Chapter 20
Chapter
Twenty
Everything slowed as Luka drowned in sensation.
Every tiny movement, every sound, was Izzy.
Her low moan as she wrapped herself tighter around him.
The silk of her hair sliding through his fingers.
The flex of her muscles. Her soft lips. The heat of her body.
The way she shuddered, coming apart against his mouth.
It was more than he’d ever dreamed of. He could taste her forever.
A heavy fist pounded on the door, rattling it in its frame, and his beast uncoiled, preparing to hunt the intruder, to decimate them and burn their remains to ash.
Luka concentrated on Izzy. Her eyes were still unfocused, her lips pink and wet. “Are you sure you don’t want to fly away?” he murmured roughly.
“We’ll fly away when this is done.” Izzy pressed another lingering kiss to his mouth, and it took every ounce of self-control he had to step back. Soldiers were at his door, and he couldn’t risk them breaking it down. He reached for her breeches and helped her step into them.
No one else gets to see her like this ever again. Izzy is mine.
He wanted to howl. Izzy wasn’t his. They probably weren’t even going to survive the next day. But he didn’t have time to think of that, to think of anything. The soldier outside his door pounded on it again.
I don’t want to do this, his beast muttered.
Luka grunted. Since Izzy had come back into his life, he’d been more in tune with his beast than ever. Opening the door was the last thing he wanted to do, but they had no choice.
He helped Izzy with her boots and then waited for her to right her bodice and pat down her hair.
Then he ripped open the door, already snarling at whichever asshole was standing there…
only to pause. The asshole was Cori. Her uniform was as pristine as always, but her expression was tight with worry.
Behind him, Izzy let out a soft breath of surprise, and he remembered how hurt she’d been by her friend’s betrayal. He gripped the door rather than slam it closed like he wanted to. Instead, he moved to block Cori from coming in. “What do you want?”
“Queen Danikha sent me,” Cori said. “She got your message. She wants to see you.”
Luka didn’t budge. “Why aren’t you investigating on the mountain?”
Cori ran a hand through her short hair. “We searched all around that part of the path, up and down the mountainside, and then backtracked through Naos in case someone saw something, but we didn’t find anything.
We already reported back to Shane and the queen.
Dashiell left to update Captain Lydia before the end of the day, and I stayed to see Iona. That’s when your messenger arrived.”
There wasn’t anything Luka could say to that. Shane and the queen outranked him. Cori and Dashiell had gone over his head, but he didn’t really care. A day ago, he’d been ready to sacrifice himself for Shane and the greater good. Now, had Izzy agreed, he would have picked her up and flown away.
He looked over his shoulder to meet Izzy’s concerned gaze. “What do you want to do?”
The pink had faded from her cheeks, leaving her looking tense and wan. She gave him the smallest smile he’d ever seen. “I guess we should do this.” She stepped up beside him. “Let’s go.”
Cori swallowed. “Izzy, I want to—”
Izabel cut her off with a muttered, “It’s fine.”
Cori didn’t let it go. “No, I know—”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” Izabel snapped. “Not right now. Not when—” She looked at Luka and then away. “You were following orders. Now we have more orders to follow.”
There was a moment’s silence before Cori gave a reluctant nod and led them into the corridor.
A small group of soldiers—not castle guards—was waiting, their expressions a mix of curiosity and professional disinterest. Luka ignored them as he took Izabel’s hand.
Last time, she’d taken his hand; this time he claimed hers.
He threaded his fingers through hers, holding her tightly.
Her tiny smile spread, and along with it came the knowledge that there was very little he wouldn’t do to see her smile more, even if only for this short time.
Cori’s team marched beside them as they made their way to the queen’s meeting chamber, and Luka couldn’t help but wonder if they were there as shields or as prison wardens.
Don’t worry. I’ll destroy them if they bother Izzy.
Luka acknowledged his beast with a hum of agreement.
Usually, he was infinitely patient with his duties, and annoyed with his beast’s melodrama.
Not today. Today, he’d reached the end of that patience, and letting his drake take control for a couple of hours to demolish anyone who hurt Izabel had a definite appeal.
Thankfully, the soldiers stayed in the outer antechamber—cutting off his beast’s ruminations on whether leather armor tasted like beef—when Luka, Izzy, and Cori let themselves into the queen’s receiving room.
Queen Danikha looked exhausted as she sat neatly on a low couch, Iona beside her.
The princess spoke quietly but urgently, hands moving in elegant gesticulations.
Shane stood separately, staring out the window toward the enclosed gardens.
Aiden and Kai had set up a large slate against a wall, with small chalk notations about what they’d found.
A quick glance showed very little progress.
They’d worked with Ryland to interview everyone in the castle—all the guards, messengers, banquet guests, even the physiks.
No one had seen anything. Cori and Dashiell hadn’t found anything on the mountain.
Whoever their assassin was, it was as if they were invisible.
Or someone everyone knows and trusts.
Gods.
“Good, you’re here.” Queen Danikha gestured for them to gather at the cluster of sofas. “Sit, please.”
Luka had sat together with this group thousands of times in the years since he’d come to the castle as a child—first as Shane’s schoolfellow, then his friend. The queen had always treated him well, encouraging their friendship.
As an adult, he was deeply honored to be promoted to knight commander of the guard, to be responsible for the safety of the people who had taken him in and given him a home. When Queen Danikha gifted him with his first shadow-wave folded steel sword, it was the proudest day of his life.
But now he was wondering just how many lies he’d been told and, infinitely worse, whether Izzy was about to be sacrificed for a trade deal. That he would throw himself in with her was not a consideration. He would do what he had to do to lessen the peril she was in, no matter what it took.
They all arranged themselves on the sofas. Shane and Cori positioned themselves as far apart as they could, but Luka stayed close to Izzy so he could be certain of a seat by her side. Her warm thigh pressing against his was the only thing keeping his beast in check.
The queen met their eyes, one by one. Her spine was ramrod straight, and a sheen of garnet scales spread over her neck. “I’m very disappointed,” she said, her voice sounding loud in the silent room.
Her disapproval was like a lash, burning and humiliating.
Luka’s beast twisted, but he held it in check.
He’d expected this, known it was coming.
But then the queen continued. “I’m disappointed that Izabel was lied to and put in harm’s way.
I’m devastated that Izzy and Luka feel that the only solution here is to sacrifice themselves, and I’m deeply unhappy that I’m only learning the truth about all of this now,” Danikha said softly, stunning him into silence.
Shane flinched, his eyes sweeping the room, just as Luka’s did. Who could possibly have told the queen?
Iona lifted her chin. She was very beautiful—with silvery hair and her mother’s garnet scales complimenting her smooth earth-toned skin—and her eyes gleamed with determination as she frowned at her brother. Kai grimaced and looked at the floor.
So that’s how the queen found out. Kai told Iona.
Shane crossed his arms over his chest. “I didn’t lie.”
Danikha leaned forward, eyes flashing as bright as the scales on her face. “You didn’t tell the truth! Rayan was like a member of our family. I watched that boy grow up. His mother is my best friend! How is it possible that I’m only learning the truth of his death now?”
“I’m crown marshal,” Shane argued. “All our military reports to me.”
“And you report to me,” Danikha spat.
Luka’s beast chortled at the echo of Luka’s conversation with Shane yesterday. Wonder how he feels to be the one relegated to second place?
Clearly not good. Shane’s ruby scales settled into armor around his wrists as he waved his hand at the group arrayed around the sofas. “This conversation would be better in private.”
Danikha snarled. “Yes, it would! I wish we could have had it in private, but we’re past that.
They’re already involved. This is the team that will help us discover who murdered Narya and whether her death is related to Rayan’s.
We’re relying on them to help us avoid a war!
And more than that, these are our friends.
” Danikha gestured toward the group. “Every one of them has shown their loyalty a thousand times over.” She scowled at Shane.
“Say whatever you want to say and say it now.”
“Fine. I didn’t want to do this, but fine.
” Shane planted his feet wide, hands on his hips.
“I knew you were struggling with the problems you inherited when Father died. I loved him, and he loved me, but he didn’t see things the same way.
We all know that. You’ve been trying to reverse centuries of decline in weeks and months.
You were already talking about a treaty, looking at how to negotiate a lasting peace, and I didn’t want this smuggling problem to undermine that. ”
“That doesn’t make sense. I needed to know we had these problems. I’m still the queen. And, Shane, I’m still your mother!”
“It made sense to keep it small, to—”