Chapter 44
Alone in her room, Imani picked up a goblet of wine and barely lifted it to her lips before dropping it. The liquid sprayed the floor, and the gold cup clanged against the stones.
Loosely holding the wand in her hand, she flicked it and sent the goblet soaring back onto the table, and then dissipated the wine.
Performing silly magic did nothing to calm her shaking hands.
Enraged didn’t even begin to describe the emotions churning inside her.
While it seemed like he was really into what they had going, and that he was genuine in the sweet nothings he said to her in the quiet hours they’d spent wrapped in each other’s arms, there was a real possibility that he’d figured out how to manipulate her into getting exactly what he wanted—again.
She had been an easy fuck for him to feed from.
They needed to have a conversation for closure. He was probably done with her, and what they had shared was gone. But he didn’t want to let her go. So, where did that leave them?
Still, her heartbroken soul needed to hear the truth from his mouth.
Flinging open the curtains in her room to look out past the mountains on the east side of Kehemol, she found the night sky above and the city below remained still, as smoke continued billowing from the smoldering fires.
Imani pressed her fingers to her temples, trying to wrap her mind around the monstrous lies Kiran had kept from her.
His shifter beast.
His high-bred Eldritch breed.
His murderous plans against his father and family.
How he used her against Mateus.
His heartmate sigil.
Her matching heartmate sigil.
There were so many lies that she couldn’t even name them all.
Yet, he had wanted her to trust him earlier?
A barked, bitter laugh escaped her lips because she had trusted him, and it had now put her in this situation. Vulnerable, ripe for the taking. He could have easily taken everything from her, and hours ago, she had almost given it all to him—freely.
Would they ever overcome all the truths and lies they’d been laying at each other’s feet?
How could she think they’d reconcile such things and work together?
If she was being honest, whatever small amount of trust they’d built up these past few months had crumbled tonight when his lies were exposed.
Being honest with each other didn’t matter anymore.
With so much left unsaid between them, everything about them had been doomed from the start.
A sharp knock interrupted her pacing. Tucking the Drasil inside her pocket, she strode to the door and found Zadie on the other side.
The nymph didn’t wait for an invitation, pushing past Imani to enter the main room. “Get dressed,” she ordered.
Imani narrowed her gaze. Zadie could smell bullshit a mile away, so it had become difficult for Imani to look at the witch in recent days, not wanting to reveal her secret—the Drasil.
“What’s going on? I usually meet Kiran at this time.” In fact, she’d been waiting to confront him—desperate for it.
“He won’t be coming tonight.” Zadie kept an eye on the windows but moved to rustle through Imani’s dresses in her wardrobe.
“Why? Tell me what’s happening.”
Zadie pulled out a dark olive-green dress, examined it, then nodded. Shoving the garment, stockings, and cloak into Imani’s arms, Zadie regarded her for a moment. “You need to get away from here.”
“What? Why?”
“Because he’s realized what I’ve been warning him about for months now. But his solution is far grimmer than I anticipated.”
“He and I need to speak before I leave,” Imani said with her jaw clenched.
Zadie scoffed. “You will not like what you find if you confront him now. I’m telling you as a friend, the best place for you is away from here, preferably out of this kingdom and out of his reach.
He’s already made up his mind. You should have left after we escaped the Under—I see that now.
But Ara would be furious with me if I didn’t help you now. ”
Of course, just as Imani suspected when she started her training with Zadie, Zadie and Aralana had been closer friends than she’d believed. More secrets she wasn’t privy to.
“Help me with what?” Imani asked, but she knew the answer. She’d felt it in the way he had looked at her and everything that had passed unsaid between them earlier in the throne room.
Zadie stared at her in shock for another moment before she began to laugh.
“Oh, you poor thing … you poor, sweet, misguided child. Do you honestly believe you love him? Or worse—do you honestly believe he loves you?” She straightened and pushed a hand through her hair to tuck the strands back that had been jarred out of place.
“I am so sorry. He has corrupted you, twisted you, manipulated you into thinking he cares for you. I promise you, he does not. There is no room in his black heart for anyone but himself. I only hope you will come to see that before it is too late.”
“And why are you helping me?” Imani looked down at all the clothes in her hands.
“You may find this hard to believe, but I was good friends with your grandmother, and I don’t want to see you succumb to the fate he has in mind for you.
Go home and beg your false king for mercy—he won’t deny you.
Leave tonight and forget Kiran altogether.
I can convince him to forget you, too, without you here as a distraction. ”
“You can’t make me leave.”
“You’re right, I can’t,” Zadie said with a sigh and crossed her arms. “Look, go talk to him if you must and find out for yourself. I’m not making any promises on the outcome for you, though.”
“I’d be questioning your sanity if you did,” Imani answered. She then swallowed before adding quietly, “I’ll leave tonight, but I must speak with him before I go.”
“That will quite possibly end with you in chains.” Silence fell for a moment before the nymph added, “I’ll help you dress for an audience with him.”
It only took another moment for Imani to nod and whip off her robe.
Behind her, Zadie continued in a hushed tone, working her deft hands quickly to help Imani undress. “If he allows you to go free, I will meet you back here in an hour. There’s an exit that leads outside the city walls that I can help you find.”
“Thank you, but I can leave on my own,” was all Imani said, not sure how to respond to this kindness. Kindness she wouldn’t need once she was through with Kiran, but one she appreciated all the same.
“You still aren’t getting it.” Zadie snapped her gaze back to Imani, her signature sharp with fury.
“You let him in. He knows your powers, your secrets. And he wants them for himself, but he knows he can’t have you anymore—not like that.
So, he’ll keep you hidden away, try to have you in private, but reduce you to a lower station to prove to everyone what you mean to him, especially as he’s courting the other high sentinel’s daughters.
Your problems will only get worse for you when he binds to a chosen mate.
Trust me; you won’t want to be here when he does.
All the more reason for you to leave with your dignity and control of your own powers. He will chain you and drain you dry.”
“Not until he and I have a discussion,” Imani said again through gritted teeth. Would Kiran really try to bind her for her magic like his father had the other elves he “experimented” on?
She gripped the Drasil tighter. He could certainly try, but she no longer feared him.
A soft sigh escaped Zadie’s lips, but she ceased arguing. Instead, she turned around and thrust two dresses at Imani.
Imani started dressing herself, trying to move faster, wanting this to be over. The garnets on the dress reminded her of the ones she’d been working on the day Malis had come into the shop. The day the man with the green eyes had come in.
She sucked in a deep breath as she reached up to cover her mouth.
Realization slammed into her. A horrifying realization.
It hit Imani like a pile of stones. The reason Kiran had felt familiar to her when they’d first met was because she had already met him before.
Indeed, she had once seen a nymph with the same green eyes—two of them—in the shop the day Malis had attacked her.
He must have glamoured his eyes to be green and make himself appear more nymph-like.
An easy thing for an elf of his power to accomplish.
And he’d touched her when he had removed her glamour.
Imani’s hands started trembling—because they were heartmates—and that bastard had to have known this entire time. She’d thought he had simply kept his sigil from her, but it was an even worse lie. Worse than she could have imagined.
Her grandmother’s ramblings the night before she’d died made perfect sense now. It had never been Malis whom Ara had gone on about—it had been Kiran. The words boomed in her mind.
“Your father was the best divination witch that I’d seen in years, and your heartmate is everything he foresaw he would be. But he’s also far worse than either of us imagined.”
Kiran. Her heartmate.
Imani couldn’t look at Zadie. A ball of tension squeezed her chest, increasing the constricting feeling of the dress, but she ignored it. She would ignore this until she spoke to Kiran about why he had lied about them being heartmates.
Eventually, Imani’s eyes opened once more, and she canted her head to the side. Their gazes met and held for a brief moment in time. She knew exactly what Zadie had been going on about now, and her stomach felt sick.
“How long has he known what I am to him?” She could barely get the words out as she pressed her fingers to her wrist and murmured the incantation to remove the glamour over her heartmate brands.
“He’s known since the day the marks burned in the shop.
” Zadie gestured to the two gleaming red stags on Imani’s wrist, facing each other.
“But he can’t be heartmated to someone who doesn’t give him a political edge.
He’ll steal your power and use it for his own—sharing power between heartmates is an unstoppable force. ”
What she said made too much sense. Kiran needed to bind to one of the elves of his kingdom in order to avoid the civil unrest Tanyl was dealing with in a bloody transition of power and needed to unite his kingdom more than ever.
But he could still leverage the power between heartmates for his own uses—and it sounded like he planned to … with her in chains while he did it.
Everything had changed now. Imani wanted to set fire to the room, but she stood unmoving, unable to think clearly. She was so bloody stupid.
“If you’ve seen his heartmate mark, as you say you have, then surely he’ll be kinder—”
“Kiran will do whatever Kiran will do to be the most powerful witch he can be,” Zadie interrupted her. “Neither I, nor you, nor anyone out there, can stop him once his mind is set. He forbade me from telling you.”
Zadie tugged the waist of the dress for a final adjustment then stepped back in silent assessment.
“Also, you should know that you’re entirely bonded—Kiran had to make sure of that so you could bypass the dwarves’ security.
The first blood binding? The soul switching before the dwarves?
Sex with you? He’s completed all three of the bindings, right under your nose. ”
Rage threatened to explode from Imani.
“How dare he?” she ground out, fists clenched.
Mind reeling, Imani left her own rooms in the east side of the castle, in search of the king.
As she walked down the halls toward Kiran’s wing, which was still intact, doubt crept in.
The shadows, which normally gave her much comfort, took on a more menacing form.
Her temper rose steeply inside her chest, threatening to choke her.
The farther she walked, the more furious she became. Was Zadie right? A part of Imani was still ready to wholly trust Kiran after these past few months. A tiny, minuscule part of her wanted to believe he held enough feelings for her to let her in. He had been completely different with her lately.
But Zadie wouldn’t have risked Kiran’s ire by betraying his orders if it wasn’t important, and she didn’t give a shit who or what he was doing now. They would have this discussion.
Even before stepping into his hallway, she knew it was empty. She couldn’t sense any souls at all. Confused, she turned back the way she had come and began heading to Magnus’s quarters, wondering if they were even still standing.
As she rounded the corner to the rooms, a dark void of a wraith came forward and surrounded her like a halo. Ever since the Under, her shadows were taking more specific forms. She didn’t try to fight it.
“Your protection is appreciated, although I don’t suppose you could open this door for me,” Imani said lightly.
The creature had no face that she could see, but it turned and disappeared through the wall. She took that as a good sign.
A moment later, the door opened.
Imani stepped forward. Tentatively, she reached for the golden handle and swung it open the rest of the way.