Chapter 45 #2
“None. I have had very little time for such things and prefer not to mix business with pleasure at such functions. It is very easy to make an enemy of a king by accidentally seducing the wrong female… whether it be their daughter, their sister, their potential bedfellow or their wife.”
“Their wife?” She frowned at me and I glanced at her.
I held a hand up to silence her before she could say a word. “It was not me.”
“Don’t tell me. It was Beleron.”
My grin was apparently answer enough, because she muttered.
“Remind me never to meet this Beleron. He sounds like a prick.”
“Come.” I took hold of her hand, satisfied that the area was clear and no guards patrolled the Great Library tonight, and teleported her down to the entrance of the grand domed building, wrapping her in my shadows as soon as we landed.
We moved through the building with ease, silent as the stars, passing through the great columned halls towards the main library on the first floor.
The pale stone steps made no sound beneath our feet as we ascended them, my senses reaching ahead of us to chart our path and ensure no one was waiting there to discover us.
The whole building was still. No trace of anyone.
There had been scholars here once, ancient males who had spent their whole life recording the passing of time in this kingdom, but rumour said that they had been moved to the castle some decades ago, after Sylas had died.
The lack of dust on the banister and the marble floor told me this place was not abandoned though. It was still being used.
The great turquoise glass dome of the main library came into view beneath an archway ahead of us, the gold metal ribs of it gleaming in the motes of magic that drifted in the air to cast warm but faint light over the enormous room.
“Something has been bothering me all day,” I murmured as I led her into the room, sure we were alone and could talk without anyone hearing us.
“What?” she hissed.
“Are there any stupidly beautiful males here?” I whispered back at her, half teasing and half serious.
It had been on my mind after I had considered how long she had been here, and the political power she now wielded in this court, and I had grown sure many males would have courted her attention.
Some of which might be handsome.
“There is one.” She did not even pause to consider her answer. It came instantly.
I turned on her and snarled softly, “Give me their name and I shall see to it they stop breathing.”
“That might be a little difficult.” She looked up at me, her beautiful face an unreadable mask, all her emotions hidden behind a wall I could not penetrate to determine whether she was teasing me or being serious.
I crowded her, lowering my face towards hers so I was all she knew. “You underestimate me.”
She shrugged, lifted her hands to capture mine and raised them towards my head, where she wrapped them around my own throat and said, “Go on then. Start squeezing.”
I swept her into my arms as I sighed at her antics.
“You play with fire by teasing me so, my little wolf. I have found I do not like you being absent from my side, far from me where I cannot see what you are doing or who you are doing it with. I do not like the thought of you surrounded by other fae males, all of them bewitched by your beauty and your power. Males who might attempt to steal that beauty and power for themselves.”
Her sapphire eyes lit up, her small smile tugging at that invisible cord that connected us, drawing me to her as she whirled from my arms, placing some distance between us.
“Oh, my beautiful king,” she purred as she rounded on me, moving like a predator as she eyed me like prey, the corners of her lips twitching in a wicked smile that seared me right down to my soul.
“You did not think you would escape me one day? Did I not tell you that you are mine? Did you believe them to be idle words, spoken by an inconstant heart?”
I smiled back at her, aware her words were mine, something I had said to her once.
“No. I have no reason to doubt you. But that does not mean I believe no male would try to take you from me, and for that they would pay dearly. You are mine. Anyone who tries to steal you from me will meet with their end.”
She toyed with the buttons of my tunic as she smiled up at me, canting her head as heat flickered in her eyes. “I do love you jealous.”
“Jealousy makes me dangerously possessive, I have found.” I clamped my hands down on her waist. “If you are not careful, I shall do wicked things to you in my shadows, showing you that I am the only male you need.”
She loosed a purring sort of moan as she leaned into me and then caught herself, pushing me back instead. “Stop tormenting me. I’m still a little shaky from earlier.”
I groaned as she walked away from me, that image of her splayed for me filling my mind together with her breathy little pleas.
“Now you are tormenting me. I believe I brought you here so we can seek knowledge together—the Summer King, the change in the law of succession, and Sylvan. Anything that might help us uncover Sylvan’s plans and what happened that night in Belkarthen. Not so you can seduce me.”
She tossed a look over her shoulder. “You started it.”
I waved her away. “Your imagination runs away with you. I did not start it.”
“Shall I remind you of all those things you said to me back in the glade when I asked—” She came to a sudden halt on the threshold of a smaller room. “What is this?”
“That is not the question you asked,” I said and came up behind her, curious about what she had seen to make her stop and concerned it might be a danger to her, even when I could not sense anyone nearby. I halted behind her and muttered, “What is this?”
She slowly shook her head. “I think we need to change the name of the lesson from ‘how to infiltrate a library’ to ‘how to infiltrate a war room’ because it looks a hell of a lot like your war room.”
I could not disagree with her.
Where there had once been books beneath the small glass dome, there was now a three-dimensional map of Lucia, and bookshelves filled with leather folders and scrolls that looked remarkably like reports to my trained eye.
Near the grand fireplace to my left, a seating area had been set up that resembled a drawing room, with couches and armchairs in shades of blue and gold, and to the right a bed had been placed against one of the walls near the arched windows.
“Someone is living here,” I whispered.
“My money is on Sylvan.” Saphira stepped into the room, crossing it to the map. “Look at this. What does this mean, Kael?”
I went to her and studied the map that was far larger and more detailed than the one I possessed, and was a wealth of information. The legion markers scattered around the continent matched what I knew in places, mirroring my own map, but others were out of position.
Mostly the ones in the Summer Court and the Shadow Court.
“What is this?” She looked to me, worry colouring her eyes and furrowing her brow.
“I do not know.” I charted all the markers in the Shadow Court, spotting ones that were in the right place while others did not match my troop movements.
Too many of them had been moved west to Wraith Wood.
I picked up one of the markers, a black elkyn head with silver antlers, and my stomach hollowed out.
“This is not right. Jenavyr’s legion is not posted here. Neither is Riordan’s.”
I showed her the two markers, one with silver antlers and one without. The only two markers that were elkyn heads. The rest of them were plain black wooden markers.
“This isn’t right either.” She pointed to Evergreen Castle. “Where’s the army?”
I looked there and saw she was right. The troops she had mentioned were stationed there were missing.
I scanned the map and found them posted along Highborn Grove, just north of where we were now.
Half of the Summer Court forces had markers there, including one embellished with gold that had to be Sylvan’s legion.
“I do not like this.” I glared at the map, at the markers, trying to unravel what I was seeing and despising the fact I could not pass on this knowledge to my sister. “I have the feeling this is—”
I held my hand up when I heard it.
Distant footsteps.
One casual, and one hurried.
I grabbed Saphira and covered her mouth with my hand, putting her back to my front as I pulled her into the shadows, backing across the room to the darkest corner, where heavy teal drapes hung and the window allowed light into the room that would work against anyone trying to see through it to find us.
She gripped my hands and the room shimmered as if in a heat haze.
Invisibility.
Sylvan stormed into the room, his golden ponytail streaming behind him as he walked at a clip towards the map, cutting an imposing figure in his gold and white armour.
A younger male followed on his heels, his shorter hair more silver in tone, and his leaner frame clad in a golden tunic jacket and white trousers, and riding boots that were as loud on the marble floor as his ragged, angry breaths were in the air.
“You said this was all taken care of,” the young male snapped, his words lashing through the air in Sylvan’s direction.
The steward calmly turned towards him, his expression revealing nothing. “It is taken care of, in a manner I see fit.”
“A manner you see fit?” the lad spat. “What is all this training for if I am not going to use it? Why am I spending time in that rancid camp with those sweaty, disgusting lowborn males if I am not to lead it?”
“Lorien,” Sylvan growled and the younger male snapped his mouth shut.
Lorien.
Saphira’s grip on my hands tightened and I realised I had begun to move, had taken a step towards that insidious little prick, my claws coming out as I imagined raking them across his throat.
I forced myself to relax and remain where I was. I had come here for information, and these two males seemed willing to give it to me, so I would stay hidden and let them do just that.