Page 20

Tannin

W ATCHING ALIYA WRITHE and bounce to the music in Jax’s arms was just amazing. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d ever been so happy. I had my doubts about Jax’s ball idea, but it turned out to be one of the best experiences I ever had.

We fit, the three of us. We could easily carve out our own private version of heaven right here in this castle, with nothing and no one but each other.

If only we could have enjoyed these moments sooner. I wished I’d stood up to Jax when we realized we were mated to her and stopped him from calling the pack, but it was too late now. That conversation would be the greatest regret of my life. And soon our frolicking freedom would end.

Jax and Aliya joined me at the buffet table after their dance finished, breathy and laughing. Jax grinned as he threw back the last glass of champagne.

“Should we get another?” he asked, holding up the empty bottle.

Aliya put her hand to her head. “No, I think I’ve had enough. In fact, I might need to sit down.”

“Yes, I think we could all use a break.” I went to Aliya’s side and extended my bent elbow in a gesture of gentlemanly assistance.

She slipped her arm through mine, and I escorted her to the den, where we all collapsed onto the couch. Me on the left, Jax on the right, and Aliya in the middle. That was our perfect pattern.

With her arm still around mine, she rested her head on my shoulder. “That was fun. It’s been so long since this place has had a proper ball.”

Jax barked a laugh. “I don’t know if you could call it proper, being just the three of us, but I couldn’t imagine better company.”

She giggled. “It’s certainly better than me dancing with Willow to the ghost of music past in my head.”

The orange tabby let out a disgruntled meow from her place on the armchair as if she disagreed with that statement.

“I know, Willow,” Aliya replied. “You are an excellent dancer.”

Jax and I exchanged a glance and snickered.

I’d grown used to Aliya’s conversations with her cat and with herself. They both charmed and saddened me. I hated the thought of her alone all that time. For that reason, I was glad we’d come to Varinya, even if our motives had been malicious at the time.

The light outside the castle was growing dimmer, and my clock was ticking. I’d made a promise to Jax and myself that I would tell her the truth before the day was over. But as we sat there in the cozy silence, I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

She deserves to know.

I opened my mouth, but it seemed to have a mind of its own. “What was it like before the plague?”

Her features lightened, her eyes sparking with remembered joy.

“Oh, it was wonderful. The castle was so full of life, and the village never seemed to sleep. I was lucky in those days to get a moment of privacy, between my maids running around, my tutors lecturing me, and my mother fussing over me. I never thought I’d miss it so much. ”

“What was your mother like?” Jax asked, surprising me with his interest.

Aliya pouted sweetly, her brows pinching together.

“She was amazing. She was everything I wished I could be—intelligent, confident, commanding. Whenever she entered a room, everyone would go so silent you could hear a pin drop. But she was also kind and nurturing. Several days a month, she would work at the orphanage and nursing home. She never seemed to have a shortage of patience, something I always envied.”

I placed a kiss on her forehead. “She sounds a lot like you.”

She snorted. “Hardly. I’d be happy to become half the woman she was.”

“What about your father?” Jax asked. “Was he a good king?”

She shifted beside me, sitting up. “I believe so. I didn’t see him as much as my mother. He was always busy working. But everyone loved him, and our kingdom thrived. If that’s not a sign of a good king, then I don’t know what is.”

“I wish I could have met him,” I said before I could think better of it.

If he had been alive when we got here, one of us would have killed him before we ever realized we were mated to his daughter.

I swallowed against the lump of guilt that formed in my throat. How ignorant and intolerant our prejudices had made us. We were so driven by hatred for past grievances that we weren’t able to judge a person by their character, and there was no greater crime than killing an innocent person.

I stole a glance at Jax, and the serious look on his face told me he might be thinking the same thing.

“Actually,” Aliya said, releasing my arm. “Would you like to meet him?”

Jax and I both turned our heads at her in confusion.

“There’s something I’d like to show you both.” She slid off the couch and stood to face us. “Come on.”

Jax and I rose and followed her out of the den, curiosity simmering in my chest. What could she possibly mean by “meet him”? Was her mind so far gone that she believed him to be alive somewhere? Was he alive somewhere, trapped in some form of diseased coma?

The list of possibilities was endless, so we said nothing as we followed her through the castle’s front doors and across the courtyard toward the village. Night was falling around us, casting an eerie aura on the empty storefronts and dark houses lining the main road.

Beneath the serenade of chirping crickets, I could almost hear the ghosts of those who once lived here, the echoes of laughing children, the whispers of pedestrians long gone.

Though there wasn’t a soul in sight, I could feel a thousand pairs of eyes on me, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.

They were watching us, judging us... condemning us.

“Aliya, where are we going?” I asked as we neared the end of the main road.

“When people first started dying from the plague, we would bury them in the valley just outside the village,” she explained, pointing to the treeless plain that opened beyond the last row of houses.

“We didn’t know at first how horribly contagious the disease was, and it was always our custom to bury the dead. ”

We passed the final house, and I could see a grid of modest stones and wooden posts revealing themselves among the tall grass and wildflowers.

“It wasn’t until the bodies started piling up that we began burning them instead,” she continued, leading us into the overgrown cemetery that seemed all but forgotten. “It got to a point that we’d light funeral pyres every night. So many lives went un-memorialized.”

Our steps pushed through the grass, and I took great care not to trip over any of the markers. Though Varinya had long been our enemy, I took no pleasure in knowing all its people were dead. We wouldn’t have killed them if we’d found it well-populated. Only the royals and those who opposed us.

Aliya would’ve been one of them, of course, so that didn’t make me feel much better.

“When my parents died, I didn’t want that to happen to them,” she said. “They were some of the last to go and seeing as I was apparently immune to the disease, I insisted they had proper burials.”

We came to the end of the graveyard, where two large piles of stones stood above the rest. The tops were draped in woven garlands of dried flowers.

“They deserved to be laid to rest with the people they loved so dearly,” she said, stopping in front of them and bowing her head at each.

“You buried them yourself?” Jax asked, his tone breathy with astonishment.

She nodded. “It took me two days to dig the holes deep enough, and another day to drag them here and fill in the dirt.”

I shook my head. “You poor, sweet girl.”

She wiped a tear from under her eye, the liquid glistening on the back of her hand in the moonlight.

“I just couldn’t stand the thought of burning them.

And I wanted to have a place where I could visit them.

Every few weeks, I fashion new flower garlands and bring them out here to replace the dead ones. ”

Jax stepped forward and knelt in front of them. “Your Royal Highnesses, it’s an honor to meet you at last. I only wish it could have been under different circumstances.”

I followed his lead, kneeling beside him in front of the graves of the monarchs we’d come here to kill. The guilt was overwhelming, crushing me like the memorial stones that marked their final resting place.

“You may be gone,” I said. “But your legacy lives on in your daughter. She’s an incredible person, and I think you’d be proud of the woman she’s become.”

“I know you can’t answer, but we’d like to formally ask for your daughter’s hand,” Jax said, and my throat constricted painfully.

“Against all odds, we’ve mated to her. Fate works in mysterious ways.

.. But we promise you that we will love, cherish and honor her until our dying breath.

We will do our best to live up to the expectations you would have had for her husband. ”

I smiled tightly, because I felt those words with just as much conviction with which he spoke them. I couldn’t put it off anymore. I had to tell her the truth.

I rose to my feet, squeezing my eyes against the refusal that pursed my lips. “Aliya, there’s something we have to tell you.”

I turned around and opened my eyes.

“Aliya?”

She was nowhere in sight.

Jax sprang up at my concerned tone, then began whipping his head in all directions in search of her. “Where is she?” he snarled, his blue eyes glowing in the darkness.

“I don’t know. She was just here. Aliya!” I called out.

In the distance, racing footsteps sounded against the cobblestones. She was running back to the castle. She was running away from us.

I moved to sprint after her, but Jax’s hand shot out in front of my chest.

“Wait, do you smell that?” he asked, his ears perking as he scanned the night around us.

I sniffed the air, the foul, rotting odor teasing my senses. Oh, gods. “Cusith,” I breathed.

With one mind, the two of us leapt forward, shifting in midair and shredding out of our clothes. My claws kicked up clumps of earth behind me as I raced for the castle at top speed, Jax’s larger wolf form gaining as he charged beside me.

I didn’t know why Aliya had left us there or what she was planning, but I didn’t care. There were cusith here, and she was in grave danger. I only hoped we could get to them before they found her.