Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
Briar
I released my trapped breath when his attention shifted to my mother and sister, and the tension in his body amped up. The tattoo across his shoulders came to life as his rippling muscles shifted the vines.
It wasn’t just our fight earlier in the woods that had him so amped up as he resisted transitioning. Their presence had also deeply rattled him.
My apprehension of him dissipated as a sharp ache bloomed in my chest. Seeing my mother again had me on the verge of bolting out of here in tears; I couldn’t imagine what it was like for the shifters and Devnair to be back in her presence… as well as that of the other casters.
My fingers twitched as I started to reach for him before jerking my hand back. If I touched him, he might completely lose it. Seth would never strike me, but I wasn’t so sure Knox could control himself. I might trigger an explosive reaction by touching him.
The memories battering him had to be tearing free barely healed scabs and bearing the raw remnants of all the anguish and degradation he suffered at their hands.
“Is that a lowleeto?”
Petra’s question drew my attention away from Knox as Gizzi lifted his head from my shoulder. I’d managed to convince Zephyr to stay behind, but Gizzi refused.
I didn’t argue much as it was easier to have a small creature on my shoulder than to have a sprite fluttering behind me, but Gizzi came from Gorgonia, the kingdom of the gorgons. I should have anticipated the gorgons would recognize what he was, but what did it matter?
They couldn’t take him from me; I was certain he’d bite anyone who tried.
Petra’s mouth hung ajar as she looked from Gizzi to me. “Do you know what that is?”
I lifted my chin a little. “I found him in the woods.”
“So you adopted him?” she asked incredulously. “That’s one of the most venomous creatures in all the kingdoms.”
“Are you talking about the woman or the animal?” Knox drawled.
I recoiled as if he’d slapped me. Things weren’t exactly great between us, and they certainly weren’t what they were before my mother ruined our love, but I believed we’d made some headway.
Not only did his comment sting, but it also caused my mother to smirk as she tapped her long, red nails against the table. He’d proven to her that he hadn’t come for me in the harem because he still loved me. He’d confirmed she’d succeeded in destroying us, and she loved every second of it.
He’d stepped between Caspian and me, but that didn’t prove anything to her. This was what she’d come to see.
Recovering from my shock over Knox’s words, I straightened my shoulders and lifted my chin. Besides Gizzi, I was all alone in this place.
I had no one to protect me or stand up for me. No one would try to stop whatever fate these men and women decided for me. None of them gave a shit about what I wanted.
Devnair might try to stand up for me; he did say he owed me for helping to free him from the harem. And he might be as likely not to say a word.
I ignored the yawning pit of hopelessness growing within me as Gizzi rubbed his head against my cheek.
“I’m here,” he whispered into my mind. “And the second you give me permission, I’ll bite him in the dick.”
Despite the despair threatening to overwhelm me, I almost laughed aloud but restrained myself. They’d all think I’d lost my mind if I started laughing now.
Petra’s eyes were the size of saucers while Gizzi’s cool nose nuzzled my cheek. His whiskers tickled as I stroked his soft, gray fur.
“What the fuck?” Petra murmured.
When Knox’s gaze swung back to me, his eyes narrowed. Unwilling to let him see that he’d wounded me, I smiled. It felt more like a grimace as I tried to assume an air of innocence.
I could see the questions swirling through Knox’s eyes as he looked from me to Gizzi and back again. He didn’t voice them, most likely because he wouldn’t give my mother the satisfaction of learning he didn’t know what Gizzi was.
If I stayed here after this, I was sure I’d hear about it from Knox, but at least I didn’t have to deal with his shitty attitude right now.
“We should get this started,” Malakor, the king of the strigoi, said.
The ugly man’s red eyes burned into me. He had a tapered face, thin features, and a build so frail that he looked like a small breeze could blow him over.
Like all male strigoi, he was bald with nearly translucent skin, thin lips, and sharp cheekbones. When he spoke, his fangs were clearly visible. Oddly shriveled, his ears were much smaller than they should have been, and strangely lumpy.
From what I’d heard in snippets from my mother over the years, the other kingdoms despised the strigoi, but because of their ability to drink blood and drain souls from their victims, they were powerful creatures.
They also possessed blood magic; I didn’t know how it worked or what exactly happened when they used it, but the powers made others uneasy.
“Yes, let’s start,” Alwin said. “Will you sit, Knox?”
“No.”
The way his mouth pursed told me that Alwin didn’t like Knox’s refusal, but he knew better than to challenge an alpha.
“There’s nothing to start, or any reason for you to be here,” Knox said. “I took the girl from the harem; she is my prisoner as much as I was Marina’s. If she wants her daughter back, she’ll have to break the curse to get her.”
This time, I managed to keep myself from wincing as those words struck deep into my heart. If she agreed to break the curse, he would hand me back to her.
My mother’s fingers stopped drumming on the table as her smirk grew. “It’s impossible to break the curse… unless we get our collective powers back. If that happens, we’ll gladly break the curse and free the shifters.”
“Can they be freed?” Knox asked.
“Of course,” she said with a flick of her blood-red nails.
The room went deathly silent as every eye shot to the woman who was grinning like the cat who’d eaten the canary. I didn’t know if she was telling the truth or not, but I was sure the shifters wanted to believe her.