Chapter 16
Elessan
Elessan spent the better part of the afternoon asking everyone he encountered if they’d seen Princess Tsara.
The woman had disappeared into thin air.
Not even her lady-in-waiting or the royal servants had any idea where she’d gone, though none of them expressed concern.
Apparently, the full sun elf army camped right outside the city walls was more than enough security for them to consider her safe, regardless of current political tensions.
Elessan had eventually given up and turned his attention to finding Zadé. Aliya may have frozen him out of the investigation into the stolen Whisperers, but she had no reason to withhold information from the general.
The only problem was neither Tsara nor Zadé appeared to be in the castle.
Brushing his hand through his hair in frustration, he made his way down to the kitchen.
All this running around had caused him to miss lunch and dinner, a fact his stomach was starting to protest. He’d grab something for himself, and for Aliya, too, as she had a habit of forgetting to eat when she felt overwhelmed.
Grabbing a plate of leftover beef and spiced potatoes for each of them, he climbed the stairs to her suite.
Thank the gods, the guards were gone. Balancing both plates on one arm, he opened the door. “Aliya, I—”
Aliya glanced up from the desk where she was in low conversation with King Roland and Princess Tsara.
Elessan stumbled, fighting the urge to freeze. But he had every right to be here, and judging by the glares Aliya was sending his way, whatever they were talking about likely involved him. The coldness in her expression chilled his core.
He cleared his throat as he slid around Roland to stand at Aliya’s side. “I brought you some dinner,” he said, sliding one of the two plates onto the corner of her desk.
Raising an eyebrow, he studied Roland and Tsara. “Am I interrupting something?”
Roland sniffed. “Not at all. We were discussing your betrothal to my daughter and our imminent departure.”
Elessan tensed. Valek. Taking a long breath through his nose, he exhaled. “Did you also tell her I haven’t accepted your daughter’s proposal?”
“But you will,” Roland said. “You’ll be officially part of the family.” He paused, eyeing Aliya with too much disdain to be concealed. “Elven royalty, officially in line for our throne.”
Not some side piece whose children are destined to be bastards.
The sun elf king didn’t have to say it out loud, the words rang between them.
Elessan ignored the flash of victory in Tsara’s eyes and the spark of rage in Aliya’s.
He would never understand why someone would want to force a marriage bond with another who didn’t want them back. Aliya and Malkov, him and Tsara… And yet, noble women were traded in political marriages all the time.
Looking Roland in the eye, he asked, “May I have a moment with Aliya?”
Roland pressed his lips into a thin line, but nodded. “Come, daughter.”
Something hard flashed in Tsara’s eyes as she spun to follow her father.
Clenching his teeth, Elessan turned to Aliya as the latch clicked closed. She wasn’t staring at him, but her entire body shook with tension. Her knuckles were white as they clenched the arm rests of her chair.
“Aliya, let me explain—”
She cut him off with a violent jerk of her head. “No, Elessan. There’s nothing to say. I saw you kissing Tsara in the corridor. And now I know you’ve just been using me until you could get to her.”
He blinked, his mind going blank. Aliya had been there?
She’d seen him? He’d been so certain he and Tsara had been alone, though he hadn’t taken the time to scour the hallway before she’d ambushed him.
It was entirely possible Aliya, or someone who reported to her, had caught Tsara forcing their kiss on him.
He stiffened at the sudden memory of the sounds of retreating footsteps during their kiss danced into his thoughts. Squeezing his eyes closed, he grimaced.
Aliya shoved to her feet, the legs of her chair scraping across the floor and sending a shiver up his spine. “You should take Princess Tsara up on her offer. It’s preferable to anything you’ll find here.”
“Wait, what?” No, she didn’t mean that. She couldn’t throw away everything they had before she let him explain.
Grabbing his upper arm, she escorted him to the door.
He tried again. “Aliya—”
“No, Elessan.” Gripping the doorknob, she wrenched it until the latch gave. “Go do what you want. I don’t care anymore. My niece is better off without you.”
His knees locked. Her niece? He braced his foot against the bottom of the door as she struggled to yank it open.
“What did you say?” He spun, dislodging her grip on him and pinning her to the wall, his hand around her throat.
Her quicksilver eyes bulged, the same color he loved gazing into so much. But Aliya’s expression held an unfamiliar coldness he’d never believed could be associated with her.
“Who are you?” he growled, slamming her head into the stone masonry with enough force to convey his warning. “What have you done with Aliya?”
The unknown shapeshifter’s eyes narrowed, her jaw hardening as she stuck her chin out. “Do it, mountain elf,” she rasped as his grip on her neck tightened. “Show the world the monster you truly are.”
Elessan snarled, baring his fangs. Aliya’s aunt…
She must be, she’d called Aliya her niece.
But… “Where is Aliya?” He punctuated each word by smashing her head into the wall.
If he wasn’t careful, he would risk cracking her skull, and he didn’t know if shifting shape would heal bones or bleeding in the brain.
If he killed this shifter, he’d have no way of finding out what had happened to the real Aliya.
Icy coils worked their way from his torso through his blood. She had to be okay. She had to be…
His gaze dipped to where Aliya’s pendant hung against the impersonator’s chest. It bore the Svialto family crest and had been an heirloom on Aliya’s mother’s side since the beginning of the Human-Elf war.
Aliya wouldn’t have handed that over willingly.
His fingers tightened without conscious thought, and the shifter in his grip gasped, her face turning red.
He inhaled as her neck squished, collapsing from one breath to the next, a pool of blackness congealing at his feet. Aliya’s dress pooled around it.
The furry ball exploded, lunging between his legs and across the room before he could react. The cat raced up the tallest bookshelf, well out of his reach. Settling on the top, she arched her back and floofed her tail, spitting at him.
Elessan blinked, jaw hanging open. Malkov’s pet was a shapeshifter. Did Aliya know?
Who was he kidding? Of course, she did. The animal had been at her side since Malkov’s death, always nearby. It would be impossible for her not to have figured it out.
A gaping maw opened in his chest. If Aliya had known and hadn’t seen fit to share that information with him, they had more trust issues than he realized.
And he hadn’t helped the situation by letting Tsara ambush and kiss him in the corridor.
If only he’d been allowed his bow and arrow in Aliya’s presence, so he could threaten the truth out of the shifter. What was the cat’s name again? Aliya had told him once, but he’d never thought it would be important.
“Who are you?” he asked, squeezing both hands into fist at his side.
The cat growled deep in its chest. “I don’t see why I should tell you, mountain elf scum.”
He ground his teeth. This was what he got for wasting time with questions he mostly knew the answer to. “Where is Aliya?”
The animal looked away.
“She’s not in the castle,” he said. “Obviously.”
“Obviously,” the shifter parroted, disdain dripping from the word.
“So she’s out there, by herself.” He swallowed the bitter acid taste boiling up the back of his throat, his jaw clenching.
“Without protection while Brooks and whomever else he’s allied with have several Whisperers, and who will kill her the instant they find her?
” Or the minute she stumbled into the affected range for one of those blasted devices.
He ripped one hand through his hair. Of all the idiotic, stupid, inconceivable—
“She’s not alone.” The cat raised an eyebrow. “You think so little of your so-called beloved’s intelligence that she, the queen, would venture out unprotected?” The shifter scoffed, the sound unnerving coming from the small, furry body.
Something in Elessan’s chest relaxed. Aliya wasn’t alone.
“Who’d she take?” His brain rifled through the list of trusted guards she could’ve had accompany her, and came up short.
The night-cursed animal just glared at him.
Elessan growled in the back of his throat. “Who’s with her?”
She stared at him for a breath before rolling her eyes. “The moon elf general.”
Zadé.
Elessan didn’t know if he should be concerned or grateful. At least Zadé was an accomplished warrior, with enough experience to keep Aliya out of trouble. When she was sober.
“Where did they go?” he ground out. If they only had a few hours’ head start on him, there was a decent chance he’d catch them while they camped overnight.
The cat raised its eyebrow and licked its nose, glaring at him with its piercing silver eyes. “Where do you think the general would’ve dragged her off to, mountain elf?”
Elessan frowned, his focus shifting to the distance as he thought back to the last couple of days. “Brisimin.”
“Get the boy a prize,” the shifter said.
He hadn’t meant to speak out loud, but at least he had confirmation. “Aliya left you here to cover for her,” he said, the shadows of her plan finally coalescing in his mind. “She didn’t have anyone she could trust and who had the authority to act on her behalf, so she decided to go herself.”
“And I wonder who pushed her to do that?”
Squinting, Elessan glared. Zadé, no doubt, though he shouldn’t be surprised the shifter was blaming him. “It is not my fault the majority of the castle guards and nobles were loyal to Malkov. It’s going to take time for Aliya to build her own support base.”
“It would go faster for her if you would go back where you came from.”
“Leave her without protection when she’s at her most vulnerable?
” He stepped forward, his hands fisting at his sides.
“I begin to think you want her alone and surrounded by people she can’t trust.” He tilted his head, eyeing the shifter in a new light.
“Is that what you’re about? Worming your way into a position of influence like you did with Malkov?
So you can be the power behind the figurehead? ”
He said it to provoke a reaction as much as he believed it to be a possibility.
The cat hissed at him, swiping with a paw.
“At least she can trust me. The elves would have her underneath their king’s boot and in his bed.
” Twisting its head to the side, it spit the words, sarcasm dripping from its lips.
“His pliant little wife, with this realm under their control.” She flicked her tail.
“Think twice about what you start, mountain elf. You won’t like the outcome. ”
“If you don’t think Aliya can stand up to Roland’s maneuverings, then you don’t know your niece half as well as you think you do.
” Swiping the plate of food he’d brought for Aliya, Elessan spun on his heel, heading for the door.
He’d pack up what he could for the road and eat the rest before he departed.
Something niggled in the back of his mind.
Prior to leaving, he should hunt down Roland and make sure he understood in no uncertain terms that Elessan would not allow himself to be forced into a marriage with Tsara.
But there was more going on here than met the eye.
A few weeks ago, he would’ve bet his life’s blood that Roland would see him dead rather than married to the only heir to the throne.
Roland, with his ‘pure sun elves only’ mentality, would never have stood for the so-called dilution of the royal line by an outsider. By a mountain elf.
Heck, the way the elven king looked down on Zadé, their most accomplished general, for the mere crime of being born half human was more than enough proof something else was amiss.
But he’d have to sort that out later. Right now, he had to get to Aliya before she reached the labor camp and saw firsthand the horrors occurring there.