“I’m not letting you run around the city alone, Raelle. Any number of strangers could cause you harm…” I eye him and open my mouth to ask if he is one of those strangers, but he continues. “If this is something you need to do—I wish you had just asked me to come with you. I’ve told you before that I'm here to help you gain your throne. If this is what you need to make the move to do that, I will follow your lead, or I will be at your side. Always.” I swallow the emotion that’s clogging my throat and step up to him further. My magic swells, and I place my hand in his. My brows pinch as I do because I feel a ripple of magic brush over me, similar to how I did when I trusted Dax to lead me to safety. When my eyes flick up to meet his gold-flecked, dark depths, the look on his face tells me he felt it too.
“Fine, but Alaric? Don’t hold me back from the decisions I have to make.”
“I wouldn't dare, sweetheart.”
“Don’t call me sweetheart—I fucking hate it.”
“Noted.” He laughs as he lets our clasped hands fall to his side, guiding me forward. My power sizzles under my skin in what feels like approval of my decision, and I blink back the tears I feel burning my eyes as I trust the man beside me, even when no one else truly does yet.
Chapter twenty-three
Tilting my head, Iwatch as his blood drips over the edge of the once white stone altar, now stained red. This has become my nightly routine. Thames has yet to return to Demetrey, where I’ve been stationed for the last few weeks. I don’t want a night to go by without Dax knowing that I am in control of the pain he goes through. I sit and watch as my men beat him senseless one night and then the next slice into his flesh like they are preparing a fish for dinner.
Most of the time, he is stoic through the torture, but the times when he is too weak to grit and bear it? I get to drink in his screams. The dark power swims through me when he gives me the pleasure of hearing the pain-laced agony. When it’s too much for him tokeep locked down. I get a twisted sort of pleasure listening to it echo off the walls.
Eleonora has yet to give me an audience, even though I’ve been here for weeks now. I have yet to lay eyes on her once. The castle here is big, but I’m growing more and more impatient and suspicious the longer I don’t see her wretched face. It’s been months. Close to a year since the last time we spoke in person. The first groan from Dax interrupts my thoughts, and I look over to see my guard’s knife plunged into the skin just below his collarbone. Sweat drips from his nose as his chin falls to his chest. Overcome with weakness, he can no longer hold it up. I relish in the sight that brings a wicked smile to my face.
I drop my boots to the ground, and the sound echoes through the dungeon as I do. Grabbing the bucket of water that has been collecting water from the drips coming through the cracks in the stone, I jut my chin out for my guard to tip his chair back and pour it slowly over his face. Being forced to breathe in the liquid, he sputters and chokes, and I tilt my head to the side as I continue to water-log him. I watch as he squirms—his lungs filling with dirty water.
His eyes bulge when the water stops, and he finally gets sight of me standing over him. I lace my fingers around his throat, not allowing him to cough out the moisture in his lungs. I bare my teeth as I squeeze, aiming to crush his windpipe. He begins thrashing under my grip. “HOW DOES IT FEEL, MOTHERFUCKER?! Isn’t that what you said to me once before, Dax?” I spit the words out with my chin lifted, vehemence coating my tongue.
“Enough!” Shadows blast me from the side and send me flying into the stone wall several feet away. My body lands with a thud. The guard that held the chair back and did my torturing tonightlies dead, not far from me. His neck snapped, and his dead eyes staring aimlessly at the dark ceiling above us. Dax’s chair careens backward and hits the floor within the next second; the wood splinters from the impact. The chair bursting to pieces below him.
I get to my feet, seething dark magic pools at my hands. “What the fuck was that?”
“That—was scolding achildfor not listening to what he was told!” She sweeps her red painted nails across the room, then gesturing to Dax, where he lays still coughing and gasping for air. “You were told to leave him be! He was not to be harmed!”
“Why?” I bellow back at her, moving to stand and stomping to meet her face to face. I would do anything to see her godsdamn face. Before I get close enough to pull the hood back like I aim to, she puts her hands up. Shadows blast from her palm and into my chest. They seem to pull at the dark magic within me, and it brings me to a quick halt and down to my knees. My veins bulge all over my body, the magic in them under her control, as she whispers words I don’t understand. My breath is seized from my lungs. I can do nothing but look up into the faceless horror that is Thames. Not breathing. Barely seeing past the flickering darkness at the edges of my vision.
“Because. I. Said. So.” She releases the magic, and my hands plant on the ground as I gulp down precious air. “If I come to check on my—on our prisoner—again Cano and you’ve harmed a hair on his head, I will no longer play nicely with you.” She slowly walks toward me, her heels clicking on the stone, before she crouches down in front of me, grabs my hair, and pulls my head back so my gaze is lifted to meet the darkness within her hood. “I will kill you next time, and I won’t blink. Just like I did with Eleonora.” Her head cocks to the side as she judges my reactionto her words. I can't tell, but the pure malice in her voice and the tension I see resonating off of her body motions is enough to tell that she is smiling beneath the shadows of her cloak. The evil bitch is darker than even me.
Standing, she saunters back the way she came, but not before laughing, “Mark my words, Cano.”
I growl, standing and dusting myself off my lip curls back as Dax’s head turns to meet my gaze from the floor. I don’t give a fuck what she says. I stride over to him and swiftly drop my boot on his smug, smiling face.
Pacing in front of the wide windows in the dining room, I wait for Flynn to arrive with news of Trent and the others. He has been gone for weeks searching for them throughout the kingdom, and I received word just a week ago that they had separated and he was tracking one group after the other group started toward Loema. Yesterday, a correspondence arrived saying that he would be expected by the end of the day today.
I’ve not seen Thames again since the night in the dungeons, but I’ve also heeded her warning and have kept my guards from torturing Dax. As much as it bothers me to have him down thereand not be able to bring him physical pain, I at least have the pleasure of knowing he is still my prisoner, and all of his family thinks he is dead, so they won’t be coming for him regardless.
The door bangs open, and Flynn finally comes in, pulling his hood back. Snow falls to the ground and his cheeks are pink from the crisp evening, “Flynn, what’s the news?”
“Trent and half of the others returned to Loema. Kait and Miles headed in the direction of Lesa, but if I were to guess, they are likely heading to Ravendene. I followed them as far as Loema, but decided my time would be better spent following Trent.” I nod my head as I take in his words.
“And Raelle? Did you find out where she disappeared to?”
“I—ah, no, sir. I’m sorry. There has been no sign of Raelle.” Growling, I throw the whiskey glass I had in my hand, and he flinches just in time for it to miss his pretty blonde head and shatter, hitting the door behind him. Glass and whiskey shower the floor. Spinning on my heel, I fling off my cloak and rip at my shirt. I need to fucking run. I need to get out of this skin and run with my wolf. The anger that is eating at me is clouding my thoughts, and I don’t know what to do now.
“Stay here, Flynn. I need someone I trust to ensure they don’t move Dax. The guard outside this room can take you down to the dungeons. Go there. Watch him, but for the love of the gods, don’t fucking touch him. Do you understand?”
“Of course. Anything you need, sir.” He responds eagerly, straightening his spine like a good soldier. Dropping the rest of my clothes when he turns from the room, I let the shift take me over, the dark magic twisting and twirling as I take to my black wolf form. A snarl rips from my elongated snout as I turn to the window, bust through it, and take off into the trees outside of thecastle. Only the moon is on my heels as I howl my frustrations at the glowing entity.
My muscles bunch and strain as I push myself hard to get as much distance between me and that castle as possible to clear my head and think of what I need to do next. Debating what it means—that Thames said she killed Eleonora—and what it could mean for me since she has been playing me as a pawn this whole time. FUCK! I gnash my teeth, a growl building in my chest, and when I let it loose, it echoes through the forest surrounding me.
Panting hard, I reach the cliff edge, and when it’s just me and the moon above, a howl rips from my throat, as I let myself free for the first time since I decided to take this path. How could I have let this happen? How could I have been so stupid to not see what was happening under my own godsdamned nose?
A cloud drifts in front of the glowing sphere, the shape creating a shadow on her surface that appears to make a smile on her face, mocking me and my failures. I’ve been at this too long now. I won’t give up on my goal, and if Thames gets in my way… I will take her out just as I plan to take out anyone who steps in my way. The hatred that builds in me only adds to the ire I feel for myself, but again, I can’t fucking care.
Chapter twenty-four
