Chapter 3 #3
“She would not want you to bring harm to your people for her sake, brother.” Her words lashed at me as the lightning lashed at the lands, at my court.
Our court. Something within me fractured with them, coldness stealing into the fissures as my sister shook her head, a strange warmth in her silver eyes as she half-smiled.
“If she was here right now, if she saw you endangering this court she loves so deeply because you cannot—or will not—control your emotions, cannot act strategically and sensibly, she would be furious with you, and she would let you know it.”
She would.
I looked at the court, at the city she did adore and the people she had come to love as if they were her own subjects, and the storm eased a little, the ground stilling and the lightning quietening.
Rain continued to fall, soaking through my black leathers as I thought of how she would berate me for losing control like this, for frightening so many who relied upon me for their protection, for their safety.
My stubborn little wolf would not hold back either.
I doubted she would speak to me for a lunar cycle.
But it was so hard to control myself when I knew the danger she was in, so very hard to contain this storm that raged within me. I was not strong enough. Not when I thought of her in that court—in the hands of those fiends.
Beyond my protection.
“Why did she go with them? Was it really so she could find this female wolf and fulfil the vision Neve witnessed?” My sister braved a step towards me, her tone calm and soft, but audible above the wind that still scoured the city.
A city I stared at as I replayed that moment in my mind.
A moment that had made me want to pull the stars from the sky, had made me want to burn all the realms to the ground, because I had known I was powerless to stop them from taking her.
“She knew I was exhausted.” I did not even have the strength to wipe the water from my eyes. “She knew I could not fight so many alone. They were too close to her… all around her… and the Summer steward was with them. She knew I wanted to fight to reach her, and that it would have been suicide.”
I looked at my sister as my voice broke and something in the region of my chest broke with it.
“She did it to protect me.”
Vyr came to me and wrapped me in her arms, her palm coming to meet the back of my head as she guided it to rest on her shoulder. I heaved a great shuddering sigh as I stared at my city—my court—numbness sweeping through me and fatigue rolling up on me, darkening the edges of my vision.
I could not rest.
Not yet.
I pressed my hands to my sister’s waist and tried to push her back to force her to release me, but she only held me more tightly, refusing to let me go.
Her voice curled in my ear, the truth of her words wrenching that urge to go after Saphira from me.
“Saphira wanted to protect you. Storming into the Summer Court will make what she has bravely done pointless. You will be attacked, and captured, and either imprisoned or executed on sight. This court will face a war without its king.”
I hated that she was right.
I could not go there.
I could not break the accord.
But there was one among my court who could do so without repercussion.
I gripped my sister’s waist and used the last of my strength to teleport us down to the garden. The rain had ceased by the time we had appeared, the wind falling to a gentle breeze as peace rolled across the land. Peace I was not sure I could sustain, but I would try.
Vyr stepped out of my grasp, coming to stand beside me, and I singled out the one who might be able to help me keep my temper leashed.
“Malachi.” My tone brooked no argument, my words an order the demon would be a fool to deny. “Leave immediately. I want to know everything that happens in that vile court.”
The big demon nodded, and very reluctantly unfurled his leathery wings to reveal Everlee.
Malachi closely watched her as Chase stepped forwards, the alpha wolf giving the demon a tight smile as he passed Everlee to him.
“I’ll get her settled at the cottage,” Chase said but the words did not seem to comfort my spymaster as he forced himself to step back from the female.
His horns noticeably larger than normal.
I did not think it was a sign of rage.
Malachi felt protective of the female.
He had stepped in at that mansion to be the one who took her from that room, snarling at me to keep away as he did so.
So I would not frighten her. That look he levelled on me, his irises almost fully purple now, said he wanted to snarl and bare fangs at me again.
Not only for scaring her with my lack of control over my emotions, but for ordering him away from her.
But he went anyway, kicking off and taking flight, his great wings beating the air to stir the water on the patio.
And the crimson hair of the wolf female who watched him go.
I stalked towards Riordan.
“I watched him very closely,” the vampire said with a wicked smile. “He moved very little. About as much as you might expect from a dead person.”
I grunted at that and stooped to seize hold of the naked wolf’s wet hair.
“Where are you going?” My sister stormed right up to me, attempting to block my path.
I paid her no heed as I stepped around her, dragging the prick behind me, leaving a bloody smear in my wake that swirled among the water whenever we passed a puddle.
And growled over my shoulder.
“To keep my promise and to get some answers.”