Chapter 40 – Vale
VALE
The shackles fell from my ankles, allowing me my first free breath in two days. Through the material of my pants, I’d endured the iron’s insistent burn during the journey to Kuro. And although the burn was dimming now, and would soon be completely gone, I still felt trapped.
Rhistel continued to bear down on my mind, seeking to keep me harmless and weak and demoralized. As if losing my soulmate mark hadn’t already done that. For many turns, I’d longed to see a mark on my skin that bound me to another.
Now that reminder of my love for Isolde and our connection was gone, just when I feared I would need it most.
Rhistel dragged an ungloved finger over my bare forearm, reinforcing his magic which was wholly unnecessary.
He was in control, and because we were blood and I’d been his test subject many times, once his connection took root he did not need to touch me to give commands.
Perhaps that was the case with everyone he used his whispering powers on now.
I only knew for certain that he’d grown stronger since the last time I’d been a practice subject.
And yet, I did my best to resist my twin.
Like when he’d forced me to tell him about when my mate and I got our marks.
I’d kept the secret of Dergia, a place most believed did not exist. If Rhistel had learned that secret, he would have interrogated me.
Would have demanded to know more about the lost kingdom. That would have put them in danger.
“When you reach the deck, you’ll say you two were healing down there.” Rhistel freed Thantrel from his shackles and gripped Thantrel’s forearm. Thantrel shuddered, and I knew Rhistel was reinforcing his hold over my half-brother. “You were injured during the attack on House Ithamai’s castle.”
“Your crew will believe that rubbish?” I asked.
Rhistel laughed. “They take to heart what we tell them.”
Had he warped their minds too? How many people could Rhistel hold in his thrall at once? Or maybe the crew simply feared him and would listen to save their own skin.
My brother led us up top. Fresh air heavy with salt filled my nostrils as I emerged into the light and blinked in the midday sun.
Kuro rose behind the docks. Pelted with rain, the capital of the Mage Kingdom looked as bleak as ever. Not that I had been here often. I had only stepped foot on this eastern island twice. Once in Kuro, and once in the north—that time without the knowledge of the Mage King.
“Walk with me, Vale,” Rhistel whispered as we disembarked. Magnus and the Shadow Fae, dressed in an inconspicuous black robe, waited a ways down the dock. “We must appear brotherly.”
He turned to sneer at Thantrel. “You remain three paces behind. And put those wings away. They draw too much attention.”
Thantrel glamoured his fire wings to be invisible and fell in line.
Not for the first time since our capture, a fresh wave of worry crashed over me.
Than was not practiced at being at a whisperer’s mercy, and hadn’t developed protections, no matter how small.
Rhistel could, if he were so inclined, severely damage Thantrel’s mind.
Mine too, for that matter, though I doubted that would happen.
The king and Rhistel wanted to show others that the Warrior Bear returned to fight with House Aaberg. They wanted me to command an army to fight my mate’s forces. Hence, I needed to be recognizable as me, and not some mindless creature.
“Father,” Rhistel said when we approached the king. “érebo.”
“They’re ready?” the king asked.
Answer him. Call him your father.
“We’re ready, Father,” I said, my voice flat.
“You need to work on his tone.” The king turned his back on me. Together, he and the robed Shadow Fae walked to a waiting carriage.
We followed, two paces behind, and Rhistel turned to me again. “Does your hand still hurt?”
My jaw tightened. “Not physically.”
Rhistel cocked his head. “I wonder if she felt it too? If she still does?”
He asked with such bald curiosity. He didn’t care in the slightest if Isolde experienced every bit of my pain. The idea made me ache. What was Isolde thinking?
“Will she come for you, like you did our mother?” Rhistel asked as we stopped at the carriage.
That would be my mate’s first inclination. As it would be mine to find her, if she’d disappeared. But I hoped that Isolde and Thyra and those with them would stop and strategize. They could not make the same mistake twice.
“She has no plans to make anything easy for you.” I entered the carriage after my brother, with Thantrel joining us last.
“Who said any of this was easy?” Rhistel tapped the sill of the window. “But I believe you’re right. She’s not stupid enough. What of the sister?”
A sharp smile filled my face. “Thyra is as cunning as Isolde, and you have her mate.”
“She hasn’t accepted him.” He smirked at Thantrel.
“It doesn’t matter. You should fear when they come for you.”
“You welcome it.”
The fae I’d once called Father glared at me. I turned away and stared out the window as Kuro rolled by.
The city was gray, made of stone the mages imbued with magic of various uses. Protection being the most common. The effect was oppressive and drab and made all the more miserable by the sheets of rain coming down.
“I hope you’re regretting your choices, Vale,” King Magnus said.
The address took me by surprise. I faced him and found his eyes were cold and hard. How long had he been wanting to say those words?
“Not at all,” I replied when Rhistel didn’t supply a script or force me to remain quiet. It seemed that he wanted to hear an honest answer. “I love her and will choose her every time.”
King Magnus’s eyes narrowed. “We’ll see.”
None of the anger on Magnus’s face lined érebo’s sleek features as he leaned closer, as if he wanted to tell me a secret. “I was once like you. Trusting in my mate even when our peoples warred against one another. That trust landed me in a tree.”
“Isolde would never hurt me.”
“I thought the same of Sassa.” His face tightened as he twisted to gaze out his rain-spattered window.