Chapter 65
Valen
I escorted Belle back to her quarters, then headed to the stables, evening growing deep.
Confessing the truth to her had changed everything. My heart was lighter than it had been in decades, despite knowing we’d fail, despite the beast prowling in me, demanding to be set free.
She was the reason.
And yet I still hadn’t told her the most important part—that my time was almost up.
Why had I kept silent? Was it because I couldn’t accept the truth? Or because I didn’t want to kill the light of hope in her eyes?
It’s because you’re a fucking fool.
I snatched the reins of my stallion from the stable master’s hand, then mounted Storm and charged him out the gates and into the wooded hills. I sank into the steady beat of the ride and tried to push the woman from my mind.
I might as well try to forget my own name. She was impossible to forget, even for a second. Those lavender eyes that were so full of life. She drove me to the brink of madness, and yet her presence calmed the beast within me, just as her absence made it worse.
If there were any spark of goodness in me, I’d stay far away from her—for her sake. Everything I touched turned to ash. She didn’t deserve to burn with me.
I shook my head to clear the fog. Concentrate on Sarkis.
He was the blade at my throat, and I couldn’t let myself be distracted, not even by her.
The Crimson Host’s encampment came into view as I crested the hill.
It stretched out before me, ringed by countless watch fires.
The general had wasted no time digging in.
His men had felled a swath of my forest to expand the open hillside where they’d made camp.
A shallow ditch and ragged line of sharpened spikes ringed the perimeter.
I bared my fangs at the affront. The bulwark might slow cavalry, but it wouldn’t stop me or my beasts if that were what it came to.
Spurring my horse forward, I descended the hill. Shouts went up from the pickets as I drew close. Men with pikes and muskets poured forth. “Identify yourself, rider!”
“I’m the fucking king,” I rumbled as I reined in my horse. “Here to see the general.”
The men held their formation, but the stench of their piss and fear carried on the wind. They knew they stood no chance.
An immortal officer pushed through the barricade, blade drawn. “Let him through.”
The men parted as more immortals in red scale joined the captain’s side. “We’ll escort you to the general’s tent, but you’ll have to wait. He’s not to be disturbed.”
My fist tightened on the reins. The arrogance and effrontery of these men. No, Your Highness. No, my lord. No bending of the knee or bowing of the head.
Were they simply used to desperate lords begging for their services, or had Sarkis ordered them to treat me like a peasant, offering no acknowledgement of my title or rule?
Ignoring the well-armed immortals who closed in behind me, I rode forward, passing neat rows of tents interspersed with wagons and cook fires, and here and there, an arms master with racks of pikes and guns.
Even after a few days, the camp had gained a repellent scent: sweat, smoke, and the stink of latrines mingling with butchered meat left too long in the sun.
Men sitting at the cook fires averted their eyes as I passed, pretending to play with their food. None rose. None showed respect.
My mouth twisted in disgust. Since I’d been cursed, I’d learned to recognize the beast in all men.
These were little more than carrion eaters, scum scraped from the floors of dungeons.
A few predators lurked amongst them, brutal killers who hunted for fun.
I could see it in the way the campfires caught their eyes; they were soulless and hungry, waiting for their next kill—pale reflections of the bastard who led them.
Amongst the cannon and barrels of powder, wingbreakers lay concealed beneath the covering of fire-resistant hides.
The enormous crossbows could launch bolts the size of a man’s leg, trailing chains that would entangle wings and drag a dragon back to earth.
Had he lugged the ancient weapons all the way here simply as insurance, or had he been planning treachery from the start?
We reached a large red tent flying the Host’s black banners and flanked by dozens of guards. I dismounted and strode forward. An immortal in crimson scale stepped in front of me, a spiked war hammer raised. “The general is in a meeting.”
I shoved the war hammer aside. “He has a meeting with me. Now.”
The sentry moved to strike, but I seized his arm and twisted, snapping it.
He groaned as another leapt forward. I slammed his sword out of his hand, kicked his feet out from under him and brought the hammer down, stopping the spike of my new weapon an inch from his face.
“Whatever the general paid you to stand in my way, it wasn’t enough.
I am older than your maker and will kill the lot of you where you stand. ”
Steel sang as weapons were drawn around me, but not a soldier moved.
I released the immortal and rose. “I don’t have time for this. You did your duty and insulted my honor. Now I’m going in.” I yanked the tent flap open and stepped inside.
The general sat reclined behind a desk, hands entwined in the hair of two women working his cock with their mouths.
They jumped in surprise, but he held them firmly in place and grinned.
“Pardon me, Your Highness, I was just finishing up. I wasn’t expecting you to barge into my command tent, unannounced. ”
Lies.
His sentries would’ve alerted him the minute I rode out from the castle, and certainly the second I set foot in his camp. The women were orchestrated bullshit, just like the guards outside.
I tossed the war hammer on the floor. “It’s time we came to terms with your purpose here.”
Sarkis sighed. “Straight to business then? Are you sure you don’t want some refreshment first? I have plenty to share.” He yanked the brunette’s head back. One of the women from the village. Another intentional insult.
Fire raced through my veins. “I warned you: my castle, my town, and my people are off limits to you and your men.”
A minute in, and I was ready to mount his head on a spike. That didn’t bode well.
The general gestured to the dutifully kneeling brunette beside him, who wouldn’t meet my gaze. “These women came of their own accord.”
The other option given them had probably involved a blade.
“You’ll send any woman or man from my village back, untouched. I will give no more warnings.”
The general glared at me, then roughly released the redhead, who gave a gagging gasp as she pulled back. “You heard your king,” Sarkis said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “Get the fuck off me and go clean yourselves up.”
The women scrambled up and hurried out of the tent.
Sarkis buttoned his pants and reclined in his seat, keeping his gaze on me. “I’m surprised you came alone. Where’s your sorcerer? Your dragon?”
“They weren’t needed—or am I wrong about that?”
“Of course not.” He rose and poured two glasses of amber liquid from a decanter on the corner of his desk.
“It’s a pity, though. After hearing so much about the beast, I’m eager to see it.
My engineers are, too.” He offered me a glass.
“You never know what kind of danger you’ll run into, particularly in the cursed woods. ”
Let them try.
I glared at the glass in the general’s outstretched hand but didn’t move to take it. “You wanted to renegotiate your contract. Fine. I will give you two options.”
He set my glass to the side. “I cannot wait to hear what you think is fair.”
“Return to Eradessa immediately. I don’t care what road you and your men take, so long as it’s not through the Bloodvale. In return, I’ll pay you the remainder of your contract, plus a ten percent share of gold pulled from my mines for the next fifty years.”
He snorted. “I hear your mines have gone dry.”
My jaw ticked. Every time we’d found a vein, it disappeared—a constant tease that cost me more to chase than it yielded, and crippled my ability to rebuild the town and castle.
“Moreover,” he continued. “My men have marched a long way. They want pussy and blood and violence. I don’t think they’re leaving without a taste.”
“They can find any of those things on their way home.”
His eyes lazily drifted to where the women had exited, then back to me. “Why bother when everything we want is already here? Women. Blood. Gold.” My hand drifted to the hilt of my blade, and his eyes brightened. “Not to mention the promise of violence.”
The dragon within me surged at the challenge, and my control slipped a fraction. “The only thing you’ll find here is death. It’s time you left, general.”
Sarkis drained his glass. “But I haven’t heard your second offer yet.”
My pulse hammered in my temples, clouding my thoughts. The sharp edges of scales and horns pressed beneath my skin.
Control yourself. Prove to Belle that you’re more than the monster within you.
I forced my hand away from the blade. Too much was at stake. “A demon cursed this place. He’s responsible for the years you lost. Help me find his lair. Your men will sweep the forest, and once they’ve found it, Locke and I will destroy him.”
Or she would.
The thought of her facing the fiend made me physically ill. I’d do everything I could to keep her away from him, but I knew deep in my soul, if he were to fall, it’d be because of her. There was something still hiding within her, power yet untapped.
I felt it, but what it was, the Fates only knew.
The general laughed. “You must be mad. My men are never setting foot in those woods again.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Not even for the promise of vengeance? I didn’t create the beasts that tore your ranks apart—the demon did.”
“There’s not enough gold in your mountain, Your Highness—if there’s any left at all.”
“I’ll give you everything I offered before, as well as something of far more value.”
His focus sharpened. “Perhaps the little princess you hid away? That would be an interesting start. Her power is almost intoxicating, not to mention the luscious scent of her—”
My blade was out of its scabbard and singing midair between us. The dragon within me roared, and I tensed every muscle I possessed to prevent it from ripping free. “She’s not for ransom.”
The general’s feet slipped into a fighting stance, and his hand hovered above his hilt. Too slow, if it had come to blows—yet in the battle of words, I was losing, my desperation and attachment betrayed.
A better negotiator would have hidden how much Belle mattered, passing her off as inconsequential. But there was no hiding what I felt. The thought of his hands on her drove a tremor of rage through my body. My chest clenched so tight I could barely breathe.
I wanted to cut that knowing smirk from his face.
“You’ll never speak of that woman again,” I snarled. “Never think of her, never mention her, or I will kill you, no matter the consequences. Belle is mine.”
The word meant more to our kind than to humans, and he’d know without a doubt she was the missing scale in my armor.
“Then what the fuck can you offer me?” Sarkis chuckled. “Because other than your castle and crown, you have nothing I want.”
I slid my blade back into its scabbard. “I possess a mirror that can show you anyone you know, anywhere in the world, whenever you command. It’s beyond price, and in the hands of the right person, an unrivaled weapon.”
Sarkis snorted in contempt, hand still on the hilt of his weapon. “A king with a dragon and a mirror like that would be unstoppable, not a recluse lurking in a ruined castle. I’m beginning to doubt whether the beast is real, let alone your mirror.”
“I assure you, both exist,” I gritted. “Last night, you took four women and two lieutenants from my village to your bed. They’re still here, recovering from the scars you gave them.”
His assassin’s smile didn’t waver, but his pupils became pinpricks.
I pulled an extraction iron from the slit pocket in my doublet. The ornate ritual pliers had one use: ripping the fangs from a vampire’s skull. “I told you what I’d do if you or your men violated my terms. Do it again, and I’ll enforce them—no matter who it is.”
His fingers flexed on the hilt of his sword, and he hesitated. “I want to see this mirror.”
The corner of my lips turned up. “You can see the mirror once you’ve sworn a new contract. I’ll admit you one last time to my castle with a blood oath of safe passage to see it—then never again.”
He hesitated, his gaze interrogating every facet of my expression, every nuance of my stance. Finally, he nodded. “I need time to contemplate your offer and persuade my men. Meet me here an hour before dawn with the rest of the gold you owe me, and you’ll have your answer.”
Plenty of time for the treacherous bastard to prepare a deadly welcome. Hopefully, the allure of the mirror would keep his treachery at bay until we’d found the demon’s lair.
“Agreed.” I slipped the extraction iron back into my doublet. “As for now, I’ll be taking my people with me—all of them.”
I turned and strode from his tent. He’d stab me in the back sooner or later.
The only question was when.