Chapter 15
Arrow
“What would destroy the human?” Azarn asked, stopping his pacing, and leaning a shoulder on a carved bedpost in my room. “Since you kept her caged for some time, Arrowyn, you must know the key to breaking her spirit.”
Shifting my weight on the mattress, I sighed softly, but kept my face as blank as I could manage with my own fucking knife sticking out of my chest.
The king’s mages had sealed the wound, preventing my life force from seeping out, but the blade couldn’t be removed safely without assistance from Taln’s healers. I hoped they’d arrive sometime this fucking century. I was beginning to think Azarn wanted me to die while I waited for them.
Weak from blood loss, I struggled to focus on the Fire King while rehearsing a careless tone in my mind before I spoke. Leaf’s life depended upon Azarn believing I was indifferent to her fate. That I didn’t care about her. But nothing could be further from the truth.
“Why the need to destroy her?” I asked. “Mere hours ago, I thought I heard you declare her as your son’s intended bride.” An event that would only occur over my dead body, I added in my head. “I destroyed your most loyal of courtiers, Gorbinvar the blacksmith, not the human. I don’t understand your obsession with her.”
Unfortunately, I did understand, for I shared his passion quite thoroughly. But instead of wanting to ruin her, I needed Zali Omala to be mine, safe for all time, and recognized as such in all realms, by all beings, fae or human.
I was the ruler of the Light Realm, High Lord of the Gold Accords, and Azarn was nothing but a petty thief. Without question, I would prevail, and soon, my Aldara would be free.
Azarn pushed off the bedpost and resumed trekking back and forth across the floor rug, his black-silk robe whipping the air behind him. “The girl is a future queen,” he said. “I use the term queen quite loosely, of course, since she belongs to the most despicable race ever to inhabit the realms. Due to her reaver blood, she holds power over the gold trade. The disgusting creature attempted to kill my own envoy at your court! The sooner Zali Omala and her people are exterminated, the better for all fae kingdoms. Coridon included.”
I very much doubted that.
In truth, what Azarn really meant was that he couldn’t bear to let a human girl have the upper hand, to possess greater control over the gold trade than he would ever have. Fortunately, for all the kingdoms of the realms, Leaf was no power-grabbing oppressor. Her heart and intentions were good. Benevolent even.
But regardless, I needed her back in Mydorian, safely cloaked by the reavers, where neither Azarn nor I could get my hands on her.
That was my goal. To save her from all fae—myself included. More than anything, Leaf wanted to be free, and I would stop at nothing to give her that gift. But deep down, I knew when the time came to leave her in Mydorian, I would never have the strength to let her go. She was my one vice, my fatal addiction. I would never give her up.
So if that made me a hypocrite or an asshole or both, so be it. I’d gladly wear the title.
“It seems the Earth Princess, a tiny scrap of a girl, has gotten under your skin,” I said, shivering and pulling the bed sheet to just below the knife jutting from my chest.
“She’s aligned with the reavers, related to them by the blood in her veins. I would rather see that blood soak the ground and the gold trade control returned to the fae kingdoms alone.” A laugh shook the Fire King’s shoulders as his cheeks flushed red. “Of course I mean returned to you , Arrowyn. And I will be beside you, always supporting your efforts.”
Losing count of the lies pouring from Azarn’s lips, I struggled to suppress a sneer of disgust.
Azarn’s dreams were simple, obvious, yet impossible to achieve. One day, he hoped to control Coridon. Or at the very least, my auron kanara. But without their feathers, the reavers’ blood couldn’t convert to gold. And even if the Sun Realm annexed my land, to keep the birds alive, he’d need lightning magic and lots of it. And for that , he needed my cooperation.
Azarn was in a bind, but too blinded by greed to notice.
Over the years, the Sun Realm had stolen both kanaras and lightning weavers from my kingdom to conduct illegal experiments on. But even the traitor Esen, a strong lightning wielder herself, couldn’t keep many birds alive for long without my presence.
I alone tethered the lightning weavers’ magic to the source. And more importantly, through my bond with the Zareen of Auryinnia, I was the source.
Coridon’s pact with the reaver elves held the key to not only retaining power, but to maintaining balance in the realms. Reavers were unable to create lightning themselves, but when the Zareen gifted each new Storm King with wings on his crowning day, bestowing him the power of magical transference, he then boosted all Light Realm fae’s power. None more important than the lightning weavers.
If the true measurement of dominion in the Star Realms was the amount of gold a fae controlled, then the Zareen was the most powerful being of all. Azarn was either oblivious to this eternal truth or had chosen to dismiss it as mere rumor.
More fool him.
Carefully gripping the hilt of the knife—the last place Leaf had graced me with her near-fatal touch—I breathed through the pain of her lack of faith in me and addressed Azarn again. “If you hate humans so much, why deal with her brother? He was the very worst of the species, vain and weak, an untrustworthy fool who deserved the poetic justice of his end. Killed by his own twin sister.”
At the word twins , Azarn blanched. I thought of Melaya and Nukala, wondering if recalling them had disturbed the Fire King for some reason.
He waved his hand in a dismissive gesture. “Quin Omala was a gold-addicted moron who was easy to manipulate.”
My stubble rasped as I scratched my jaw and pretended to contemplate options for weakening my Aldara. Whatever I told the Fire King needed to sound plausible, convincing.
“In answer to your question, Azarn, most of all, the human despises being humiliated. Feeling powerless. If I were to feed off her, I could drain her slowly, weaken her will and make her malleable to your needs.”
Azarn’s brow rose in interest. “What would justify such an occurrence? I’d prefer my wife not to be alerted to our schemes.”
“You tell Estella that to fully recover from my injuries, I must feed daily from my Aldara. If necessary, sometimes twice a day. Although, I’ll do my best to feed as infrequently as possible. The process is… distasteful.”
“Why did you mark her in the first place, then?”
“For the same reason you have her here in Taln. To maintain control of the gold through her blood connection to the Zareen.”
“Since she tried to kill you, Arrowyn, I don’t imagine she’ll comply without a fight.”
Remembering what dissolved my little human’s formidable resolve— lust —I would make damn sure she did.
I gave Azarn an indifferent shrug and gritted my teeth against the pain of my next words. “You’re her current master, so order her to submit.”
The Fire King’s crown of flames wavered, almost sputtering out as he slumped into a chair and thumped the back of his head against the headrest. “Fine. I’ll have my scribes write up the decree. Go ahead and do what you will to her. Or at the very least, do what you must. Break her if you wish. My mages should be able to put her back together. And if not, you and I will enslave every reaver alive, and then share the gold trade profits for as long as it suits us both.”
Share? What bullshit. Azarn didn’t plan to share a single gold feather with me. Leaf was only alive because he hoped to use her to control me. As much as I wished for the opposite, the Fire King wasn’t a complete fool. I had to play this carefully and convince him she meant nothing to me.
“Of course, your… visits must be supervised by my guards, and they will hear everything you say. Proceed carefully, won’t you?”
Stupid of him not to realize I had a very good way around that.
I laughed. “So distrusting.”
“Can you blame me, Storm King?”
He had a point. “No. If I were you, I’d do the same. And I don’t mind your guards attending. They’ll cause her greater humiliation, which will only enhance the process for me. I don’t mind performing in front of others.”
A knock sounded at the door, then on Azarn’s barked invitation, two healers entered my room. Without speaking, the tall female jinn, with coiled braids of fire writhing like snakes around their shoulders, proceeded to remove the knife from my chest and stitch the wound with magical threads.
It took all of ten minutes, and Azarn watched their every move, likely praying I’d drop dead during the procedure.
The healers’ work instantly recharged and restored me, but I feigned otherwise for benefit of the fire fae. The more they underestimated me, the better.
Azarn left soon after, bidding me goodnight and leaving me to relive every moment of today’s battle with Leaf. Being close to her again had filled me with euphoria, but at the same time, it was frustrating as fuck to realize she didn’t trust me and claimed not to love me anymore.
But one thing was certain; she still wanted me. And badly. The perfume of her desire had wafted from her skin in heady, drugging doses.
While in the Fen Forest, if she’d asked me to do anything, anything at all, I would have dropped to my knees and proclaimed myself her servant.
Thrashing my head against the pillow, I groaned, my blood burning in my veins the way it did whenever Leaf was nearby. Images of her dilated pupils, the black swallowing emerald-green irises, and the erratic pound of her heartbeat as I’d trapped her against the tree drove me insane.
I needed her safe. Wouldn’t rest until she was out of harm’s way. The trick was to achieve it without looking like I gave a shit.
My thoughts spiraled into darkness, fear for Leaf trembling through my limbs. Where was she now? Was she safe? What horrors would the Fire Court inflict upon her now that she’d won Azarn’s events? And fucking Bakhur had better stay away from her, or I’d rip his curl-blessed head off his neck.
Like a sudden flash of sheet lightning, my glyphs activated and burned the way they did when Leaf was near. Could it be…?
No, not possible, but still I froze and breathed softly, quietly, watching shadows and waiting. Feeling the air snap and sizzle and buzz over my skin.
Ever so slowly, the door cracked open, just wide enough for a small person to slip through the space. A Leaf-sized gap.
A fire geyser exploded outside the window, the light bathing the room in crimson. My blood hummed exactly the way it did whenever my Aldara was close enough to touch.
Shock drummed my heart against my ribs. “Leaf?” I croaked out as I pushed my weight onto my elbows, then climbed out of the bed. I spun slowly on my heel, my eyes wide and my skin prickling with awareness.
Leaf was in here.
I could fucking feel her.
But how? How the fuck did she activate her reaver’s cloak with Melaya’s block in place?
Scanning the room, I saw nothing unusual, then suddenly my blade vanished from the nightstand. She’d picked it up, her cloak absorbing its visible form.
I cracked my knuckles and willed calm through my veins. Then breathing slowly, I strolled toward the room’s arched window and leaned on the stone frame, looking out across the fire fae’s kingdom. Ancient stars glittered in a black sky, the darkness below broken by the city’s flickering torches and the odd fire geyser erupting.
Counting heartbeats, I waited for her to make a move.
One. Two. Three. Then four, five, and six.
Still nothing happened.
At the count of ten, I felt it, a disturbance in the air, my human’s scent peaking—a little different now. The notes of sweet apples and midnight-flowering auron roses were tinged with something darker. A little bitter. Fear. Anger. Desperation.
Whipping around, I reached out blindly and latched onto her wrist, hard , so it would fucking hurt and stop her in her devious little tracks.
She hissed, and I wrapped an arm around her, crushing her body to mine as I searched for the knife hilt, seized it, throwing it across the floor while she bucked against me, like a trapped, unbroken filly.
I backed her against the wall, sliding my hands up the familiar paradise of her curves until my palms braced her face. “If I could only see you, little Leaf, this moment would be perfect,” I whispered. “Instead, sadness fills my heart.”
A bolt of pain struck, and I spat a curse, my body jerking against the agony.
“Poor Arrow. Are you sad that you couldn’t see my knee strike your groin?” she growled.
“I’d very much like to see any part of you touch me.”
Capturing petal-soft lips, I pressed into their moist heat and kissed her. My body shuddered as if the power of a thousand storms rolled through me. She opened to me, sighing, and then, gold save me, moaned like she’d missed my touch. Missed me .
With each desperate kiss, her invisibility cloak flickered, and parts of her body became visible. Tonight, she wore a black tunic embroidered with flames and a Fire Court cloak. Not my cloak. Not the one I’d given her before I left Mydorian.
I caught a glimpse of her lashes fluttering like moth wings on the dusky hills of her cheeks, the shine of her skin, glowing with health. She’d been paler on that terrible day I left her in the Mydorian forest.
I’d wanted her so badly. Longed to take her with me. To never let her go. But instead of following my heart’s desires, I’d listened to the voices of caution—Raiden and my Sayeeda.
A moan wrenched from my chest, so loud I almost missed her command to stop. Although it nearly killed me, I stepped back, still gripping her shoulders as her cloak flickered on and off, like a malfunctioning glamour.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
“The invisibility is wearing off. I must go before someone finds me here.”
Wearing off? That was an odd way to phrase it.
I nodded as my thumbs twitched on her collarbone, my fingers curling tighter. “It’s probably for the best.”
“Arrow, stop squeezing me like a Mydorian forest python. Let me go. I’ll come back another night and have a third attempt to murder you.”
“Third? I’m certain your count is higher.” I gave her a wry smile and forced myself to take another step backward. “You must be disappointed to find me still alive, then.”
“Yes. And sad to learn a knife to the chest couldn’t kill you.”
“Mm. Must strike the heart, I’m afraid. Right in the center. And very deep . You’ll need to use all your strength for the task.”
She walked to the door and opened it, then glanced over her shoulder as I called her name in a plea, a prayer for mercy. “Leaf, wait a moment. Please. Are you all right? Have they hurt you?”
Green eyes widened in surprise or annoyance. “I’m fine.”
“Then expect me in your room tomorrow night,” I said, hoping I’d see a flash of something other than hostility in her features.
“Why?” she asked, frowning harder.
Pain worse than when she’d plunged my knife into my chest tore through me.
“Why? Because I’m trying to help you. Please, listen to me. I must—”
“I’ll never believe another word you say, Arrow,” she said, the door clicking shut with such fuck-you finality she might as well have slammed the damn thing in my face.
I slumped on the bed, resting my elbows on my knees and clenched fists tugging my blood-streaked hair.
Why? Why did she have to be so stubborn?
Cracking my neck, I rose from the bed and downed three glasses of water. Then wasting no time, I got dressed and hurried to the smaller of Taln’s three taverns, where Raiden and Zaret preferred to drink.
I had to prepare them, warn them that my human was still hostile, disbelieving.
And about to run headfirst into disaster.