“Yeah,” Adrian rasps. “One Galen should be concerned about, but his vendetta with the fae blinds him. An army without weapons won’t last long. I don’t know the extent of Hector’s alchemy magic, but I don’t want him getting close to my men and their swords.”
There’s that look again, one that suggests Everett told him this.
“How did Sable get to the Valley of Sand and Bones?”
“I was wondering when you’d ask that.” He scratches his jaw, weighing his next words carefully. “The mage Galen has here, the one that sent Sable back to Solaria, that’s Hector’s sister. Name is Sofia, favorite color is purple, favorite stone to storeher magic in is amethyst. Galen doesn’t know Sofia is related to Hector, or else he’d keep her as a bargaining chip. She’s powerful; most mages can only open a portal a day, but she can open up three to four portals in a single afternoon. A nasty secret she hasn’t revealed to Galen yet. Doubt she will.”
I slip my thumb into my fist and crack it. I never heard of a mage that powerful. “So Sable has been escaping to see Hector, plotting and then returning as if she’s the picture of grace for dinner.”
“More like the picture of whoredom. Listen, I have no qualms if a woman wants to fuck like a man. I do have problems when the woman only does it to break vows,” he says dryly. “There is more. I’m told Hector has a lot of skin art, odd tattoos, symbols.” His eyes press into mine. “So I started to dig deeper, sent a spy who is good with a pen. He copied down some of Hector’s tattoos; I sent those to an old friend of mine at Ishmor.”
He stands and pulls out a book from his shelf. It slaps against his desk with a sharp pang.
“Ever heard of runes?”
I stare at the book.Mastering Techniques of Rune Drawing. I flip it open. It’s a how-to book on drawing runes correctly. It stresses the curves and lines, down to copying the exact thickness. If done wrong, the rune will not work.
Some shapes are simple, others… my hands can never reproduce. My pen has been a sword, the ink is the blood I spill.
“You’re tone implies you know what Everett asked me to do.” I close the book and place it on my lap.
“Connecting dots didn’t make me the Vice Admiral of this army.Findingdots to connect did. Runes. It’s what Everett has you hunting for. I did my homework. There are countless books on runes, full of dust; no one reads them. But once you clear those cobwebs, you can find chapters about a book called the Vitalis. They claim the Vitalis is a master dictionary of runes, it’sa source of power, a lifeline. It seems to be where they originated from.
“Now, I don’t know if runes really worked the way my mom read to me as a child, but if they did, I’d be damn sure not to give Hector and Sable the master class on how they operate. At this point, Hector’s tattoos are just self-expression, but I think he knows that in the future they can be turned into something else.”
Adrian pushes off the bookshelf with the speed a loaded treasure ship leaves the dock. Full of alertness, ready to defend against being plundered.
His desk becomes a crutch he leans into as he continues, “I’m scared, Titus, and I don’t admit that easily. I’m not one to panic. I plan. Do you think Sable and Hector have this book? The last thing I want is a metal melting fucker who has runes enhancing his magic.”
My tongue moves like the hands of a clock, sweeping across my mouth, desperate to find a trace of moisture each passing second. “No,” I fail to swallow; my word stands firm and dry.
“You say that with such confidence.”
“They don’t have ityet,” I repeat.
“You know where it is.” His shoulders lift. Now I have another person I can’t fail. My mate, my family, his family, this entire kingdom, and yeah… the world, it seems. “That’s what Everett wanted you to find. That’s why he wanted you to have this army, to keep the runes safe.”
“There’s a lot of grey in that black-and-white statement.”I add.
“So paint the picture for me.” He leans closer, hanging over me like a torch. “I can not order an army without all the details. I need facts so I know where we stand. I have converted a vast majority of this army on our side. Every single person stationed in Lunestra is with us.”
My chest skips a beat.Everyperson?
“Yeah.” He smirks. “Your family is on our side. They want a king who has walked in their boots, who will walk in them after he gets the throne.”
My family. Ryker, Cyrus, Ember, and Nero all support me. It doesn’t reveal my stress, but grows it tenfold.
“Not every guard is on my side here; some will rebel, others will defect. When we take over, it has to be swift, Titus. We can’t have the transition of power spill into a civil war. I’ve been turning soldiers, ensuring this doesn’t happen, but I need to know what you do, so when the time comes, we’re the ones doing the fucking, and not the ones being bent over and fucked. Understand?”
“How did you keep all this from Galen?”
“Easy,” he leans back, giving me room to breathe. “He’s the one who grew his rose hedges too tall to see beyond. He’s overconfident. I never used your name, in case I got caught. But after you ended the war, my men guessed it was you. They prayed and hoped it was a man of your merit we were fighting for. I worked with only those I trusted, then we branched out.
“Galen’s nobles think he’s a charmer, but his men know he’s a tyrant, one who remains in his castle, as we’re out there doing the actual fighting. I know you don’t trust me. That’s smart. But I trust you. I’ve got my son; he’s… human.”
A human son, which means, “Your mate is human.”
He nods.
