Page 90 of Of Blood and Banes (The Arterian #2)

GOOD

D arian is gone when I wake in the morning, but next to the bed is a cluster of pennyroyal flowers. Odd, considering he mentioned he was barren. I pluck one of the petals off, examining it with distant uncertainty, before I drop it.

The realization of our intimate moment last night hits me over the head, as if someone struck me with a rock.

I can’t get his eyes out of my head. That deep, forest green.

A swarm of warmth, with the depth of all the things buried in his past. Yet, he brought it to the surface in a single, vulnerable moment.

The same moment I felt myself slipping into, replaying it over and over in my mind.

It was supposed to just be…sex.

I start hyperventilating, raking my fingers through my hair with trembling hands and attempting to calm myself. Pulling in long breaths through my nose, I can’t seem to calm my racing heart. Fuck.

He looked…at me.

I shake my head, my eyes shifting back down to the ground. This all feels too scary. Too hard. Now I feel an even heavier responsibility, holding on to something more fragile. More tender.

Oh, Gods. Why did he look at me like that?

A knock sounds at my door, and I rush to pull clothes onto my body. “One moment!”

As soon as I slip a shirt over myself, slide into pants, and pull on my gloves, I flatten my hair and open the door to find Archie. His brilliant smile would usually lighten the anxiety in my chest. But this time, it’s not enough.

His joy fades as he recognizes the truth of my state before looking me up and down. “What’s wrong?”

I shake my head and lean against the doorframe, attempting to look more casual than I feel. Bruises discolor his face, his lip still swollen from yesterday. “Are you alright? Have you seen any healers yet?”

“Pfft, I don’t need healers. There are soldiers and citizens who suffered far greater injuries. I look worse than I am. Except…” he flicks his tongue between a new gap in his teeth at the back of his mouth, “that asshole knocked out one of my teeth.”

He pauses. Then tilts his head sideways to glance into the room behind me and flicks his brown eyes back to me. “You sure you’re alright? You seem…off?”

I promised him no more secrets. Even if it’s an awkward conversation to have, I say, “Darian and I…last night…we kind of had…I don’t know.” I sigh. “A moment?”

His eyebrows shoot up his forehead. “Oh…really? Umm…that’s…great?”

I scratch the back of my head. “Yeah, I don’t really know.”

An awkward silence settles between us. He breaks it up by saying, “Well, if you ever want to talk about it. I’m here!”

We both smile until we blow out laughs at how awkward the tension is between us.

He continues, “Anyway, I came to tell you Melaina is calling an urgent meeting. Someone ratted us out to King Aaric, telling him we’d be in Nightfort before the battle.

And it couldn’t have been anyone in the council because they wouldn’t have been able to make it happen so quickly.

The only people who knew we were coming to Nightfort before the council are the ones traveling in our group. ”

“What?”

“We have a traitor in our midst.”

Oh, Gods, if it’s Darian …my heart thunders in my chest as we all gather in Nightfort’s community hall. How could I have trusted him? How could I have been so stupid? He told me so many times I shouldn’t trust him ? —

“Yesterday’s battle was an unnecessary slaughter.

Had the citizens of Nightfort not come to our aid, I firmly believe more of us wouldn’t be standing here today,” Melaina calls out, her voice still hoarse with grief.

She’s standing on a small platform near the grand hearth at the northernmost part of the room, looking out across our group of Arterians and Vitalans.

“Had King Aaric’s Close Circle members not been tipped off, many of our friends, our family—” Her voice cracks, and she clears her throat, before continuing in a steadfast tone, “Would still be here today.”

With her chin lifted, she exchanges a glance with the Nightfort guards posted beside her. They all shift toward us, with more of them coming up behind our group. Trapping us.

“Detain them all for questioning,” she announces as several soldiers snatch those on the outside perimeter of our group. “And search their rooms.”

Archie lifts his hands in surrender as one nabs him by the back of the neck.

Cole willingly offers his wrists as three of them approach him.

Darian smirks and lifts his manacled hands to remind one soldier there’s no extra step needed.

The rest of the crowd shifts, and a soldier rests a hand on my back to guide me out of the throng and up the steps to where Melaina is.

“Is this necessary?” I hiss. “You’re making me an exception?”

She swings her attention to me. “You don’t need to be detained nor questioned. There’d be no reason for you to betray us.”

I glance over my shoulder at the rest of our group, now mostly shackled and gripped by one or more guards. But what about Archie? Cole? Gavin or Nolan? The ones who’ve been with us since the beginning? “And the dragon riders? They made a pact to Sethan, too. Why arrest them?”

“It’ll make for a fair trial if we question everyone,” Melaina responds. Not bothering to look me in the eye. With one gesture, the guards begin to shuffle everyone shackled back out of the building.

As soon as they all leave, I look at her. “Even Archie? You know for a fact he wouldn’t betray anyone.”

“Do I?” She finally looks at me.

“You’re upset. Your father died, and I understand?—”

“What do you mean you understand ?” she spits. “You never even met your father, right? So how can you possibly talk to me like you understand?”

“This isn’t you, Melaina. This is grief.

And while I may have never met my father, I still grieve for him all the same.

I didn’t have the tender moments and memories you had.

I had hopes. Wishes. The ‘what ifs.’ Someone once told me forever isn’t for people—it’s for memories.

And you have that. You have to hold on to them. ”

“Get out.”

“Melaina, what if this is a mistake? You already knew the King had undercover soldiers in the Dragon Lands. For all we know, they could have been following us!”

“I said get out!”

A guard grabs me by the forearm, and I rip out of his grasp as I spit back, “What happens when you question everyone and get no answers, hmm? Are you even questioning the council?”

“I owe you no answers.”

“You do when you hold my friends as prisoners!”

Her expression darkens. “If they won’t willingly give me the answers I need, then I suppose I’ll have to force them, won’t I?”

My face falls as I realize what she’s implying. “You will not become like your father. If you torture any of them?—”

“What? Tell me what you’ll do, Kat? You became blinded as soon as you started fucking the Arterian prince! If anything, you’ve betrayed us by proxy!”

Rage swarms my chest like angry bees, begging me to release them. As I storm up the steps toward her, two guards capture my arms and tug me back.

“Go ahead,” she continues. “Lie to me. Tell me you only fucked him once.”

But as I hold her gaze, my limbs trembling and breath heavy in my chest…I can’t. I can’t lie to her, even if I’m pissed. And maybe there’s a small truth to what she says. Even if it hurts to swallow.

“That’s what I thought. If it’s him—if he’s the traitor—I’m going to kill him. Slowly. And you can be the first one to watch,” she seethes. “Now, if I have to tell you to get out one more time, I’ll throw you in the dungeons with the rest of them just to show you I can.”

“Then do it. Who’s to say you have any authority over me? Any authority to make these calls?”

Gods, does fury twist her features into something sharp. “I am Sethan’s next of kin. And since he was killed by the actions of a traitor, that means I call on how to avenge him.”

I fight against the two guards until I lose my balance and they tug me backward away from Melaina. I call to her, “You touch any of them, and it’ll be the last thing you do!”

She snorts as they drag me out of the door and close it.

As I get to my feet, I turn my attention to the two guards and offer them my wrists. “Take me to the dungeons.”

When they hesitate, I realize they’re weighing my word against Melaina’s.

Which means they know who I am. I lean into their knowledge of me as the prophesied one, and they comply.

I convince them to shackle me, and they lead me to Nightfort’s dungeons.

On the way there, they fill me in on Melaina’s plans of questioning everyone overnight, with the hopes of cracking a traitor by daybreak.

I call out to Daeja, “Don’t freak out…but ? —”

“What have you gotten yourself into now?” Her voice is low. Sad. It breaks my heart that she’s hurt by A’nala’s passing.

“I’m going down to the Nightfort dungeons. Melaina has everyone detained for questioning. She thinks someone in our group has betrayed us. But don’t worry about me, Melaina and the soldiers won’t hurt me. They can’t.”

“That’s not to say someone from Nightfort won’t try to kill you to end the King.”

“Fair point. I’ll call you in for backup if I need you.”

“I’ll stand guard. The other fire dragons aren’t happy the riders are being detained, either. I’ll gather them and wait for your command, if you need us.”

“What’s one silly little underground dungeon against seven dragons?”

“Exactly.”

“And Daeja? I’m sorry about A’nala.”

“Me, too.”

When we enter the dungeons, the air is cold and wet, with water dripping from somewhere in the shadows.

The stone prisons are lit by torch lights at the end of the long path.

Lining it are at least twenty cells bared in iron.

Every one of them full with Vitalans and Arterians.

The guards lead me past each one, and I watch as head after head snaps up, eyes wide as they realize I’ve come to join them.