Chapter 25
Carrik
The last time I let Lindsey lead me away like this from somewhere, we wound up back in her dwelling where we sealed our mate bond.
From the heat in her gaze as she glances back at me and the direction we currently travel, I suspect that is where we are going now.
I am happy to follow, but I don’t want her to regret having me in her bed once more.
“Are you sure you don’t need more time and space?”
“I’m sure,” Lindsey replies. “Between yesterday and today, I’ve done a lot of thinking. I even talked to my friends.”
“Linds…”
She comes to an abrupt halt and grips my hand between both of hers. “I didn’t break my promise, I swear. They still believe you’re Bannik.”
I let myself relax. I shouldn’t have assumed she’d told them. “I’m sorry. It was never my intention to place you in the position to lie to your friends. That was wrong of me.”
“I didn’t actually lie,” Lindsey says. “All I did say was that you and I talked and that I now know what secrets you were keeping, but it wasn’t my place to tell anyone what they were. They took me at my word, and nothing else was said about it.”
“I trust you, but it was also just yesterday that you asked for time and space. I want to make sure you’re certain about this.”
Lindsey rises up and kisses me. “I’m certain.
You were honest before when you said you had secrets you couldn’t share yet.
While I’m sad and disappointed that you withheld your real identity, I understand the reasons you did it.
You were raised for one thing and one thing only.
It couldn’t have been easy for you to cause—and maintain—the rift with Bannik, given the fact that he’s your twin. ”
I shake my head. “It has been the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do.
He was my best friend until we were just over ten anums. That was when I was forced to begin distancing myself from him.
Our relationship completely shattered right before we turned fifteen.
I have been living with a hole in my heart since that day.
It continues to ache, but you have healed nearly all of my hurts. ”
Lindsey squeezes my hand. “I wish I could heal every one of them.”
“You have done more than you could ever know.”
At last, we approach the females’ dormitory. Just before we reach the door, it opens and a Bohnari male walks out. Our eyes meet before he smirks, glances at Lindsey, and then shifts his gaze back to me.
“Bannik, what a pleasant surprise,” Ryvik says with a hint of amusement. “I heard your brother unexpectedly arrived in the city yesterday.”
I shouldn’t be surprised by his knowledge.
I can only assume Tarrik passed along my message already, although it was faster than I expected, considering my departure from the palace wasn’t that long ago.
My heart’s fire does impress me, though, with her non-reaction to the announcement. At least, none that I notice.
“He did. I was summoned to the palace after his arrival and again this morning. We exchanged…words.”
“Yes, I heard that as well.”
I glance over his shoulder toward the door he exited from. “What are you doing here anyway?”
Ryvik grins with far too much smugness, but before he can answer, Lindsey does so. “You’re the Bohnari courting Cadence. I’ve seen you sitting in the atrium with her a few times.”
The male’s grin widens, and I wish for nothing more than to erase it from his face. “Yes, she is a lovely female. I am considering making her be my mate.”
“Making her?” Lindsey’s voice rises. “I’m pretty sure it’s not up to you. You won’t be making anyone be your mate. That’s not how that works, buddy.”
I tug my mate closer to me and can sense how much she is seething.
Ryvik merely laughs, but there is a flicker of something dangerous in his eyes. “Your heart’s fire is a fierce one.”
A fire ignites in my belly, and my sharpened fangs puncture my tongue so blood fills my mouth. It takes more control than I’ve ever exerted not to claw out his throat and watch him suffer for daring to look at my mate like that. I swallow the tangy fluid before I’m able to reply. “She is.”
“Well, the two of you appeared in a hurry when you arrived, so I won’t keep you,” he says and moves to walk around us. “I’m sure you have things to do.”
If for some reason he is here by mere coincidence and hasn’t spoken to Tarrik yet, then why wait for two nights before we meet?
I would prefer get the information from him sooner rather than later.
Or at least attempt to get it. I release Lindsey’s hand and step in front of him so he’s forced to stop or collide with me.
“There is actually something I wished to speak with you about. Perhaps you and I can go get a drink at the tavern?”
“It’s awfully early, don’t you think?” He smirks once more.
“One drink won’t hurt, will it?”
“I suppose I have time for one. That is, if your heart’s fire doesn’t mind.”
Lindsey smiles, but I can tell it isn’t genuine because it doesn’t reach her eyes. “I don’t mind at all. You boys go and have fun.”
I move back to her and palm her cheeks. She grips my wrists and stares up at me with worry.
“I’ll come see you when I’m finished.”
“You better.” My heart’s fire is fierce.
After a brief kiss, I release her and turn to Ryvik. “After you.”
He shoots a glance at Lindsey before heading off.
I fall in line beside him, doing my best to keep the urge to tear him apart for daring to look her way reined in.
Something about this feels too easy. I wish I knew what game he’s playing.
Had Tarrik gotten my message to him and it’s merely coincidence he was at the females’ dormitory when we arrived, or did he plan his exit to time perfectly with our arrival?
“I spoke briefly with Tarrik not so long ago. At the palace.”
“Did you?” Ryvik’s tone gives nothing away.
“Perhaps it was luck, then, that we ran into each other. I didn’t realize you were courting one of the humans.”
He glances at me with the same self-satisfied expression, like he knows something I don’t and the fact amuses him.
“Why would you? It isn’t as though we’ve spoken to each other aside from our few brief interactions.
That is, unless you’ve been spying on me?
Although, I thought that was more your brother’s area of expertise. ”
“Do not remind me of that traitorous keq.” I take a calming breath and lower my voice, glancing around to make sure no one is paying too much attention to us. “I am no spy.”
“It does not sound as though the two of you will be making up anytime soon.” Ryvik chuckles.
“Carrik has been cut out of my life for twenty anums for a reason. There is nothing he could do or say that would ever repair what he has broken.” The real Bannik has made that more than clear.
Warik’s appears in front of us. Ryvik opens the door and gestures for me to enter.
It’s not nearly as crowded as it was the first night we were here.
Sunlight shines through several of the windows.
Flecks of dust dance in the light. Warik is behind the bar, where only two patrons sit.
He eyes us and nods a welcome but doesn’t stop his task of drying mugs and hanging them from hooks on the wall behind him.
Ryvik and I weave through the establishment until we reach the same table we’d sat at previously.
This time, we have privacy. The closest people to us sit four tables away and are in the middle of a game of what appears to be loji mi.
A tavern female approaches and takes our order before making her way toward Warik and the bar.
“The last time we met, you said I wasn’t ready for ‘this’.” I might as well get the conversation going.
“Not wasting any time, I see.”
“I am done wasting time. We spent two anums together in the rebel camp, and not once did you give the impression you knew something about my brother and father. Which leads me to assume you only recently acquired this knowledge.”
Ryvik smiles, but it’s cold. Before he can respond, our drinks arrive. We wait until we’ve been served and the female moves on, and then he finally speaks. “Aren’t you the smart one?”
I scoff. “It doesn’t take great intelligence to understand you want me for something. Otherwise, why would you go through all the trouble of ensuring I’m ready for whatever it is you have in mind?”
“Because during our time together with the rebels, I grew fond of you, and I would hate to have to kill you,” Ryvik says easily.
“You say that as though I would make it easy for you.” I smile just as coldly.
We stare intently at each other until the other Bohnari throws his head back in laughter. It takes him more than a tick to get his amusement under control. When he does, he leans over and claps my shoulder. “I have always admired the confidence you are able to manufacture when it’s needed, Bannik.”
I let Ryvik continue to believe whatever he wishes so long as he tells me what in the gods’ names he wants from me.
Not wanting to show my hand too much, I gather the tight threads of my patience and wait for him to finally reveal what information he holds.
I take a sip of my ale, and he does the same.
The patience I have been well-known for grows thin when Ryvik finally leans in. “I will kill you if I discover you have betrayed us in any way.”
I nod my understanding.
“Your brother carries information we need.”
Us? We? “What information, and who needs it?”
Ryvik tilts and straightens his head in a single gesture. “The information is…sensitive.”
“Sensitive in what way?”
“You’re aware that Mohneek isn’t Janik’s true mother?” He lowers his voice even more. “That he was stolen by her shortly after he was born from the servant who cared for him, as revenge against the king for the death of her biological kit?”
“Of course I know this. The whole planet knows. It was announced after Janik’s blood was tested and it was verified he was the true blood child of the king and queen.”
“Mohneek claims it was King Danik who assaulted her while he was in the throes of the mating fever,” Ryvik says, as if this, too, isn’t common knowledge. He glances around the tavern once more. “Except we know it wasn’t him because he was on Kovari.”
I sigh, bored already with this conversation. “You keep telling me things that almost every single Bohnari knows. It is nothing new.”
Ryvik slowly sits back, and the same self-assured grin appears on his face. “Yes, but do you know who was also reportedly on Kovari as well but, in truth, was not?”
For several beats, I stare at him and try to control not only my shock, but my denial. My breathing remains even when I finally answer. “I suppose you are going to tell me. It certainly wasn’t Carrik. We were less than a single anum old.”
“Your father wasn’t.”
This time, I can’t contain my disbelief. “Are you saying it was my father who violated Mohneek? That he lied about going to Kovari, but rather, remained on Bohna and committed this horrific crime? You expect me to believe that?”
“We have proof. Doctored flight charts. Eyewitnesses.”
“And you’re saying that Carrik is not only aware of this, but that he withheld this information from both King Danik and Prince Alik, the two males you say he is sworn to serve? Why would he do that?”
Ryvik sweeps his arms out and brings them back in to clasp his mug of ale. “What do you think the king would have done if he’d discovered his most trusted asset—your father—violated a female who later kidnapped his child and your father never told him the truth?”
Gods, what a mess. If my father did what Ryvik is accusing him of, he certainly never told me. “Why would he tell Carrik what he’d done all those anums ago? My brother wouldn’t have ever found out otherwise. And why are you telling me?”
“Because Carrik is looking for Mohneek and Orvak with no intention of letting Janik or Horek interrogate them or throw them in the pit as punishment. Your brother intends to kill them so they can’t tell Janik the truth about your father.”
“You lie.”
Ryvik shakes his head. “It’s the truth.”
“Why don’t you tell Janik or the queen this, then? If you possess the knowledge that my father is the one who raped Mohneek, and can prove it, then why don’t you tell the prince?”
“Because your brother doesn’t know that I know as well, and I have no desire to die either.”
This is all too much. “You’re trying to tell me that Carrik will kill everyone who attempts to tell Janik or the queen the truth?”
Ryvik sighs and reaches into his pocket. He pulls out a small data pad and powers it up. A few keystrokes later, he passes it over to me. I take it and stare down at the screen.
“We intercepted this encrypted communication between Carrik and a male named Ivik. It took us days to decipher, but it states clearly what your brother’s intentions are.”
I read the message in front of me. It says exactly what Ryvik says it does—that anyone who attempts to tell the prince the truth about our father will die—but where it originated from, I can’t tell. All I know is I didn’t send it, nor did Ivik. So, either Ryvik’s lying, or we’re both being played.
“What do you want me to do? What is it you didn’t think I was ready for? Because like I told Tarrik, I am ready. If my brother is trying to murder Mohneek and Orvak to protect our father, then I’ll do whatever you need me to do to stop him.”
“Do you swear it?” Ryvik asks.
“I have hated my brother for twenty anums. My father for longer. Whatever you need from me, you will have, I swear it.”