Chapter Forty-Three #2
Zenobia came out from behind one of the stone formations. The end of the fight must have freed her from her protection bubble. How much of our conversation had she overheard?
All of it, her smug expression said.
Remy stiffened. “I gave you a chance to prove you were worthy of that trust, Zenobia. You failed.”
She came closer. “I always knew you were more powerful than you had any right to be. But I had no idea the depths of your secret.” A small, almost heartbreaking smile crossed her lips.
“It’s why you made me publicly choose between you and my people, isn’t it?
I thought you were merely punishing me for my prior deception.
But you were harboring a berserker. That’s why you demanded my unconditional loyalty before you’d make me your céile. ”
I almost gasped. Was this true? Was his céile offer to her real, and not a test like he’d told me? If she’d done what he asked, would Remy have permanently bound himself to her?
Remy’s expression hardened. “None of that matters now.”
Shit, that wasn’t a denial.
“Daegal’s death didn’t merely void the contract giving him rights to my lands,” Remy continued. “It also made you the new ruler of Orion, Zenobia.”
My mouth fell open.
Zenobia’s satisfied expression confirmed that. If she mourned Daegal at all, she was doing a damn good job hiding it.
“Now that you know what I am, let me save you the trouble of telling everyone else,” Remy went on curtly.
“I’ll turn my reign over to my successor as soon as I’m back in my world.
But make no mistake, Zenobia. Even if I’m no longer Warden, I will still make sure that no one finds that stone or uses it. ”
“Or, you could do all that while still remaining Warden,” Zenobia said in a casual tone.
Remy stared at her.
I did, too. What was she up to?
Zenobia shrugged. “The humans have a saying: better the devil you know. I know you, Remy. And now I know two very important secrets of yours. Why would I squander that knowledge by sharing it for free when I can hold it over you and use it later?”
“I refuse to sacrifice that stone or even an inch of my territory to you,” Remy said coldly.
She laughed. “I don’t want your lands or that stone.
As you said, it’s more trouble than it’s worth.
Daegal was the one obsessed with ruling the human world by bringing back the old gods.
I, however, like things the way they are, especially now that I rule Orion.
I only want two favors in the future in return for my silence about your two secrets.
Oh, they’ll be important favors, but I know the lines you won’t cross.
Still, there are many lines you will cross.
” Her stare turned way too knowing. My hackles rose.
“I’m sure we can come to an arrangement when the time is right. ”
Say no, Remy. Say no!
“I suppose we’ll see,” he said after a pause.
Hurt punched me right in the heart. That was it? He wasn’t ruling out any nonbusiness favors in their agreement first? He’d ruled out the other things beforehand, and as a Warden, this was hardly his first time negotiating!
Zenobia’s slow smile turned that growing hurt into anger. She knew what he’d failed to omit, too.
Mandal walked out from behind a tall boulder. “The bridge has reappeared.”
No “hello,” no “glad you’re alive,” nothing. Just straight to business. You’d never know that Mandal was the same guy who’d screamed a taunt at Daegal while Remy’s berserker was ripping bloody entry wounds into the dragon.
“Put me down,” I told Remy. “I can walk now.”
He did. I tried to wipe off some of the dragon goo, and quickly gave up.
Remy was coated in green blood, too, but with his ripped caftan showing more skin than it covered, he managed to look dangerously sexy instead of gross.
The way Zenobia’s brow kicked up as she took in the view said that she agreed.
One day, my Beast might take a bite out of her dragon over Remy.
We walked over to the part of the island we’d first entered on. True to Mandal’s word, the bridge had reappeared.
Something pale and filmy flew by us. I saw with mild horror that it was four ghostly arms. They flew to the front of the bridge, where they lowered themselves and overlapped, forming a new base that could’ve doubled as a spectral welcome mat.
Zenobia’s smile fell, and she leapt over that section as she walked onto the bridge.
I didn’t leap over it, but I didn’t go out of my way to step on it, either. That was more consideration than Daegal would have given, had our situations been reversed. Hell, the dragon would have probably pissed on our spectral limbs.
Zenobia continued across the bridge at a brisk pace. I slowed down and gestured for Mandal to pass me and Remy. Once he did and a little distance grew between us, I stopped.
“You know that Zenobia has more than business in mind with this new arrangement, right?”
Did he just stifle a laugh? “You’re not jealous, are you?”
Of course I was. Zenobia was gorgeous, the two of them had a history, and he’d just guaranteed that they’d be spending more time together. Plus, I had real feelings for Remy, as he more than knew. Why wouldn’t he think I’d be jealous?
Unless he didn’t think we were exclusive? I’d assumed we were, but then again, we’d never talked about it.
“We have company,” Mandal called out.
I looked past Remy to the end of the bridge. The fog was gone, so I could see the ledge clearly again. The sun was now out, too, lightening that former grayish haze into a soft yellow. Mandal was right. A lot more people were on the cliff compared to when we had left.
That wasn’t why I stared. Vines and flowers suddenly erupted along the cliff’s ledge like a nature video on extreme fast-forward.
They stopped right before the other bystanders, rising up to form an enclosed canopy.
Its floral walls parted to reveal a tall, muscular man.
He either wore a very unusual crown or he had horns protruding from his head, their height and breadth reminding me of a twelve-point stag.
Remy stiffened. “The royal prince. I should have known Cormac would tell him what he saw.”
I was surprised. “Cormac could see the fight from here?”
“No. It’s what Cormac saw before the fight that would interest the prince,” was Remy’s grating reply.
“The finger-pressing thing? Do you mean Cormac figured out what you were because your finger came back blue and gold?” I’d noticed all the dragons had been red and the Beasts were black.…
Remy started walking again. I did, too.
“Cormac now knows I have other magic in me aside from being a Warden, yes. The gold color showed that. But he’s Setreg’s cousin, so he won’t ask questions, and the Tuatha Dé Danann don’t care how you win a duel once you’re on Blood Island.
They only ensure that no one brings any outside weapons and that the fighting doesn’t start until everyone is on the island. ”
“If not that, then why is the prince here?” I kept my voice low. Daegal had been able to hear us when he was on this point of the bridge and we’d been back on the ledge.
“The magic that Beasts come from is the only thing that predates the Tuatha Dé Danann.” Remy’s voice was also low, but something dark in it made me look sharply at him. “They revere that magic, and thus hold the hosts of it in high regard.”
My brows shot up. “He’s here because of me?”
As if to punctuate that, the prince stared at me as Remy and I reached the lower half of the bridge.
The prince’s hair was a unique blend of silver and gold, his skin was like sun-dappled sand, and his face was almost cruelly beautiful with those high cheekbones that were a touch too sharp to be totally human.
A hard smile twisted Remy’s mouth. “I told you nearly everyone would want you for the Beast’s power, if it was known what you are.
The Tuatha Dé Danann are no exception, although they don’t want to kill you or enslave you.
But since you’re a beautiful woman and a Beast’s host, the crown prince will try to entice you to remain here, in his world. ”
I gaped at him. “You can’t be serious.”
Remy pulled me against him with open possessiveness. “I’m very serious. He’ll probably try to make you one of his consorts, too.”
I highly doubted that. I was covered in dragon blood, my blood, the other Beast’s blood, and dirt. If there was a “Most Disgusting” contest, I’d win.
Although wasn’t it ironic that now Remy didn’t think jealousy was such a laughing matter? Where had all this pull-me-close stuff been when Zenobia was eye-humping him while negotiating her open-ended “favors”?
Yeah, Remy was taking my feelings for him for granted. If he wanted to keep this relationship, let alone see where it could go, he couldn’t have it only on his secretive, my-Warden-rule-is-law terms.
The Tuatha Dé Danann prince stepped forward.
I was now close enough to look into his trademark silver eyes.
I expected to see haughtiness in his gaze.
Or the blank, thousand-yard stare of someone who’d seen it all and had become bored eons ago.
He was a stunning guy who was also a literal faerie prince; how could he not be arrogant and jaded?
Instead, I glimpsed … heartbreak. It vanished quickly, but I’d seen enough of it at my job to recognize it. The prince was hurting deeply and trying not to let anyone see it.
I knew exactly how that felt. Remy might have healed my physical injuries, but his way-too-broad promises to Zenobia had wounded me in a way that no magic elixir could fix. The brief flash of anguish in the prince’s eyes said he knew this kind of pain, even if his had a different, unknown source.
That’s why I smiled at the prince as I slipped out from beneath Remy’s arm. Two could fake at hiding a battered heart.
“Your Highness,” I greeted him.
Gasps erupted from some of the Tuatha Dé. Remy didn’t look happy, either. Had I screwed up by calling the prince that? He was royalty, what else was I supposed to call him?
“My beauty,” the prince’s darkly silken voice replied. A new warmth seemed to shine from his eyes, too.
Okay, he wasn’t offended by how I’d addressed him.
Remy snatched me back to his side. “No,” he growled with barely suppressed violence. “She’s my beauty.”
The prince’s silvery-gold brow arched with all the arrogance I’d expected from him before. “That remains to be seen, my young Warden.”
What?
And just like that, my concern over Remy’s new alliance with Zenobia plus the race to find the Resurrection Stone no longer became the only things on my plate.