“Fine. When Killion comes for me, I’ll come for you.”
“And I’ll make sure your family makes it to safety, I promise.”
The vow was a weight off my mind. “Thank you.”
His eyes darkened, and for a moment, I thought he was going to kiss me. My body tensed, ready to pull away.
“I care about you, Khatri,” he said. “I’m attracted to you, but I’m wise enough to recognize a woman who’s already given her heart away.”
My shoulders sagged. “I…I never meant to lead you on before.”
“I know,” he said. “I knew you were lying about having a crush on me, but it gave me the excuse I needed to not fire you. I’m glad I got that one kiss. I’ll treasure it always.”
Magnus was everything I’d want in a guy if my heart didn’t already belong to another. We couldn’t be lovers, but we could be friends.
And my gut told me that Magnus would make a valuable friend.
Now all I needed to do was find a way to get Nina out of that room, ready for when Killion came for me. All I needed to do was survive the next few days.
The blood trials weren’t going to make that easy, though.
6
Blossom greeted me at the pod on my return and ushered me through the network of corridors that all looked the same, to a carpeted sector of the Keep where the walls were no longer metallic, and I could almost imagine I wasn’t in a fucking spaceship.
We passed several doors then came to the end of a corridor and a set of double doors.
Blossom pressed a button and spoke into a com. “Winter’s Blade for Lord Aspen.”
Aspen? Oh, fucking great.
The doors slid open, and Blossom stepped back.
“His Lordship wishes to see you.”
Of course he did, and I knew exactly why.
I stepped through the doors into a huge lounge area, but there was no time to check it out because Aspen was standing smack bang in the middle. His moss-green eyes pinned me to the spot as I entered.
He was dressed casually today in a V-neck loose shirt, sleeves rolled up to expose the definition of his sword- and whip-wielding arms. The V of his chest was smooth, taut, and hairless. His dark hair fell in loose waves about a face that would have been perfect as a villainous hero.
“What were you thinking?” he asked.
His expression was neutral, his tone almost conversational, but there was a crackle in the air that stung my skin, warning me to watch my step.
I took a moment to gather my thoughts, scanning his chambers decorated in maroons and gold. Plush, cozy, homely. Were his quarters larger than those of the crown prince?
“Answer me.” He didn’t raise his voice, but the bite in them still registered.
“I was thinking I need a chamber like this one.”
He looked at me as if I’d grown a second head.
I rolled my eyes. “Am I, or am I not, Winter’s Blade?”
“Yes, but—”
“Then shouldn’t I get a nicer room?”
He gave me a flat look. “Humor won’t serve you well here, Danika. In fact, if you want to survive the next few days, I advise curbing your tongue.”
He walked toward me, and I locked my knees to prevent an involuntary step back. He stopped too close, right up in my personal space, so I had to lift my chin to look him in the eyes. It made me feel vulnerable and small, and I bet that was exactly what the fucker was going for.
“Your actions today were reckless,” he said. “They caused many humans a lot of unnecessary pain.”
He was lecturing me about pain? “I told the truth. They needed to hear it, and what the fuck do you care about human suffering, hmmm? I saw you kill humans in the Hunt for sport. You and your kind are monsters, and I’m not afraid of you.”
His mouth tightened, and something dark and dangerous flashed across his eyes. “Oh, I know that, Danika. You don’t fear the loss of your life, but you do fear for your loved ones.”
Was he threatening me? No, he was threatening my family.
The corner of his mouth lifted in a cold half-smile. “I wouldn’t hurt you, Danika. Neither would Lowland. He knows your value to Winter, but your family is another matter.”
Ice filled my veins, but fire chased it away as anger bubbled inside me. “You touch my family, and I guarantee it’ll cost you the capital.”
He tipped his head to the side, stag horns gleaming in the overhead light. “And that’s exactly what I told Lowland when he gave the order to have your family executed.”
My pulse pounded in my throat as the realization of how close I’d come to losing my loved ones hit home.
“I explained how a happy Winter’s Blade was a productive Winter’s Blade and that killing your family might make you lose your…mojo.” Aspen touched my chin lightly with a fingertip sending a lance of strange heat down my neck.
I jerked away from his touch.
His eyes narrowed. “Thank me.”
Nerves fluttered to life like hungry moths in my belly. I flicked my tongue out to lick my lips on reflex, and his gaze dropped to my mouth like a searing brand. The pulse in my throat thudded harder, recognizing the look in his eyes. Heat. Desire. But it was gone so quick, I could have imagined it.
“Thank me for saving your loved ones,” he demanded again.
“Thank you.” My voice was a husky rasp.
His hand came up to hug my throat. “Remember who you are and what you are, Danika. Remember the risks that come with disobeying me. Remember that I’m the only thing that stands between Lowland and your family. You belong to me, Winter’s Blade. You’re mine to wield.”
My eyes heated and pricked. A pawn. His pawn. I saw it now.
Power.
He wanted power, and with me by his side, he could have it. I’d won the trials, and Winter kept the capital. The shining ones would fear me, and I…I would be at his mercy, held captive through my love for my family. They’d fear me, and through me, he’d control them.
Power. And maybe even the throne.
His plan was clear now. How had I not seen it before? Except I had a plan of my own. One that would fuck his plan up. I kept my thoughts off my face, just the way Killion had taught me.
Aspen studied me for long uncomfortable seconds as if trying to read me.
Finally, he released me and took a step back. “You’ll join the Regency for dinner in an hour, and when asked about your display earlier, you will be contrite and claim that your human emotions got the better of you. You will promise that it will never happen again, and you will behave.”
My neck was stiff as I forced a nod.
“Good. You’re dismissed.”
I escaped the room and joined Blossom in the hallway outside. A couple of Tuatha walked past, eyeing me with open curiosity.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
She looked genuinely concerned. My skin pricked. Was she one of the Tuatha who could feel?
She looked away, and I realized I’d been staring at her. I bit the insides of my cheeks. If she was one of them, calling her out in public wasn’t the way to go. But if she was one of them, she needed to know she was doing a shitty job of hiding it.
“Take me back to my room.”
“Of course.”
* * *
Blossom dried my hair and brushed it out. She was humming. Oh god, I needed to say something to her. If she continued to display such behavior, it wouldn’t be long before whoever scouted for ‘feelers’ picked her up.
“Do you like to sing, Blossom?”
Her hands froze, hairbrush mid-stroke. “Mistress?”
“You were humming. You sounded…happy.”
“I was? I…I wasn’t aware. Happy? I have no idea how that feels, but I’m content.”
I met her gaze in the mirror. “I’m not a Tuatha, Blossom. I’m human, and I recognize real emotion when I see it.”
Her expression hardened. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
For a moment, I thought she’d continue to deny it, but then her bottom lip trembled, and she fell to her knees beside me.
“Please, you can’t say anything to anyone. If they find out about me, they’ll take me away, and the ones who are taken never come back.”
I took her hands in mine. “I would never do that. Your secret is safe with me, but if you’re not careful, you’ll give yourself away.”
She squeezed my fingers. “I know, I know. I slip sometimes. Mainly around you. I feel more around you, and I say and do things without thinking.”
“You need to work on that.”
“I know, but it’s getting worse.” She twisted her hands from my grip and began to pace.
Her body relaxed, and it was like a veil was being lifted off her. If not for her Tuatha beauty and silver hair, I would have mistaken her for human.
“I should resign this position,” she said. “But even if I do, there’s nowhere to hide.” Her eyes brimmed. “Every day is so difficult, and if not for the others—” She slapped her hand over her mouth.
She was like Slade. She was like the Danaan who could feel, and there was no doubt in my mind there were more like her that the ancients hadn’t succeeded in rounding up.
“It’s okay. I know there are more like you. I can’t help them all, but I’m going to help you.”
She stared at me, wide-eyed. “How?”
“By getting you out of here.”
Even as I said it, I was internally kicking myself because what the fuck? How would I even achieve this? Killion was coming for me. Me. Not a bunch of Danaan, Magnus, and Blossom.
But Blossom was staring at me with hope in her eyes. “You have a way out?”
“Yeah. Yeah, I do, and I’m going to try and take you with me.”
* * *
“It’s beautiful!” Blossom clasped her hands together, eyes bright as she studied me.
I fingered the corset that cinched my waist into minuscule proportions and stared at my bosom, which threatened to spill over the top. The pants that came with the outfit looked like they’d been painted onto my skin.
The gold and blue hues of the outfit made my bronze skin shimmer, but I looked indecent.
“No.” I shook my head, mouth downturned. “I’m not wearing this.”
Blossom gasped. “But Lord Aspen was very specific.”
“Fuck Lord Aspen—”
“Really?” Aspen said from the doorway.
I spun to face him. “Don’t you know how to knock? I could have been naked.”
“Yes, you could have.”
Huh?
“But you’re not.”
“I’m not wearing this…this… God, I don’t even know what you were thinking.”
“You don’t like it.” Not a question. A statement.
“No.”
Blossom bowed and backed into a corner of the room as Aspen strode forward and began to slowly circle me.
I wanted to cover my boobs, but instead, I planted my hands on my hips and glared at him.
His gaze lingered on my bare flesh, skating over my breasts then sliding up my neck to linger on my face.
“It looks fine to me. Standard fare for a Regency dinner, modified to suit your status as Winter’s Blade. Alternatively, I can have something more feminine brought in for you?”
I caught Blossom's eye across the room, and she shook her head slightly in warning. I guess the other option’s worse than this? Better the devil you know, right?
“Well?” Aspen asked.
“No, that won’t be necessary; I’ll stick to this one.”
“Good. In that case, let’s go.” He offered me his arm.
I took a deep breath and hooked mine through his.
It was time to swim with the sharks.
7
Aspen guided me to a part of the Keep even more elaborately furnished and decorated than his chambers.
Gold busts and moldings decorated arches, and paintings hung on walls. In this part of the Keep it was easy to forget we were underground in a spaceship, but then we passed a window, an actual fucking window, with a view of a lush green landscape with lilac skies.
My feet faltered, and Aspen came to a standstill abreast of the window, which on closer inspection, was a holoscreen. It looked so real, though, and I almost believed I could reach out and push the glass open and breath in the air.
“Elantria,” Aspen said. “Our last home before it died.”
“What happened?”
“We happened.”
Was that bitterness in his tone? I looked up at him sharply, but his expression was cool and impassive.
“You destroyed the planet?”
“We dug and reaped and took, and we enslaved the people who eventually rebelled. There was war, and there was death.”
I guess they hadn’t had a drug to pacify the indigenous species of that planet, then. “So, you left and came here.”
“Yes, we came back.” He arched a brow. “But, I’m sure Palamon told you all this in your little tête-à-tête in the treehouse.”
“Wait, what?”
“I made a point of leaving ears in several parts of the arena, Danika.”
Fuck. Had I said anything else incriminating? Shit, my mind was a blank.
He drew me away from the window and continued down the corridor, past several other fake windows looking out at different scenes. Different planets. Were these all dead planets now?
We rounded a corner, leaving the windows behind, and approached an arched doorway painted to look like solid wood.
I looked over my shoulder, my mind still on the vistas we’d passed. “Did you destroy them all?”
“Yes.”
Fuck.
And Earth would be next if we didn’t stop them.
* * *
The doors to the dining chamber swung open as we approached, and another high-ceilinged room was revealed. Unlike the assembly room from a day ago, this one was dressed up to look like a fancy dining room, complete with sparkling chandeliers and a table heaving with food.
Several Tuatha turned to look at us as we approached the table. The Winter King and his wife weren’t present, but there were several faces I recognized from the Regency balcony in the assembly room. The males were dressed in loose-fitting shirts like Aspen, and the women wore gauzy dresses made of see-through material. I actually caught sight of a nipple or two. Fuck.
I guess Aspen had been doing me a favor with this outfit, after all.
I caught sight of Palamon as we rounded the table. His amethyst eyes settled on me and widened as they roved over my outfit, but now I’d seen what the other females were wearing, I didn’t feel so naked.
Aspen pulled out a seat for me next to the crown prince, and I slid into it, keeping my expression neutral under the scrutiny from the room.
“You have a nerve, Aspen,” someone to my left said.
“You have a problem, Aleron?”
Aleron… Wait, that was Palamon’s mentor, right? He’d mentioned him in the treehouse, I was sure of it. I guess he was part of the Regency household. He wouldn’t be here otherwise.
“You snub the king by bringing this human to our meal after her actions today.”
Aspen shook out his napkin and popped it on his lap. “Hmmm, and you’re a fool if you think I’d bring her here without a royal invitation.”
“The king wishes her to be here?” Aleron asked.
“That’s usually what an invitation means.” Aspen sipped from his goblet, and was that a smirk on his lips?
“He’ll want to make an example of her,” someone else said. “Punish her.”
I looked across the table at the speaker, a female Tuatha with icy blue eyes that took bites out of me. Yes, she wanted to see me in pain.
“I wouldn’t dream to presume what the Winter King will or will not do,” Aspen said. “But by all means, continue to speculate.”
The wo
man blanched. “I…I was simply saying that—”
“Hush!” the Tuatha beside her said. “Hold your tongue.”
She dropped her gaze to her plate. So, they could be cowed, but it was only by fear. Fear and pain were two things these beings seemed to understand, and they liked to inflict both on us humans.
Still, her words rang in my head. Why was I here? Why had the Winter King invited me after what I’d said on every fucking holoscreen?
I glanced across at Aspen, who was calm, cool, and unaffected. He needed me. Winter needed me. They wouldn’t risk hurting me, not a day before the first blood trial.
The doors at the back of the room opened, and the Winter King and his wife swept into the room, but my attention flew to the monolith at their back.
Slade strode in behind them, his huge form casting a protective shadow over them. Of course, he was a Regency bodyguard. He must be on duty with the king tonight.
His gaze didn’t even flick my way as he moved to stand by the entrance. And if I didn’t know better, I’d have thought I imagined our time together and the confidences we’d shared. The king and queen took their seats.
“No Minira tonight?” the icy blue-eyed Tuatha asked.
The king looked coolly down the table at her. “My sister is indisposed.”
His sister? Which one was that? I scanned the room again, trying to identify the missing Tuatha from my memory of the shining ones who had been on the balcony yesterday.
The one with the scowl was missing. Was that his sister? Older sister, no doubt. Much older, if the way they aged was anything to go by.
“Oh?” the female Tuatha asked, a sly look on her face. “The ailment worsens?”
The king’s nonchalant gaze sharpened. “If you have a question, then ask it directly.”
“I’m not the only one with questions. We’re all wondering if we should be concerned.” She looked about the room to gather support, but no one spoke up.
Her lips thinned as she realized she was without back-up, and the king smiled in a way that chilled my bones.
“Dear Juniper, the manner in which you’re conducting yourself means the ailment will be the least of your worries.”
Feel My Power: The Iron Fae book 2 Page 4