EPILOGUE
Nefrítis of Athens paced the roughly hewn stone bedroom with both hands clenching and unclenching at her sides. She was sick of weak allies. She was tired of waiting to take what was hers and being trapped underground.
“Miss Jade,” called the vampire guard as he peeked his head into her room. He had quietly slipped out into the hallway hours before when she began breaking furniture after Queen Aoibheal was killed.
“What?” she snarled.
“Jae returned. He has the two griffins you requested,” he informed her nervously.
“Finally! At least someone can follow simple orders,” she muttered as she stalked past him.
She went down the hall to yet another windowless room where they kept all the hostages.
And sure enough, she was pleased to see the two new griffin males among the dozens of prisoners that were shackled along the walls.
She had only ever heard about these men from reports and spies, but they were well known to all the Imítheos in her living arsenal. All of whom were whispering to them fervently before she entered the room.
Ilias and Markos Vasilikós.
Markos was the handsome male with caramel hair and bronzed-gold eyes.
It would have been clear to her from his pretty features that he had fathered King Adonis even if her stolen magic had not sensed his lineage.
But it was Ilias right next to him upon whom her attention settled.
With his mahogany waves and striking honey-gold eyes, this was clearly the male who had sired both Riordan and Rhea on their female mate.
And along with his ruggedly attractive features, he also seemed to have passed on that infuriating defiance to his son too.
“Welcome,” Jade taunted the males with her arms out to indicate the room. “Bring the king’s father to me first,” she added to the vampire guards waiting behind her.
Markos immediately tried to block his beloved with a wing that swept one of the vampires straight into a wall with a sudden crack. That earned the imbecile a backhand from another of the guards.
“Do not hurt him!” Ilias snarled at them as he lunged against his restraints much the same way his son had done when she had him chained all too briefly.
Two hundred years. She chased that fucking griffin all over the vast Canadian wilderness for two hundred years.
Only to have him slip right through her fingers thanks to a rogue fire witch!
If not for Amira, the Vasilikós power would have already belonged to Jade by then.
She still could not believe the little bitch had convinced Riordan to make her his mate, and now Amira could freely use what was meant to belong to Jade.
The fire witch had zero idea what to do with it or just how monumental it was.
Jade had plans for Amira. She was going to make sure the other witch suffered for the trouble she had caused.
She would have already had her in hand if the Wild Hunt had not shown up to steal her away.
She might have even gone to get Amira herself, but she was not willing to risk facing Rian DorTìodhlac and his shadows.
What a power that would be for her to take. Perhaps he would be her next acquisition if she could ever figure out how to get close to him without being consumed first.
“Let him go!” Markos shouted as the vampires finally unshackled Ilias and dragged him toward her.
“Gods! The sentimentality of griffins makes you all so easy to manipulate,” she cackled with a glance at all the other prisoners. Men and women whose loved ones were out doing her bidding in exchange for their safety.
“You will not go unpunished for this, witch! Riordan is already aware of the rituals in Erétria. It will not be long before he realizes you have found a way into the Vale,” Markos threatened her brazenly from the wall.
Yes, she had seen the contents of the letters that Ilias and Markos had been sending to Riordan while they were sniffing around her sacrificial sites.
It took great power to keep command of the Fuath, and she needed to slaughter countless fey to do it.
Keeping those deaths off Riordan’s radar would have been easy if his father and Markos had not followed up on all the missing fey.
If Castor Doukas had not sent all his little rat spies to investigate Erétria.
Why could Amira have not just taken the bait and blown the whole city into oblivion?
But Jade could not stop even as they began to close in on her position.
Not when she needed to continue to fuel the fey queen in Ahnnaòin.
She would not usually waste time or energy on something so futile, but it was an excellent distraction for the Wild Hunt.
Jade had no doubt that Rian’s Seer might have uncovered her already if not for their preoccupation with Fuath attacking the villages.
The Sylvan shields had been a blessing, even if they made channelling to Queen Aoibheal more difficult, because they had kept the Seer blind.
But Queen Aoibheal was dead now, and it would not be long before Rian turned his attention to the Vale again. Jade had no intentions of facing him yet.
Which meant she needed another kind of leverage.
Jade jerked the new ceremonial knife from her belt that she’d had to make to replace the one Riordan burned.
She used it to cut her forearm, relishing the hungry hiss the blade made before she licked her blood off the tip.
Then she turned her attention to Ilias as he was shoved to his knees before her with his wings bound.
“Let us see your precious son continue to defy me after he learns that he cannot kill me without killing you too,” Jade smirked before she began to chant.