Chapter 26
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
Ignatius’ Bedroom, Shadow Court
Aurelius
I focus on steadying my breathing, as my hand edges toward the hilt of my dagger.
Hadrian is growling just beneath my skin, and this morning I will let him out.
But not yet.
I must interrogate Aquila first, and if I do that, then he may survive. If Hadrian carries it out, however, then the Omega’s head will be torn from his body, before his tongue will be able to tell me anything useful.
I slip the key that War gave me into the lock of Ignatius’ door. The subterfuge of making copies of keys is child’s play for my commander.
I granted Ignatius rooms close to me, only a couple of corridors away from my royal nest. It is convenient for his work with me, as well as marking out his status within the inner court.
It is the only way that I can hope to keep him safe from Maximinus.
I wanted to house him as far from my uncle as possible because he was always going to be a target.
I slink into the room, glancing around. It was once a silver nobles’ room; it is grander than my own.
The chamber is filled with the crisp scent of cedarwood, which is burning in braziers. The early morning light filters through the window over the marble floor and frescoes on the walls of dragons in flight.
I stealthily stalk past the writing table, which is covered with military treatises and rolled parchments of scribbled work, which Ignatius must have stayed up working on late for me.
He is truly a committed secretary.
My lip curls back in disgust, as I study the Omega who is sleeping in bed next to him.
The Omega who has tricked him.
The would-be murderer.
I approach the sleeping, naked couple in the bed, who are wrapped in blankets.
I step onto the low, marble dais. The bed is carved from mountain ash with dragon-shaped posts and a canopy that is stitched with stars. The center has been built into a nest with goose feather pillows.
Dispassionately, I stare down at the Omega who is curled around Ignatius with his nose nuzzled against his Alpha’s scent gland in his sleep. His arm is slung around Ignatius’ middle.
Like this, Aquila’s expression is soft.
He suddenly looks young.
Seeing them sleeping together, you wouldn’t know that they were enemies.
That the Omega is abusing his Alpha.
That one of them is planning to kill the other.
Unless, of course, you looked close enough to see the bruises darkening Ignatius’ skin.
My eyes blaze.
I reach down and grab Aquila by the scruff of the neck, dragging him out of the nest.
He awakes with a shout of pain, clawing at my hand.
I ignore him, hauling him off the bed and bumping down the marble dais. Aquila bangs his hip and then his knees against the floor.
My claws slice into his scalp. Blood trails down his temples.
Aquila screams, “Iggy!”
Ignatius wakes up in alarm. “Your Majesty!”
“Stay out of this,” I snarl. “Your dragon rider is a traitor.”
Ignatius throws the blanket off himself and dives out of the bed. “Let him go.”
“Don’t command your King.” I hurl Aquila onto the marble floor. He stares up at me with terrified eyes. His scent sours in distress, and my heart pangs. I hate treating Omegas like this, even ones like Aquila. “Awake now?”
Ignatius snatches up his sword, which is resting by the side of the bed.
I don’t even look around at him.
My shadows swirl out of me. Embers spray from my horns.
Ignatius points his blade at me with shaking hands. “Step away from my Omega.”
“I told you not to command me,” I reply. “Or are you a traitor as well?”
“Put the sword down,” Aquila says with a coolness that impresses me, considering he’s sprawled in a bruised, naked heap at my feet and must know what I am about to do to him by the defeated slump of his shoulders.
“You’re not involved in this, Iggy. I won’t have you suffer as well.
You’ve been a better Alpha to me than I deserve.
I’m not worth you being hurt anymore. I shall not thank you if you fight your own cousin for me. ”
Behind me, I hear the sword clanking to the ground.
“You are worth it,” Ignatius whispers.
“Doubtful.” I fix the Omega with a steely glare. “Tell me everything, or you’ll die on my fangs in front of your Alpha.”
My dominant pheromones surge through the room. Aquila sways, overwhelmed by them. His eyes become glassy.
After a moment, I relent.
Aquila painfully pushes himself up onto his knees.
He straightens his shoulders with military precision. “Then I’ll die.”
Ignatius makes a choked sound. “Idiot. Relius isn’t bluffing.
What our parents ask of us isn’t fair. I understand because mine spent their lives pressuring me to come to the Shadow Court and risk my life in the academy just to become close to Relius.
My family’s entire fortunes rest on my shoulders, so don’t you think that I understand the pressure that you’re under?
Forgive it? I’ve met your brutal father, remember?
It’s why you’ve been so tense. You’re his puppet.
No one, let alone an Omega, could resist. But I can’t cover for you anymore. ”
I don’t know whether Aquila is more shocked, or I am.
Ignatius knew about his dragon rider’s treachery all along but still protected his Omega by hiding the secret.
Could I forgive that type of betrayal?
Aquila pales.
He looks like he may hurl.
“I’m sorry.” Aquila’s eyes glisten with tears.
“I didn’t want to hurt you. But my father trained me to believe that my bonding would always be political.
I would become his pawn to play in the most beneficial way possible to him.
He’s in a faction with Maximinus, and he taught me to despise the King.
” He casts me a nervous glance. “I learned once I was bonded to you that everything I knew was wrong. I learned to love you.”
Ignatius moves as if to rush to his Omega, but I hold him back with my hand.
“Love?” I arch my brow. “Is that what you call hitting him?”
Aquila wrings his hands on his lap. “I have never seen love within my family, nor experienced it. I was furious to be matched with Iggy once I knew that it would mean I’d be forced to spy on the royal household.
By our dragons matching, I’d have to risk my life as a traitor.
By my wings, I am a fool because I had always dreamed that finding my Alpha would finally lead to freedom from the control of my family and not yet another cage.
I shouldn’t have blamed Iggy, but it was hard not to. ”
“I should never have allowed you to go and see your father,” Ignatius snarls.
“But you knew.” I turn to Ignatius, and he becomes ashen. I prowl toward him, backing him against the wall. “You kept him in your bed, when you knew that he was a spy and traitor, who had orders to…”
“Assassinate me.” Ignatius turns his head away. “But I’m still alive.”
“I never thought that you were such an optimist or this reckless. Maybe I shouldn’t allow you to hang around Daire so much. He’s a bad influence.”
Ignatius’ expression hardens. “Daire has been the best influence in my life. I was an insecure brat before Daire taught me to have courage and rebellion in my heart, rather than conformity. I would have betrayed my Omega, tossing my only chance at lifelong love away, if I had not seen his example of devotion to his Omega.”
I wince.
I hadn’t realized just how close Ignatius had grown to Daire.
Somehow, my fae is able to inspire a level of worship in his friends and lovers that bewilders me.
Maybe assassination isn’t Daire’s love language with them like it is with me…?
I turn around with a swish of my cloak back to Aquila.
My eyes become fathomless. “When did Cato order you to assassinate my cousin? When is this murder meant to take place?”
Aquila hugs his arms around himself.
“I’m meant to have already done it,” he whispers, tormented. “I refused.”
My wings itch to burst from my back. “Are you in trouble for not following through on the fucker’s plan?”
Aquila gives a shaky nod.
“See?” Ignatius rushes to say. “He didn’t do it.
He’s not a bad Omega. We all know about being under the control of our families.
Is it fair to punish us for the sins of our parents?
Should he die because his father, an Alpha, has forced him into an impossible position?
He didn’t kill me. Please let me hold my Omega.
If he’s to be executed, then let me love him one last time. ”
My chest tightens.
I give a curt nod.
Ignatius roughly brushes past me, throwing himself to his knees next to Aquila.
I blink at the desperate way that Aquila throws his arms around Ignatius’ neck, nuzzling and licking him.
Aquila is crying and repeating sorry, sorry, sorry, while Ignatius is softly hushing him.
Neither dragon is trying to mask their emotions.
Is this love?
When they draw back and kiss each other, I clear my throat.
“This is an interrogation, you know.” I cross my arms. “And don’t imagine, Iggy, that you will not answer to me for hiding such a dangerous secret. What were you thinking by keeping such a deadly snake at your bosom?”
Ignatius gives Aquila a final lingering kiss. He pulls his Omega into a smart kneel next to him but maintains a firm hold on his hand.
“A bit like you do with Daire then, Your Majesty?” Ignatius cocks his head. “How many times has he boasted that he tried to assassinate you again?”
He had to fucking remember that.
I open my mouth to reply but I don’t know what to say. Daire’s attempts were affectionate? A game? That I knew I could beat him every time?
It made sense in my own twisted relationships between enemies, but any way that I explain it would make me sound like a hypocrite.
By Ignatius’ triumphant expression, he knows it.
Yet he doesn’t understand that this is all part of my plan.
I satisfy myself by muttering, “Insolent.”
I need to move this onto the most important reason that I am here.
Wraith is the best spy. Once she starts to dig, she will always discover something unexpected like the fact that this haughty Omega has been sneaking out to visit another Omega in the palace in secret.