Chapter 19 Alexios
ALEXIOS
For someone who prided herself on her skills of deception, I found my mistress to be exceedingly easy to read. Sometimes I thought I knew more about her than she did herself.
I knew that she’d been as close to tears now as she had been almost a week ago, when she’d realized Lachlan had invaded her thoughts.
Of all the males she’d drawn to her side, I disliked him most. It was a good thing he’d swum off before I could give him the heavy dose of sedative I’d prepared.
I wasn’t sure my vow of peace would survive seeing the panic and fear on Rada’s face for one more second.
She was so strong, and I trusted her to be able to lie, cheat, sneak, or fight her way out of almost any situation, but she couldn’t run away from her own soul, and that’s what he’d stolen a piece of. That and her privacy.
I wanted to punch the selfish, entitled prince in the face more than I wanted my next meal.
To be fair, I’d wanted to kick some sense into the warlord as well.
He was a living legend, his bravery spoken of across the continent.
But he’d fled like a coward from Rada’s side, and sulked inside his own borders instead of following to keep her safe.
Though it was obvious to me she was forgiving him already.
Why could he not see the love shining from her eyes? It was more than a match for the love he felt for her. He was only beginning to see what he’d let go, even if he’d kept the braids.
Those had surprised me. Their presence meant they were still married, of course, though I wasn’t sure Rada knew it.
Should I tell her about the gemstones hidden under the bone?
I curled my lip. Why help him find his way back to her?
He still believed she was seeking treasure and fame when she left him.
Only Kellin knew the truth. Now that one, I liked. He was quiet and intelligent, and I was damned glad I was already her valet, or he would’ve taken the spot with no trouble.
Lachlan, Kellin, and Goran. I turned the three males’ names over in my mind like the rough gems Rada liked to play with when she was coming up with a new cure. Three mates, whether she recognized them as such or not.
“Alexios,” she murmured. I turned back, catching the apple she tossed to me, the pre-dawn light only just bright enough to see it coming. “We’d better eat now. We’ll need to ride faster once the sun’s up. Goran will be on our trail as soon as the sedative wears off.”
I smirked. “Goran will have his hands full. I added one of the temple’s remedies to the warriors’ ale last night.”
“You… what?” She choked. “You poisoned the camp? When?”
“I did, and I think you were yelling out the number four?” I knew better than to tease her, but the way her cheeks went pink was worth the price I’d pay later.
She’d find some way to retaliate. “I gave them enough to make the ale bitter, but I’m fairly certain they were all past the point of tasting it.
That storm coming out of nowhere had them spooked. Superstitious lot, those Starlakians.”
“You poisoned them.”
“Not exactly. I administered temple medicine to them, and to their warlord.” She gasped.
“I gave them all a very healthy dose of the one my head priest often asked me to concoct for him when he couldn’t sleep due to severe constipation.
Goran won’t wake until noon, and when he does, he will want nothing more than to evacuate his bowels for the next three days. ”
Her laughter was every bird in the world singing at once, every temple bell chiming in the dawn breeze, every sparkling stream splashing on its banks. “How would I ever get along without you?”
“I pray you will never have to know.” I did pray that, daily. But I had a very real fear that the road we were on didn’t end in this life with us still together.
And even if Rada someday looked at me the way she had the others—Goran and Kellin, at least—I wasn’t made to be a mate for an Omega. I couldn’t satisfy her body the way they would.
And I’d taken vows not to even try.
For a moment, I let myself swim in the despair and unfairness of it. I loved this woman in the way that the seas loved the moon. Always reaching for her, moving in concert with her. Always too far to touch, and with no hope of that ever changing.
In another life, if I met her again, perhaps the Goddess would allow me to be someone better. Stronger, and more powerful. An Alpha king, or a magical creature of some kind, who would draw her eye and kindle her love. I would give everything for that.
I bit into my apple and wondered how the fruit had gotten salt in it.
A few miles later, we dismounted and let the horses graze for a while. While they ate, and after we took care of our own needs in the bushes, I decided it was time to ask one of the questions that had been worrying me.
“Are you going to tell me how you escaped the fire, mistress?” I stood behind her as she gazed out at the sea, and her back stiffened.
She didn’t lie to me, which I appreciated.
“I knew when I saw the marks on the rest of your body that you’d been burned.
Burned severely and healed somewhat. But it wasn’t the Goddess who did it. ”
She took a drink from her canteen. “How do you know? Maybe She stepped in?”
I knew for certain that wasn’t the case. “Who saved you, and what was the price? I’ve watched you press on your ribs since… No, not your ribs. There’s a spot—”
When she turned to face me, her face was flat, the expression she adopted when she was forced to kill.
I did not think she meant to kill me, though.
“Fine. In Mirren, I called on the Goddess to save me. I was burning alive, and my feet… I don’t even want to think about it.
But She didn’t answer. I knew She’d held up her end of the bargain; I’ve felt that place where She used to…
reside? Hide? I’m not sure. It’s been empty for almost ten years.
” She pressed a hand to her abdomen, a few inches below her breastbone.
“I made a bargain. The full moon will mark six months until the end of the decade I asked for.”
I knew what she spoke of. Over nine years before, she’d asked the Goddess to leave her in peace. To stop using her as an avatar, though Rada usually used the words “pet assassin.” The Goddess had done as Rada asked, or so she believed.
Only six full moons left until the bargain ended. I was hoping I could keep her safe until then. I had to.
“Anyway. I called out for help, and She didn’t answer. She’s really gone.”
The sadness in her voice, like a child who’d lost her mother, made it more difficult than ever not to tell her about the promise I’d made. Instead, I asked, “How did you escape then? Who helped you?”
She stared ahead and spoke quickly, like it would help to get the words out faster.
“There was a man who came to Rimholt when I was seventeen. He was an ambassador from Mirren, or so they said. But he was a fosterling from Pict. I’d seen him once before, when we were both children.
This time, though…Well. He ended up saving my life.
I might have saved his.” Her hand went to the pommel of her obsidian knife.
“I gave my blade to him to pay a debt, then stole it back when he stole a kiss. My first kiss.” Her lips twitched.
“Serak was tall, dark, and almost as good as I was when it came to spywork. Sneaky as fuck.”
“You liked him.” Serak. I added his name to the list: Goran, Kellin, Lachlan, and Serak.
“I didn’t kill him for kissing me, so yeah. You could say that. But I rode off to Verdan and apprenticed with Wren. He went back to Pict and… I assume went back to serving the fire god there. I hope he’s not as much of an asshole as I’ve been led to believe.”
“Who?” My mind was spinning. “Who answered you? This Serak, or—”
She cut me off. “Guess it doesn’t matter if I say it out loud now. His name’s Edan. I’ve only talked to him once, but he seems like a real piece of work. He used Serak’s voice, though.”
“A fire god. Edan. You know his name.” Suddenly, all the times she’d snuffed out every candle, or moved away from a fireplace or campfire before speaking of our missions, made sense. “You believe there is a fire god on Pict? Alive, in this world? Not just a cult of false god worshippers?”
“Yeah. I’d kinda wished that, too. But we had a chat back in Mirren. He’s real.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“You were a priest. It seemed… in bad taste. Also, I try not to think of the arserag.”
I half-wished I were back on my horse, since my knees felt like they might give out.
I’d known for years that Pict was her final goal, the last nation that would get an apothecary for its Omegas.
It had been her rush to finish her work in Mirren and travel to Pict, before her bargain with the Goddess was up, that had led to her capture.
She couldn’t go, if there was some evil god waiting there. Especially not since the Goddess couldn’t use her… I felt dizzy for a long moment, seeing the threads in the pattern for a flickering second.
Her voice brought me back from the epiphany.
“...didn’t know if he really was an evil god, or if it was just his cult followers who were twisted.
You know how people like to do awful things and blame it on their god.
Anyway, Edan has some pretty odd magic. When I was tied up and burning, I heard him in the flames. He called for Rada.”
I swallowed hard. “You answered him?”
“I swear it sounded like Serak. But I answered, and then it was like the world stood still? Except for the burning. That kept on. Serak—or whatever was using his voice—made a deal with me. If I promised to come directly to Pict, to the place he called the Alldyns Vug, he would keep the flames from consuming me. He even gave me a gift, to make sure I could travel faster.” She lifted one of her boots.
“He unburned my feet. I think he did that part just so I’d know how powerful he was. Show-off.”
“What does he want from you?” I had a sick feeling that I already knew.
She shuddered. “He said I’m his bride, that I was born for that purpose. He wants what any power-crazed evil god would want with an Omega, in a fucked-up fairy tale. To breed me.”
We mounted again in silence. I closed my eyes for a few minutes as we rode, forced to rely on the years of breathing meditation practice I had not to scream out my rage. Finally, I had control. “We cannot go to the seat of his power, Mina. Tell me we’re not going to Pict.”
“We always were,” she scoffed. “You knew that. The final apothecary, remember? I’ve heard too many rumors of an Omega camp, a sort of breeding colony.
Hells, my mother fled the place, and I’ve had more than a dozen assassins and spies over the years try to find me to take me back.
They all knew my name, where I was from, and knew about the knife I carry. ”
I sighed. She’d gotten that from a Pictish spy she’d killed in Rimholt when she was ten. She adored the blade, but it always made me feel unsettled. Something about the way the dark gems glittered on the surface, or the dark blade itself.
I’d cleaned it many times since she’d accepted me as her valet.
She didn’t need to know I’d cleansed it with sage under every full moon and washed it in blessed water from every temple we’d come across since then.
The feeling was far more muted now, though I would still prefer her to use a steel dagger.
“I understand you want to save the Omegas on Pict, if they’re there. But this changes everything. You’re being drawn there by something powerful. You’re certain it’s not the same creature from the sea?”
“Not at all! That thing had… well, allure.” She sighed wistfully.
“Allure?” Goran, Kellin, Lachlan, Serak, and… Oh, absolutely not. I started praying as hard as I could.
“Yeah, I know. He was a bit too murderous and godlike, really. But so commanding. So strong and primal. If it was a shifter, and I was free to dip my toe in? You know I like a challenge. I bet that thing would be a real hurricane in the sack.” There was a break in the trees, and she called out toward the sea.
“You’re not a shifter, are you, Ice Dragon?
” There was no answer, of course, though both of us stiffened when a hint of a cold breeze blew past.
“What in the hells?” I muttered when the breeze was gone. “Are you joking?”
She burst into laughter. “You have to ask?” Then she whistled to her horse and rode away before I could protest.
I absolutely did have to ask… and didn’t. I pressed a hand to my head and then to the sky in the sign I’d been taught before I could ever speak, asking for assurance that the ice dragon was not one of her mates. Instead of calm, I felt an undeniable sense of affirmation.
No. It wasn’t possible….
As I watched the sunlight sparkle on the dark hair of the woman I loved more every day, even as she rode away from me, I knew it was not only possible that the elemental ice creature she’d met, the one who’d tried to kill her and the Omega selkie, was intended for her.
It was probable.
Goran, Kellin, Lachlan, Serak, and the nameless beast.