Chapter 12 #2
My expression hardens. “Don’t worry. Where you’re going there is no light.”
“You were always my light, Relius.”
He is looking at me like I am his savior, rather than his enemy who is about to destroy him.
My expression tightens. “Monsters don’t deserve the light.”
Maximinus laughs.
Something shatters in Lanlin’s eyes, which become dead and flat. “Of course they don’t.”
He sits back on his heels. He rests his chained wrists in his lap.
“Don’t call him that.” Freya reaches for the dagger at her side.
At a nod from me, Ignatius and Aquila flank her.
“My apologies, but I have my orders.” Ignatius rests the flat blade of his sword at the hollow of Freya’s back, careful not to cut her. “Please leave with me now. I will escort you back to the royal nest. You can eat and rest.”
Freya shakes with fury, meeting my gaze across the length of the room. “Your orders.” I stare at her in silence. “I’m not leaving my Alphas.”
“Go with him, my dear,” Lanlin says without looking around.
He doesn’t want her to witness his humiliation, while I don’t want her to see what needs to be done. I need her to be safe if anything goes wrong.
I am surprised that despite being betrayed, Lanlin still feels the same.
I should have known just how devoted he would be. It will wreck him to be parted from Freya, which will be my true revenge on him.
“Aye, after our fun night, you need a rest.” Daire stands, smoothing down the feathers on his wings. “I’ll join you soon, right?”
He doesn’t believe that, and neither does Freya.
Agonized, she stares between her three Alphas.
“Aurelius,” she begs. “Please…”
Stony-faced, I command, “Put out fresh clothes for my Queen and water for her to wash the blood and sand from the Shadow Vampire’s kingdom off her skin. She is home now, where she belongs.”
Lanlin winces, but he still adds, “We swore that our bond was for eternity. I vowed that I would love you until the stars burn from the sky and the sky itself was forgotten. Do you believe that anything that is said to me or done to me will make me stop loving you?”
Freya’s eyes glisten with tears. “I vowed that I chose you as my pack, and I protect my pack.”
“Then do that by keeping yourself safe.”
There is strength to Lanlin’s words, along with a flood of pheromones so powerful that Freya sways.
Ignatius instantly sheathes his sword, while his Omega grabs Freya by the arm.
“I can stay with you until you are settled,” Aquila offers.
“I will see you both again soon. I love you.” Freya’s voice wavers.
“We’ll just have a little conversation here. Go stuff your face with cakes and grab some beauty sleep.” Daire gestures at his ravens, and the largest one flies to perch on his shoulder.
He shifts just enough to ensure no dawn sun can trickle through from the window onto Lanlin’s skin.
Ignatius grabs Freya’s other arm, and together with his Omega, he marches her out of the room.
The further that she is from my uncle, the more relaxed I am.
I only trust Ignatius to guard her and keep her safe.
I let out a relieved breath.
Freya didn’t reject our bond.
Not yet.
Now, I can do what needs to be done.
Daire glances around the room at the spilled wine and drawn swords. “Well, it looks like we missed another brilliant party.”
“It’s only just starting.” War hurls down her sword with a clank, before prowling down the dais to Lanlin. “This is for Vic.”
She wrenches Lanlin’s head up by the hair, before punching him across the face, once and then again.
His cheek shatters, and his eye swells.
She raises her fist again.
Daire dives across the room with uncanny speed, twirling as if to kick War away from Lanlin.
My lips curl. That would be a mistake.
War would kick Daire’s arse in front of this audience, and I would need to let her.
Maximinus would ensure that Daire couldn’t fight back.
War is angry enough to enjoy taking the fae apart.
“Stop, Raven,” Lanlin orders with a regal authority, which doesn’t match with his beaten appearance on his knees. “You are as chained as I am. On the Void, you are a fallen king too. If you serve me, do not intervene. If your vows were truthful, find a way back to our Omega.”
“I won’t leave you alone in an enemy court.”
“Haven’t you been alone in one — twice?”
“I wasn’t. I always had my soulmate with me.”
Furious, I stand.
This isn’t going how I thought it would.
Daire and Freya are closer…more loving and devoted…with Lanlin than I imagined in my worst nightmares, which have kept me awake since I was parted from them.
Is there even a place for me in this new pack that they have formed?
Hadrian roars through me, desperate to claw his way out.
Lucius takes a step closer to my shoulder, attempting to calm me with his pheromones. “Careful, Relius. Your eyes are doing that swirling thing.”
I ignore him.
Instead, I glower at Lanlin. “It is touching how well you play at friendship. You have convinced my King and Queen that they are yours with the same tricks.”
I expect Lanlin to deny it, but instead, he hunches his shoulders. “On my heart, I swear that I have done what was needed to save them, as I have to keep my oath to you.”
“You broke your oath to me,” I roar.
“I didn’t.” Lanlin attempts to stand, but War shoves him brutally back to his knees. “We swore on our blood not to betray each other. You were the one person in the realms apart from Laz who I wouldn’t betray.”
“So, you’re a liar too.” I feel like I have been turned to ice.
Lanlin bares his fangs at War. “Let me explain—”
“What else did you lie about?” I demand.
I must know, although I am carving into my own chest by demanding these answers.
“Were you ever my friend? Or did your kingdom send you to me as a spy? Were you ordered to get close to me?” My stomach drops.
“We didn’t meet in the rose garden that first time by chance, did we? ”
Lanlin raises his head, holding my gaze.
There is an entire lifetime of conversations in that gaze. But he doesn’t speak a word.
I fight not to shake.
Lanlin has just taken some of the few happy memories that I have from my youth — those of my best friend, the fellow outcast king who understood me — and lifted the shadowed veil to reveal that they were fake.
I am the fool who has been played from the very beginning.
Why did I allow myself to believe that a resurrected Golden Dragon would have a true friend? A bonded Omega? A pack?
Is anything that I am building here real?
Never show pain. Never show weakness.
I bite the inside of my cheek not to reveal my turmoil of emotions. “Your own silence condemns you.”