Chapter 25
CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE
The evening of my wedding had passed in a whirl of simpering nobles and conniving courtiers. I could not leave the festivities, nor did I really join in them. My…husband had forced a single dance from me then murmured a promise in my ear that this elevation would see me become queen.
I found I cared nothing for the promise of the title even as he held it out before me like some titbit to tempt a monster.
I knew what would come next. He thought I’d help him seize that crown. He thought I’d take part in the bloodshed his claim would require so that I might secure myself that position.
And that was precisely why Dragor had unleashed me.
He wished for me to hunt Cayde now because he’d been unable to stop my marriage to his brother and had found no way to turn it to his benefit.
So he wanted me gone until he decided if he might still have use for me, or if he would kill me himself.
I knew him well enough to understand that those were the only options he was considering for me now.
And as I moved around the dance floor or endured the gushing courtiers, I felt his eyes on me, that decision spinning over and over within his mind like the roll of a dice.
Though of course I knew Dragor wouldn’t mind finding a reason to rescind that star vow either. So I had played my part and done exactly as promised. I raised no objections; I caused no scenes.
But my thoughts weren’t in this room of grandeur and political intrigue. They were racing through the sky with a Dragon who had walked out on me.
I didn’t know what Bastian was thinking. We’d made no oaths to one another, nor ever spoken of the tether which seemed to keep drawing us back together.
My thoughts lingered on the press of his mouth to mine but he had made no attempt to kiss me after we’d left that place of hellish design. Nor had we spoken about it since.
So we had no promises binding us. But still I felt the tangled knot of guilt inside my stomach growing with each second he chose to remain away from my company.
“I’ve had your things moved to my chambers,” Prince Evard spoke into my ear and I whirled, resisting the urge to pull a dagger on him and instead cutting him with the sharpness of my smile.
“And I suppose that’s where we’re headed now?” I replied, contempt on each syllable though none but him was close enough to hear it.
Evard smirked at me. “Yes. Though don’t fear – I still have no intention of bedding you, wife of mine.”
“I had never thought you wise before this moment,” I said because I would not be fucking Prince Evard this night or any other. Our supposed marriage could stand unconsummated or be dissolved for all I cared.
“Let me guess – if I tried to put my cock in you, you’d have returned the penetration with one of your own? But your tool of impalement would be a little more metallic and pointy?” he chuckled at his own joke and I arched a brow at him.
“I would never threaten a royal,” I said innocently, though we both knew he’d been correct in his assessment.
“And I would never be foolish enough to underestimate you, Vesper Aquila.”
I fought against the curling of my lip at the name and thankfully he didn’t seem to notice it. It was one thing for me to refuse to bed him, quite another for me to admit that I found the idea of being an Aquila repugnant.
“Come,” he said loudly, offering me his arm and drawing the focus of several courtiers. “My chambers are quite large – you’ll find there are multiple beds for you to choose from for our wedding night. And several hard surfaces too, if you prefer.”
I snorted in amusement, taking his offered arm and letting him guide me towards the exit.
“Oh, you wouldn’t be able to handle what I prefer,” I purred.
I could feel Dragor’s eyes burning into my spine as we strode from the ballroom but I didn’t give him the satisfaction of looking back.
I supposed if one good thing had come from Evard’s surprise wedding it had been that my prince hadn’t been given enough time to follow through on his threat to make me join him and his wife in their bedchamber before it.
I wasn’t sure what lengths I’d have gone to in my refusal of that command but it might have gotten bloody and made a true traitor of me.
Guards swarmed at our backs as I allowed Evard to lead me deeper into the palace, away from Dragor’s wing and towards the north side of the sprawling building where his chambers were located.
I said nothing about the crowd of Fae Evard kept close for protection but I didn’t much like having so many eyes on me.
When we reached his rooms we had to wait while his guards went in and inspected them, which I did…until I didn’t.
Evard tried to catch my arm as I stalked through the opulently decorated doors which had been cast in iron and set with rubies depicting the outline of a Sphynx – Evard’s Order form, but I evaded him and strode on in.
The guards were busy searching the closest rooms and I glanced at them as they checked behind doors and in the shadows beneath beds, using their magic and Order gifts to aid them.
“Do you always have so much protection in place?” I called back to Evard who hesitated by the door then muttered a curse and followed me inside.
“It is a precaution. In times like these there are many who would profit from the death of an Aquila. You’d do well to bear that in mind.”
I scoffed. “You think I haven’t spent my life wary of assassination? You do know who you’re talking to, don’t you?”
He eyed me for a long moment then shrugged. “We aren’t all as capable of defending ourselves as you, my dear.”
“You were trained for war and have fought in many battles, haven’t you? You lead an army, even if it is the smallest of the four–”
“Small does not always indicate weakness,” he interrupted me. “As you should know well.”
He earned a true smile from me for that then I shrugged and turned away from him, heading further into the sprawling wing of the palace which was reserved for his use…and mine now, I supposed.
“Anyway, I am more of a tactician as you know well and I long ago stopped risking my life on the front lines. My army are hand-picked for their attributes and carry out tasks which the forces of my siblings would be incapable of. I know my worth, as does my father, and I am far better suited to plotting from the rear than charging into battle at the front the way Laurena, Roarson and Dragor do.”
I nodded in acquiescence. I knew enough about him to appreciate the truth of his claims. He was cunning and clever in warfare and stood out among the siblings for those qualities.
The guards moved with us as Evard kept pace with me, a clunky, mouth-breathing, heap of shadows at our backs. It really wouldn’t do.
“This isn’t going to work for me,” I pointed at the crowd of ten guards who were less than six paces behind us and I stopped so abruptly that they stumbled and tripped into each other as they hurried to halt too.
“You get used to it,” Evard placated.
“No. I’m worth every one of these assholes put together and more in a fight. You don’t need them this close when I’m with you.”
Evard ran his eyes over me then nodded once. “That is true. Assuming you aren’t the threat.”
“Oh,” I purred, my gifts coiling from me as I sought out every underlying desire to flee from me in the room and tugged on them.
It was harder than focusing on the most forefront desires of my targets but I’d been practicing with the subtleties and found this game quite easy now.
Besides, all Fae who knew me feared me – at least a little.
The guards gripped their weapons and straightened their spines.
Evard alone stood without reaction but his pupils dilated as the desire to defend himself from me struck him.
“If I were, you’d already be choking on your own blood, husband.
And don’t think a handful of guards, or even an army of them would be enough to save you from that fate if I chose it for you. ”
I let the disquiet in the room build for a count of three then dispelled it just as suddenly as I’d called on it, giving the man who had dared to force my hand into marriage a predator’s grin.
Evard assessed me for a long moment then snapped his fingers at the guards and pointed them toward the exit.
He didn’t have to say a word and they all hurried to obey, scurrying from the room like rats abandoning a sinking ship.
“Can you tell if there is anyone else in my chambers?” Evard asked me.
I made no effort to disguise my boredom at the question and sighed before I answered.
“The only desires I can feel coming from this side of that door are your desperate ambitions to seize the throne when your father passes into the afterlife and my desperate ambition to leave this place and go on the hunt for my enemy. And now that I’ve played the part of the willing wife as my prince requested, I’ll be off to achieve that goal. ”
I turned to walk away from him but Evard caught my wrist.
A dangerous move if ever there was one.
I gave him a single chance to release me, my warning nothing more than an arched brow.
Evard smiled, his eyes bright with calculation. “I know you seek to kill the man who secreted himself among our people and murdered your sisters-in-arms when revealing his true nature.”
I stilled, surprise halting my escape. No one in Stormfell knew of the things that had happened back at Never Keep besides Bastian, who I was sure wouldn’t have spoken a word of this. No one but me and Dragor, unless my prince had lied about that too.
My hand fell to the dagger concealed beneath my skirt and Evard shook his head.