Chapter 84
Valen
I stepped back from Belle, my mind spinning from the shock she’d just delivered. “What are you talking about? Locke?”
She grasped my hand, unwilling to let me escape. “I know you won’t want to believe me, but for the sake of the Fates, please trust me. Locke is behind everything. He’s the demon. His appearance is just a mask—little different from the one you wear.”
“You’re mistaken.”
“I’m not.” She pulled me close, her eyes desperate. “You need to listen to me right now. Locke has been playing you like a marionette. He knows I know, and he’s coming here to silence me. You can’t trust a word he says.”
Belle’s pulse was drumming as fast as when Sarkis had attacked her, and the scent of her fear had the beast in me clawing toward the surface.
She shoved a little leather book into my hand. “This is the journal of the bride in the ruined chapel. She knew Locke. She rejected him in favor of the king, and he cursed the castle. That’s where it all began.”
A thousand thoughts crashed through my mind, all warring for control. Could her claim possibly be true? Locke was my closest councilor. He had been for decades.
“He’s a bastard, but no demon,” I said. “I would’ve sensed the corruption in his magic.”
Her lips pleaded and her face strained with terror. “I don’t know how he’s masking it, but I need you to trust me.”
“I trust you,” I said, my fingers digging into the book she’d handed me.
She raised her eyebrows expectantly. “But…?”
The word sank into my gut, a twisting accusation. Of course, she knew there was a but. She saw the truth. I was a bastard, unworthy of her trust.
I wanted to yank her close and tell her I trusted her without hesitation. Instead, I stood there, as frozen as the statues in my castle, unable to find a response that wasn’t a complete betrayal.
I was paralyzed by cowardice, by what the truth would mean. My fist knotted. Be a better man. Be the man she deserves while you still can.
She grabbed my arm. “I know what you’re thinking: that I must be mistaken, that what I’m saying makes no sense, that you’ve trusted Locke longer than anyone. It doesn’t matter. Right now, our lives depend on you trusting me.”
“I wouldn’t,” Locke said.
I spun, my hand dropping to the hilt of my blade. He stood there in the private passage that led to my mountain lair. My senses had been so overwhelmed by her presence, by her terror, I hadn’t heard him come in.
Thundering protectiveness fell over me, and I threw myself between them. “What is the meaning of this?”
“I’d like to know as well,” Locke said. He clasped his hands behind his back and approached, his eyes burning with suspicion. “I went to speak to Lady Marquette at the reception, but she fled.”
His pulse didn’t miss a beat. He was casual. Aloof. Unconcerned. A stone breaker, unyielding against the storm of emotion emanating from the woman across from him.
Belle stood her ground. “I know what you are, so let’s stop playing games.”
Accusation burned on her lips, and her body quaked. Truth or not, she believed every word she was saying.
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Locke’s brows furrowed, and he glanced between us. “So, one of you please enlighten me.”
Her gaze never left him as she spoke. “You’re the demon. You’re the one who cursed this castle. Who cursed Valen.”
“Have you lost your mind?” Locke laughed. “What’s your game here?”
“The truth is in your hands, Valen. Read it.” Her voice held steady, but every word was charged with fear. The artery in her neck drummed with a frantic pulse, her terror sharp on my tongue.
Hesitantly, I opened the book. My fingers stilled. “There’s nothing here.”
Her eyes dilated and her shoulders tensed as her eyes flicked in my direction. “What are you talking about?”
The ancient pages crumbled into powder as the journal slowly disintegrated in my hands. “Maybe there was writing once, but this book hasn’t been legible for centuries.”
“No…” she whispered. “I saw it. I saw what she wrote, and what he did.”
Locke grunted, angling his head in suspicion. “Or perhaps you simply saw what the demon wanted you to see? Has he been giving you visions? Do you hear his whispers?”
“No!”
Had there been hesitation in her voice? A fraction of doubt beneath her certainty?
“Is it possible?” I asked.
Belle’s fists knotted with rage, and her head snapped to me. “I saw the truth.”
Her look tore me open like a scythe, guilt pouring out like blood.
Locke’s expression darkened, and his gaze narrowed. “Perhaps it’s not the demon behind her lies, but King Cassius…”
An ember of rage flickered at the sound of my brother’s name.
Locke stalked toward her. “Did Cassius send you here to sabotage the kingdom we’re trying to build? What’s he planning?”
Belle backed herself against the wall. Her magic pulsed through the room. The table and bookcases shook, the books and objects on them vibrating in agitation. “Stay back.”
Before I knew what I was doing, I seized Locke’s shoulder. “You heard her.”
His placid calm broke, and he jerked away from my touch. “She’s twisting your mind. Lying to you.” Locke turned to face her, his voice dripping with venom. “She’s no different from Lady DuBois. She knows the most vulnerable part of an immortal is his heart. She’s been playing you this entire time.”
The accusation lanced through my armor, tearing open ancient wounds. Jezebel. I’d been blind to her ambition and treachery, certain she loved me, until the moment I’d unmasked her.
“That’s not true,” Belle pleaded, her voice raw, tears glistening behind her eyes.
My throat clenched. Belle was different. She had to be. Or was I so far gone that I could no longer tell truth from lie?
Locke glared at her. “Let me collar her and drag the truth from those lying lips. Then we’ll see who she really is.”
“No,” I snarled, moving between them. I knew who Belle was. She’d shown me a hundred times.
Belle’s eyes widened. “That’s the answer.”
She yanked the dagger from my belt, then sliced her palm and flung herself to the side of the room, slapping her hand against the wall. “Sirael, show us who Locke really is!”
The mirror appeared in a flash of light, then stone and mortar cracked as it ripped free of the wall, hurling itself into the room.
It hovered before us, and my breath grew still. Half of the fractured surface showed a man. The other half, a demon—tall and hunched with antlers bursting from its brow.
The shock of it hit me like a lance to my chest. That was why the bastard had avoided the cursed thing all this time.
Locke cracked his neck and smiled. “Clever little bitch. I guess it’s a new game now.”
I swung around, striking straight for his heart.
Locke moved impossibly fast, seizing my wrist and twisting my arm. Pain jolted through me as bones snapped, then the world turned upside down as he hurled me to the ground.
Surprise rocked my thoughts. Impossible. He’s just a human.
But of course, he wasn’t.
Locke loomed over me. “And you thought you were stronger all this time. You haven’t witnessed a fraction of my power.”
Belle flipped her hands up, and the desk hurtled across the room.
Streams of green magic billowed from Locke’s palm, sparks ripping into the desk and tearing it into splinters.
He laughed. “You two are nothing compared to what I’ve become. What your suffering has made me.”
I was a fucking fool. I should’ve believed her and killed him the moment he stepped through the door. Instead, my doubts had condemned us both.
Protect her.
I surged to my feet, blade free, and fury driving me.
Smoke and lightning lanced into me, slamming me against the wall, my weapon clattering to the floor.
My ribs cracked with the pressure of the blast, and the room blurred with pain.
I shoved it down and threw myself forward, but my body jerked as his magic pinned me to the wall with crackling chains of light.
Belle screamed. The bookcase tore free of the wall and flew toward Locke, but he deflected it away with a blast of his own cursed power and pinned her against the wall with his hand.
She kicked and fought, but he pressed against her, so close that his lips were brushing her cheek. “From the moment I laid eyes on you, I knew you’d be the one to break him for me.”
I roared, my tendons tearing as I strained against the prison of his magic. I’d strip the flesh from his godsdamned bones before I was done with him.
Belle’s magic yanked my blade from the floor, but he deflected it with a blast of green lightning.
“It’s a shame,” Locke said, sniffing her neck like he wanted to taste her. “So much power wasted. And so much potential left untapped. Perhaps if you’d practiced, if you’d learned to control it…maybe you would’ve had a chance.”
I heaved against the bonds of Locke’s magic, roaring with rage. “Release her!”
The dragon within me uncurled. Claws burst from my fingers as my wings strained against the skin of my back, and the stones cracked behind me.
Belle twisted toward me, horror in her eyes. “Don’t shift! Don’t let him have you. This is what he wants.”
“He won’t have a choice.” Locke raised his hands, and the balcony doors swung open.
Tendrils of his magic wrapped around her and lifted her off her feet—then she flew forward through the open doors. For a second, she hung in midair above the courtyard, suspended by the streams of his power.
“No!” Scales rippled over my skin, and my growl shook the walls.
Locke grinned. “Time to choose, Valen. Kill me or save your princess.”
The magic bonds chaining me released, and I staggered forward.
Belle’s eyes went wide. “Don’t—”
She dropped.