“Shame on you,” Evie shouted into the brood. “Veretis’ relic didn’t show you at your finest, either. I found you all in a cage, waiting to be transported to who knows where. You were all ready to tear us apart in that pit.”
They all had the grace to seem ashamed. It was important this witch hunt stopped. We didn’t need the Elven kingdom raining mistfire down upon us.
“No matter what nightmares you saw, we all have things as shifters we might not be proud of. Not all of us shift into something beautiful or easy. Will you hunt Evie next because of what she’s become? Are there limits to your inclusion?”
That put a stricken look on every face in the brood.
Noth cleared his throat, and everyone turned to look at him. He sat back on his heels, regaining some of his kingly aura, shaking his hair out of his face. “If it’s any consolation, the wire those bastards fixed to my head completely blanked my Nightmare Walker and my human mind. I remember nothing after they gave me orders like a puppet.” Noth spoke around his cracked lips. Not all the damage could be from his fight with us.
“And trust me.
They.
Will.
Pay.”
Chapter19
Evie
All talk of execution stopped as Noth spit out his vow. Ward grabbed the manacles on Noth’s wrists and broke them. I tried not to wonder who packed manacles and why. Ward helped Noth stand to his full height, slightly shorter and slimmer than Ward. The elf wavered. I had only met an elf once when one came to check that our village remained hidden. In theory, that was under this King’s direction.
That elf looked something like Noth—the calf-length hair and swooping ears, delicate, long features with a generous mouth—but Noth was definitely different from that ethereal creature. He was bigger, thicker all over, with charcoal-black hair and ruby-red eyes. Gold piercings laddered up his ears, and I didn’t want to think of where else he had them. The mix of demonic and delicate made me leery. I knew he was Ward’s friend, but the feeling he was a not-quite-right elf was hard to overcome. I had to trust Ward knew what he was doing.
“Bring me a seat,” Noth commanded, shaking out his wrists and blossoming before our eyes. Shoulders back, hands fixing his dark hair, clothes straightened, I saw the resemblance to a King in him. Even though he wore a ragged, colorless jerkin with nothing beneath it and stained, torn harem pants, he projected a dark intimidation.
Not that our brood worked that way. Everyone just stared at him.
“Easy, old man,” Ward warned him, helping him over to a set of boulders to sit on. “Rest a moment before you tell us what happened.”
I could admit, I was more comfortable standing behind Ward as Noth took a seat like the boulder was a throne. I might be a powerful dragon, but I was still Evie.
“What kind of travel party are you running, Ward? Why is no one serving us food?” Noth whipped his long hair over his shoulder.
“You think I’m running this operation?” Ward glanced at me and I glanced behind me.
He wasn’t thinking I was running this outfit, was he?
“That’s a fine joke, old friend.” The amount of arrogance on his face could sink ships.
Noth looked around at both of us. “Dog. I won’t kill you for trying to execute me if you bring me some water.”
I bristled all over. “He’s a wolf. Just because you’re powerful enough to establish a city doesn't mean you have any say here.”
Declan timidly handed Noth some water in one of our water-skins. I wanted to knock it out of his hands.
Noth gulped down the water. “The Elven Kingdom, as you humans would call it, grew so long ago we don’t follow your petty mage rules of might to establish a city or kingdom. We ARE magic. I am King because I am descended from Kings and the magic of every previous King flows through me.” He didn’t need to look down his nose at us with that tone.
I would never get used to the wider world we lived in. Did magic automatically come with a side of jerk? Maybe it was the power that did that. It so easily influenced you. Frighteningly simple to abuse.
“Slave girl,” Noth said, nodding at Noora. “Remove this jerkin and tend to my wounds. Then we will be on our way to make the human and his little friends very dead. Make sure everyone is ready to move out within the next thirty minutes.”
I barred Noora’s way as she went to him.
We could eat him.My eyes widened, and I fell right on my ass as the smoky voice hissed in my head. That did not sound like my snake.
“Noth,” Ward said. “Now is not the time to be your proud-hearted self. If this person controlled someone of your power, we will all need to work together to defeat him. Where is Ailred? I’ve never seen her not glued to your side.”
