Chapter 2 Together
~ MELEK ~
I had to drag Yilan back to my locked chambers to keep her under my eyes because, despite her assurances, I didn’t quite trust her not to go after Istral immediately. In the process, I discovered her bristling silence was far worse than her hissing fury.
As soon as we passed through the wall where the shadows were thick in the palace corridor, Yilan released that sickening power she had to keep us invisible, and my vision no longer blurred at the edges.
She released my hand as well, and began to pace the floor, eyes unseeing of the luxury that surrounded us.
My old chambers in the palace had been held for me—a fact I found curious. We had made them our hiding place when we were forced to be here.
While Yilan’s feet sank into the thick carpet, her face remained twisted in fear and disgust.
I stood aside to let her walk off some of her frustrated energy. No one knew we were here. My chambers remained locked and dark from when I’d left them, when we embarked on our mission to conquer the continent. God… that seemed like a lifetime ago now. I grimaced, and ran a hand through my hair.
I had other hiding places outside the city, but for now, we needed to be close to Gall and Istral—and Jann and Diadre.
So, Yilan shadow walked us here every time.
We’d agreed to remain in darkness, lighting no lanterns.
Not even a candle. We never spoke aloud in here, in case a passing servant overheard.
The city whispered rumors of my presence. I couldn’t afford to give them any reason to believe I’d already infiltrated the palace.
Keeping my steps silent was easy on the thick carpet.
Ignoring the molded plaster and rich tapestries of my former chambers that felt so ostentatious after months in a tent, I stalked across the plush sitting area to the bathing room, where I could fill an empty wine bottle with water.
When I returned to the sitting room, bottle in hand, I watched Yilan continue to pace, as I poured us both glasses.
Yilan took the water I offered, but her grim expression didn’t change. The cloying nausea she felt at what we’d just witnessed seeped into me through the bond, turning my stomach too. We both drank, and she paced. I waited, though we didn’t have much time.
The Advisors would escort Gall and Istral to the royal chamber, and there would be a pompous demonstration of offering them food to keep them sustained, and drink to smooth the path to their union.
They’d be in company for another hour, at least. But once they were alone…
neither of us wanted to interrupt what would naturally come after they believed they were in privacy.
We needed to be there, and ready, waiting for the Council to leave so there was no chance of interrupting.
My mate needed a moment, though. We walked a fine line…
‘He called her pure… undefiled. Was he posturing for the sake of the others? Or do you think it’s possible he doesn’t know about her past?’ Yilan muttered in my head, her eyes remaining on the carpet, her lips pinched thin.
‘Who knows? It could have been for the sake of the ritual, or he could believe it’s true.
Regardless, our plan doesn’t change.’ We’d already had evidence that Lucifer didn’t know everything, and yet, we’d been unable to pin down any pattern to when and how he appeared, or came to know the unknowable.
Could he read thoughts? The easy answer was yes.
At least, some. Yet, clearly he couldn’t hear all of them, or he would have discovered Jann’s duplicity before now.
My brother insisted he was extremely careful not to reveal motives or think about his planned betrayal in the presence of the Fallen, or anyone loyal to them, but, still…
I swallowed a growl. There were too many unknowns, and too much at stake to—
‘He spoke of her like she was some kind of… talisman,’ Yilan sent, still referring to Lucifer and her sister, Istral. ‘As if she held some kind of power.’
‘The rituals are designed to impart power. That’s was the point of the sacrifice and the sigils. The entire ceremony was drawing dark power towards her and her offspring.’
Yilan shuddered. ‘That place… could you feel it? Walking the shadows there was like wading through tar—easy to disappear into the black, but it didn’t want to let go. I’ve never felt anything like it.’
I nodded. ‘I felt it. Perhaps not as clearly as you. But there was something in the air down there.’
Yilan took a deep breath, then stopped pacing to face me. ‘I can’t leave her here, Melek. She’s utterly helpless, and surrounded by an evil so dark I can’t even fathom it.’
‘She’s not the only innocent party here, Yilan. We can’t leave either of them in his hands.’
Her lips thinned and my heart clenched when it took a moment for her nod. When she finally did, I let go of a relieved breath. She returned to her pacing while I watched on, uncertain whether to press her or not.
I knew she loved Gall, and had done everything she could to take him safely to her people, even when it was at risk to her own safety.
She’d defended him even when he resisted me.
But she’d struggled with accepting the mate-bond between Gall and Istral when it was revealed—afraid for her sister’s well-being.
Still, she’d come to embrace it. Grieving when the pair were kidnapped—we thought.
When she heard the rumors of Gall as king, she’d insisted it couldn’t really be him.
That somehow, Lucifer had made another man appear to be Gall.
But, since the first time we’d seen Gall kill a man with some dark power and own his crown, Yilan struggled to believe he remained the soft, sweet boy he’d always been.
I hated watching him now. Knew he’d been manipulated, and was likely in the grip of some kind of fear.
Yilan’s visceral reaction to what she saw in him here was, in part, unjust. Gall had been raised a Nephilim.
Our culture was brutal. I’d never denied otherwise.
While my son had never enjoyed bloodshed, or given in to the bloodlust and frenzy so common among our kind, there was no doubt he’d seen enough of it in his young life to be more inured to it than Istral—who’d been coddled and protected even from the Shadekin’s puritan culture.
Of course, I’d learned the hard way not to use the word coddled in my mate’s hearing.
While I understood why Yilan struggled to trust that the heart of the good Gall still beat in that thick chest, we’d conflicted more in the days since we’d arrived here in Valgorath than at any time before—which was saying something.
My mate was a fiery, fierce woman, who rarely took a backwards step from a fight—and never from me. But these days had tested us.
‘Yilan?’
‘What?’
‘Perhaps I should talk to Gall alone… then you speak with Istral? When we know more about what’s actually happening behind closed doors?’
‘No.’ Her tone left no question that there would be further discussion on the matter.
I raised a brow. She stopped pacing and folded her arms. ‘I won’t run off, Melek.
I’ll listen and we’ll figure this out together.
But it has to be together. Istral isn’t the only one I worry about.
You’ll need me to reach Gall. And Istral should be with him. No… we’re both going.’
‘You can’t let your anger make you take risks.’
She bristled and looked away from me, her jaw flexing. But a moment later she nodded. ‘I know. That was just… that place… it seeped into my skin and—’
‘We’re going to get them both out of here. Together.’
‘But… how?’
Yilan had taken us behind many closed doors, but her power wasn’t endless, and we didn’t always know where the pair would be.
We still hadn’t found where Lucifer hid Istral away, when she wasn’t with Gall.
That was the biggest frustration of these past days, and the point that caused Yilan the most fear.
She wasn’t accustomed to others being able to hide from her, and I knew she feared letting her sister be hurt.
I suspected Lucifer spirited Istral away—literally. That wherever she was held, wasn’t a room that could be reached in this realm. But we had no proof, beyond the ongoing searches turning up nothing.
That fact just left my mate even more on edge. Every moment spent outside of her sister’s presence, was a moment her fear increased.
‘I need to talk to Gall, to see how far gone he is. I can feel him, Yilan. He’s still there. But something has shifted. I just pray that he’s not so fully surrendered to Lucifer, that he can’t be influenced.’
‘If he can’t? If he attacks you?’
‘I’ll defend myself,’ I sent shortly, letting her see the warning in my eyes. ‘I’m not hurting him though.’ We’d had this discussion countless times, and it was the primary bone of contention between us.
I’d vowed to my son, who’d been abused, rejected, abandoned, and minimized his entire life, that I would never hurt him. Never use my strength for anything but his protection.
‘Melek—’
‘I’m not doing this again, Yilan. The conversation is over.’
She huffed, dropping her hands to her sides, but clenched to fists. ‘What if he draws a blade? Or calls for the guards? What then?’
‘Then we’ll deal with whatever needs to be dealt with. But I’m not attacking my son.’
‘For the sake of a vow made when he was a child, you’d let him take you from me?! From your people?’
‘Of course not!’
‘But—’
‘My word is worth nothing if I break it the moment things get difficult.’
‘Difficult? Melek, it could be the difference between your death or his!’
‘Then you pray that I’m right, and it doesn’t come to that. That the Gall we know and love is still in there. That he still loves me—and you. And that this entire picture we’re seeing is only his naivete and confusion at work.’
‘What if it isn’t?’
I scowled. ‘We’ll cross that bridge when we reach it.’
Yilan sighed. I bristled—but suddenly the fight went out of her. She stared at me in the half-dark of this unlit room, her eyes pleading. ‘I feel like the future of every person I love—and that’s you most of all—hinges on Gall’s ability to see clearly. And that’s… that’s terrifying, Melek.’
I didn’t like admitting it, but I couldn’t deny that I felt the same way. ‘That’s why we’re praying.’
Yilan grimaced, but nodded. Then, rolling her shoulders back and lifting her head, she walked straight to me and wrapped her arms around me, leaning into my chest and tipping up her chin to meet my eyes.
‘Together, right?’
I tucked an errant strand of her hair behind her ear, then nodded. ‘Together. Always.’
‘Promise?’
Cupping her precious little face in my hands, I held her piercing gaze. ‘I vow as deeply as I ever vowed to my son, that you and I will walk this path together, Yilan. No matter where it takes us.’
Her eyes softened and she nodded, then leaned up on her toes to kiss me briefly.
‘Then let’s go save your son and my sister, and pray those fucking Advisors have finished their sick teasing before we get there.
Because I’m tempted to lay an invisible blade to the balls of the next one who looks at my sister like she’s a sweet to be devoured. ’
I sighed and nodded. Then took her offered hand and prayed for exactly that every step of the way through the shadows of the palace.