Chapter 24 #2
Heka twists the dove’s paper neck, however, breaking it, and in the same motion, transforming it back into an inanimate piece of parchment.
He smooths it out, placing it down onto the table.
“Monster,” I hiss.
“Everybody is a monster in their own way.”
“Talk for yourself,” I mutter. “Did these side effects turn you into an asshole?”
“That is a subjective descriptor,” Heka replies levelly. “I would never have allowed the little prince to have been so sloppy when I was his tutor. The side effects are more like daytime illusions. Those missing dreams force themselves onto you through hallucinations. It would break a weak mind.”
“Not yours then?”
When he bares his teeth, I’m not sure if it’s meant to be a smile or a threat. “I’m the smartest vampire mage in Sheut. Mine was probably already broken.”
Okay, not what I was expecting.
I glance toward the door.
Could I make it? The shifter side in me feels close to the skin. But I am still not as fast as a vampire, even a scholar like this one.
“You don’t need to be frightened of me.” Heka saunters around the table, and I press my back to it.
Fear surges through me, and I force myself to keep my breathing steady.
I don’t want to trigger my pinion feather to thinking I am in peril and have a half asleep and confused Daire dragged through a portal to protect me.
“It is an honor that the future Queen has come to visit my special House of Life; almost no one does. Also, it is an honor because it means that my ex-student has spoken about me. What has he said, hmm? Was he pleased with the bracelets that I created for him?”
I nod.
So, Heka craves admiration and respect for his brilliance and magic, even if he doesn’t care about the rest of the court.
I can work with that.
I’ve come to think that Alphas have a greater praise kink than Omegas.
Or possibly, simply bigger egos.
“He was impressed.” I smile, allowing my hand to fall from the hilt of my dagger. “They work to stop Dove’s skin burning.”
“I knew it,” Heka declares, puffing out his chest.
“Lanlin wondered, however, why you hadn’t made more progress on removing the iron or the mask,” I add, casually.
“I mean, he did say that he knew how fucking hard the problem was to solve. Don’t panic.
He didn’t blame you. It’s just that he thought you were smart enough to have worked out a solution. Oh, well.”
Heka’s expression clouds for a moment, before he snarls. “I am smart enough. I’m the only person in the realms who has cracked a way to combat metallicum magic. But the prince—”
“King,” I correct.
“He is sentimental and led by his knot. He does not know just how devastating that fae’s magic would be when unleashed. Is he truly ready to know the truth? I can’t be responsible for being the one who unleashes him on this kingdom.”
Then he falls silent like he knows he has been goaded into saying more than he intended to.
He doesn’t know about Daire’s disguise and secret identity, right?
“Have a thing against fae, huh?” I attempt to reach for the talisman again. “Dove is a featherglass. Your King knows that already and kicked his arse when they sparred. Even if you free some of Dove’s magic, Lanlin can destroy entire armies — Dove isn’t the one with the deadly magic here.”
Heka’s lips slowly curl into a smile. “I see why he is attracted to an Omega like you. Clever thing. What are you trying to reach behind your back?”
“Nothing,” I say too quickly.
“This?” Heka snatches the glinting object off the table.
Then he holds it up between us.
I can feel the powerful magic thrumming off it.
Spellbound, I study the tiny stone.
It is smooth, dense, and dark as the Void. It has been shaped like a scarab beetle.
“It is a lodestone, also known as the Bone of the Gods.” Heka turns it over repeatedly, allowing the fire from the torches to catch on its sides, before laying it on his palm like it may come alive and burrow into his skin.
“They have fascinating properties, I have discovered. They fall from the heavens to be experimented on by me. I am the god within these walls.”
“And what did you discover?” I ask, cautiously.
“That these pretty little stones have magnetic properties, and with just the right tweaks…” He tosses the stone beetle over onto its back.
Now, I can see a sequence of ancient hieroglyphs — magic — scrawled across it.
“…it can be turned into a secret talisman to battle against cursed iron, silver, or other metals. I call it anti-metallicum. Funny how something so small may have the power to rip apart cursed chains.”
“This could truly undo Maximinus’ magic?” Excitement rushes through me.
Is it possible?
This could be the secret weapon that Aurelius needs to take down his uncle and then transform his court, kingdom, and every other realm like he has promised.
“I can hear by the fast beating of your heart how much you want to get your wolf paws on this magical talisman. My talisman.” Heka slips the beetle into a hidden pocket in his kilt. “But it is still at the experimental stage.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning,” Heka’s eyes gleam, “that I don’t yet know how well or consistently it will work. If you unwisely used it now on your fae, then he would risk pain or death.”
“Who have you been experimenting on then?”
“As much as I love your inquiring nature, maybe that’s one question that you don’t want the answer to.”
Nauseous, I eye the exit again.
Heka turns back to the table, engrossed in another parchment. I skulk past him, making for the doorway.
“You know, Queen KalaKant and her court often kept fae for their beauty,” Heka says without looking up.
I stumble to a stop, clenching my jaw. “Also, for the taste of their blood. I was never interested in sex or any of the pheromone imbalances that others call love. I use Blood Lovers for my hunger and ruts because I must survive, nothing more. But still, when I was a young vampire, I was once persuaded to taste a captive fae out of curiosity to see if the blood truly did taste like nectar. And it does.”
“Good for you.” I stalk to the door without looking around. “Why don’t you tell Lanlin that story when you next see him?”
Hopefully, Lanlin will tear off the raven starver’s sick head.
“The taste isn’t the important part of the story,” Heka continues.
“The fae was restrained in iron that burned him, and his weeping made the whole experience of feeding from him most unpleasant. I understand that they sometimes need such treatment to learn to behave. But it’s most uncivilized.
I realized that day that I prefer subtler methods.
As a scholar, I studied them. Then I taught them to the court.
Attention by someone superior, false affection, isolation, conditioning with exhausting study, rituals with little to eat but paired with soft words of praise and reward, all work better to train animals. ”
The blood drains from my face.
Slowly, I turn to face Heka.
He’s talking about the Blood Lovers.
Is that what Daire experienced?
Yet is he also talking about Lanlin?
Everything that Lanlin told me about his tutor floods into my mind.
…When I bit him the first time, he didn’t hit me back. He calmly said, “I will prove that you’re safe with me, my Prince. Also, how to turn those fangs into weapons against your true enemies…
Heka used those methods on my Alpha.
He made him feel seen, understood, and accepted in a way that no one else did. He called him my prince, when no one else acknowledged that he was royalty.
It meant so fucking much to Lanlin.
Yet it was merely part of a tactic of false affection and soft words by a narcissistic waste of a knot who saw him as an animal.
My throat is thick with tears to remember the genuine warmth in Lanlin’s voice when he spoke about Heka, which wasn’t there when he mentioned his family…his mom.
Was Lanlin ever more than an experiment to his tutor? Had Heka felt a shred of warmth or love for him?
Except, I already know the answer.
Please, don’t let Lanlin find out the truth.
Is Heka hoping that I will tell Lanlin? That it will sow discord between us because I’m attacking his favorite tutor?
If he’s arrogant enough to believe that Lanlin would side with him over me, then he’s seriously overestimating the power of his methods. Lanlin would rip out Heka’s tongue if he spoke badly about me or claimed that I was lying.
Yet is it worse than that? Does he know that I could never tell my Alpha this truth without shattering him?
That I never will?
Suddenly furious, I pull out the Night Sky blade and turn around. I launch myself at Heka.
Taken by surprise, he only has time to twist back to me, before I am pressing the blade to his throat.
Heka’s eyes are wide with alarm. “What are you…?”
“Don’t you fucking dare think that you can talk about my Alpha like that to me,” I growl.
The knife is resting against the diamond collar that Lanlin bought for his old tutor.
I crave to slice through it — destroy it — fucking wreck this symbol of his unearned status.
Except, that would give away to Lanlin that something was wrong.
And I don’t want to take away his one good memory from him.
That would be too cruel.
Heka’s chest is rising and falling satisfyingly fast like this is finally an outcome that he couldn’t predict, which isn’t something that happens to him often. “You didn’t see what he was like when he was given to me to tame him. He was feral. A little monster.”
I press the knife hard against Heka’s throat, until the blood beads.
I also use the movement, along with his gasp of pain, to mask my hand slipping downward, as I pickpocket the Bone of the Gods from him.
I slide the tiny beetle from his pocket into mine seamlessly.
Vampire mage does not beat wolf thief.
“Lanlin believes that you’re the one person who didn’t treat him badly.
” I meet Heka’s wide eyes. “He holds onto the time that he spent with you as his happiest memory, which is fucking sad. Yet that’s the only reason I’m not cutting off your paper dove murdering head or telling your King what you said about him.
But don’t ever call him a monster again. ”
“Why are you so emotional? He would agree with my assessment.” Heka arches his brow. “Lanlin Sin knows what he is. He always has. It’s why his own brother carved the words into his flesh.”
Bile rushes up my throat. “Sobek. Is that why Lanlin attacked him and scarred him back?”
“Would you like that to be the story? Would such a narrative make him less of a monster?” Heka’s smile is coldly cruel.
“That feral creature attacked and scarred Sobek, his own brother, first. It is why Horus carved those words onto him. Here is some advice, my future Queen, if you wish to rule or even survive in the Blood Court. Don’t make the error of thinking that just because Lanlin Sin has been gentle with you so far, you are safe. ”