Chapter 42
Forty-Two
RONAN
ELLNESARI, PRESENT DAY
I run after Cheryl, not caring about decorum. Lord Indigo’s screams echo in my ears, even though the male is dead. I’ll never forget what I witnessed tonight.
I knew the trial would be hard on Cheryl. I guessed she was thinking about Karl and what he endured at the hands of his own father. The situation is completely different, though. Karl was innocent, unlike Castiel’s brother, who did commit all those awful crimes.
Cheryl doesn’t run far before I catch up with her. I spin her around and crush her to my chest, hugging her tight. I sense not only her emotions but her wolf’s as well. She curls her hands around my shirt, hiding her face from view, but her body is shaking. “That was awful.”
“I know, but it’s over now, sweetheart. It’s over.” I run my fingers through her hair, taking as much comfort from it as I’m offering her.
“I’m about to shift, Ronan, and I don’t know if I can stop it.”
“It’s okay, Cher. I’m here.”
Footsteps echo in the hallway behind us. I turn my face but keep my body positioned the same way, shielding Cheryl from view. It’s Castiel who’s approaching, looking grief-stricken—a completely different expression than he had during the trial. The question is, which one is the lie?
“What do you want?” I ask.
“I came to check on Cheryl.”
She leans back to stare at the male. “I’m fine. I just had to get out of there.”
He clenches his jaw before replying, “Yeah… me too. I could use a drink. Care to join me?”
“I’d need more than a drink if I had witnessed my own brother’s execution,” I retort.
He rubs his face, then looks into the distance. “My brother knew the consequences of his actions, and yet I can’t help thinking that I didn’t do enough to prevent him from going down that path.”
“We’ll have a drink with you, Castiel,” Cheryl says. “And maybe you can be real with us and explain exactly what’s going on.”
He stares at us for a moment and then sighs. “I can see why you’re friends with Rikkon and Vryenn. Very well. Follow me.”
CHERYL
The moment Ronan pulled me into his arms, my wolf calmed down and the urge to shift went away. Now it’s my turn to ease Ronan’s turmoil. I run a hand up and down his back until his corded muscles relax.
If he didn’t like Castiel before, he likes him even less now. I suppose it has to do with Connor, the brother Ronan lost at a young age. It must be hard for him to wrap his head around brothers who aren’t as thick as thieves. But the sad reality is that blood means nothing to certain individuals.
We take the same mode of transport as before to reach Castiel’s living quarters.
He could have walked the wind, but he’s a smart male and could guess the offer would be vehemently refused.
I sit next to Ronan and opposite Castiel, who doesn’t utter a word during the short ride, nor does he make eye contact with us.
Once we stop, he hops out of the carriage first, then offers me his hand.
I could get down without any help, but I have no reason to be rude to him.
A sliver of annoyance drips down my spine when I take Castiel’s hand—Ronan’s annoyance.
Now that he’s not shielding his emotions from me, I sense them all.
I also know he isn’t upset with me. His aggravation is rooted in jealousy, and I can’t say I hate it.
After so many years believing he didn’t care for me, my ego appreciates all the signs that Ronan is, in fact, crazy about me.
Castiel’s apartment is in a different wing of the palace than ours—a fact I notice due to the different colors on the tapestries hanging from the walls. They follow the same color scheme of blue-and-purple tones, but the hues are deeper here.
His quarters are easily three times the size of our room. The living room has a few comfortable-looking couches in a rich velvet fabric of deep purple facing a fireplace with blue flames swaying inside.
“What type of fire is that?” I ask.
“It’s called eternal fire. It doesn’t extinguish unless I want it to.”
I approach the fireplace to inspect it and see that the flames aren’t burning anything. They float on air. “It feeds off Nightingale magic?”
“Precisely.”
I look over my shoulder. “Can any Nightingale produce such fire?”
He shakes his head. “No. That’s a gift I inherited from my mother. She’s from Etheos, a neighboring kingdom south of Lynx.”
Ronan takes a seat on one of the couches and beckons me to join him. “All right, Castiel. It’s time for you to come clean about everything.”
“Right,” he says as if he’d rather do anything besides talk to us. “But I need a drink first.”
He walks to a silver trolley displaying crystal bottles of different sizes. Each of them contains a liquid of a different color. Castiel chooses the biggest in the collection and fills a crystal goblet to the brim. “Do you care for some silverspun?”
“No, I’m good,” Ronan replies.
“I’ll try it,” I say, earning a look from Ronan. I know what he’s thinking, but my tolerance for alcohol is higher than most people’s. “One drink won’t kill me.”
“Don’t worry. Silverspun isn’t that strong. As much as I’d like to surrender to oblivion, it isn’t the time to act recklessly.”
Castiel walks over holding two crystal goblets, handing me the one not filled to the brim before taking a seat on the couch opposite ours.
I take a whiff of the shimmering drink first—the scent reminds me of jasmine—before I take a tentative sip. It tastes like it smells, but it also tingles on my tongue. I take a larger gulp, then another, and before I know it, the whole thing is empty.
“I was going to ask if you liked it, but I have my answer.” Castiel chuckles.
“It was surprisingly refreshing.”
I sense Ronan’s stare and glance at him, expecting to see disapproval, but that’s not what I get at all. Pure fire shines in his blue eyes. He leans closer and kisses me on the cheek, making me blush.
“You’re disgustingly adorable, and I hate you a little bit,” Castiel chimes in.
I’m surprised by his confession, and also curious about what prompted him to say that. “Why? You don’t have anyone you care about?”
“Hmm… my love life is complicated. But you didn’t come here to hear about it. Tell me what you want to know.” He crosses his leg and sips his drink.
“How did your brother open the portals to the human world?” Ronan asks.
Castiel’s gaze darkens and he stares at his drink.
“He learned the spell somehow. However, now that the old portals have been sealed, only the rulers of each kingdom have the power to create new portals without consequence. When lesser Nightingales try it, they lose part of their life force. Indigo knew that would happen, hence why he used Valkor.”
“Everyone at his manor called him Lord Valkor, but he wasn’t a royal, was he?” I ask.
Castiel snorts. “No. He was the furthest thing from a royal. A long time ago, he was one of the most feared pirates in Ellnesari, known as the Sea Serpent. Then something happened that made him give up his ship and settle down in Salthollow.”
“Do you know what happened?” Ronan asks.
“No. I’ve heard different tales, but I never bothered to find out the truth. We made a mistake thinking he was of no consequence.” He drops his gaze again.
“Were you close to Lord Indigo?” I ask, because Castiel seems very conflicted.
“No.” He swallows hard, then looks up. “But after what I witnessed tonight… it’s like there’s a boulder sitting on my chest, crushing it. I feel immense guilt, even though Indigo’s death wasn’t my doing.”
Ronan and I share a look, and even though he’s wearing his impartial mask, I know what’s in his heart. He still doesn’t trust the prince of Lynx.
He turns his attention to Castiel once more. “How did you find us?”
“You made a friend in Featherlight Village. After you were taken, the healer alerted her nephew, who in turn went to Telar Nyrk with the information.”
“Telar Nyrk?” I furrow my brow. “You mean the captain of the Aquila army?”
Castiel nods. “Yes.”
“Why didn’t he bring us to his queen?”
Castiel narrows his eyes. “Because he isn’t loyal to the queen. He’s loyal to King Ruel, who has made a secret alliance with Lynx.”
My jaw drops. “Oh my God. Is King Ruel planning a coup?”
Castiel’s lips turn into a thin, flat line. After a moment, he nods, then finishes his drink.
Ronan fidgets, and a wave of tension emanates from him. “What does that mean for us? And what role do Karl and Manu have in this?”
“What do you know about Nightingale politics?”
“Not much,” I confess.
“In some kingdoms, the power of the land can only transfer to the female line. Aquila, Hydra, and Vega are such kingdoms. King Ruel is from Vega, and because he’d never inherit the crown, he married Queen Maewe. It was a political alliance, and there’s no love lost there.”
“The fact that their marriage wasn’t for love speaks in his favor,” I mutter.
“King Ruel foresaw that Manu wouldn’t cross the portal. He?—”
“Wait?” I lift my hand, interrupting him. “Rikkon’s father has visions of the future too?”
“Yes, Rikkon inherited that trait from him.”
“What happened?” Ronan asks, getting us back on track.
“He instructed Telar to apprehend Manu and bring her to him.”
“What for?” I ask, not that I worry too much about that female. She’s a backstabbing bitch who made Karl suffer for centuries and somehow implicated Ronan in her schemes.
“King Ruel has found a way to strip Queen Maewe of her power, but he needs a special object to do it. Your friends are on a mission to retrieve that object.”
“And they agreed to help, just like that?” Ronan arches a brow.
Castiel shifts in his seat, and his jaw tightens before he answers, “There weren’t given a choice.”
I curl my hands into fists, closing my eyes for a second. Karl would do anything to help his mate, even go on a dangerous mission. I have no illusions that this object King Ruel wants is easy to find or he would have already done it.
“The fact that he coerced Manu and Karl to do his bidding doesn’t raise any red flags in your mind?” Ronan asks in a dangerously low tone. “How can you trust his reign will be better than Queen Maewe’s?”
Castiel leans forward, his eyes narrowing. “Who says King Ruel will be the next ruler?”
I sit straighter, all my muscles tensing. “If he isn’t, then who?”
“The Aquila Kingdom has two heirs.”
He means Vivi and Rikkon, but neither has any desire to return to Ellnesari.
“They don’t want the crown,” Ronan retorts.
“I know, and that’s precisely why we must make sure one of them becomes the next ruler of Aquila. The survival of the vampire race depends on it.”