Chapter 40 #3
“Then I am glad what we have was not like that for you, because it sounds as if you had no autonomy… no freedom.” I held my hand out to her and she came to me, reaching for it.
When she took hold of it, I pulled her down to me, sweeping her into my arms to hold her in place as she sat beside me, her upper half resting on my chest. “I am glad he was a prick. I hate him for rejecting you, and I have kept my vow and he is suffering for how he hurt you… but I am also… glad… he did, because now I get to love you. I get to call you mine, and I am honoured that you would call me yours.”
She smiled and drew patterns on my chest, her blue eyes warming as she gazed down at me, and I thought it was love that made them warm so, but then she said, “Tell me how he’s suffering, because I find I kind of like the idea of you turning all that beautiful darkness and wrath contained in you on him. ”
I chuckled. “Wrathful little wolf. He suffers so fiercely that I made his soul bleed and Tan’ith banished me from the tower.”
Her eyes positively lit up and she purred, “Oh, I like the sound of that.”
“I filled my time quite well while I waited for the prick’s soul to recover. My sister has been… less than impressed, of course. She did not agree with me going to Ereborne, and she certainly would not be happy if she discovered I stole the accord while there.”
“A thief now, are we?” she said.
“I have letters too that I am reading, some of which I believe speak about Oberon and the reason Elduin seeks knowledge on him.”
“I’ve been reading Sylas’s journals.” Her expression shifted towards concerned, or perhaps unsettled, and when I gently squeezed her waist, trying to bring her back to me, she found her voice.
“I read something… about Sylas’s queen and how she and his heir were killed.
It was recorded as an attack by the Shadow Court, and Sylvan was the only surviving witness. Don’t you find that suspicious?”
“Highly so.” I ran over everything I had read in the books I had stolen from the Great Library here in the Summer Court, and one thing stood out to me.
“I know the laws of succession were changed, and now Sylvan is the only witness to an attack that removed his cousin’s sole heir from the line of succession, which means that when Sylas died, Sylvan would have ascended the throne. ”
“An attack that prompted retaliation against your court. Was… did the Shadow Court—”
“No.” I cut her off, shaking my head. “No. Shadow Court fae never set foot in the Summer Court until after my parents were murdered.”
“But what about possible spies—”
“I mean it. I read all the records my parents kept, seeking a reason the seelie would attack my court. I have read them over and over. There is no record of Shadow Court fae in those lands. There are records of spies in other courts, but never the Summer Court.”
She ran her fingers in a circle on my chest. “I think Sylvan did it. He doesn’t stop heirs when they want to kill each other. He practically endorses it. Lorien has killed almost a dozen heirs, and Sylvan seems to reward him for it.”
“What did you just say?” I growled as my fingers tightened against her waist and my shadows twined around her legs, anchoring her to me.
“Lorien has a little habit of killing heirs… but I’m fine, Kael.
I can handle it.” She pressed her palms to my chest, pinning me to the ground, as if that would stop me if I wanted to teleport to Evergreen Castle to rip the head off the male who had not only challenged her, but had tried to kill her and had then punished her.
“I am going to introduce him to my new weapon.” I snarled those words, a grin stretching my lips as I pictured it.
“What new weapon?” She pressed more of her weight against me, worry glittering in her eyes.
“Chase called it a peeler.” I turned my cold grin on her, not hiding my delight at the thought of using it on someone.
“A vegetable peeler?” Her eyes widened and she moved to straddle me, which was a very effective way of keeping me in place because I found I did not want to move as her hips met mine. “Kael… you can’t go around peeling people.”
“I can.” I shrugged. “I thought I would start with Morden, but perhaps this Lorien shall have the honour.”
“No. No peeling people.” Her lips flattened as she shook her head. “Where is this peeler?”
“In my rooms in Falkyr.”
She breathed a little easier. “So it’s beyond your reach then.”
“Disappointingly, yes.” I curled my hands around her waist and subtly shifted my hips, lining my aching length up with her heat.
“Stop that.” She tried to climb off me but I held her firm. “We’re having a conversation here.”
“If that conversation involves taking you home, I am all ears and will stop so I can get you away from this place.”
“No. You already agreed I can stay and continue my work. That is not up for debate.”
“That was before you told me Lorien has killed many other heirs,” I growled and lifted her enough to ease her back so I could sit up and face her as I said this, again. “I do not want my vengeance, Saphi. There is no vengeance to give me.”