Keeping my steps silent was easy on the thick carpet. Ignoring the molded plaster and rich tapestries of my former chambers that felt so ostentatious after months in a tent, I stalked across the plush sitting area to the bathing room, where I could fill an empty wine bottle with water. When I returned to the sitting room, bottle in hand, I watched Yilan continue to pace, as I poured us both glasses.
Yilan took the water I offered, but her grim expression didn’t change. The cloying nausea she felt at what we’d just witnessed seeped into me through the bond, turning my stomach too. We both drank, and she paced. I waited, though we didn’t have much time.
The Advisors would escort Gall and Istral to the royal chamber, and there would be a pompous demonstration of offering them food to keep them sustained, and drink tosmooth the pathto their union. They’d be in company for another hour, at least. But once they were alone… neither of us wanted to interrupt what would naturally come after they believed they were in privacy. We needed to be there, and ready, waiting for the Council to leave so there was no chance ofinterrupting. My mate needed a moment, though. We walked a fine line…
‘He called her pure… undefiled. Was he posturing for the sake of the others? Or do you think it’s possible he doesn’t know about her past?’Yilan muttered in my head, her eyes remaining on the carpet, her lips pinched thin.
‘Who knows? It could have been for the sake of the ritual, or he could believe it’s true. Regardless, our plan doesn’t change.’We’d already had evidence that Lucifer didn’t knoweverything,and yet, we’d been unable to pin down any pattern to when and how he appeared, or came to know the unknowable.
Could he read thoughts? The easy answer was yes. At least, some. Yet, clearly he couldn’t hear all of them, or he would have discovered Jann’s duplicity before now. My brother insisted he was extremely careful not to reveal motives or think about his planned betrayal in the presence of the Fallen, or anyone loyal to them, but, still…
I swallowed a growl. There were too many unknowns, and too much at stake to—
‘He spoke of her like she was some kind of… talisman,’Yilan sent, still referring to Lucifer and her sister, Istral.‘As if she held some kind of power.’
‘The rituals are designed to impart power. That’s was the point of the sacrifice and the sigils. The entire ceremony was drawing dark power towards her and her offspring.’
Yilan shuddered.‘That place… could you feel it? Walking the shadows there was like wading through tar—easy to disappear into the black, but it didn’t want to let go. I’ve never felt anything like it.’
I nodded.‘I felt it. Perhaps not as clearly as you. But there wassomethingin the air down there.’
Yilan took a deep breath, then stopped pacing to face me.‘I can’t leave her here, Melek. She’s utterly helpless, and surrounded by an evil so dark I can’t even fathom it.’
‘She’s not the only innocent party here, Yilan. We can’t leaveeither of themin his hands.’
Her lips thinned and my heart clenched when it took a moment for her nod. When she finally did, I let go of a relieved breath. She returned to her pacing while I watched on, uncertain whether to press her or not.
I knew she loved Gall, and had done everything she could to take him safely to her people, even when it was at risk to her own safety. She’d defended him even when he resisted me. But she’d struggled with accepting the mate-bond between Gall and Istral when it was revealed—afraid for her sister’s well-being. Still, she’d come to embrace it. Grieving when the pair were kidnapped—we thought.
When she heard the rumors of Gall as king, she’d insisted it couldn’t really be him. That somehow, Lucifer had made another man appearto be Gall. But, since the first time we’d seen Gall kill a man with some dark power and own his crown,Yilan struggled to believe he remained the soft, sweet boy he’d always been.
I hated watching him now. Knew he’d been manipulated, and was likely in the grip of some kind of fear. Yilan’s visceral reaction to what she saw in him here was, in part, unjust. Gall had been raised a Nephilim. Our culture was brutal. I’d never denied otherwise. While my son had never enjoyed bloodshed, or given in to the bloodlust and frenzy so common among our kind, there was no doubt he’d seen enough of it in his young life to be more inured to it than Istral—who’d been coddled and protected even from the Shadekin’s puritanculture.
Of course, I’d learned the hard way not to use the wordcoddledin my mate’s hearing.
While I understood why Yilan struggled to trust that the heart of thegoodGall still beat in that thick chest, we’d conflicted more in the days since we’d arrived here in Valgorath than at any time before—which was saying something. My mate was a fiery,fierce woman, who rarely took a backwards step from a fight—and never from me. But these days had tested us.
‘Yilan?’
‘What?’
‘Perhaps I should talk to Gall alone…thenyou speak with Istral? When we know more about what’s actually happening behind closed doors?’
‘No.’Her tone left no question that there would be further discussion on the matter. I raised a brow. She stopped pacing and folded her arms.‘I won’t run off, Melek. I’ll listen and we’ll figure this out together. But it has to betogether.Istral isn’t the only one I worry about. You’ll need me to reach Gall. And Istral should be with him. No… we’re both going.’
‘You can’t let your anger make you take risks.’
She bristled and looked away from me, her jaw flexing. But a moment later she nodded.‘I know. That was just… that place… it seeped into my skin and—’
‘We’re going to get thembothout of here. Together.’
‘But… how?’
Yilan had taken us behind many closed doors, but her power wasn’t endless, and we didn’t always know where the pair would be. We still hadn’t found where Lucifer hid Istral away, when she wasn’t with Gall. That was the biggest frustration of these past days, and the point that caused Yilan the most fear. She wasn’t accustomed to others being able to hide from her, and I knew she feared letting her sister be hurt.
I suspected Lucifer spirited Istral away—literally. That wherever she was held, wasn’t a room that could be reached in this realm. But we had no proof, beyond the ongoing searches turning up nothing.
That fact just left my mate even more on edge. Every moment spent outside of her sister’s presence, was a moment her fear increased.
