Chapter 11
CHAPTER ELEVEN
Silver Banquet Room, Shadow Court
Aurelius
I curl my fingers around the armrests of the couch in the Silver Banquet Room, until my knuckles are white.
I maintain, however, my emotionless expression.
Shadows shade the skin beneath my eyes to purple.
I struggle to hold my head up and not slump down. Yet I am raised on the dais in front of my Shadow Court. I mask the exhaustion that drags at me.
How can I sleep when Freya is so far from me in another kingdom? When I can’t protect her?
It has kept me up every night that I have been apart from her.
My pheromones roll around me in waves, deep and drugging, because I will finally…fucking finally…be united with the woman who means more to me than my Crown.
After all, I have offered to burn down my kingdom for her.
I have fucking knelt for her.
Yet my Wolf Goddess bonded with my enemy. She called Lanlin pack.
After she has spent so much time in Blood Kingdom, separated from me, will she still love me as fiercely as I adore her?
I barely trust my new feelings.
How can I trust that someone as kind as Freya hasn’t been manipulated by a vampire who tricked me that he was not only my best friend but would never betray me, before murdering my brother?
I straighten my shoulders, tilting up my chin.
At long last, after years of blood and sweat, I will be avenged on Lanlin.
I am dressed in my scarlet cape and golden battle armor like dragon scales.
I am determined to look regal tonight.
Lanlin will know that I am his Emperor.
Dragon scale armlets are wrapped around my wrists and biceps. Hadrian’s Dagger is sheathed at my waist.
I blink rapidly, trying to ignore the cursed dagger’s dark whispering.
Hadrian is pulsing just beneath my skin. He is desperate to burst out and see his mates. I can sense how much he has missed them. He craves to burn Lanlin for daring to rut his Omega.
Lucius sat on my bed and polished my armor with a rag this afternoon to gleaming perfection to ensure my first impression is impressive.
I stroked Five, Daire’s fleabag of a cat this afternoon, while Lucius worked on my armor. Five insisted on curling on my lap. I had nothing to do with it.
I didn’t whisper to Five that her da would be returning home soon.
At least Lucius wisely pretended not to hear me, even if his gray eyes did twinkle with amusement.
Lucius walked me through how tonight needed to go because Lanlin’s capture is a piece of political theater.
Everything in the Shadow Court is. And Lucius is one of the best players.
Tribune Lucius Atticus is a noble Omega, silver dragon, and my closest friend.
He is also the smartest strategist in the Shadow Court, which is why he is a member of my Golden Family.
He hides behind his pretty looks, which makes him popular with the Alphas who he persuades toward my schemes with his sweet words and sweeter looks.
Tonight, I will finally fulfill my Blood Oath to Tarquin.
I will avenge my brother. I will take revenge on the Shadow Vampire who murdered him.
But by the Shadow Gods, why do I feel numb? Why is joy not surging through me?
Isn’t this justice?
Instead, dread churns in my guts. Both anxiety and anticipation race through me to see Freya once again.
What if she breaks her bond with me?
I could fucking lose her.
I would burn myself if that happened, but Hadrian would burn the realms.
I hate this plan. I hate how I know Freya will look at me afterwards. I hate how Daire will lose.
And normally, I enjoy winning my battles with that winged fucker.
Sometimes, however, you must play the villain.
The banquet table has been pushed to the side to transform my couch into a throne.
I sit motionless, restraining myself from shivering against the freezing drafts that gust through the chamber.
I glance at the blood moon, which hangs low in the sky. Dawn is starting to smolder on the horizon; its embers catch on the edges of the clouds.
The scarlet moonlight bleeds through the banquet room’s high windows. It catches on the wall’s frescoes, which depict silver dragons flying across the court.
I scan across the statues of the Dracanian kings that flank the room, along with couches. They remind me of the collection of gold and silver statues of dragons in Maximinus’ study, which he has threatened to add me to with his metallicum magic if I disobey him.
I brace myself.
What happens next is necessary.
I must remain undercover in my own kingdom, until I can challenge the most powerful sorcerer in the realms, my uncle who can take my golden core and melt, twist, and control me in the most horrifying way.
I wrinkle my nose.
The room is flooded with Alpha dragon pheromones.
Courtiers and council members, the noble silver dragons, including Decima and Liviana, are lounging on the couches.
I nod at Ignatius Messalla, my poor Alpha cousin and new secretary, who is helping to run the Shadow Military Academy. He is standing smartly beside the entrance, guarding it.
Ignatius’ Shadow Military uniform is immaculate as always, and his golden hair is caught back from his face. He is a couple of years younger than Freya, and amongst these old councilors, he looks it.
For the first time, I believe that I made the right decision taking him under my wing.
Ignatius’ icy blue eyes meet mine.
My lips pinch, however, when I notice how tightly his arm is being held by his elite but icy Omega, Aquila.
Is the Omega struggling amongst so many Alpha pheromones?
When I glance around, I am shocked how different the atmosphere is to when Lanlin arrived in a fog of incense-scented shadows and roars from his demonic lions to claim my Omega as his.
Then, the same Alphas had huddled in tense, silent groups, who are now chatting and laughing like this is a carnival. They grab and down wine from the trays, which the Beta servers are carrying between them.
I am the only one who is sitting in unmoving, sober silence.
My court are glancing between each other in gleeful anticipation, as if waiting for the entertainment — Lanlin.
I made him kneel and then prostrate himself last time. But it didn’t humiliate him. He only had eyes for the Omega and Blood Lover whom I was tricking him into believing would become his.
Will it break him this time, however, now that he knows they were never his from the start?
I feel sick.
Imperial Legate War Varus, a ruby Alpha and my war general who is standing behind me, leans down.
“Where is the fanged fucker? Can’t you see the first flames of dawn burning the moon from the sky?
Any longer, and your fated mates will tumble through the portal, only for your pet vampire to burn like a candle in the sun. ”
“He’s not my pet.” I twist over my shoulder to glare at War. She is in her late thirties, muscled, and dressed in ruby-encrusted gold and leather armor that she has also polished for this special night. “He’ll be my prisoner.”
War raises her scarred eyebrow. “I’ve seen more self-awareness from a rooster.”
“And I’ve seen more respect from a donkey. What’s your point?”
War is my bodyguard who has protected me since I was a prince. She is the most loyal person I know. Also, as we’ve fought campaigns for years together, the bluntest.
Lucius chuckles, rounding the chair to War’s side. War is his devoted Alpha.
War slings her arm around his shoulders, yanking him hard against her chest. He melts, nuzzling her.
Lucius is lean and small. He has pretty, silver eyes and honey curls, which tumble to his cheekbones.
As we planned together in my bedroom, he is wearing battle armor. There are only three of us remaining in the Golden Family after Vicious’ death, and we need to appear like we’re running not only this court, but what happens tonight.
“My point,” War’s hazel eyes blaze, “is that when it comes to the wolf bitch, your brain turns to shit. Why aren’t they here yet?
Did the feather fucker fail his mission?
Or did he never intend to follow through in the first place?
Don’t they understand what your uncle will do to you if they don’t return with a king in chains tonight?
Don’t they care about their dragon Alpha?
Fuck it, Relius, I spend half my life fighting wars alongside you and the other half… ?”
“What?” My amber eyes darken.
War boldly meets my gaze, and her hand slides to the hilt of her sword. “The other half, making sure that nobody tricks you into joining the wrong side.”
I stare back at her coldly.
“Freya isn’t on any side but her pack’s,” Lucius insists. “And that includes Relius. She loves our King as much as…she just loves him, all right? I could tell before she was ready to admit it. She won’t harm him.”
I can’t help my lips tugging into a slight smile.
Lucius has never had an Omega friend before, and he’s as protective of Freya as he is of me.
“Enough, Omega.” War winds her hand into Lucius’ hair, forcing him to bare his neck.
“She’s already harmed him. Also, she’s not just any wolf.
She’s a Queen, and she’s just waiting to sink her fangs into the hand that fed her.
I’ve plunged my sword into the chests of enough of the furred fuckers to know.
You can see the look in their eyes, as the heathens die to know—”
“Don’t complete that sentence, unless you want to join their spirits over the moon,” I growl. “They’ll be here. And you’ll see that my wolf and fae are loyal.”
I hope.
War snorts, before making a low crowing sound like a rooster at me.
I pointedly ignore her, staring at the center of the banquet hall to the space that my uncle has sworn the cursed shackles will draw my mates and worst enemy through the portal, as if I can make them appear through force of will alone. “They won’t let me down.”
Shouldn’t the fake marriage have already taken place?
The light from the Blood Moon dances across the room, as if we’re swimming in blood.
Daire must have slapped the shackles on Lanlin’s wrists by now.
My lips curl up at the sides at the thought of the look on Lanlin’s face.