Chapter 35
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
Vibrations press against my skull, and a steady thud interspersed with indistinct murmuring pushes against the edges of my mind, coaxing me into consciousness.
Sensation spreads as my body wakes—from the hard, cold press against my shoulder, to the bite of manacles around my wrists, to the ache in my muscles, especially my thigh. I’m alive, so that’s good, but my hands are still tied.
I groan and crack my eyes open, but immediately slam them shut, a splitting headache rearing into existence from the brightness that assaults me.
I try again, squinting. Stone and flesh fill my vision. Beyond my arms, King Thalen sits on his throne. The white marble is threaded with golden veins radiating up the angled column as light hits it.
King Thalen’s golden robes are stitched with colors and patterns along the edges, depicting the different seasons and elements. A crown of jewels rests on his perfectly-styled black hair. My father stands to his right, another guard to his left, and two stand at the foot of the dais.
I groan again and roll onto my other side, blinking and letting my vision adjust. I’d rather be thrown in the dungeon to rot than be in this throne room, forced into an audience with him.
Tilting my head, I take in the room I used to love.
Not much has changed since the last time I was here.
Peylin and I would sneak in here as children when it wasn’t in use.
Slipping through the massive double doors, we’d barrel down the shallow steps opposite the dais into the T-shaped hall and play among the many arched pillars that span one side of the room.
Each archway is open to the elements, and each balcony beyond was a different made-up world we traveled to in our minds. We spent so many evenings on those balconies, looking out onto the land beyond the palace, dreaming of future days and planning to climb the peaks of the Brokenridge Mountains.
We made up stories about the vines that wrap around the pillars up to the vaulted ceilings, believing they were snakes waiting to be brought to life. The massive double doors, though the wood has aged, are still polished and pristine.
My heart longs for the time when things felt simpler. But that will never be my reality again. I send Mikael every detail of the palace I remember, including the path to me.
“Get up.” King Thalen’s voice is harsh and demanding, interrupting my reverie.
My bound hands make it difficult to peel myself off the ground.
Pain flares, radiating from my thigh, as I rise onto my knees.
White bandages are wrapped tightly around it where the arrow struck me.
So, they patched me up. That had to be my father’s doing.
King Thalen couldn’t care less if I were to bleed out on the throne room floor.
“I said, get up.” The command is impatient.
“Don’t you prefer when someone grovels?” I can’t stop myself before the words come out of my mouth.
“Bryn.” My father’s stern voice is a warning, his jaw clenching. The look he gives me is one I know well—he wants me to behave.
“Fine.” I awkwardly stand, leg still hurting, and half-bow—out of respect for the king’s position, but not him.
King Thalen’s fingers curl around the edge of the throne’s armrests, nostrils flaring.
“You’ve always been a capricious child. I thought allowing you to control your banishment and run that city of yours would improve your disposition.
Would show you that leadership is more than your family’s lineage securing your claim. ”
A single brow raises as he assesses me, but I don’t react or respond. I wait in silence for him to continue, because eventually he will.
Plus, I’ve always liked being the thorn in his side.
King Thalen rises, anger evident in his tense movements and unblinking stare.
“Brynnrieal Salinthor, daughter of Tork Salinthor, niece to Thalen Salinthor, and heir to the crown of Elysium—you stand accused of treason by consorting with the enemy. Specifically, the one suspected to have been the source of our demise during the Battle of Hollow Reckoning. Since his rise, vampire attacks have been reported across Eidrfall. All because of a child who thought herself in love. Do you refute these claims?”
I glare at King Thalen.
This is his moment, a way to knock me down further, to strip me of my inheritance.
It’s the reason he’s always despised me—he couldn’t produce an heir of his own.
I should have been celebrated, but I was just a reminder that the king of Eidrfall had failed to secure his line.
It didn’t matter that I was his brother’s child.
A chuckle escapes, and I shake my head.
I might as well ruin my life even further, seeing as it no longer matters. I’d never be welcomed back anyway.
My father stiffens, knowing whatever I’m about to say won’t serve me, or him.
I give him a sad smile.
No one but Peylin knew about the bond. Well, except for those guards that are now dead.
It’s a sacred ritual we don’t take lightly. There’s no question, no doubt in my mind that I would do it again. Even after the betrayal, the heartbreak, being cursed, and now this.
It’s been a gift, to experience such an intense love with Mikael, and I’m blessed, after rejecting my bond, to have experienced it all over again.
“Answer,” King Thalen’s voice booms.
My gaze sharpens, eyes gleaming, as a slow, devious smile curves my lips.
“My bonded mate—your aforementioned enemy,” I pause, letting the knife’s edge of my words cut deeply, then continue.
“Returned to break the curse upon me. One that will kill me. But I guess that would be a benefit to you. Fret not, I stabbed Mikael when he showed up, and would have killed him myself if my own life wasn’t on the line.
During our recent time together, the truth has been revealed.
He did not betray me or us of his own volition. ”
King Thalen stills, his golden eyes locking on mine, their depths searching within me. “You wouldn’t dare.”
I hold his gaze, not cowering under the intensity of it. He didn’t hear anything past me claiming Mikael as a mate.
I answer with the pleasure of a thousand suns burning his perfect image of reality. “I speak no lie.”
King Thalen’s magic presses in at the edges of my mind, but I resist. I have years of practice putting up walls against someone intruding into my thoughts. Bond or not, Mikael and I still argued like any other couple and in those moments, I didn’t want him in my mind.
“Only those who have something to hide resist.” He snarls.
“Let him into your mind, to know if you are speaking in half-truths, and what your intentions are,” my father commands, brows furrowing.
I’m almost there.
I turn down my mouth and shake my head. “No. Let me go and name another heir. I don’t want your—”
King Thalen cuts me off, “You speak as if you’ll leave this palace alive.”
I laugh. “I will, and you will regret any decision that involves harming me.”
The fae are supposed to be enlightened and fair, but King Thalen has yet to let go of his anger and hatred for what happened centuries ago.
“I will display your broken body next to that vampire of yours for all to see. To know what defying the crown’s punishment is.” He unsheathes his sword, stepping down from the dais and stalking forward.
My father follows and grabs his brother’s arm, voice softened, stopping him. “Thalen.”
“For too long you have protected her, Tork. That ends today.” He jerks his arm out of my father’s hold and approaches me.
One of the wooden doors bangs open, I twist around to see a guard stumbling forward, blood running down his face. “He’s come for her.”
Armor-plated hands grip my biceps and shove me down. My knees slam into the hard floor, and I suck in a breath as pain flares. I thought I was over the trials, but this… Yeah, I could do without the manhandling.
Shouts and the clash of steel travel in behind the guard as he falls to the stone floor. The air in the room is charged with the anticipation of Mikael’s arrival.
“Surround her!” King Thalen calls out the command.
The handful of guards in the throne room rush to surround me, but my father redirects them. “Protect your king!”
The guards reorganize around the king that’s at my back. The cold, sharp end of King Thalen’s blade pierces the soft flesh on the side of my neck.
The cries of pain and cursing behind the door get louder, then time seems to stop as silence stretches, the seconds extending until the wooden doors crack and splinter from the force of being slammed into the walls.
Oh. My. Fates.
Because look at him.
Blood is splattered all over him; one of his swords, held away from his body, drips crimson onto the pristine floor. A trail of red spreads out from behind him. The guards that were holding position outside the hall are lying limp on the ground.
He stalks toward us, but his gaze only seeks me out. Mikael’s jaw tics, the vein along his neck pulsing when he sees me on my knees with steel against my flesh.
The room falls away, and whatever else happens here, I know I chose right when I bonded myself to him.
He’s here for me, and I am his to protect. He made that claim centuries ago, and once again is fulfilling it.
His gaze finally lifts from mine to those standing behind me.
“King Thalen Salinthor.” Mikael offers a respectful nod, but then his voice ices over. “If you do not let us walk out of here, I will turn your guards into vampire hybrids that will serve me. Are you so cruel of a king you would bind your brethren to that fate?”
Can he even do that?
I’ve never heard of a hybrid, but maybe he is just using that as a threat.
“How dare you come into my kingdom and threaten me?” King Thalen growls, pressing the blade further into my neck.
I hiss as I feel the sting, and beads of blood roll down my skin.
“I would do anything,” Mikael says, dangerously, “to protect Bryn. She is my bonded mate. She is my duty. No vampire or fae will stand in the way of the vows I took. I will not turn back on them.”