Page 2 of Bartered by the Shadow Prince (Bargain with the Shadow Prince #3)

Strange Bedfellows

DAMIEN

“ Y our wife?” Tamping down my murderous rage, I shift back into my corse form but remain skeptical. Married to a dark elf? It’s ludicrous. It’s impossible. He has to be a shifter or under some dark spell.

“My wife,” he confirms. He releases my arm and crosses the room to comfort the dark elf cowering near the fire.

I catch his familiar earthy scent and, with another deep inhale, his mark on her minty one as well.

My senses confirm two undeniable truths.

One, this is, in fact, Brahm, although he appears nothing like the mess of a male I left behind years ago.

And two, he is undeniably mated to a dark elf.

I am confounded by this development. Brahm’s formerly overlong hair is trimmed and properly coiffed, and the stained gray tunic he practically lived in centuries ago has been replaced by a rich, quilted burgundy jacket that buttons down the front and wraps neatly around tailored slacks.

I lift an eyebrow at the changes. Might Brahm finally be presenting himself as the prince he is?

He certainly appears far more dignified these days than he did before I was abducted.

His posture is straighter. His hair and clothing more tamed.

And there isn’t even a whiff of alcohol on his person.

Once he knows the elf is unharmed, he returns to me, and we stare at each other for a heartbeat before we both break into warm smiles.

With tears in his eyes, he pulls me into an embrace, thumping my back affectionately.

“Gods, I never thought I’d see you again,” he rasps through a tight throat.

After a long moment, he pulls back, gripping my shoulders.

Our eyes meet again, though mine are blurry with unshed tears.

“The feeling is mutual,” I say. As strained as my relationship with Brahm once was, I feel nothing but nostalgia and abject appreciation to every god in the Darklands at our reunion.

The elf woman clears her throat. “Brahm?”

He shakes himself as if only just now remembering she’s there. “Right. Please excuse my rude behavior. Damien, this is my wife, Nevina.” He glances back at the elf with her dainty, oblong features and smiles warmly. “Nevina, this is my brother, Damien.”

“Damien!” By the rising pitch of her voice, I sense she both knows who I am and that I’ve been missing for some time. Her attention darts between me and Brahm as if she’s only now noting the resemblance. “I thought he was…”

“Deceased?” Brahm fills in for her. “So did I. So did everyone!” He turns back to me with an air of expectancy. “Care to explain, brother?”

“I assure you, I’m very much alive, although my story isn’t a simple one.” With a glance at Nevina, I add, “But then, it appears the centuries have taken you on an equally interesting journey.”

“Time has a way of testing all of us.” He bites his bottom lip and shakes his head. “Won’t you introduce your guest?” Brahm extends a hand toward Eloise, who gives it a polite but bewildered shake.

It is unlike me to forget my manners, but the shock of the situation—shock after shock, if I’m honest—has me reeling. “Of course. Forgive me. This is my mate, Eloise,” I say in Aediadic. Then I shift into English. “Eloise, this is my brother, Brahm.”

“Brahm! Oh wow. Tell him it’s nice to meet him.” She smiles warmly and nods in Brahm’s direction, and I translate her words.

“She doesn’t speak our language?” A wrinkle forms across Brahm’s brow.

Nevina approaches, her nostrils flaring as she surveys Eloise. “I don’t think she’s from here, Brahm.”

Brahm releases Eloise’s hand but watches her intently. “Where did you say she was from, Damien?”

“I didn’t. But it’s true that she’s not from Stygarde.”

“ What is she?” Nevina asks.

Anyone can tell that the scrutiny is making Eloise uncomfortable. She shifts closer to me, her smile becoming more forced. I can only imagine how frightening it must be not to be able to follow the conversation. I take her hand in mine reassuringly.

“Eloise is a vampire. Vampires are creatures similar to shades on her world.”

“Her world?” Brahm tucks his chin. “It appears we have some catching up to do, indeed.” He backs up to reach behind the tapestry and ring for a servant. The round-faced woman from the foyer returns through a narrow servants’ doorway at the back of the room. “Clara, bring tea. We’ll take it here.”

Clara bows and disappears again through the little door. The moment it’s closed, it camouflages itself among the patterned wallpaper.

Brahm gestures for us to take a seat. Without thinking, I sit in the same chair I always have since I was a boy, one with a straight back of ornately carved wood and a plush seat covered in ruby velvet.

Eloise sits down beside me, in what used to be Karyl’s seat, upholstered in delicate floral silk.

For her part, Nevina returns to my mother’s chair.

I hate that she uses that chair. Surely my mother will be arriving at any moment, and she always sits in the same spot.

I bristle when Brahm sits in my father’s chair across from me instead of the upholstered one beside Eloise that was always his place. What is going on here?

I draw a deep breath into my lungs. I’ve been gone a long time.

Things change. It shouldn’t bother me as much as it does, but I shift uneasily.

It’s Nevina. A dark elf in our castle? A dark elf, a princess of Stygarde and member of the ruling class?

I never thought I’d see the day. My instincts have me on guard, despite my brother at my side.

Brahm turns over a hand. “Where have you been all this time, brother?”

Ah, where to start? The beginning, I suppose. “The day I disappeared, I was abducted, drawn through a magical portal and taken to a planet called Earth. I’ve been there ever since, the captive of a coven of witches. Only recently was I freed from the enchantment that bound me.”

Brahm licks his lips. “Thanesia bless us all. Taken to another world? Who would have thought such a thing was possible? We mourned you, of course. It was assumed you were killed and your remains thrown into the lava fields around Mount Damocles. It truly is a miracle to have you back with us. And with your vampire mate, the first of her kind to grace our world. How exquisite to have her here in Stygarde.”

My protective instincts rouse at the way he says have her , as if he somehow now owns her. “She’s not a trophy, Brahm,” I remind him in a tone resonant with warning. “Vampires are much the same as shades on her planet. There is scarcely a difference. Nothing to make an issue of.”

Nevina smirks. “If you think you can keep it a secret, you’re mistaken. I knew she wasn’t a shade the moment she entered the room.”

My smile fades, but Brahm waves a hand, dismissing his mate’s words. “In any case, we would never show her off like a prized bird, Damien. We are only excited to have you home—and with such a unique mate at your side.”

My shoulders relax a fraction. He’s trying, and the truth is that Nevina is a similar curiosity. I’m sure he’s fielded his share of questions at his choice of mate. I’m tempted to ask how they met, but there is something else I need to know first.

“Brother, after all this time away, I am glad to see you,” I say, “but where are Mother and Father? Karyl? We should all be together for this reunion.”

Brahm’s face falls. “Oh dear, of course you wouldn’t know. This is difficult. So difficult.”

I don’t like the sound of that. I wait for him to elaborate.

“The war you fought centuries ago has come to be called the War of Plagues and Arrows. It is so called because, after your departure, Tenebris was ravaged by a wasting disease. Both elves and shades were afflicted. Eight in ten shades who caught the disease succumbed to it within a year. No cure was ever found.”

My stomach sinks, and a lump grows in my throat until I can scarcely breathe.

I try my best to remain impassive. Eloise can’t understand a word of what Brahm is saying, and I don’t want my reaction to cause her undue worry.

But I am worried. Plague was not unheard of in my time here, but is he claiming it reached the castle?

“Father caught it early on,” Brahm explains, and my heart sinks like a stone. “Out of desperation, Mother sought the help of the witches of Dimhollow for an antidote.”

My ears perk at this revelation. I had long suggested an alliance with the witches, the only beings in our world who could wield magic stronger than that of the elves. My friendship with Aurora was the reason for my father’s rescue from Willowgulch after all.

“Sadly, there was nothing they could do to cure the afflicted, but they were able to surmise the cause,” Brahm says. “It was the war itself that was killing us.”

The ridiculousness of the statement gives me pause. It’s far too convenient. Sounds more like elf magic than a disease. I narrow my eyes on Nevina. “Brother, are you suggesting something about the battle itself caused a plague?”

“I understand your skepticism. I felt the same way. But in the end, our scholars proved it to be true. Troops had trampled the delicate grasslands between our two kingdoms and ravaged the forest in search of the dragon and her egg. Both sides believed that the magic inherent in the dragon’s scales and flesh would tip the outcome of the war in their favor.

But I digress. The soldiers, in their searching, had stirred up a poison that is normally contained within the soil in such quantities it polluted the air throughout the kingdom and infected a large number of the population.

No one in Tenebris was safe. We soon learned that lasting peace was the only hope for our people, but still, the war raged on.

The elves were dropping as fast as the shades, but neither Father nor King Entrydal would bow. ”