Page 23 of Bartered by the Shadow Prince (Bargain with the Shadow Prince #3)

Revelations

DAMIEN

I sense her coming before I see her. Eloise’s fear causes a pang of anxiety to roll through me like someone has rung a bell and the sound is reverberating deep within my soul.

It’s not a common thing with our mating bond, and I don’t recognize it for what it is right away, but when I feel it, I look up from the rabble beast whose footpad I’m trimming and see her running toward me from the castle.

Her skin is pale white, almost ashen, and her green eyes are wide, terrified.

I drop the beast’s foot and move toward her, but I needn’t go far.

She slams into me at a speed I’ve rarely witnessed.

I easily catch her in my arms, but even her slight weight hits me with enough force that I back up a step.

“What is it, little dragon? What’s wrong? ”

“Damien…” She shakes her head, tears streaming. “Something awful…”

I wipe the moisture from her cheeks, anxious to stop the salty scent of her agony. “Take a deep breath. Tell me.”

She draws air into her lungs and blows it out slowly. “Your father didn’t die of any wasting disease,” she says in a strong but hushed voice. “His throat was slit.”

I release her like she’s burned me, replaying her words in my mind. I’m utterly confused. How could she possibly know how my father died? “Where did you hear this?”

“I saw his ghost in the cemetery, Damien. He asked me to tell you.”

My little dragon can communicate with the dead, but I thought her abilities had waned since our arrival. “Your powers are back?”

She frowns. “No, not exactly. I mean, he is the only spirit I’ve been able to see, but…”

My father was murdered. By whom? And if it is true, why has no one in this kingdom come forward with that accusation.

Someone would have told me the truth. My brother or Tempest if he were complicit.

A servant. But even as I think it, I realize none of the servants who’d worked in the castle before are still here.

That hadn’t bothered me before because a change in regime often brings with it a change in staff. Now, though, I wonder.

And then another thought plagues me. “I don’t doubt you, but are you sure about what you saw? Don’t you find it strange that he is the first and only spirit you’ve been able to connect with since our arrival? Is it possible you saw what someone wanted you to see?”

“I’m sure.” She meets my gaze and holds it. “I was alone. I think I opened the door to the Darklands, Damien. I think I allowed his soul through.”

She tells me more, about making an offering to Thanesia and how the spirit’s message was cut off when a door of night slammed down.

Chills run the length of my body at the thought, but it’s a compelling explanation.

I glare at the castle, thoughts spinning.

One person knows the truth, and I have a feeling he’s been lying to me all along.

If Father was murdered, my mother and sister must have also been murdered.

That means Brahm lied about all their deaths.

His character has always been questionable, but a murderer he is not, if only because he is prone to laziness.

Slitting the neck of a powerful warrior like my father would take skill and planning.

Never in his life has Brahm shown himself capable of either.

And Karyl? She was the sweetest little sister a brother could ask for.

Only a true monster could hurt her. Brahm may be spineless, but he’s not a monster.

My thoughts shift toward the castle, toward Nevina. What if she murdered my father? Brahm might not have been the brains behind the deed, but he is just enough of an opportunist to allow it to happen and lie about it.

“Did my father tell you who was responsible?” I growl. She draws back at my mounting anger. I don’t want to scare her, but I can barely contain my rage.

“No. I can’t hear them without Phantom. He communicated with gestures.”

Heat flows in my veins, and I pace, trying to hold myself together. Shadows bleed from my elbows and outer thighs. “This castle holds more secrets than memories these days. I will find out the truth.”

“There’s something else you should know first.” Eloise raises a hand. “I was only in the cemetery today because I was debriefing with the ladies of Stygarde after our Harvest Festival meeting was attended by Nevina’s father .”

“King Entrydal was here?” I hiss the name, my stomach turning at the idea of the dark elf king that once tortured my father being in the same room as Eloise.

“Nevina’s requiring every citizen who hasn’t sworn allegiance to her and paid their blood tax to do so before they can participate in the Harvest Festival.

Entrydal is backing her up. Dark elves will be joining the festivities to help enforce the edict.

Eudora won’t do it, of course. She’ll die first.”

That’s it. I can’t hear anymore. “I’ll find you…after,” I grit out, striding toward the castle.

“What are you going to do?” Eloise asks.

But I’m already shadow. And then I search out Brahm.

I find him in what used to be our father’s study, a room that is now entirely his and bears no resemblance to its former glory. Gone are the books that used to line the walls, replaced by elven tapestries depicting his bride. He sits at a desk of ashwood, reading through a small pile of papers.

I form in front of him and charge the desk.

All my frustration with Eloise’s vision, with the state of the kingdom, with the nightmares about Valeska that plague me still, manifest in my bared fangs.

I stop just short of grabbing him by the collar.

I’m angry but I’m not stupid. Banias is there, stationed in the corner of the room.

The master of the guard’s hand drifts to his sword.

I should have suspected Brahm’s muscle wouldn’t stray from his side.

“Brother?” Brahm says, his tone contemptuous.

“We need to talk,” I say through my teeth.

“Then put your fangs away. Threatening the king is punishable by death.” His pale eyes flick to the master of the guard.

I concentrate on maintaining my polite form, and my fangs retract.

“Now what can I do for you?”

I want to know the truth about what happened to my father, but I need to get myself under control first. I decide to cloak my true purpose by addressing the festival first. “You need to speak to the queen. She’s passed an edict that no shade can participate in the Harvest Festival who hasn’t paid the tax or sworn fealty.

It’s sacrilege to keep a shade from worshipping Thanesia as the goddess has prescribed. ”

He groans and returns his eyes to his paperwork. “It’s time they fully committed to New Stygarde, Damien. She’s right to force the issue. This resistance has gone on long enough.”

“You can’t be serious. You would stop them from sacrificing to Thanesia? You would risk the wrath of the goddess to have the west under your thumb?”

Slowly, he raises his head, eyes narrowing on me. “I am the king. They will bow to me and offer their sacrifices, or they will die. Unless you plan to pay their debt, do not tell me how to run my kingdom.”

“What would it cost me to pay their debt?”

“A life for a life, brother.”

I shake my head. “I will not be enslaved again.”

“Then the edict stands. Oh, and for the record, I’m not concerned about the wrath of Thanesia,” he snorts. “We certainly didn’t benefit from her help during the war. I suspect her wrath will be equally ineffective.”

I wince at his irreverence. This is Brahm at his worst. This is the brother who prioritized drink over family and kingdom, only without the drink to blame. His gaze cuts cold.

“I need to ask you something about father’s death,” I say calmly, more calmly than I feel.

Brahm leans back in his chair, toying with the royal signet ring on his finger. “You can ask. I may not answer.”

“Who was the last person with Father when he died?”

He clears his throat. “Mother, of course. She was by his side until the end.”

“Did she…help him to die?”

Now he looks up. “What do you mean?”

“You said he died of wasting disease. Was it a particularly brutal death? Did Mother do anything to ease his suffering?”

“What an odd question.”

“I only wish to know of their final moments, Brahm. I deserve to know the truth about their deaths. The whole truth.”

“He went peacefully. They all went peacefully,” he says with a dismissive flick of his fingers.

He’s lying. I know he’s lying. I catch a smirk, just for a moment, on his otherwise scowling mouth.

His gaze darts toward Banias. He shifts in his chair and fiddles with his paperwork.

This is the Brahm I’d sometimes see when we’d confront him about his drinking or when our parents caught him doing wrong.

I never thought my brother capable of murder, but I know he’s capable of lying.

“Did you see his body after his death?”

“Of course I did,” he mumbles. “Although he was covered with the coroner’s shroud. I did not wish to see the whole of him. But I was there when they laid him to rest.” Oddly, now I get the sense that he’s telling the truth.

“How long did Mother live after father’s death?”

“A few weeks. Her exact date of death is on her grave marker.”

“You don’t remember?”

“As you might surmise, Father’s death created turmoil in the kingdom. It was a busy time.” He focuses again on the papers. He’s losing patience with me.

“And Karyl?”

“Died the same day as our mother.”

“The exact same day, of the same disease?”

“The sickness was ruthless.”

“Right.” Every cell in my body urges me to tear into him, but Banias is the only one in this room with a weapon.

If I learned anything from being Valeska’s prisoner, it’s that timing is everything.

I’m not invincible. My mistakes allowed Valeska to imprison me.

Use me. And in doing so, I put my mate at risk.

I failed to protect Eloise when she needed me the most. My failure is the reason she’s a vampire now.

My failure is the reason we’re trapped here and she’s lost her magic.

If I’m going to make this right, I have to get her out of here, and I have to be smart about it.

“Actually, I’m glad you stopped in, Damien.

” Brahm’s eyes narrow, and he rubs his chin with the side of his finger.

“I realize our family’s deaths are new to you and might be hard to accept, but that’s exactly what you need to do.

What you do reflects on this kingdom. I can’t have you visiting the west villages again, or any other place where your presence might be misconstrued as support for their passive revolt. ”

I snort. “Are you forbidding me from leaving the castle?”

He waves a hand. “It doesn’t need to come to that, does it?

As long as you keep in mind that you represent New Stygarde, I have no quarrel with you.

But…” He lowers his chin, his eyes going icy as he adds, “You should know that your visit to Bolvet has had consequences. We can’t have their citizens trying to hunt on our grounds now that they’re stronger.

I’ve ordered a continuous patrol of the border in response.

It would be wise for you to make sure I know where you’re going before you leave.

A former umbrae like yourself might be able to slip by my guards without being noticed, but your mate?

She can’t shift into shadow at all, can she?

It would be so easy for them to mistake her for an aggressor.

It would be a shame if she were injured or killed by mistake. ”

I stare and stare at my brother. Alarm rings through me at the news of the patrol. Thank the goddess I’d picked up the dresses from Adriane that afternoon. He must know. Somehow, he must’ve known I left the grounds today. My eyes flit to Banias. There’s always someone watching here. Always.

“Damien?” Eloise appears in the door behind me, her hair just settling behind her as if she’s run from the stables. “Can I talk to you?”

When I turn back to Brahm, he’s grinning wickedly. “Go with your mate, Damien. You best warn her about what I’ve told you. We wouldn’t want any accidents.”