Page 9

I glanced at the fake ID card I’d been carrying for the last two days. The face looking back at me was unfamiliar, yet I knew that was what people who looked at me would see now. The woman on the card was my age, but was blonde instead of dark-haired. Her skin was paler, her eyes more prominent, and she had a softer sort of look that made her look naive.

“You’ll lose that if you keep pulling it out,” Luken said beside me.

I tucked the ID away. Thanks to his glamor, he and I looked completely different. He was shorter, with red hair and green eyes that didn’t suit him. He’d put on twenty or so pounds in this fake form, though he was still stockily built. It felt wrong to hear his voice coming out of this stranger. At least I knew my attraction toward him wasn’t just because of his appearance. Over the last two days that we’d been wearing these fake faces, it was still next to impossible to keep myself from jumping his bones every time he got too close.

After Darcie and Thessa were safe and I’d resigned myself to being Luken’s queen, would he use his glamor to hide my scars all the time? I tried not to be hampered by vanity, but when I looked in the mirror, the burns that marked my body were about more than just looks. They were a physical, constant reminder of the most painful moments of my life.

I wasn’t going to ask him, though. Not until I was certain my sister and Thessa weren’t going to be sacrificed.

We’d ditched the car and moved into shifter territory two days ago now. With these disguises, we were pretending to be lost human travelers. The plan was to hike to a nearby shifter village, where we’d get a ride into the city and, from there, be able to take the high-speed rail to the temples. While the train didn’t go directly to them, it would take us close enough.

After Luken explained his plan to me, I realized that doing this not only hid us from unwanted attention, but the rail actually got us to the city a few days quicker than driving by car, even accounting for the time we would lose by hiking.

I still wish he had told me all this earlier, but he remained tight-lipped about his plan. Whenever I asked about our next step, or how we were going to get Darie and Thessa out of the temples, all he’d say was that I would find out when it was time.

No matter how many times I tried to persuade him that it would be better if I knew the plan ahead of time, in case things went wrong, he wouldn’t tell me. Instead, he was constantly asking me questions of his own. What was my favorite color? Favorite flower? What did I want to have as a career when I was a child?

“When we camp tonight, we should have some sparring practice,” Luken said. He smirked at me. “Just to make sure you haven’t lost any skills, of course.”

“Why does fighting make you horny?” I smiled pleasantly at him, hoping to embarrass him.

His smirk only widened. It was an unfortunate truth that Luken was not easily embarrassed or angered. It seemed as though he found everything I did alluring or amusing. I hated it as much as I enjoyed the way his eyes sparkled, his pupils widened, and his gaze roved over my form when he thought I wasn’t looking.

“I could ask you the same thing,” he answered.

I shrugged. “I already told you what I did to train myself out of sexual arousal. I guess the pain from fighting just triggers that response in my body.”

“And this is something you’re unhappy about?” he pressed.

“I just think it’s a red flag for someone to be turned on by violence,” I answered, staring directly into his eyes.

“Then I guess we’re just a couple of red flags. But it’s not just any violence, Elara. It’s fighting with you . The way our bodies move together. Struggling for dominance, the give and take of battle. The way you move, so fluidly, so sensually… you’re fucking stunning, Elara. You’re more of a goddess than anyone I’ve ever met.” His voice ended in a low growl, a bulge forming in his pants as he spoke.

Heat swept through me. I ducked my head.

“And you’re a good fighter, too. You proved that during the Blood Trials,” he said.

I winced, inhaling sharply. “Not good enough to save Ysara and Kael.”

Luken pulled to a stop. His pale eyebrows pulled together, and I wished that I could see his real face. He reached out, placing his fingertips against the hand that was wrapped around my new staff.

“You mourn them,” he murmured.

“Yes. We bonded. We fought together, lived together. I wanted to save them.” My chest tightened as I remembered Ysara’s carefree, almost callous attitude and the gentle way Kael had tended to Thessa’s injuries. “I wanted to save them. But I wasn’t enough.”

I turned away from Luken and walked away. My eyes burned even as I fought my tears. I didn’t have the time for this. But what if being too weak to save them meant I was too weak to save Darcie and Thessa? The odds were stacked against me. Even with Luken on my side, how could we defy the gods? Was this all doomed to end in death and wailing?

“We should set camp. It’s getting dark,” I mumbled, my shoulders slumping.

“Do you hate me for their deaths?”

I flinched at Luken’s question. I turned, opening my mouth, but no words came out. Did I? Did I still blame him, even though I now knew that the Blood Trials were never his idea? The Gods had created them, and he didn’t have the power to defy them. For centuries, they had been an annual event, and he hadn’t wanted them to exist in the first place. So, did I hate him for this?

“No,” I rasped, surprised at my own honesty. “I don’t hate you for their deaths. I don’t blame you. I believe you when you said you didn’t want them.”

His shoulders relaxed infinitesimally. He nodded once and shrugged off his pack. As I set up a lean-to, he circled our camping zone, setting downward to protect us during the night. The routine was easy, and soon enough, we had a small fire, a safe place to sleep, and were munching on some of our reserves. We weren’t hunting, so we could keep up the ‘lost hiker’ persona.

Talking about the Blood Trials brought to mind other questions. Or rather, one in particular. One I hadn’t dared to ask him before. But one that weighed more heavily on my mind the longer I spent time with him.

“The winners of the Trials. The final Trial is for you to drink from them and see if they can resist your draw,” I blurted. I stared at the fire, shutting down the bond hard. If I was going to ask this, I didn’t want to feel anything he felt, nor did I want him to feel anything I felt.

His eyes were like a physical touch on my skin. “Yes.”

“Whenever they were asked about it, they always looked… blissed out,” I said stiffly. Remembering how orgasmic my own experience was, I could understand that. “But what I never could figure out is if you bedded them or not.”

“Ah. I see.” Luken picked up our fire-stirring stick and moved the burning branches a little.

I sighed heavily. “Well? Did you?”

“No. Consent is important to me, Elara. And in that situation, how could I be certain they really wanted it?” He folded his arms over his chest, staring into the flames. “You’re the only one I slept with after drinking from. I was so caught up in the joy of finally having you with me that I forgot my reasons for waiting. And I’m sorry for that.”

I gaped at him. “Sorry?”

Luken turned to me. His eyes were alien, but the determination in them was so wholly Luken that it took my breath away. My mind spun around his words. Did his whole ‘until you beg for it’ come from a place of regret? I thought it was a power thing, a way to prove to me that he owned me bodily, that I couldn’t resist him for any real length of time. Had I been wrong?

“I’ve waited so long for you, Elara. I was looking for you before I ever met you,” he murmured. “And once I saw you, there were no others. That day, I was overwhelmed by how much I needed you. I thought you felt the same way.”

“You regret our first time?” My heart stung unexpectedly. Even for how fucked up everything was, how betrayed I felt by him afterward, I didn’t want him to regret it.

Luken sighed, still not looking at me. “Like at the springs. I took things too far. I always seem to lose sight, and I… I’m sorry for hurting you.”

I wrapped my arms around myself and looked up through the trees to the distant stars. “You once asked me if I could go back and change things, would I have still slept with you. At the time, I wasn’t sure what my answer was.”

“So you do regret sleeping with me,” he murmured.

“No. And that’s the awful part. If I could regret it, then things would be much easier. I felt so… safe . I’d never felt that safe. I don’t feel safe with you anymore.”

He flinched as though I had struck him.

A tear dripped down my cheek. “But I don’t regret it.”

A weight lifted off my shoulders at the words. It was true. Despite how fucked up this thing between us was, I didn’t regret giving him my body, my virginity. I hesitated, wondering if I should open the bond enough for him to know my words were true. But that felt like too much. Too intimate. I might not regret what passed between us, but that didn’t mean I had to invite more.

“And as for the hot springs… I told you to stop because I didn’t understand what you meant when you said you wanted to ‘taste’ me,” I confessed. Heat rushed to my cheeks, and I hunched my shoulders. I might as well get it all out, right? “I thought you were going to drink from me. If I’d known you meant eating me out, I would have told you to keep going.”

There was a moment of silence, then Luken laughed. His posture relaxed as he turned to me, his expression amused and incredulous all at once. “Is that so?”

“It is,” I groaned, hiding my face.

“So if I offered to eat you out right now…?” Luken’s voice grew husky.

I lifted my head to glare at him. “Now is different.”

He laughed again, throwing his head back as he did. It made his hair tumble down in a most distracting way. “Ah, I see. Because you know my cock is better, is that why it’s different?”

I wanted to keep glaring at him, but seeing him so light did things to me. Some of my own tension loosened, and I giggled as well. How easy it was to clear up misunderstandings with a simple conversation.

Would it help with more serious topics of conversation?

Before I could make up my mind, a terrible howl pierced the night. I jumped to my feet, my hands wrapped around my staff. The forest was dark and still, but it must be signaling an attack. Luken was on his feet next to me in an instant. He drew his sword, which was hidden in his walking stick, and listened. The howl came again before it was suddenly cut out.

“There’s magic in the air,” he murmured. He closed his eyes and I felt a stirring, a tugging on the bond. I held it down tightly, but Luken wasn’t searching the bond. After a moment, he groaned. “Ahhh.”

“What’s happening?” More howls rang through the air, making me shudder.

Luken ran a hand through his hair. “The shifter village we were heading to is under attack. I recognize the taste of the magic. Orc hunters. We’ll have to find another way into the city.”

“Orc hunters?” I repeated. “What are they doing? I thought this was shifter territory.”

“Warlocks that specialize in violent magic.” Luken sat by the fire again. “This territory has been under conflict for generations. Both sides raid the other, pillaging, burning, and stealing women and children. Sometimes, they’re traded back to the other side for those women and children. More often than not, they end up sold.”

Horror swept through me. How could he be so blasé about it? “Slavery is illegal.”

“So are a great many things, but that doesn’t stop the demand.” He glanced up at me and tensed again. “I have no authority in kingdoms that aren’t mine. If the elves worked harder at stopping the trafficking rings, maybe we could stop the black market fighting rings. But my focus has to be on defeating the gods. They do more damage to this world than all the mortal gangs and mercenaries put together.”

I gripped my staff tighter. “I’m not going to sit around listening and not act.”

Luken surged to his feet. He grabbed my wrists, yanking me closer. “We have to pick our battled, Elara. If you die saving these people, who is going to save Thessa and Darcie?”

“I can’t just ignore it.” I struggled against his hold.

“We don’t have the luxury of saving everyone,” he ground out through clenched teeth.

“I want to be a good person,” I burst out. “I want to be worth something. How can I do that if I know what’s happening and I do nothing to stop it? I want to be good. I don’t want to be a selfish person anymore.”

Luken’s hold on my wrists slackened. His eyes searched mine before his hands dropped entirely. With a groan, he snatched up his sword again. “You’re going to be the fucking death of me, Elara Tideborne.”

Then he grabbed my hand, and we sped through the forest, away from the safety of our camp, and toward the sound of battle.