Evander raises a finger to his lips and crouches down, leading me closer to the wall of canvas. We stop and he leans an ear toward the canvas; I mirror the movement. While the tents are sturdy, they’re still just fabric and I can hear almost every word without issue.
“…truly marry her?” a woman muses with a note of disgust. I don’t recognize the voice.
“Would it be so bad?” Conri asks with a soft snort, as if he knows the answer to his own question. “A witch for a wife.”
“Ahuman,” she corrects with malice. “The wolf king cannot be having litters with a human. Even a weaver witch, the idea is unthinkable.”
“I know, but I have little choice for the time being; so long as Aurora’s magic is within her, it’s a game we all must play.” He sighs.
“You didn’t look like you were playing a game with her when you danced.” I recognize Weylyn’s voice from the hunt, alpha of the last pack we collected.
“Good, then my performance was convincing enough.” A chill, colder than winter’s grasp, courses through my veins. The voice belongs to Conri, yet it’s a stranger to me. His tone is unfeeling, calculating, and shifting. It is the lift of a curtain—a reveal behind the facade. As if, for the first time, I can hear the depths of his malevolence. “She thinks she can resist me. It’sadorable, really, that she believes she can thwart me with magic when at the end of the day she’s just a simple woman and giving in to her urges is something that her nature will compel her to do. No magic required. I’ll make her bend before me in more ways than one.”
I don’t know which I’m more disgusted by, that he thinks me so basic, or that I’ve been playing right into his game.
“I have her in the palm of my hand. She’ll play nicely enough and let us take her to Den.”
“Where you will marry her?” the woman asks. She’s this pack’s alpha, I assume.
Conri snorts. “You really do believe that, don’t you, Drena?”
“But you?—”
“I will take her to the old wood and bring her before the wolf spirit. There, we will cut out her heart and feed it to the great wolf, who will be ready to receive Aurora’s power from the act. Then, that power will be passed from the wolf to me, as the king, where it will live forever in my bloodline,” Conri says, matter-of-fact.
He never meant that the power would be in his bloodline by bedding me…
He is going to kill me.
CHAPTER 22
Strength abandonsme and I fall out of my crouch, my rear meeting the cool earth as shock weighs down my shoulders.You shouldn’t be surprised, a soft voice scolds from the back of my mind,this is what they told you he was. No…I’m not surprised at Conri. I’m surprised at myself. Even if I told myself I was indulging him for the purpose of manipulation, I was actually falling for his charm.
“Do you think she will catch on to your intentions?” Weylyn asks.
“No, she thinks herself clever, but I have her right where I want her. I’ll let her believe she’s in control until it’s too late,” Conri says nonchalantly.
“And if she doesn’t follow your plans?” Drena asks.
“That is what he has me for,” Bardulf speaks, sounding a little too excited. “Her presence is already an insult enough; it would be my honor to remove her stain from our lands.”
A light touch on my elbow pulls me from the conversation. Weylyn is saying something else but my attention is back outside the tent. On Evander, who is gently wrapping his fingers around my arm and pulling me up.
I allow him to guide me back through camp. Conri was right. I thought I had control. But, in reality, I was a puppet, dancing under Conri’s fingers. Now my strings are cut and I am limp under Evander’s grip.
As the camp blurs around us, my daze slowly turns to rage. That gives my mind sharpness and clarity again. The only thing that has changed is I now know, without doubt, that there can never be reasoning with Conri. Aurora and Evander were right. I should be thanking Conri for removing any doubt or second thoughts surrounding my path forward.
By the time we reach Evander’s tent, slipping through the flap and into the darkness, my thoughts are moving again. I take the two steps the tent can afford me to reach the back wall. Turn, walk back to Evander, turn, and repeat. Pacing.
Evander tries to speak. “He does not?—”
“Care for me?” I make a noise of disgust. “That much is obvious.” I stop, my back to Evander. Fists clenching. “You know, I didn’t think he cared for me. Not really. But I had thought thatmaybehe would respect me enough that we could work together toward a common goal. That perhaps time had worn him down, fear over Aurora’s loss had shown him vulnerability and he wasn’t quite the man you both knew… That he could be?—”
“Reasoned with?” It’s Evander’s turn to finish my sentence. “Conri doesn’t know the meaning of those words. It’s his way or nothing. By resisting him, even daring to try, you committed a cardinal sin for which there is no forgiveness.” Even though he speaks at barely a whisper, Evander’s voice grows louder as he draws near. He comes to a stop right behind me and I think he is about to rest a hand on my shoulder, but it must be my imagination, as a touch never comes. “I am sorry you had to find out that way. But I couldn’t let you go on thinking there was hope for an alliance with him. Not when I learned of his plans.”
“The only thing I am sorry for is that I was gullible enough to give him the benefit of the doubt.” Rage, not sorrow, softens my voice.
“Hoping for reason and seeing the best in people are hallmarks of a good heart. They’re not a reason to be upset with yourself.”
