Page 18

“What does she mean?” I demanded, my voice high and strained. I knew exactly what she meant, but my mind was so full of awful possibilities that my heart raced. “Luken, did you—”

“Hush, child,” Donelle said, looking down her nose at me again. “Let the adults finish their conversation.”

My lips pulled back from my teeth. Luken’s arms tightened. He needn’t have bothered. As much as I’d like to go for Donelle again, I wasn’t that stupid with anger. I’d have time to demand answers later . I was so caught up in sex and Luken and feeling betrayed that I’d forgotten my true mission. Let Luken fuck Donelle if that helped me get Darcie back. Let him compel me to do his bidding—just so long as he didn’t, as Donelle suggested, make me forget I ever had a sister.

Donelle lifted one eyebrow at me, as though waiting for my snarky reply. I sealed my mouth and lowered my head. I wasn’t going to give her an excuse to throw me into one of those cages again. She waited before snorting, as though disappointed. Then she stretched, arching her back in a way that brushed her breasts against Luken’s arm. The arm that held me. Subsequently, they brushed against my breasts.

I jerked away, hissing between my teeth. Luken pulled me back a step, putting distance between the queen and the two of us. Her lover had leaned against the wall, slouching. His cock had gone soft, and a petulant pout jutted his lip out.

“Has the payment been made?” Donelle asked, suddenly all business.

What payment?

“Yes,” Luken answered. His voice was level and emotionless.

Donelle bit his thumb and looked down at his body, ignoring me. Then she sighed. “Then I suppose you’ll want to get going, hmmm? Fetch my robe,” she ordered over her shoulder.

Her lover sighed dramatically and went back to the room. He returned shortly with a knee-length robe that actually hid her body. Donelle shrugged it on, sent the man away, and led Luken and me down the hall. She strode swiftly, the length of her stride twice as long as mine. I struggled to keep up, cursing my short legs. Luken matched his stride to mine, his arm still around me. It would be comforting that he didn’t release me, if it wasn’t because he expected me to lose my temper again.

For a moment, I was just so tired of it. Tired that the one person in the world who could help me save Thessa and Darcie was the one person I wanted the most… and the one I trusted the least. At least with people like Donelle and Draven, I knew something about what to expect. I could read their motives. So why was Luken, the man I had a literal bond with, so difficult?

We finally came to a stop after climbing three more staircases. As fit as I was, my legs burned, and I struggled to control my breathing. Donelle led us into a large room dominated by a huge table covered in a topographical map of the continent. Borders were drawn in magic threads that hovered over the maps, and dozens of pins moved about on their own. I didn’t need to ask to know that this was a war room of some sort.

Donelle leaned against the table, her demeanor changing completely. No longer did she have a seductive sway to her movements. She was all business, harsh, and focused.

“Funny how it all works, isn’t it?” She looked up with a humorless smile. “In trying to kill you, your brother saved your life.”

Luken chuckled. “I don’t think you’d have killed me so easily.”

I looked between them, confused.

Luken caught my look and finally released me. “Donelle and the Silver Forest had plans to invade Taimarah and dethrone me a few years back. That is, until Draven betrayed them. He took half of Donelle’s army and started a civil war. It’s why he didn’t come after you again, even though you survived his initial attack.”

“Oh,” I murmured.

“He thinks that he’s owed my kingdom.” Donelle’s lip curled back. “We’ve kept it quite secret, this little rebellion of his. He plans to see me dead, the ungrateful churl. We’ll see how well the vampire side of him heals when I put his head on a pike.”

She smiled, enjoying her mental image. And as much as I hated Draven and feared him, I couldn’t stop a twinge of sympathy. Maybe Donelle was less callous before he attempted to coup her. But she certainly didn’t seem like much of a mother. I kept my expression smooth, making sure none of my thoughts were on my face.

“It will do us all some good if he dies,” I agreed.

Luken twitched.

Donelle caught the movement and arched one of her delicate brows. “Don’t you agree, Luken? It’ll be safer for your little mate if your brother is dead.”

“It will be. And he will die before this is over,” Luken answered stiffly.

“So much trouble… I should have tossed him into the sea the night he was born. He’s always been so… needy.” Donelle smoothed her elaborately braided hair and shook her head. “But we should continue the discussion, should we not? Draven is more powerful than you realize.”

Luken rested his hands on the map and studied it. “He’s found a way to bypass your security measures, hasn’t he?”

“Oh, he has indeed.” Donelle’s pretty mouth twisted in disgust. “There is no way for anyone to enter the Silver Forest without my knowledge. As soon as they pass through the barrier, they’re marked. With the same sort of magic that allows the channels to stream the Blood Trials, in fact,” she added, smiling at me now. “I’ll have to go back and rewatch yours. You were certainly the least interesting contestant this year, but maybe I missed something.”

I gave her a blank look back. She was trying to provoke me; that much was clear. I wasn’t going to give her the satisfaction.

“How did Draven manage to take half of the army? I thought males weren’t permitted to inherit in the Silver Forest,” Luken said.

Weren’t they? I suppose it made a little bit of sense if people were concerned about inheritance staying in the bloodline. If you were having group sex in the hallways, it was kind of hard to determine which child belonged to what father. Tracing lineage through the mother was much more secure. Although now they had blood tests for that sort of thing—did elves even use blood tests? I seemed to recall something about blood magic being strictly forbidden, which included scientific breakthroughs like transfusions.

Donelle glared at the map. “Oh, they can’t. But Draven has made promise after promise to elven folk. He gives them just enough for them to give him what he wants, then turns around and betrays them. He’s hated, but he was chosen by the gods as a child. He’s seen them, talked to them, and they corrupted. They promised him power that he’s too weak to hold. And now, too many people fear crossing the gods to challenge him.”

Luken nodded, but something about the way Donelle said it made me suspicious. I hesitated, not wanting to draw too much attention. My nerves were worn thin already, and it wouldn’t take much for me to snap again. Donelle and Luken seemed to have come to some sort of agreement— what kind of agreement, and what was the price? —and I didn’t want to jeopardize that.

“How exactly was he chosen by the gods as a child?” I asked.

Donelle wrinkled her nose.

“It might be helpful to know. It might give us an insight into how to kill him,” I added quickly.

“It started with his dreams. He’d be given… prophecies, I suppose, when he was a young child.” She folded her arms, plumping up her breasts. “Then, as he grew older and matured, he began acting so strangely. He spurned any advance, telling everyone he must be ‘pure’ for the gods to speak through him. His prophecies became more precise. And all the while, never having sex.” Here, she snorted. “As though the gods, who fuck whoever they want, are really so pure themselves.”

I frowned. He’d made several attempts during the Blood Trials to get me to sleep with him. Why do that if he was supposed to never have sex, according to whatever strange belief this was? Simple, I realized. The gods told him not to have sex, and then they said he could have sex. With me, to prevent me from fully realizing the mating bond.

I glanced at Luken. If I hadn’t been a virgin when we slept together, would the bond have come so strongly? Luken wasn’t a virgin. Would it matter if I hadn’t been one, either?

No, more likely the plan was to stop me from sleeping with Luken at all. Give me someone else to love so I would have more of a reason to resist the draw to my mate.

“There’s something wrong with him,” Donelle said, shaking her head. “Not to want sex? It’s disgusting.”

Annoyance prickled through me, and I spoke without thinking. “And it’s so normal to want to fuck your son’s brother.”

Donelle’s eyes flashed. She lunged to slap me, but Luken twirled me away, stepping between me and her quickly. It all happened in less than a second.

“Stop that,” Luken snarled. He glared at me. “The Queen is willing to help us defeat the man responsible for your family’s death. What good is it for you to antagonize her? Apologize, Elara.”

I hated the way he said it, as though I was a dog to command. I glared back but bit out, “Sorry.”

Donelle grunted. She pointed to a space on the map. “There’s a hidden portal here that leads straight to the temples. Draven had it built when he was younger, and thinks I don’t know about it. I’ve sent people in. Most have died. There are challenges that you must complete to access it. What challenges, I don’t know.”

Direct access. I gripped Luken’s arm in excitement, my anger disappearing. “That means we can get there tonight!”

“If you survive the cave.” The queen went to the wall and plucked a furled map from it. “This will show you the path to get to the caves.”

She handed the map to Luken, who quickly unrolled it. I leaned in, pressing tight to him to read over his shoulder. The path was marked clearly, with notes about landscape formations marked on it. My heart beat faster. This was it! It wasn’t that far from the cave. With any luck, we’d be at the temples soon enough.

Save Darcie, Thessa, and then get home. And once the dust settled, Luken and I would finally be able to really talk about things. Talk and fuck and maybe even… well. We would have to wait until we actually trusted each other to begin thinking about having children of our own. But it would be a possibility.

“But this is as much help as I will give you,” Donelle continued, her voice low and unemotional. “There’s enough political and religious turmoil in the elven kingdoms to destroy us all. I can’t be seen to take sides, not when one side is my own flesh and blood. It would be different if you put a child in my womb,” she added, shooting Luken a reproachful look. “But I won’t risk my kingdom for a vampire, no matter how good of a fuck his father was.”

All semblance of gratitude I felt toward her disappeared. She’d tried to convince my husband to get her pregnant? I clenched my hands around the stupid broomstick I still held. Would it really be so bad to… yes. Yes, it really would be that bad. I breathed through my nose, trying to still myself.

Stop lashing out, I told myself. Stop being so emotional.

“If you win against the gods, consider the Silver Forest one of your allies. I will openly support you then.” Donelle cast me one more derisive glance before she focused on Luken again. “But until then… I have to keep up appearances.”

A distant alarm bell started to ring. I turned, glancing out the doorway. Shouts began to ring through the palace. When I turned back, Donelle was just disappearing through a doorway that swung shut behind her, leaving no trace it had ever been there. I clenched my teeth as I turned to Luken.

He shoved the map into his tunic and grabbed my hand. “Time to run.”