Chapter 66 #2
Stadiel’s attention sliced to the High Priestess, and with a twist of his hands, he snaked his light power around her waist and yanked her toward him. She screamed when he ripped the gag from between her teeth. “Where is he?”
“I don’t know,” she replied in the common tongue, her voice shaking even more than she was.
“Liar. What are his plans?”
“I don’t know!” she insisted, shrinking back as much as she could while bound in his magic. “I lead the faith. Not the army.”
“Yet you were with them,” Stadiel said, tilting his head to the side, white hair falling in a mess around his shoulders. “Iaoth, find out what she knows.”
A chill swept down my spine. Her more recent memories would contain the detour we made before coming to the palace, and I couldn’t risk them finding out, even if Kiira didn’t know what it was for.
“We last saw his forces in Baelii,” I said quickly. “When we connected with that retreating front, it was directly west, down the mountain.”
It was my best guess, and I fucking hoped it would be good enough.
Stadiel shouted for the sentries waiting down the hall. The captain jogged forward, casting a wary glance at the two Demon females. “Yes, sir?”
“Send our fastest ravens toward Baelii with messages requesting current and expected movements. Find the Padisa of the royal sentinels and tell him we’re leaving within the hour. I’ll lead our victory myself since it seems no one else is capable of defeating the Demons.”
The sentinel swallowed. “At once, Your Grace.”
I sent a quick pulse to Ilae to intercept each bird that departed the palace. The longer Stadiel wandered the forest and the mountains, the more likely he’d be caught and killed by the feared Demon leader. And the more likely we could install ourselves as rulers.
“Please don’t hurt him,” Kiira pleaded with the Koron. “He is reasonable. He will talk this out with you. And if he isn’t, his mate, Assyria, will. Or she can—”
He merely shoved the gag back into her mouth, silencing whatever else she had to say, and pushed her out of his path with his magic.
Iaoth whirled and strode toward her husband, speaking in low tones. I strained to hear what they were saying.
“...can handle them. Let me prove…”
“Stadiel isn’t going to let her manage our imprisonment,” Sylaira pressed into my mind. Goddess, I was grateful for her near-future Sight.
“Obey and don’t make a fuss. Once he’s out of the palace, we can make a new plan.”
Stadiel pinned me with a new glare. “In the meantime, the Demons will be kept under guard and away from the four of you. You will also be confined to your rooms. Should you leave, you will be shackled and executed.”
My focus landed on my sister. “That is not what we agreed.”
But she wasn’t looking at me—her husband held all her attention. And the frenetic light in her eyes was unmistakable. “If that is what your Koron wants, that is what he will get.”
My nails carved half-moons into my palms. Iaoth only ever looked out for herself. And if the way Stadiel treated her tonight was any indication, she had no more leash with him. She was as good as ruined.
“I will escort you myself. Traitors tend to take advantage of every opportunity presented to them, and I am the one male none of you can affect,” he snarled.
How wrong he was.
“You’ll come back to say goodbye, right?” Iaoth asked him, the desperation in her tone so pathetic.
“No. I must leave at once,” he snapped at her.
She flinched, the movement almost imperceptible. But I had studied the Korona closely for years, my survival dependent on understanding her every mood. Somehow in the months that had passed since we left Thalvireth, she’d come to truly fear her husband.
A further testament to the shift was that she didn’t try to flaunt herself in his face, reminding him of her beauty and youth again.
Stadiel wove new luminous binds around us and shoved us down the hall, past alcoves featuring gem-encrusted vases, metal vines climbing the wall in a mimicry of what waited outside the marble.
The two Demons fought every step, but it was no use. Their magic locked away behind silver, they didn’t even have the luxury of their shadow power, heightened by their burgundy and maroon eyes, to force his light off of their bodies.
As we walked, rage radiated off the Koron. I kept my head up and shoulders square, remaining unaffected by his increasing erraticness. We’d gotten under his skin, and I was counting on his emotional state to ensure the next part of our plan unfolded exactly as we needed.
We slipped into the feather that held my rooms—a place I’d never thought I’d see again after our hasty departure. Stadiel stopped at a door a few down from mine and threw it open. He shoved the two Demons inside, magic dropping away. The two clutched each other, silver chains clinking.
Because the prison cells would have left his secret leverage exposed—and the nobles would have raised an extreme protest at their presence in the palace.
He chased after them, and they shrank back against the stone. The space was nothing more than a storage facility for out-of-use furniture, bare of comforts or anything else they could use to harm themselves.
Once he was satisfied with their arrangement, he shut them away, taking a keyring from his pocket and locking them in.
At the entrance to my rooms, he finally let his magic slither away.
I raised my palm to the wood, flashing my magical signature to unlock it.
The door swung inward, revealing the utter disarray that spoke to just how thoroughly he’d ransacked it in search of more of the leverage we had over him.
“You may have shaken your keepers before, but you will not this time,” Stadiel hissed, directing Maelsar, Lyriasthe, and Sylaira into the mess.
“Understood,” I replied coolly.
“Good. Someone will be along shortly to watch over you,” he said.
I stepped inside, turning to face him once again. My lips tipped up into a mocking grin. “Goddess save you, Stadiel.”
And then I eased the door closed in his face.