Kadeesha rolled her eyes. “According to your cousin Cassius, you have all the time in the world because you don’t actually rule your kingdom.” The thick vein she spotted that stood out stark against the flesh of his neck when she whipped around was a true delight.
“At least I still have a kingdom to be monarch of. I hear yours has been seized by your darling betrothed because your father entered into a fool’s bargain.”
When Malachi chuckled at how she winced, Kadeesha reminded herself she’d sworn an oath not to try to murder him.
“Can we depart now?” he prodded impatiently.
If she hadn’t so intensely needed to get into the air and find a sliver of solace by flying, she would’ve taken her time collecting the kongamato just to rankle him.
WHEN SHE’D DRESSEDin the violet flying leathers for a training run, Kadeesha had thought feeling the supple leather against her skin was like being home even amidst an enemy court. She’d been wrong. Nothing compared to straddling Zahzah as the kongamato flew fast as lightning through the air while roaring like thunder.Thiswas truly home. Kadeesha relished every moment of the thrill as she and her squadron advanced through training maneuvers. Theonly thing that dampened the feeling of utter liberation was the voice that wouldn’t let Kadeesha forget she was running drills in front of an outsider. What was done was done, though. And true to insufferable form, Malachi hadn’t only teleported them to a massive colosseum to use as a training ground, he’d insisted on planting himself in a spectator box and watching.To see for myself how valuable our bargain can be, he’d said with his usual imperious air.
This time, she didn’t banish Malachi and his bullshit from her thoughts. Instead, she smiled wickedly and decided that if His Grace wanted a display, she’d give him one. She’d demonstrate for Malachi exactly what she was capable of if they became foes. Perhaps then he might rethink attempting to encroach on Aether lands once Rishaud was dealt with. “Descend lower—drift above the sands and follow my lead,” she told Zahzah. The war serpent dove downward and then righted them so they floated horizontally closer to the arena sands. Kadeesha shouted a mighty war cry and hurled a molten column of purple aether flames at one of the wooden dummies on the sands. As she’d requested, Zahzah followed suit. Crimson flames entwined with Kadeesha’s purple ones, and after they’d incinerated the initial dummy, their combined flames spread like wildfire. Their assault swallowed the dozens of targets around them in a purple-and-red blaze of utter destruction that took them only mere seconds to wreak. Then, Kadeesha sent her aether flames roaring toward Malachi’s spectator box, grinning viciously.
Because the thing about oaths and bargains was that the binding magic that made them impossible to breach lay within one’s intent. And Kadeesha didn’t intend to kill Malachi, or even injure him, this particular day. She only wished to send a message, athing she mentally communicated to Zahzah. Kadeesha locked eyes with Malachi, gloating in full, as her and Zahzah’s attack struck the wooden box and it exploded in fire. Malachi had balls of steel; she’d give him that much. He didn’t blink. Didn’t so much as flinch. He …
The insane bastard grinned.
Then shadows swirled around the burning wood of the spectator box and more settled over the arena sands. The temperature of the air plunged—and Malachi’s shadows snuffed out both her and Zahzah’s flames.
Zahzah screeched, furious. Kadeesha … she gaped. It was the last thing she should’ve been doing because Malachi was staring straight at her. But how the hell was his void magic that powerful against both her aether flames and Zahzah’s fire combined? He hadn’t been alive for centuries, the might of his magic growing for hundreds of years like with Rishaud and her father. She and Malachi were about the same age, and they were both of royal blood. It meant his power shouldn’t be leagues above hers. But for the third time in so many days, he’d dismissed her aether as if it was nothing.
I’ll eat him now!Zahzah’s insistent demand broke into her thoughts.
She was grateful for the interruption because it reminded her that she was gaping and to pick her jaw up off the arena sands. She schooled her face too late, however, for now Malachi’s wider grin taunted her. She couldn’t let the blow to her pride stand. Something reckless drove her to indulge the war serpent just a tiny bit.
“It’s a no to eating,” she told Zahzah, “but you can sample his blood.”
Delight thrummed down the mental bond she and Zahzah shared when Kadeesha projected to Zahzah what their countermove would be. Her lovely girl shot toward Malachi with the breathless speed that made kongamatos so terrifying when they took flight. Malachi didn’t have time to ensconce himself in shadows as a shield or strike out offensively. Zahzah attacked fast, a single talon swiping across Malachi’s left cheek, and then Kadeesha encircled them both in a sphere of aether flames, throwing all of her strength behind it to make sure it would hold back anything Malachi responded with. Then she shouted at Zahzah, “Land!”
They hit the ground with a force that made it quake, and Zahzah purred as she brought her bloody talon to her snout, stuck out her tongue, and licked the talon clean.
Malachi appeared on the sand mere inches away. Kadeesha reinforced the aether flames around herself and Zahzah. Malachi looked the flames over as if they were nothing. He lifted a hand to his bleeding cheek and swiped his thumb over the angry red line. Around them, Leisha and Samira and the rest of her Nkita landed with their kongamatos. Her sisters took up a protective position at her side, with Leisha already having unhooked her battle axes from her waist. Malachi didn’t spare Leisha or any of the others a glance. His gaze, which had turned pitch black, bore into Kadeesha. This time, when he grinned, there wasn’t a shred of amusement. The only way to describe it was a predatory flash of teeth. “You drew my blood. That will not go unpunished, Princess,” Malachi murmured.
For some reason, the fear that should have coursed through her at such a pronouncement was mingled with … anticipation?
What in the Celestials is wrong with me?
Chapter Thirteen
AFTER THEY CONCLUDED THEIR TRAINING SESSIONand Kadeesha was finally free of Malachi’s presence, she and her Nkita gathered in Kadeesha’s sitting room to share a midday meal together.
“Your Highness, I’ve been meaning to ask you about an important matter that’s come to my attention in the time since we’ve arrived here,” Leisha said as she and her sisters broke bread together.
Kadeesha eyed her second, who’d never been so formal in her life. Concern washed over Kadeesha at what subject Leisha might broach. “What have you learned?” she inquired.
Leisha broke out into a grin. “Eavesdropping on the chatter of courtiers alerted me to tantalizing accounts of you, a certain enemy king, a moonlight revel, and a throne, in which—”
Kadeesha choked, profusely, on the sip of wine she’d been taking. “Don’t finish that sentence,” she groaned once she’d stopped coughing. She wasn’t opposed to public affection, even public sex in certain discreet and highly controlled instances held an allure she couldn’t deny. She’d occasionally engaged in her own share of social indecencies at Oleander House when themood struck her. But thinking about how Malachi’s fingers had dug into her hips as he’d buried himself inside her in front of members of his court … Heat crawled up the back of her neck even as a much different sort of heat ignited between her legs.
Her second chuckled. “I’m just hurt you didn’t wait for me to watch the show. The word is you drove the Apollyon king nearly mad.”
“I did,” Kadeesha boasted, feeling pretty smug about her accomplishment.
Leisha hooted. Samira, seated across from Kadeesha and beside Leisha, frowned. “Was it a part of your bargain too?” Self-recrimination and guilt, the likes of which Kadeesha had become acquainted with all too well in the last few days, swirled in Samira’s eyes. “You did not need to come to this wretched court for me or yield to things that you otherwise would not,” she ground out.
Kadeesha resisted the urge to yell at Samira to stop being absurd or to reach across the table and shake her. “The events of the revel were not part of any bargain explicitly,” Kadeesha assured Samira. “What happened occurred because Malachi and I mutually agreed on a strategic course of action to provoke Rishaud and undermine his claim to me and therefore the prophecy.”And that isallit was,she hissed to herself when events of the previous night began to play out in her mind in vivid detail. Kadeesha cleared her throat, forcing the memory away. “Look at it this way,” she told Samira, applying reason to assuage her ludicrous guilt, “if I hadn’t agreed to Malachi’s bargain, we would all still be within the Aether Court with nowhere to flee from Rishaud. My bargain with Malachi did more than save your life, sister. It has afforded us sanctuary while we coordinate a plan to take back our home.”
Leisha raised her goblet. “Aye! I’ll drink to that mission!”
