.

She lingered by the door, turning her head over her shoulder, harboring a small hope that Loche would look at her again, but his back remained turned, and she caught only her father’s sorrow-filled eyes before the door slammed shut.