Chapter 12
Rylee
A sharp clinking sounds throughout the crowded palace ballroom—the same event hall where I had my first kings’ dinner months ago.
I glance toward the floor-to-ceiling windows I’ve been avoiding all night and do my best to shut out the memory of Baydel forcing a demi to dance to his death out of them.
“Thank you.” Baydel’s voice rings from his and the other kings’ table, which is a long rectangle of mahogany positioned on a dais at the head of the room.
Other tables line the walls, piled with the finest food and drink Lumathyst has to offer, and despite being somewhat accustomed to the luxury here, it still stings how quickly they can throw an event together like this. Why can’t this much food be sent to the Ashlands just as fast?
“Thank you all for coming,” Baydel continues, a wide smile stretching his lips.
He looks regal, draped in gold, and almost approachable.
His demeanor is different than the previous times I’ve seen him—calmer, as if a weight has been lifted from his shoulders.
Just like he’d been when I woke up with him sitting next to me.
Is that because I’ve officially been Chosen, and he believes his son now holds unlimited power? Or is it another game?
Exhaustion sticks to me like a second skin, only adding to the weight of my mates’ powers. It’s hard to breathe around everything swirling inside me—their power, confusion, worry. A maelstrom of emotion threatening to take me under.
“The Choosing season has ended,” Baydel announces, twirling the crystal wineglass in his hands as he stands behind that table, looking down at the crowd of nobles spread throughout the room before him.
Some had been dancing moments before he drew their attention.
Even the musicians from the Ruby Aire, positioned in the farthest corner of the room, are silent now.
“But our festivities are only just beginning.” He grins wider, sparing a glance at the other kings seated at the table.
Jullian is watching him with a careful expression, not touching the plate of food before him.
Brooks looks calculative and bored, while Lucas is tearing into a hunk of fine bread like it’s the most interesting thing in the room.
And I can’t help it; it makes me laugh. I do my best to hide the sound, but my mates, who stand two on each side of me, flash me curious smiles.
The idea that bread is more interesting than whatever Baydel is saying is humorous. I can’t help it.
Baydel clears his throat, and the sound draws my attention.
My skin tightens when I find his gaze on me, even if it doesn’t hold the same hatred it did before the Athanry.
It’s unnerving, to say the least, and I do my best to re-check the mental doors I shoved each of my mates’ powers behind, praying the kings can’t sense them in me.
“Since we’ve never made it this far,” he continues, then laughs harshly, which beckons the crowd to do the same. “I’m sure you’re wondering what’s next in this grand process and how it will affect Lumathyst. I’m happy to say the season of the Kings’ List will commence tonight.”
Whispers ripple through the crowd of nobles. Lumathyst has never gotten this far. The princes have never chosen a mate, who then turned immortal . . . until now.
We’re all in uncharted territory.
“Let me explain,” he says, quieting the curious conversations.
“This will not only be a celebration season, packed with entertainment our possible future queen and kings will provide, but also an opportunity for the Royal Authority Council to stipulate and decide whether the princes and princess are worthy of ascension.”
My blood runs cold at the idea of a group of people holding our future in their hands. Who are they? I wonder as I take in the glittering crowd.
“The Royal Authority Council, along with myself and my fellow kings, will make a collective vote after the princess and princes have completed the tasks of the Kings’ List. And, if they’ve proven themselves worthy and win the majority vote, the four kings of Lumathyst will abdicate our thrones with confidence that we can finally rest, knowing our kingdom and its people are in good hands. ”
Interested gasps work their way around us, but I feel like I can’t draw a breath.
Royalty, nobility, they’ve always turned their noses up at me—except the Legends. And now . . . the only way the kings will pass the crowns to the princes is if we all pass a vote. How am I going to earn that when I still feel like such an outsider when it comes to the noble and royal classes?
“And don’t feel left out,” he continues. “You will also have sway with the vote. You can take your opinions and suggestions to the noble families who are on the Council.” He turns, gesturing with his free hand now. “Please, come up here so I can introduce you.”
“I’ve never seen him act like this. He almost seems . . . kind?” I whisper to Jax.
“Kindness isn’t one of his qualities. Don’t trust it,” Jax says under his breath.
I smooth my hand down his arm, feeling the tension in his corded muscle.
Five families climb the raised dais, all dressed in gorgeous suits and gowns of every color.
Each is a family with a mother, father, and daughter.
And then there’s Baydel’s personal Occuli, the one whose name I finally learned is Frenrick Coolis.
My misstep with Dalfon yesterday urged me to find out the names of all the kings’ Occuli.
I never had before because I’d been terrified of them.
It’s harder to be scared of something with a name.
“I’m sure you’ll recognize these lovely young ladies,” Baydel says to the crowd while motioning to the women on the stage.
My stomach plummets.
Mirren showed me pictures from the royal post when I asked about them before.
The previous potentials.
They’re all there, except for one. The Ari. No doubt, her lower-class family wasn’t welcome at this event, let alone a seat on the Royal Authority Council created to decide my mates’ and my future.
Shit.
“They were our sons’ previous potentials, of course,” Baydel explains, and a soft applause rolls through the crowd.
The women bow politely, smiling where they stand next to their fathers—the heads of household.
“These families are some of the oldest and most noble of all the lines in Lumathyst and have dutifully performed their roles on the Royal Authority Council for decades. They, alongside Frenrick, will ensure a fair, unbiased vote as we go through the Kings’ List and proceedings. ”
Yeah right. These are my mates’ exes.
A sharp, jealous thing twists in my chest so painfully, I gasp. The thought brings up pictures in my mind. These women’s hands all over the Legends . . . my mates—
Anger replaces the jealousy so quickly, I feel dizzy. Power floods my veins, a territorial claim demanding vindication.
Fuck.
I suck in a sharp breath, spinning to Pierce, who is closest to me, doing my best to make it look like a loving embrace.
“Breathe for me,” he whispers into my ear. “Just breathe. Feel my chest against yours. Match that rhythm. Yes, good.”
I focus on his words, his instructions, to block out every other emotion, every instinct demanding I break any hands that touched them before me.
Goddess, this isn’t me.
“Fuck,” Jax grumbles next to me, shifting closer to me and Pierce.
Jax’s door inside my soul is wide open, my emotions slicing down our bond, his power pulsing as it slams into him.
It’s a relief to be rid of even one of the consuming weights.
“Butterfly,” he whispers in my other ear.
I clench my eyes shut, not hearing whatever else Baydel is prattling on about. This isn’t me. How could I possibly be jealous of women I’ve never met before? And more than that, I wasn’t even in the picture when they were. I was with people before the Legends. This is madness.
This isn’t me.
“It’s not you,” Pierce answers the thought, and I breathe even deeper. His power has returned to him, and the lack of weight is so freeing, it’s almost dizzying. “It’s the mating bonds,” he explains as I turn to look up at him.
“How am I doing this?” I ignore the declaration, wanting to hang on to this sense of freedom. I look to Jax, too.
“I don’t know,” Jax answers. “I just feel it returned.”
“Same,” Pierce adds. Kal and Axl stay focused on the crowd and Baydel even though they’re listening to us. “Can you sense anything?” he whispers. “Did you do it on purpose?”
I shake my head, shame coating my skin. “I got jealous.”
“The bonds,” Pierce assures me with a comforting smile. “We feel it, too. It’s a natural part of the process. From my research, I’m not sure the territorial instincts ever entirely go away. But it will get easier over time. These next few months will be the hardest.”
“I might drown someone if they say they’ve been with you before,” Axl says, arching a brow at me.
Shit.
Kal nods his agreement, but it’s Jax I turn to. The most ruthless of all my mates.
His eyes are searing as they meet mine, and he shrugs. “I would’ve done worse before you were officially mine, butterfly. I have myself under control.” His voice dips. “For now.”
Heat streaks up my spine like a lick of flame. Jax must feel it, because he laughs—not his terrifying laugh, but my laugh. He drags a knuckle down my cheek. “Always surprising.”
I loose a breath, finally feeling more like myself again, and nod to them before turning out of Pierce’s embrace.
Baydel wraps up his speech, dismissing the Royal Authority Council. Frenrick grins right at me, his black eyes illuminated by a burst of green flame as he joins the party, he and his fellow Occuli likely noting everything to put in tomorrow’s royal posts.
A shiver kills all the heat inside me.
That ancient conjurer will never vote for me. He’s the same one who attacked me in the Ruby Aire library.
Dalfon, the Occuli healer, may have surprised me.
There might even be a new friendship forming between us.
And maybe I’ve misjudged the kings’ Occuli, but there’s something about Frenrick that chills me to my bones.
I suppose anyone who had worked so closely with Baydel for so many years would cause the same reaction.
My eyes flit to One, Baydel’s elite enforcer, standing guard and shadowing the king’s every move.
Yep. Just as chilling, even if I’ve never seen his face thanks to the diamond-encrusted helmet the elites constantly wear.
The Kings’ List is meant to hurt or ridicule me. That much is clear when I find Baydel’s eyes on me again, a curious sort of look at my lack of response to seeing my mates’ exes paraded around onstage.
I smile at him. What did he expect? That I’d cause a scene?
I almost did.
He always underestimates me.
“To the princes,” Baydel says, raising his glass. “And to our new princess.”
Kal passes me a glass of sparkling white wine, and I raise it along with the rest of the crowd.
“To Lumathyst,” I say, loud and clear, my eyes scanning over the crowd of nobles before I stop on Baydel.
Shock flits over his features for a moment before he corrects it. “To Lumathyst,” he echoes, dipping his head to me in a gesture that should feel kind but somehow only confuses me more.
He’s not acting like himself, at least not toward me. I don’t understand it. And I certainly don’t like it. More games, most likely, and I already have so many to play.
The crowd murmurs their cheers before taking sips, and the event segues into mingling and eating, then dancing. The wide space fills with melodic strings and piano, the mood shifting from strained during Baydel’s speech to more casual.
At least for the nobles enjoying the event.
For us?
I feel like a trap will spring any minute. Beyond the Royal Authority Council now holding our future in their hands, what other challenges will be on this list?
“Tonight’s introduction of the list and the Council,” I say softly as I eye the previous potentials making their rounds in the crowd. “A test for me, I gather?”
“And perhaps us,” Pierce offers.
“Baydel thinks I’ll be cruel to these women,” I say. “Women who are directly tied to the decision now hanging over our heads.”
“For certain,” Pierce answers, pride gleaming in his eyes. “With the bonds, we would all understand that reaction.”
“Completely,” Kal adds.
I take a deep breath, happy to find the bonds to Pierce and Jax are still light, their powers on the other end where they belong. What will I need to do to make this last forever? I shut the doors, hoping if I keep them closed with them on the other side, they won’t come back to me.
“We can go,” Axl says.
I smile up at him, then the others. “No,” I say, shaking my head as I turn back to the crowd. “We won’t be going anywhere yet. It’s a party, after all.” I gather the skirts of my dress, made of layers of red silk and tulle. “And you all know how much I love to play.”
Pierce coughs over his laugh.
Kal shakes his head with a smile.
Axl gives me an approving nod.
And Jax looks to the ceiling as if he might find assistance there.
It fills my heart that none of them argue, none of them try to sway me to go somewhere safer. They believe in me. After everything, they don’t doubt me. I hold on to that confidence as I plunge into the crowd of nobles.