Chapter 46
The king’s chest heaved as he ripped open the doors to the throne room, gaze riveted on the doorway she’d created, but he otherwise kept his reaction impassive.
“Imani, what have you done?” he whispered through clenched teeth, taking slow steps forward. He could not tear his eyes away from the swirling, crackling doorway Imani had opened against the wall.
“You’re not the only one with secrets,” she replied with a sneer, moving to stand with her back to the doorway, facing him as he approached.
The monstrosity of magic behind her devoured and crunched sections of wall, the sound of stone cracking so loudly it made her ears ache.
Without practice, this was a rudimentary doorway, at best. Imani knew it wouldn’t last long before collapsing in on itself, and she didn’t want to be anywhere near it if that happened.
Kiran came to stand only a mere foot from her, scanning her like he thought she was injured. “Something is different about you. Your magic is different.”
“We are too similar,” she whispered, “and I let myself … Gods, I can’t even say it out loud.” Her voice cracked, and her eyes pricked. She shut them tight to keep from crying.
“I’m the Niflheim king, Imani … Let me help you, with whatever this is.” His eyes were stark, begging, but still a horror.
Imani didn’t think she would ever not be somewhat afraid of Kiran.
There would always be that slight tinge of terror at how dangerous he was and how monstrous he could get to ensure his goals were met.
She knew he would stop at nothing to get what he wanted—those shackles had proven that much.
She wished so badly he’d chosen a different path.
One that included working with her instead of against her.
But maybe it was all he knew.
“Oh, now you want to help me? And it’s because you’re the Niflheim king that I can’t accept your help. I see that now.”
His green eye flashed with something like pain. “You’re bound to me forever, Imani … You’re mine, and I am yours. I don’t have to hide that truth from you or the world anymore. Everyone knows.”
“You’re wrong. I might have thought I needed the prince, but this king? We could never be anything together,” she spat back. “You threw me away just now, and you’re never getting me back.”
“You needed the prince, eh? Finally, some honesty from you.”
“I won’t deny it. We could have done great things together if we had been more honest. But … this is over. I have my own plans, and they don’t include you anymore.”
Both their secrets had shattered the fragile trust between them.
“My, you have been busy, and keeping bigger secrets than me, no doubt. What have you been working on, little elf?” he taunted her. “Now’s the time for us to practice that honesty you keep mentioning.”
“Why should I, when you plan to keep me locked away while you have trysts with whatever women you can find. I still can’t believe you’ve known we’re heartmates for almost a year,” Imani hissed.
Tendrils of shadows haloed her body. They swirled around her, alive, caressing her skin, dissolving into nothing, and reappearing again.
They were threatening the Niflheim king to stay away.
His expression softened, and he ignored the shadows. Brushing a strand of hair off her face, he lowered his forehead to touch hers. “We can still be together. It was too dangerous to admit it to you outright, but you’re the only female I’ve ever truly wanted.”
She recoiled at that statement. “I’m not begging for your scraps,” she hissed. “Nor will I ever be with you in chains. Now, I’m leaving. Last chance to back away from me before I make you.”
“What do you have to go home to?” Kiran snapped back. “Hm? Are you going back to Tanyl? I doubt it—you couldn’t stand him now that you’ve had me. Whatever the lies and secrets between us, we are real. Both of us together is the most real thing I’ve ever known.”
“You don’t understand yet, do you?” She pointed the Drasil in his face.
He pulled away and searched her face, a flicker of vulnerability flashing across his.
“Help me understand, then. I can’t make you queen, but I wish I could.
The shackles were a mistake, but I need you by my side.
I will take back the Essenheim Kingdom from Tanyl, and you will get everything you want and more. ”
“That is what you don’t understand. It’s not as easy as me just ‘staying by your side’ anymore.
Not when you’re king. It changed everything, and I was stupid to think it wouldn’t.
We have different ideas for fixing this world that don’t mix, Your Highness.
” Pain was carving out her chest, making the path ready for her heart to be ripped out with the decision she would make.
Imani was going to lose him, her beautiful, strange-eyed elf.
“You’re staying,” he demanded.
“Once again, I’m not, and you’re an idiot for thinking that.”
“What is waiting for you there? Look at yourself, Imani. You said it yourself that we are similar, probably even more alike than you want to admit.”
“You made us enemies when you tried to shackle me to your side and kept secrets from me.”
He jutted his chin at the doorway, still pulsating and growling behind them. “What’s this if not more secrets and lies from you?”
She backed up, a slow grin forming on her face as she put distance between them. “I’m going to let you in on one of my little secrets, and once I do, you will try to kill me. I thought I could trust you, but now I know you might actually end my life if I leave.”
“I won’t. Not if you’re here by my side.”
“You won’t let me go.”
He leaned forward, the black onyx crown glinting from the fires blazing through the crumbling holes he’d put in the throne room. “No, I won’t.”
“You think you won? You think this is over? Enjoy this moment. I’m just getting started.
You came here with a mountain of knowledge about me, but now?
You’ve shown me more than I need about you.
You won’t get away with shackling me to your side, and next time, I won’t just hate you.
I will make you wish you’d killed me today.
I will gut you with a smile. I will find out what matters to you and set it on fire. ”
She took another step right in front of his face.
“Soon, I’ll have you by the balls, and when you’re utterly ruined and begging me to make it stop, when your people are demanding your head, tell them it’s because you thought you could take me on.
Tell them it was because you are a fool and underestimated some nobody little elf. ” She paused.
“I’m not giving up what I want, either, and I’m going home to get it from Tanyl.” And she would, even if it meant breaking her own heart and blackening any pieces that remained behind. Nothing would stop her.
Though many wish for good, ill is oft the mightier, Ara had said once.
“Going home? Do you want to die, is that it?” He slammed his fist into the throne. “Because you will die if you go back there. Please, listen to reason, Imani. I’m not fucking around anymore.”
“Save the begging for when you see the crown. I do love a good grovel.”
“Crown?”
“You made it no secret that you intend to invade Essenheim and control both kingdoms, to unite them again under one rule. One monarch.”
A muscle in his jaw ticked, but he said nothing because it was true.
Imani continued, undeterred, “Oh, I know more about you than anyone alive,” she said, throwing his words back in his face. “You might have used to know me, but I have some new, nasty secrets I managed to keep from you.”
Her skin tingled with the Drasil’s magic as it amplified her own. Kiran was going to see just how powerful she was now.
A burst of bright, raw magic erupted from her new wand as she called forth the nascent magic of the crown—the power she knew wasn’t really hers, but she’d claimed it, anyway.
A dozen huge roots jutted out from her skull, and the crown fluttered and vibrated around her head. The flowers lay delicately, encircling her head, magic radiating off them.
That day in the forest, on the way to Niflheim, Imani had felt the crown take control through her connection with Meira, and now it was likely she had either stolen the power from Meira …
or Meira possessed the same magic. Their strange connection since Imani had taken Meira’s divination magic had unforeseen effects neither sister could have anticipated.
She wouldn’t know for sure until she faced her sister in Essenheim. So, for now, the power was hers, and hers alone.
Kiran’s eyes widened, brimming with emotions. Mostly betrayal, bewilderment, and … fear.
A voice murmured in her head; it sounded like Ara. If it feels this good to have one person look at you this way, imagine how good it will feel to see a kingdom look at you like this.
“You’re the …” He trailed off, an odd look settling into his features.
Imani couldn’t decipher what it was. Suspicion?
Bemusement? Something entirely different?
He narrowed his eyes. “You’re the missing Essenheim heir,” he said quietly, almost to himself.
“All these months, you kept it glamoured with flesh magic. It was so powerful that I couldn’t sense it until I became king.
And not even the king could truly sense it. How?”
“It was never flesh magic—it was my shadows,” she replied then paused, fixing her unrelenting gaze on him.
He swallowed. “Have you been plotting against me all these months since the crown appeared?”
“Absolutely,” Imani said while holding his stare.
“What are you plotting, Imani?”