Chapter 24
Twenty-Four
The noise from the bottom floor didn’t reach all the way up to the small, dim room Lory chose to lead the Flame-born captain to.
She’d simply picked the first unlocked door, and when she’d found it unoccupied, she and Khayrivven slipped inside, and she closed the door behind them, leaning against the faded wood with her back.
The cool surface was like a balm to her heated skin, but the fire wouldn’t budge with Khayrivven standing at the center of the space, in front of a wide bed with sepia satin sheets.
Heavy curtains blocked out the daylight, leaving nothing but a soft glow filtering through the fabrics.
On the ceiling, little desert flowers were painted in a shade of pink similar to some of the dresses Lory had seen downstairs, and from the room next door, fast, rhythmical thuds reminded her this wasn’t an inn where they could lay down to rest and forget the Triad, the academy, and all the consequences if either of them let their guard down for once, but a brothel, where women and men sold their bodies for coin—and its owner, Lu’Shen, was Khayrivven’s friend.
“Why didn’t you tell me we were coming here?” It was worth a try, wasn’t it, now that they’d left the clamor of the entertainment room behind?
Khayrivven held her gaze. “I was instructed not to.”
Why that hurt more than a snarky comment or another cryptic statement, Lory had an inkling, but she wasn’t ready to go there.
“And you do everything the general orders?” Again, better to provoke him than to become vulnerable.
His responding silence made Lory wonder if she’d gone too far, if the war in his eyes had been a sign she’d pushed too hard.
Then, she hadn’t pushed—not really. It had been Khayrivven who’d drawn her into a dream, and she wasn’t even remotely in the mood to consider the whys and hows of Khayrivven’s reasoning.
Khayrivven shrugged, adjusting his stance, and Lory couldn’t help but notice the bulge at the front of his pants where his arousal hadn’t faded despite the change in his mood. Of course, he noticed her fleeting look, a half-smile quirking his mouth.
“There is nothing I can do about that,” he noted, a hint of amusement entering his expression, but mostly, he remained serious, his eyes filled with the same fire as he beckoned her to come closer, the fingers of one hand curling.
Lory followed his summons, a horde of moths taking flight in her stomach.
This was real, and when she stopped a foot from him, his heat wrapping around her like a phantom caress, Lory couldn’t help the deep want building in her belly.
But more than that, the ache in her chest, that had nothing to do with what her body—and his, obviously—wanted, but her heart.
Fuck the Guardians if she hadn’t fallen and crashed for this man.
Lory placed her hand right over the hard arousal, grinning up at him. “Maybe I can.”
Khayrivven didn’t flinch as she slid her fingers down the front of his pants, stroking the outline of his cock, but the frustration on his face was lost to a devastated hunger.
“Wait—” His fingers wrapped around her wrist, stopping her right at his tip, and something crumpled inside Lory’s chest as she waited for him to reject her.
When he didn’t speak for a beat, she started pulling her hand back, but Khayrivven held her in place.
“If we do this, you need to understand that the Triad can never know.”
A choked laugh bubbled up Lory’s throat. “I thought you trusted the Triad. You’re basically unquestioningly loyal, or you wouldn’t be executing people on their behalf.”
“On Ulder’s behalf,” Khayrivven corrected, peeling Lory’s hand off him and weighing it between his palms, his thumb absently stroking along the inside of her wrist. “He’s the one the Triad answers to.”
As she watched him wring his thoughts into words, delivering them like glass shards that could cut his tongue or his throat, Lory’s heart splintered.
She’d been wrong. He wasn’t here because he believed in what Ulder did. He might have proven his loyalty at the front lines, but there was more. “What leverage does he have?”
Khayrivven’s thumb stopped mid-stroke. “I never said anyone had any leverage—”
“Don’t lie to me, Khayrivven Falcrest. You’re a Flame-born among people who despise our kind. You never fail to execute an order, and you have been doing all you can to make the world believe you hate me—at least the world inside Ashthorn’s walls. What does he hold over your head?”
With a sigh, Khayrivven sank onto the edge of the bed, not letting go of Lory’s hands but pulling her along so she sat next to him. Her hands, he trapped between his, fingers interlacing with hers as he enclosed them like something precious. “Criulias.”
Holding her breath, Lory waited for him to say more, but he’d closed his eyes as if waiting for something to smite him.
“What about Criulias?” The province south of Sen Dunai had been unhappy with Ulder’s rule, but the upheaval that ended when the Duke of Criulias was exiled from his own province was the worst she’d heard so far.
Khayrivven pursed his lips, his shoulders lifting and falling with a deep, steadying breath.
“The unrests didn’t stop with the Duke of Criulias, and they sure as Eroth’s Veil weren’t as small an issue as the people of Sen Dunai were led to believe.
” This time, he didn’t give her an opportunity to ask questions but rolled on as if rushing the words out would be the only way he’d ever speak them.
“Troops were deployed, not to keep the peace but to massacre whoever dared as much as speak a bad word about Ulder.”
His tone was steady, but around her hands, his fingers were shaking.
Lory had heard about the peacekeeping missions twenty years ago, when the Duke was exiled, but not about any other conflicts. Perhaps because she’d spent her days on the streets rather than in fancy halls where politics were part of daily rapport.
“They are still sending soldiers in to eliminate new threats. Any whisper to undermine the King of Brestolya is smothered before it can take flight.” A shiver ran through Lory’s body as Khayrivven met her gaze, a dark kernel of defiance peeking through the layer of solid gray his irises had become.
Extracting one hand from his grasp, she placed it on his forearm, squeezing lightly. “That’s what you meant when you were speaking about the front lines. They sent you to Criulias.”
He didn’t deny it, but the muscles of his arm flexed under her fingers as if he were fighting to keep himself in place.
“You fought to keep Brestolya safe from rebels who still like to believe the Duke was right to claim autonomy for Criulias? How can Ulder use that against you?”
Strands of black hair swayed on Khayrivven’s head as he bowed it as if in an admission of guilt.
“I fought my own people, Lory. I’m Criu.
My family was Criu. I was born in Criulias.
Only when they … died”—he exhaled a shaky breath—“did I come to Sen Dunai where I was raised and trained to fight the people I should have loved.”
The conflict in his eyes ran so deep it could have uprooted a mountain; so did the shame.
“I failed them. All of them.”
It was that moment when Lory realized she might have just gotten what Khayrivven had wanted her to achieve—she’d unearthed a secret from one of Lu’Shen’s patrons. But judging by the expression on his face, this was something she could never share—with anyone.
“You didn’t fail. You executed orders. You—”
A flash of disappointment crossed his features. “Don’t excuse faults you know nothing about, Lory. You weren’t there. You don’t know what I did. You don’t know—”
“It doesn’t matter.” Lory captured his face with one hand so he wouldn’t turn away the moment he’d dared open up, but his gaze dropped to their hands—one of hers still trapped between his.
“I’ve done some pretty horrible things in my life, Lory, and even though I always find reasons to justify them, it doesn’t take away the darkness coming with the crimes I commit. You, better than anyone, should understand that.”
With her past as a criminal, stealing and robbing, and deceiving people. But she’d done it to survive. What was his excuse?
“Then tell me, Khayrivven. Tell me what horrors keep you up at night.” Lory leaned forward, bringing her head level with his, pinning him with a look, not of pity but of determination.
“I don’t believe for a second that you would willingly betray your people.
I’ve asked you before, and I’m asking you again, but this time, I want the full truth.
” Swallowing the fear of what would happen if she pushed him, if he’d withdraw back into the immovable shell of the ruthless captain, Lory asked, “What does he hold over you that makes you so unquestioningly loyal?”
The flash of anguish in Khayrivven’s eyes nearly broke Lory’s heart, but she held his gaze, steady—and not at all ready for the answer forming on his tongue. “Elina.”
Her hand dropped from his face, and for a few, shaky breaths, Lory just stared at him, waiting for an explanation. When none came, she whispered, “Who is Elina?”
Khayrivven slowly shook his head, not in denial of an answer but as if he wasn’t ready to go there just yet. A sigh deep enough to shake the foundations of the world ran through him. “My sister.”
Everything in Lory’s body went cold as the ice Frost so readily had at his disposal.
“Elina survived. He’s been keeping her in the palace for years, and if I fail to obey orders, she suffers.”
There was nothing Lory could think of to say, so she squeezed his forearm once more, her fingers numb with shock.