“I’ll double your fee.”
“Done.”
I would sell every piece of plate armor off those Elves if I had to. My head could go shove itself into a bag full of spiders. My heart needed Noth one hundred percent alive.
“Contain the King. Bring the Stormlight,” the Elf with the delicately arching ears said.
“Brad will have your head if you call him that again!” the other Elf replied.
“I knew it!” Noth crowed in a half-monstrous voice. He had backed into the darkness and all that remained visible were his floating eyes. “He was too stupid to die.”
Goddsdamnit. If that dick waffle somehow survived Evie’s last assault and took the Elven throne, we really needed Noth’s help. I threw hearth sigils into the air, lighting them on fire for brief flares. It didn’t seem to do much more than annoy the Elves but Noth’s smile glowed at me through the fray. Jax jumped into the meleeand the woman clapped her hands together and grew a torch in the space between. The light it gave off hurt my eyes. I couldn’t imagine what it did to Noth. Jax batted it out of her hands but the last Elf lunged forward in a vicious strike while Noth was still blinded.
The Calix’s vines and thorns burst from the point where Noth gripped it. Thick ropes scooped us all off the ground but no thorn pierced my skin. The Elves were not so lucky. Choking on the bramble, their eyes grew large and not because they were about to breathe their last.
“The True King,” one whispered, just before he died in a tangle of dagger-like thorns.
“Your Highness, forgive us,” the female Elf protested.
My breath caught in my throat. Would he show mercy? Would he show mercy to me?
“The Calix decides,” Noth said, his voice like a sepulcher. “Does she speak true?”
The vines removed her head before Noth spoke the last syllable. His chest heaved as he scanned for more enemies. Shadows licked up his legs, blending him with the growing night. Only his eyes glowed a terrible red.
Noth walked toward me with lethal intent.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered.
He twisted the Calix as he willed the vines to close around me, pierce my flesh. My skin remained unmarred. Did that mean I was worthy too? I had only ever heard that from Rue.
The black fanning out from Noth’s eyes wouldn’trecede and I stared at the ruby center of the dark pits, mesmerized.
“I didn’t really mean it.”
“I know. I'mhurt, but not hurt. You’re annoying as the seven hells, Pumpkin, but you need me. You’ll never kill me.”
“Wedoneed you. All the Harrowlands needs you if Brad survived and took your throne.”
“No, no, innocent girl. You need me because I’m willing to do what everyone else won’t. Obliterate anything, anyone, everyone in my way just so I can have a taste of your skin. What would I have done if they had touched you? The Harrowlands would have burned to ash.”
That was… a lot. And true. Some witchy sixth sense told me he didn’t lie. I fought against the tide of his words, ignoring how turned on he was by this.
“Ward’s territory too?” They were best friends. I waited for him to qualify his absurd declaration.
“All of it.” He gathered my hair in his fist. “It's ridiculous you're not obsessed with me yet. I'll die of a broken heart faster than your assassination attempts.”
Brad became a bigger concern than our tangles, my vengeance. I sagged into his grip, relief flooding me. I wouldn’t have to fail at killing him again, or fight the sizzling attraction between us.
“No more. We’ll need every ounce of our ability to find out what Brad wants this time. He can’t be in charge of a kitchenspoon, let alone a territory. That he lived after being flung across five territories is scary enough.”
We would have to sort out our personal problems as we ripped the human interloper off the throne.
“The human is only part of the problem. His mecha won’t save him from me. Not all the Elves will be thrilled with my return. They did hand me over to him in the first place.”
A reasonable concern.
“I will just have to be twice as majestic. And the Calix won’t hurt.” He turned to Jax. “We'll even take this one.”
