Chapter 3 #2
Malach had no love or respect for humans, but I didn’t fear him as he couldn’t be bothered with our kind.
This one…this one was far more dangerous. He saw me. And as one who collected the information, we needed to stay safe by hiding in plain sight, a demon with this much power truly seeing me?
Was terrifying.
The king’s hand found mine as he drew me out of the curtsy to stand in front of him and, for a moment, the world slipped away. I barely heard the music over the beat of my own heart hammering as if it would drum its way out of my chest.
His eyes dilated ever so slightly, darkening, as his thumb brushed slowly across my knuckles, the callused pad pulling across my softer skin.
Imagining that single finger elsewhere on my body.
Fire.
He was fire, and he would burn me to ashes and cinders if I was not very, very careful.
I took a ragged breath, his eyes dropped to my breasts but before I could speak, he dropped my hand.
And turned to Kami offering his hand to her instead.
“Well then, I shall start the introductions. Will you dance with me…?”
Her eyelids fluttered down. “Lotus, First of the House of Lotus and Glass, Your Majesty.”
And just like that, they were gone, out onto the floor, the crowd making way for them. They did make a beautiful couple, her with her pink gown and long blonde hair swirling with each turn, her skirt sliding up to show how very little she was wearing.
I moved back from the dance floor, not sure exactly what I was feeling. Such a strange sensation to have in my chest. A servant went to go by, a platter of drinks balanced on each hand.
“Harald,” I put a hand gently on his shoulder, gesturing to the two mottled green glasses in the mix of clear goblets. “May I have these?”
Harald blushed to the roots of his hair. “Those are just water, Lady Innia.”
“Even better, my friend.” I squeezed his shoulder gently.
Touch was forbidden between human males and human females.
The Fallen did not want us breeding our way into overpopulation.
But Harald had been on that first boat with me, Feather, and Tulli.
And we’d made sure when it had come time for his castration, he was missed.
He’d never forgotten it, and had taken to keeping an extra eye out for all three of us.
I took two of the green glasses and took a sip from one, the single cube of ice within it bumping against my lips. The single cube of ice was tantalizing as I thought of rolling it across my face, and across the back of my neck.
Anything to ease this sensation the new king had drawn out of me. “Harald, you’re working directly for the new king?”
“Yes.” His voice lowered. “He is not like the other one.”
“No, I don’t believe he is. You’ll come to me with anything…interesting you might hear?” I asked quietly, leaning close
I might be gone before he had the chance, but just in case I didn’t get another shot at Aristotle and had to stay another day or two, I would need eyes and ears on the new king just in case anything changed that might affect my plans.
He almost bowed to me but settled instead for dipping his head forward. “Of course.”
“Thank you, and be safe, Harald.”
I wish I could’ve said more. Told him of my plans, or even taken him with us, but there was no point. Stealing a servant directly from the crown was too brash and foolhardy, even for me. It had been enough all those years ago to risk keeping his body intact, and we’d almost been caught then.
He turned and left me standing there, alone in the shadows as if I wore the clothing of the Briar Queen and not that of Innia.
I looked over my shoulder at the new king dancing now not with Kami, but with Tulli. I could finally make my move on Aristotle, then.
That was good.
Strange that it did not feel good, not in the least.
My stomach turned, souring as I turned my attention back toward my intended target. He was a few yards away, leaning against a pillar, looking bored out of his skull as an elderly demon prattled on about the price of good meat these days.
Perfect.
I set my empty glass on the squat table next to me and cupped the other almost reverently, pausing for the briefest of moments as I flicked a thumbnail against the catch of my flower ring.
Some nights, it held a draught that would fell even the heartiest of demons, and give them such erotic dreams, they’d wake up certain it had all been real and at the hands of one or more of my Doves.
This night, it held essence of belladonna.
Certain death.
But just as I was about to tip the contents into the glass, a searing heat seemed to cut through me.
Goddess be damned.
My cheeks flamed as I turned to find myself locking eyes with none other than Gabriel, the Demon King.
Again.
Surely, he didn’t know that I and the Briar Queen were one and the same.
Could he?
He strode from the dance floor and arched one brow in my direction. Panic clawed at my throat.
Did he know what I’d been about to do?
Impossible.
He had been thirty feet or more away from me, and the lighting was dim. My movements had been nearly imperceptible…
But there he was, moving toward me like I was a magnet and he was steel. I set down the glass, snapped the ring shut and slid my hand down to reach for the knife strapped to my thigh.
I stood zero shot of killing the beast, but I would go down fighting.
Adrenaline buzzed in my veins as he closed in.
Ten feet.
Five.
And then…
Right past me. “Harald! A drink for your king, if you please.”
Harald turned and offered the last goblet on his tray before bowing so deeply, he nearly hit his head on the stone floor. “Your Majesty.”
My body was shaking like a leaf as I forced myself to look up and stay my hand. Clearly, I was paranoid and, once again, invisible. The king had been looking right through me to Harald and his offerings.
“My loyal subjects…no! My friends,” King Gabriel boomed, a wide smile on his lips. “It has been my true honor, but the time has come and I would leave you this night.”
He held his goblet high as two Doves I didn’t recognize sidled up to flank him, both staring up at him with nothing short of adoration in their eyes.
They were younger, the pair of them, newer to their positions and I wondered distantly if he would have chosen Vinta had I allowed her to stay.
“Rest well. For tomorrow, the true work begins.”
He slammed the drink back and scooped up not one, but both girls, carrying them one under each arm. Then, his wings erupted for a second time—an impressive display of power in itself—and he launched himself upward, carrying both girls with him toward his apartments on the top tier of the caves.
I refused to gasp, I refused to stare, I refused to let my jaw drop.
Refused to let the feeling that had been growing since he turned from me be anything but irritation.
Because jealousy…that was impossible. He represented everything I despised. And worse?
He’d ruined all my carefully laid plans. I’d only just met this bastard and hated him already. But I couldn’t quiet the little voice in my head…
So why can’t you shake the heat of his touch?
I stared into the mirror in my small bedroom for far too long.
First with the ring on. My skin was smooth, my nose maybe too big…
my eyes too small? The scar at my hairline was barely visible, and only if I looked directly at it, knowing it was there, could I see it.
My ears did not stick out particularly far, but perhaps they were too large?
In the years I’d been here, I had never cared about how I looked as long as the Fallen saw only the thing they wanted to see—a prize, a possession.
Not the mind behind it all, the hidden weapon I’d made myself into.
If I was going to pull myself apart, I could see the flaws, the asymmetries. The color of my hair was rich, my eyes a stunning amber that glowed not unlike that of a cat on the prowl. But the dress did not show through to my naked skin.
I touched my face, lifting it slightly along my jaw. “Perhaps I am getting too old for this already.”
Feather sat on the bed, watching me with her one eye. “All because the king did not dance with you? You are not normally vain, Mari.”
I frowned and wanted to say… “Feather, he danced with every single Dove at least once, then he left with two of the girls.”
But I did not.
“Hopefully Tulli will have gathered something from her two dances with him. It would be good to know if he will be busy with matters of the court these next couple of days so I can try to make a move on Aristotle before we go.”
I slipped off the ring and put it back into the box near the others. For some reason the magic of the rings only worked on me, and for that I was grateful, and used it to my advantage.
All the other Doves thought Innia very skilled with wigs, with the coloring for eyes shifting from what you could purchase from the herbalists like some of the other girls did on occasion.
I slid the box back under the floorboard where only I, Tulli, and Feather knew it lived.
Tulli slipped through the door, shutting it behind her. “Tulli did gather some information.” Her smile was immediate. “He asked me who the woman in the full cloak and hood was.”
Feather laughed and threw a pillow at me. “See, he just wants the Queen we already have, instead of a whore that anyone can have.”
I caught the pillow and tossed it to Tulli. “What else?”
Tulli sighed and slid to the floor. “Nothing much, asked me where I gathered the stones for my hair, asked me about my childhood, of all things.”
I did a double blink, a slow, chilling sensation like an icy wave rolling over and through me. “About your…what did you tell him?”
“Only that I was taken young, with my sisters and brought here.”
I scrunched my eyes shut. “And did you tell him who your sisters were?”
Tulli snorted. “Of course not! I told him that my sisters had died. That I was alone. Mari, what is wrong with you? I know the story, as do you and Feather. I could repeat it in my sleep. Boat. Sisters died. Became a Dove. Greatest aspiration to be a full consort of a lovely Lord.”
I put a hand to my head, my knees weak.
Of the three of us, Tulli was the most impulsive and I feared that one day her mouth would get us into real trouble. Even more of a reason to be done with this place sooner than later.
Feather touched my arm gently. “Mari, what is wrong, truly?”
How did I tell her that the king frightened me far more than Malach? Malach, who wouldn’t have hesitated to kill any of us did we give him a whisper of a reason–at least I knew what he was. This new king…I could not read as I could Malach. “I am just out of sorts.” I took her hand and squeezed it.
I reached for Tulli and she took my other hand. Holding their hands with me at the center always felt…safe. Like, together, the three of us could survive anything. Maybe even the trip out of this hellhole.
But it needed to happen soon. Before this Gabriel truly found his feet as king.
Because something told me if we didn’t?
I’d spend the rest of my life–long or short–regretting it.
“Tomorrow, late morning, we head to the shops to finish preparing for our journey,” I announced, surer than ever of my path. “Tomorrow night, I sneak into Aristotle’s house and kill him in his sleep.”