Chapter 22
It took Elric a few seconds to catch up as Jessamine pressed back against his chest, her eyes wider than he’d ever seen them before.
He followed her gaze to see the man standing in a crowd of people.
Leon looked exactly as Elric remembered seeing him in her memories.
Handsome. Calm. Confident. He had the entire kingdom in the palm of his hand.
No one would dare stand against a king like that. They all bowed before him, fawning over this man on a stolen throne who had no right to all the respect they threw at him.
Elric wanted to murder the man right now. He wanted to let all of his power seep out of his body and send his shadows racing across the room. He’d enjoy watching them tunnel into Leon’s eyes, popping the orbs with a satisfying squelch.
But no, that wasn’t what he wanted. Elric had used his powers so many times to kill people that such a death no longer felt personal, and it was personal with this idiot.
He would walk right up to the king and wrap his hand around the man’s throat.
He’d use his power to make sure none of the guards could get to them, that much he would allow.
But Elric wanted to sink his own thumbs into the man’s eyes and watch as the blood poured out of his skull while he writhed beneath Elric’s grasp.
“I think I might pass out,” Jessamine whispered, and his attention snapped back to her.
All of his care. All of his worry. None of it meant anything without her.
In that moment, Elric realized that her reclaiming the throne had become important to him.
Not because he owed her or because he… felt strongly for her, but because he believed that she deserved that throne more than the idiot over there did.
“Do you want me to kill him?” he murmured in her ear, holding on to her elbows as he steered her away from the crowd that was gathering.
“No.” She paused, and then added, “Yes. I don’t know. I can’t think straight. I’m seeing black and white spots, Elric.”
“Just keep pretending you’re fine. Lean on me more, nightmare.”
He kept his hand at her waist so it appeared that she was walking in a lover’s embrace, not because she couldn’t stand on her own.
It killed something inside of him not to set her against a wall and then rush back in to destroy the man who had harmed her.
He’d never wanted to hear someone scream in pain more than he did in this moment. But he had someone else to look after.
Jessamine’s breaths were coming in little pants.
Even though she was trying her best to keep her face from showing her distress, he could see through her paper-thin skin how fast her heart beat.
Her heart thundered against the back of his hand where it was pressed to her ribs, and he could practically feel the panic rolling off her body.
Her jaw was clenched so hard he feared she would crack her teeth.
But worse than all of that was the fear in those dark eyes. The way she looked at him to help, even though both of them knew there was nothing they could do in this moment.
Leon was here, and there was nothing either of them could do about it. They’d walked into a trap, he was certain of it, and their opponents had wanted Jessamine to see that Leon was unfazed by her return. And it killed him that he couldn’t help her more than simply removing her from the situation.
Growling low under his breath, he couldn’t help but send a small wriggling shadow to cause problems. It sank into the skin of one of the performers, a man so well-endowed that Elric wondered if the gods themselves had blessed him.
That performer immediately started bothering Leon.
First by hitting on him, and then later he would just follow Leon to remind the king that even though he might have a throne, he would never have as impressive a weapon as that performer.
A satisfied snarl twisting his face, Elric ushered Jessamine to a more private space. A guard stood in front of a hallway, farther away from the party and certainly easier for them to hide in.
“No admittance,” the man said, bored with his job and having said those same words far too many times. “Go back to the party.”
Elric blew in his face. But his breath was a thick black sickly smoke. The man inhaled it before he knew what he was doing, and by then Elric was already in his head.
The bored expression changed to one of stupor as the man shifted to the side and let them pass.
“You saw nothing,” Elric hissed.
“No one has come this way,” the man repeated.
And then Elric moved the two of them toward a room he had seen the first time they’d snuck in here. A room that was private, cozy, and somewhere that Jessamine could catch her breath.
The furniture here was plush, with such depth that Jessamine sank into the cushions as he set her down on the bright yellow couch.
It was far too light in here, still. There were so many sconces that the entire room made his eyes burn.
With a harsh crackle of a spell, he sent out his shadows to take care of those flames.
One by one, they blinked out of existence until there were only three still flickering.
It enveloped the room in a sense of privacy that they had yet to find in this place.
His magic created a dark bubble that only contained the two of them. He sank to his knees before her and lifted her shaking hands to his lips. “Nightmare,” he murmured against her skin. “You are safe with me.”
“I know,” she whispered.
“Are you sure you know?”
Jessamine only managed a stilted nod in response, a surefire sign that she was not, in fact, certain.
“Do you know what I wanted to do to him?” he asked, his voice low and murmuring in the stillness.
“If you had given me even the smallest permission, I would have sunk my claws underneath his skin. I would force his soul to remain in his body so that he had to feel every bit of me skinning him alive. I would peel his flesh from his body, bit by bit. I would make him watch as I removed every single one of his organs, leaving his heart for last, which I would place in between his jaws so that he could taste his own death as I finally allowed him to move into the next realm. And then I would keep him there, in that realm of darkness you have seen, and I would do it all over again. Over and over until you said he had been punished enough.”
Those shaking hands stilled in his. “You would do that for me?”
“All you have to do is ask,” he breathed, before pressing a kiss to her knuckles again. “I’m on my knees begging you to ask, Jessamine.”
Her fingers curved in his grip, coming up to set against his jaw, where she held on to him like he was the last stone in a stormy sea.
“I want to take my throne the right way. I don’t want to release you upon this realm like another plague, because no one will ever trust me again.
If I am the queen who wields a god, then this kingdom isn’t mine by choice, but by force. I will not become him.”
Clapping from the doorway startled them both. Elric whipped around, his hands already poised to spill shadows on the floor and attack whoever dared look upon them.
But it was a woman in the doorway. A shapely figure outlined by a wave of light.
Dark hair flowed in a waterfall to her waist. Her clothing clung to her skin like it was soaking wet, and still it moved in a soft hush as she strode into the room and closed the door behind her.
Her hair swayed, the bells on her wrists jingling just barely enough to entice those who might be listening.
She was a creature made for pleasure. A dangerous, wild thing who had only one thought on her mind. Power.
Fortuna Beaumont turned to them with a sinister smile on her lips and venom on her tongue. “What an interesting way to gain back a kingdom, Jessamine. But you always did want to feel valued, even when you weren’t.”
This little bitch. She was alone with them now, and Elric could kill her so fast that no one in the room would know what had happened. He could catch her spirit in the other realm. Perhaps she would be more inclined to answer their questions there.
But Jessamine put her hand on his shoulder, and he stilled all those murderous thoughts. He was here to serve his queen, after all, and if she wanted him to stop talking, then he very well would.
“Fortuna,” Jessamine said, her voice pitched low in case anyone else was listening to them. “You have to know this is a terrible idea.”
“What’s a terrible idea?”
“Everything that you’re doing. Working with Leon? He killed my mother. He killed me.”
Fortuna shrugged. “He’s killed a lot of people, Jessamine. And you and your mother were both very much standing in my way. I had no reason to save either of you when he brought up that plan.”
Jessamine’s fingers clenched on Elric’s shoulder. “You knew he was going to kill us?”
“He tells me everything.” Fortuna headed to one of the other plush seats and perched herself on the arm. “I knew he was going to kill you, yes. I knew he was going to overthrow the entire kingdom, and I knew I had tied myself to the man who would be king.”
Elric couldn’t prevent the growl that echoed in his throat. “Not for very long.”
The woman looked at him, her dark eyes so similar to Jessamine’s that they were eerie to stare into. “Down, boy. Your handler is clearly telling you to let the women talk.”
“You speak to a god.” He couldn’t quite believe this woman was so daring with her responses, but then again, he had seen the choices she’d made in her life. She thought she was untouchable.
Fortuna sighed. “Yes, yes. Jessamine has caught herself a god while I have caught a king. I’m curious what your plan even was, Jessa.
You thought you would raise a god from the dead and somehow control him?
You do realize the Deathless One is uncontrollable?
Soon enough, he’s going to get too far off that leash you’ve been keeping him on, and then all of a sudden you’ll realize that he always bites the hand that feeds him. ”
He could feel Jessamine shaking behind him. Her fingernails sank into his shoulder, but he needed the pain to ground him.
He hated these people. They thought so little of him, of her, of all the people he had protected his entire life.
Fortuna was a prime example of why he’d chosen to become a god, even though it had been violent in the process.
People like her deserved to be punished.
People who thought money measured their worth. People who confused justice with power.
He had taught such people centuries ago that strength came from magic, and those who were considered the weakest were the quickest to draw blood.
Fortuna watched the two of them, her eyes missing nothing.
She blew out a long sigh and shook her head.
“The two of you think this is going to work, don’t you?
You think that it’ll take so little effort to overthrow him and then…
what? What are you planning to do with the kingdom you take back?
Jessamine, you are so underqualified to run a kingdom.
You didn’t know half of the things your mother did, and even before you died you didn’t want to. ”
“It is my throne. I survived death itself so I could take it back, and you will not be the one who stops me.” Jessamine stood, her dress coiling around her body and the ribs expanding with her breath.
“You are just a stepping stone, Fortuna. The fact that you have aligned yourself with Leon Bishop is a sad one, but it changes nothing.”
“Doesn’t it? Because he has all of my tools at his disposal.
I knew the moment you came into my district where you were, what you were doing, and where you were going.
Even if I hadn’t, your little bird breeder couldn’t wait to tell me everything.
” Fortuna looked down at her nails, fanning her hand out before smiling down at the gold tips.
“You never were as good as me, Jessa. It only takes a few needling jabs and you’re quaking.
Just look at you! What queen shakes when she’s afraid? ”
“Someone who cares,” his gravesinger spat. “Someone who knows that there is more than just pride that affects what we are doing here. The people in this kingdom need someone to save them.”
“And that person is going to be you? With what? A god who hasn’t been alive for centuries and three witches who are so far beyond cooked they have no idea they’re even in the pot? Your plan is so full of holes.”
Jessamine shook her head and took a step so she was beside Elric. He stood with her, looming over both women with barely leashed tension.
But he could see his Jessamine was no longer afraid.
She looked at the other woman with contempt and something bitter twisting her mouth.
“And to think, for a few moments, I wondered if you were reaching out to me for help. If you let me come into this house and see this party because you wanted me to get you out from under his thumb.”
Elric stared at Fortuna, willing there to be some emotion other than disgust on her features, but there was nothing. Fortuna just looked disappointed.
So, they had been wrong about this viper. She was someone’s pet snake, one who would bite before it accepted any help.
“You always wanted to see the good in people,” Fortuna said, standing as well. “But you never understood that some people just aren’t good, Jessa. Sometimes, they’re here to gather as much power as they can and explode into the stars. You always stood in my way.”
“Because what you wanted was wrong.”
“Maybe to a weak mind like yours. But if you want to know what Leon is up to, you’ll have to follow me.
” Fortuna reached into her pocket and snapped a fan open, gently casting the breeze over her face before shrugging.
“I don’t think you’ll be able to find me in the crowd, and certainly not without your god.
But if you have the guts to face me alone, then maybe I’ll tell you what Leon is up to.
What do you think? A little race? Just like old times. ”
And with that, she turned and bolted.
Elric only had a moment to crinkle his nose in confusion before Jessamine darted after the other woman.
“Jessamine!” he shouted, forgetting that they were trying to hide. But when he followed her, the two women were already whipping around the corner of the hall and nearly out of his sight.