“In my kingdom, we call them mates.”
Mate. I don’t know how I feel about that word. It implies a certain… foreverness that I wasn’t expecting. A… partnership even.
“My people only mate but once,” he murmurs, taking my silence as curiosity. “And once truly mated, we do not forsake each other. Our lives become twined until we share our last breaths on this mortal plane together.”
“That sounds like a lovely fairy tale.”
“And that sounds like an incredible dose of cynicism for one so young.”
“In my kingdom, women are considered possessions by those in power. Once we ruled ourselves, with a fair and just witch queen, but the Knights of Malus brought their Godly ways into our kingdom sixteen years ago, and outlawed the feminine mysteries and magic. Women became breeding stock and our laws were overturned so that women were unable to own property, or even their own children. Those women that disagreed with the knights were burned at the stake, regardless of whether they were witch kin or not. But do you know what I realized? The menfolk of my kingdom might not believe in the Knights of Malus and their religion, but they certainly didn’t speak against them. If they had, we might have won our freedom. And now here I am, trapped in a world where I’m literally being hunted for my cunt. And you’re searching for a… what? Biddable bride? Tell me what makes you any different to all the others?”
His eyes narrow again. “I believe in a woman’s choice. That’s what makes me different.”
I hold up my wrist.
“I can’t hunt for your friend, fight off other hunters and make sure you don’t rush headlong into danger whilst my back is turned, all at once.”
Wait. “You’re hunting Kari too?”
“As mentioned, you are not the bride I’m searching for. But your friend fits my needs precisely.”
It’s like a slap to the face.Kari?“You want to claim Kari?”
It makes sense and chases away all those niggling little doubts, but it also raises the question of why he’s flirting with me.
Jealousy twists inside me, but I swallow it down, refusing to let it infect me.
“I want to offer Kari a choice,” he states clearly. “And it is up to her whether she accepts it or not. You’re my best lead tofind her. I suspect I know where they’re going, but you can track them. So once again, I offer you a truce. Work with me. I protect you, and you protect me. Together we find Kari and then make for the end of the Labyrinth, where you can go home if you so desire.”
I toy with the manacle. Relief settles over me now I know what his intentions are, though I still get the feeling he’s hiding something. “And this?”
Bael scowls. “Stays on. At least until I know I can trustyou.”
I consider the proposition for a long, drawn-out moment, before slowly offering my hand again. “Truce.”
This time, I mean it.
Chapter 8
Bael
Gods cannot be trusted.”
—BAELFYRE THE BLACK
This is vengeance, plain and simple. Kasaros must be laughing at me, as I stalk behind my huntress, eyes returning to her again and again.
My gaze dips to the knife sheathed at her side, pure incredulousness running through me.
“You will know her by the mark of Blessed Amara’s rose,” Mother whispered, pressing her knife into my hands as she lay bleeding on the bed. “Only your hand may touch this blade, until the moment another claims it. And in thus doing, shall she reveal herself to you. A mate, my beloved Baelfyre. Hope. For in these shadows there is always a burning star. Find her. Seek her out. Claim her. Know happiness, my son. But never forget that in this blood-stained world happiness can be lost as swiftly as it may be won.”
My mother believed in the old ways and lit candles for Amara, even hundreds of years after the Goddess vanished.She’d claimed the Goddess gave her the gift of seeing small flashes of the future, and I’d never believed her.
Until now.
Because the moment that cell door slammed shut and my huntress’s sweet scent filled my nostrils, I’d known the truth.
Mine.
