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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

C ALLING DAMIEN INTO MY DREAM was as easy as breathing. Whatever connection he had formed between our minds was second nature now. I smirked down at him from his precious golden throne when he appeared, kneeling on the floor of the throne room.

“I knew you would be tempted.” Damien’s magic eye flared as he pushed himself off the marble floor. He pulled on the bottom of his waistcoat so it sat straight across his hip.

I snarled at him and used my control over the dream to set the throne aflame. I stayed in the seat as the gold started to drip onto the floor. “I’ve come to propose a trade.”

Damien scoffed. He tucked his hands behind his back though he didn’t hide his surprise quite enough. “You have nothing that interests me.”

“I don’t?” I raised a brow. “How disappointed Kairn will be that his master thinks so little of him.”

Damien’s eye narrowed by a fraction. A hairline wrinkle appeared between his brows but it disappeared as he adjusted the circlet that appeared on his head. “Blades are useful but they can always be replaced .” He emphasized the last word as he scowled up at me. “Why walk through a battle to collect a new weapon when I have my choice of blacksmiths here in the capital?” His tone was cool and collected, but I recognized it for the mask it was.

“You may forge new Blades at will, but you can’t forge new pendants, can you?” I waved my hand and Kairn’s pendant was conjured along the front of my leathers. I twisted on the throne so both my legs were folded over one armrest, completely encased in the burning flames.

Damien’s lip curled. “If you know what it does, then I doubt I have anything that could tempt you to part with it.”

I pulled one of my smaller blades from my belt and scraped the molten gold from the back of the throne. Damien flinched.

“Now, Damien,” I said in my best imitation of his condescending tone. “You are too smart to think that’s true.” I waved my arm out to the room in front of us. “I pulled you into this dream for a reason. And it wasn’t just to see that scar on your face.”

Damien traced a finger down the scar Gwyn had given him. “Tell Gwyn I send my regards. I’m looking forward to seeing her again.”

My bones turned to ice. I took a deep breath and reminded myself that Gwyn was safe in the Faelinth with me. Damien couldn’t reach her. I lifted my chin in his direction, toying with my knife. “She certainly has improved from the horrific state you left her in.” Bile coated my tongue as I remembered Gwyn’s gaping wounds, but I didn’t let my disgust show.

The amber pupil of Damien’s black eye flared at my lack of a reaction. “I’ll make sure to enjoy her death even more the second time.” Damien’s lip quivered in anticipation. “Perhaps, I’ll have you watch.”

I flung the knife into Damien’s shoulder. He lurched from the force, but there was no pain. It was his dream as much as it was mine.

“We will give you Kairn and his precious pendant in exchange for Nikolai.” I gritted my teeth as Damien yanked out the knife and stanched the bleeding with a handkerchief from his breast pocket.

“Who?” Damien fluttered his lashes like a lady at court.

I rolled my eyes. “The Elf you stole from us. Do we have a deal or not?”

Damien took a step forward and shrugged. “I hung an Elf along the wall by that name. We do not let traitors live long in the capital, especially not ones who are trying to kill me.”

I kept my face still. Damien was trying to bait me, to see if I would reveal how much information I knew. The truth was I didn’t know anything about Nikolai. I only knew Damien. And he would have made sure that Nikolai’s death had been whispered about in the farthest reaches of the kingdom. It would have been brutal and public, as much a punishment for me and Riven as it was for Nik.

“We have ways of knowing when one of our soldiers is killed.” I shot Damien a hard look, rising from the molten throne to stand over him. “You know Nikolai is alive just as well as we do.”

Damien’s jaw fettered from side to side. “How do I know you will return the pendant?”

“You don’t.” Damien was too clever to assume that we would give the pendant over so easily, but I knew he might be desperate enough to try anyway. And that was all I needed.

Damien’s lips thinned but he nodded. “When?”

“Full moon,” I answered. It was three days away but with the shirak around, I preferred to work under as much moonlight as possible.

Damien pulled at his sleeves. “Or I could extend a peace treaty for the night and you can send your rebels to the palace to make the trade.”

“Absolutely not.”

I flicked my ring finger with my thumb. The location had to be a place that didn’t give Damien a heavy advantage but one he would still agree to.

“The edge of the Dead Wood outside Koratha.” I stepped from the dais and the chair turned to ash behind me. “Let me make myself clear.” I took another step. I was standing so close to Damien, the heat of his breath landed on my chin. “If Nikolai or any of my people are injured during this transaction, I will wreak havoc on your city until I find you quivering in the palace, and then I will fillet you alive.”

Damien rolled his eyes. “No need for dramatics. Give me my pendant and you can have your precious Elf back. With no other injuries than the ones he’s already sustained.” Damien took the knife I had embedded in his shoulder and slowly grazed it down his throat to the middle of his chest. I didn’t know if it was a threat or a reenactment of what he had done to Nikolai, but he plunged the hilt of the knife through his chest and the dream ended.