25
The Reaper held the war camp in her clutches as I returned to the black tents and the square beyond. Chaos scattered moment by moment as the Parancsok shouted at and restrained their soldiers, while others were shoved to the whipping post for discipline. The sight of it all had me clenching my jaw so fucking hard I thought I would break it from that alone.
This is not what I wanted the day before my army was finally ready to move again.
The scent of burning flesh lingered in the air from where that Vezet?’s body rested on the still-smoldering pyre. Halting in the center of the mayhem, I brought my fingers to my lips. The sharp whistle stopped everyone in their tracks and brought utter silence to the entire camp.
“If you aren’t tucked away in your beds in the next five minutes, then you’ll join him in death,”
I growled, pointing to the embers sparking in the dark night.
At once, the seasoned warriors grasped the arms of their new compatriots, steering them away. They knew I didn’t make idle threats.
Rules and order were the only way we ensured everyone’s survival on the battlefield. If they needed a reminder of that, so be it. As much as it would pain me to do so, I would gladly sacrifice their lives to prove my fucking point.
The officers shouted additional orders, following their charges back to their respective sections of the camp. Without waiting to see if all complied, I burst into the command center again and found Rapp in the bone room, pacing.
Olet and Assyria’s Százados were gone.
Rapp halted when he saw me, opening his mouth to speak. I held up my hand.
“You told me I could be a broody bastard and tell you tomorrow.”
I sighed, then rubbed circles over my jaw in an attempt to loosen the tense muscles. “Kiira arrived late to a scheduled meeting with Xannirin and me, mid-vision, speaking of a female with eyes of devious burgundy being essential. After she came to, she didn’t recall having said anything.”
Rapp’s mouth tightened, and the studs above his eyebrows flashed as they dipped together. The two of them were close, and she wrote to him more often than she wrote to me while we were away. “That’s unusual. Essential to what?”
I grunted, then surrendered my attempt to ease the ache in my head. “Of course, she didn’t say. That question has been eating at me ever since. Then, this morning, a priestess arrived at Gyor bearing an indecipherable note from Kiira, again mentioning this female.”
Realization flitted across Rapp’s eyes a moment later. “And that female…”
“Is. My. Fucking. Mate.”
I spit out each word with every ounce of bitterness coating my tongue. Amid the chaos, I’d been able to snatch her away before anyone figured out what had happened between us. Throwing her over my shoulder like a sack of grain had been a great solution to covering the perfect circle on my back since I’d abandoned my shirt in my tent prior to settling on the throne of bones for the evening.
“No way,”
Rapp said, sinking back onto my preferred seat.
“Unfortunately, I have the mark to prove it, and this utterly insane desire to fuck her senseless,”
I groused, taking his place and pacing over the threadbare rug.
Rapp tracked my movement from one fabric wall to another, thumbing his lip.
“Well, this evening took an unexpected turn,”
he finally said, straightening on the throne.
“You think?”
I snapped. Anger swelling to its breaking point, I punched the canvas without holding back. It didn’t do anything to slake the fury. If anything, I wanted to hit it again. “After everything we’ve done to amass an army this size, to train and then separate them, and now we’ve bred distrust at the penultimate moment. We have to fix this or everything will be for nothing.”
“You didn’t have to kill him,”
Rapp commented, bracing his elbows on his knees and studying the ink on his knuckles.
I ceased all movement and sliced my attention in his direction. “Yes, I did. The rules and laws are clear, and I do not deviate.”
He held his hands up in supplication. “Fine, yes, I know you are sensitive about the enforcement of army rules. I’m just saying showing mercy every once in a while wouldn’t hurt.”
“No one showed us any mercy,”
I pointed out. A flash of a memory speared through my mind before I shoved it away. My father had no place here, not now, not ever.
Rapp sighed, running a hand over his close-cropped hair, then pushed off my throne. “No, they did not.”
We faced each other, neither of us saying anything for a moment. Grem rose lazily from his cushion beside the bones, stretching and yawning before ambling to my side. He leaned into me, rubbing his head on my thigh. I stroked his silky fur, the action not even close to soothing the burning rage inside me.
Rapp strolled to a cabinet behind the bones and opened it. From there, he pulled a flask. Alcohol was forbidden in the war camp, and he knew it. For him to reveal his hidden stash and then proffer it to me was a calculated move. Perhaps I needed it after the fucking nightmare of an evening. “So what are you going to do with her?”
Rapp asked me finally.
After a momentary battle with myself, I accepted the metal and unscrewed the top. Spicy scale assaulted my nostrils, and I shot it back, welcoming the way it burned all the way down my throat. “She wanted to know the same damn thing.”
An image of her bow shaped lips spitting venom at me filled my mind, those burgundy eyes slicing like daggers, and my cock stirred again.
Calm the fuck down. We won’t be touching her, ever.
I handed the liquor to Rapp, and he took a similar, long pull. “And?”
“And I don’t fucking know! I never expected this.”
Temper flaring, I reached for a half-eaten tray of food and flung it, if only to have something to vent the boiling inside me. “I can’t have a fucking liability like this. I have to exterminate the Angels–”
“And protect the Demons,”
Rapp finished for me, crossing his arms over his chest and watching me impassively as I continued to rage.
I kicked a bowl of fruit clean across the tent. Grem and Zeec raced after it like the rubber balls I threw for them. Only after I’d smashed a few more items did my racing heart finally slow, and the fire burning through my muscles finally ease.
“No one can know,”
I hissed, finally looking at my friend again.
“You, me, Xannirin, Kiira. That’s it,”
he promised.
I nodded, then interlaced my fingers behind my head and sucked down a few breaths, trying to calm myself. I had to think logically about what my next steps should be. “We’ll take her to Gyor before first light. The guards I have stationed outside my tent will be told we’re taking her for execution. No one else can see her with us. She can ride in front of me, and I’ll cloak her in shadow.”
“One problem,”
Rapp added, holding up a finger.
“What?”
I snapped, pressing the heels of my palms into my eyes to stem the pounding there.
“The whole camp saw her screaming for that Vezet?. Whispers and rumors can be deadly. What will we tell them?”
Fucking Fates. What sort of path is this, Weaver?
After releasing an especially colorful string of curses, I replied, “No one saw her again after she entered. I’ll say I killed her. It is, after all, the punishment for murdering a member of a noble house. The Parancsok and Százados Jaku will swear to never reveal what happened, and they’re smart enough to know the consequences if they do.”
“We’ll need to pull Jaku aside and have him thoroughly explain what happened to his squad as well, since the Vezet? was an especially valued member of it,”
Rapp added, accepting a slobbery orange from Zeec and tossing it away again.
“This is not how I wanted any of this to go,”
I grumbled, rubbing circles over my temple now to alleviate the pounding headache.
“To be fair, I don’t think any one of us could have predicted this happening,”
he snorted, reaching down to pet Grem, who had decided the fruit was unappetizing and attention from Rapp was much better.
“Can I sleep in your tent tonight?”
I asked my only friend. I’d sleep on the floor or call for a makeshift cot since we were both too large to share a bed these days, despite having the most luxurious ones in all the camp. If you could even describe them that way.
“Don’t want to share with your new mate?”
he teased, a smug grin splitting his face.
I narrowed my eyes and bared my teeth. “Do not say that word aloud.”
He had the fucking nerve to laugh. “How will I survive not being able to tease you about this?”
“You’ll figure it out,”
I grumbled, snapping at Zeec. He trotted in my direction and deposited the fruit at my feet. Juices oozed from sharp incisions his teeth had made in the soft skin. I thought better of picking it up and tossing it for him again.
“One day, we’ll look back at this moment and laugh,”
Rapp stated, amusement brimming in his tone. I wanted to smack it right out of him. Nothing was funny about this situation. Nor would it ever be.
“Doubtful.”
Rapp rolled his eyes. “I’ll allow it, but will you actually sleep?”
he questioned.
I blew out a breath, attempting to ease the remnants of my frustration. “Probably not.”
“Alright, well, let’s go now and at least remove the possibility of someone walking in on our conversation.”
He swept his attention around us, and then he cocked his head to the side, no doubt listening for signs of anyone nearby.
Nodding, I snapped at the dogs to follow us. We slipped through the back entrance toward the ring of tents reserved for Rapp, myself, and the Parancsok. Rapp’s tent was adjacent to mine, and as we closed in on it, the bond sensed my proximity to Assyria, flaring to life and flooding me with lust.
Fuck off.
I clamped down on it like a bleeding wound, stifling anything else that might emerge. From the other end, an overwhelming, all consuming sadness crashed against the barrier, and I couldn’t allow myself to be affected by that female’s hysterics.
Rapp pulled out a thick bedroll from beneath his bed for me. Smoothing it out, I reclined backward, fully clothed, and tucked my hands behind my head. The ceiling was infinitely more interesting when I attempted to think of anything but the pounding desire from the bond, the female with eyes of devious burgundy, and what would happen should I fail to defend the Demons from the Angels.
In that moment, I allowed myself to feel just how heavy that burden was. Yet another one had been placed on my shoulders with Assyria’s arrival.
Reaper, why do you curse me when the Giver and the Weaver have offered me so much?
My friend settled into his bed, even inviting the damn dogs into it, then blew out the candles. Darkness reigned, even more so than in my heart.
“Hey, Rokath?”
“Yeah?”
“At least her magic is cool.”
I grunted, then we lapsed into silence, waiting for what the early hours would bring.
Sleep never claimed me, and when the first of three caws sliced the still air, I was more than ready to go. All night, I’d stewed on the possibilities and probabilities, calculating the likely risks of this new relationship. Rapp and I parted ways, him to fetch our horses, me to fetch Assyria. Grem and Zeec followed me into the tent after I dismissed the sentries, each pocketing a bag of gold. Their silence was worth every coin.
A lone candle flickered on one of the bedside tables, nearly melted into a puddle with the rest. She picked her head up the moment I entered. Red, puffy eyes glared at me, cutting to the dogs before settling back on my face.
“What do you want now?”
she snapped, tucking her hair behind her sharply pointed ears with two angry swipes.
“Get up, we’re leaving.”
I strode to my armor and began strapping it into place. Normally, the ritual soothed me, centered me even, but in that moment it had no such effect.
A scoff assaulted my backside. “Of course, because I belong to you now, you get to dictate everything I do. Zero consideration for what I want.”
I whipped around and glared at her. “That’s right, little imposter. And I said get up, we’re leaving. So get your ass out of bed.”
Sitting on her heels, just as she had been the previous night, she crossed her arms over her chest, pushing her breasts together. An image of her on her knees beneath me flashed through my mind, and I shoved it away so hard I might have given myself whiplash.
“I have nothing to wear other than this,”
she insisted, sweeping her hands down to indicate my shirt swallowing her like a whale.
“Doesn’t matter. No one will see you anyway.”
At last, I secured my helmet over my head, then took a step toward her. Those burgundy eyes widened, and she subtly retreated backward. “Now, are you going to be good and get out of bed on your own, or will I have to force you?”
Pressing her lips together, but by no means smoothing the utter abhorrence off her face, she scrambled out of it, the shirt nearly swimming to her knees once she was standing. “Lead the way, I guess.”
“That’s not how this works. You walk in front of me, and Grem and Zeec will ensure you don’t run away. You will also be utterly quiet. Should you make a sound, I will not hesitate to permanently silence you.”
I gestured for her to move toward the waiting hounds. Their tails thumped at the mention of their names.
“They seem friendlier than you,”
she said, flicking a messy braid over her shoulder before sticking her nose in the air and striding toward them.
“They are.”
Spinning, they faced forward and brushed through the tent flaps. A slight nip clung to the air, and Assyria shivered in only my thin shirt. Hooves clopped against the hard earth, and then Rapp appeared through the pre-dawn shadows. Pressing a finger to my lips, I indicated that we should remain silent, and he nodded, handing me the reins.
Before Assyria could protest, I snatched her waist and threw her over the saddle. To her credit, she didn’t make a sound, and when I mounted behind her, she arched away, as displeased with the arrangement as I was. Reaching around her, I grasped the reins, then dug my heels in and directed my stallion forward.
“Hold onto his mane so you don’t fall,”
I breathed in her ear.
“I know how to ride a fucking horse,”
she hissed back.
Then, I called on the shadows swirling in my chest and brought as many down from the night sky to bathe her in darkness. To anyone who might observe me riding, I would appear alone atop my horse.
We rode through the camp and along the dirt path to Uzhhorod, finding the gates open with only a handful of people milling about them. Most appeared to be in a drunken stupor and did not pay us any attention. Winding through the streets was a different story entirely, and we took to as many alleys and barren thoroughfares as we could to avoid the residents of the capital. By the time we reached Gyor’s gates, the barest hint of dawn snatched the more distant stars overhead.
Four red-armored guards swung them open for us, and when one of the grooms approached to take our horses, I waved him off. “No need. We won’t be long.”
My rooms were situated at the rear of the palace, and I wove us through the complex gardens, scanning for any would-be observers. Finding none, I finally dropped my magic and pulled up my stallion.
“We’ll tether them here and then fly up to the balcony,”
I told Rapp.
He nodded, then dismounted. I did the same, dragging Assyria down to the ground as well. She stared in wonder at the gray basalt pillars, the red stone accents placed at regular intervals, and the wide, arched windows that allowed for natural light to filter in at all hours of the day. The hillside retreat was imposing, and I wondered if this was the first time she’d seen it. Being from Stryi, I doubted she had previously.
Just beyond the hedge maze, the long, sweeping balcony attached to my suite awaited us. Calling on my magic again, I snapped my wings from my back and snatched Assyria’s waist from behind, shooting into the sky with one powerful flap. Down our bond, Assyria’s frustration battered me, and her grumbling thoughts of being treated like a sack of grain entered my mind. She could have flown herself, naturally, but I didn’t trust her not to sail straight over Gyor and into the Skala Mountains. I didn’t have the time or patience to hunt her down today.
Ignoring her, I focused on reaching the door as quickly as possible. Flaring my wings, I landed us just before it, releasing Assyria as quickly as I could. The wide doors locked from the inside, but I didn’t waste any time punching through a pane and reaching around to open them.
Someone could fix it later. Entering surreptitiously was more important.
Then, noting Assyria’s bare feet, I swept her over my shoulder and carried her inside.
“Fucking asshole.”
“You know I can hear your every thought.”
“Good, then you’ll know what a joke I think this whole situation is.”
“I, too, do not understand the Fates’ purpose in weaving this.”
Silence returned. And I was honestly proud of myself for not losing my temper already this morning.
Rapp entered behind me with the dogs, glass tinkling as he swept it aside. Depositing Assyria on one of the loungers in the sitting chamber, I formally introduced the two. “Assyria, this is Hadvezér Rapp. He is my most trusted advisor, and you will obey him like you would obey me.”
She worked to straighten out my tunic, then glared at both of us. “So if he wants me to spread my legs for him, I should do it?”
Rapp burst into laughter, so loud it echoed in the room. “Oh, Rokath.”
He kept laughing, nearly doubled over from his amusement. “I see it. I totally see it.”
“I’m so glad you find this amusing, Rapp,”
I drawled, voice dripping with sarcasm.
Assyria glanced between the two of us, brows drawing together. “See what?”
Rapp swiped at his eyes, finally straightening as his amusement died down. “Why the Fates made you mates.”
“Please enlighten me,”
Assyria replied, a similar level of sarcasm slipping from her small frame.
That only served to delight Rapp more.
“I’m going to fetch Xannirin before this gets any more out of hand,”
I growled, spinning on my heel and stalking toward the door.
“As in the Kral?”
she said, tone flipping from snarky to an emotion I couldn’t quite place.
Without glancing back at her, I replied, “As in the Kral, my cousin, who needs to be informed of this development.”
“Oh, shit.”
“Still can hear you.”
“Fuck off.”
Flinging open the door, I startled the Kral’s Guard stationed at the end of the hall. They straightened immediately. “Halálhívó, we didn’t think you were still in Gyor,”
the leader stammered, his throat bobbing as he tried and failed to swallow his fear.
Here’s someone I can vent this boiling rage on.
“And because of that, you decide to lean against the wall and sit on the ground, half-asleep?”
I seethed, taking a powerful step toward them. “What if I had been Angel spies breaking into the palace? Would you have been able to stop me or would you have been slaughtered like the lazy pigs you are?”
The four trembled under my wrath, and the sight shifted the anger coursing through me to excitement. “Your whole regiment has gotten sloppy with the Angels within a few weeks’ ride to Uzhhorod. If you want to keep your cushy positions in the palace, I expect to never find you or your comrades in anything but perfect precision again. Do I make myself clear?”
I spit each word of the question with as much venom as possible. These motherfucking nobles already thought the Angels were going to smash through the Demon army and I’d be damned if I left these imbeciles behind to fuel their fears.
“Yes, sir,”
they said, their salutes executed in synchrony.
I didn’t deign to offer them a response as I continued toward Xannirin’s rooms. It was early, far more likely that my cousin had just retired for the night rather than preparing to rise for the day, so I knocked, waiting to see if he would come to the door. When a minute passed and he didn’t, I entered anyway. The sitting chamber was tidy, evidently unused for entertainment the previous evening, so I made my way to his sleeping chamber, finding the door slightly ajar.
“Xannirin,”
I hissed at his lumpy form splayed out on the bed.
A waking noise escaped him, and then he bolted upright, long hair falling in a tangled mess over his face before he swept it away. His brows dipped, and he squinted in my direction. “Rokath? What are you doing here?”
“We have a problem,”
I said, opening the door wider and allowing more light into the room.
Xannirin rubbed his eyes then blinked them rapidly. “I’m awake, what is it?”
Scooting to the edge of the bed, he pulled on pants from the floor, then grabbed a discarded tunic and buttoned it up with quick precision.
When he reached for his sword resting on a long redwood table, I said, “We’re not under attack.”
“The Weaver’s thread is strong,”
he sighed, hand retreating. “Okay, so what’s the problem?”
From his wrist, he pulled a leather strap and worked it around his sleep-mussed hair until it was in a pile out of his face.
“Kiira’s vision…the female with eyes of devious burgundy,”
I said slowly, trying to think of how to explain what the fuck had happened the previous evening.
Xannirin’s eyes widened a fraction, and he tied off the knot. “Yes?”
He strode toward me, and I backstepped, allowing him to enter his sitting chamber. He went to a pitcher of water and poured himself a glass. After draining it, he smacked it down on the table. “You found her,”
he pronounced, excitement budding in his tone.
“I found her,”
I repeated, removing my helmet and tucking it beneath my arm.
“And?”
Xannirin pressed, his eyes roaming my face, though some of his enthusiasm slipped when he noticed my expression.
I dragged in a frustrated breath and looked up at the ceiling, once again cursing the Fates.
Why now? Why when I am so close to securing the Demon’s future in Keleti, Weaver? Isn’t that what you wanted, why you blessed me with the power to call upon the dead, Giver?
Leveling a serious gaze on my cousin, I forced myself to unclench my teeth. “Call Kiira. We need her here for this.”
“Here for what? The female, she is in the palace? Did you figure out why she is essential? Or to what?”
The questions fell from Xannirin’s mouth in a rapid fire.
“Aye, she is here, and I only want to explain this once,”
I groused, fingers flexing over the horns of my helmet.
Xannirin’s face fell further. “Rokath, just tell me what the fuck is going on. Clearly it’s not good, whatever it is.”
“It’s not.”
I paused, breath coming in rapid, short succession. “She is my mate.”
The Kral of the Demon Realm’s jaw dropped so far I thought it might truly fall off his face.