Kassiel sits, locked in the room adjacent to us. Despite my protests, he willingly shackled himself in an attempt to prove he wasn’t as devious as they’d thought.
“Why in godsname should we trust him? He has more blood on his hands than most soldiers combined!” Finnian, a man younger than I skilled with strategy, shouts before slamming his hand on the table top.
His blue eyes sharpen, the icy stare challenging me.
“How do we know that you’re not lost to us?” He dares ask and my blood rises rapidly.
I begin to walk around the wooden table, stalking towards him. If he wanted to question my allegiance to The Hidden, he would need to understand that I’d lost too much to only be doubted once giving my entire life to a cause.
“What will happen if King Euron isn’t interested in a bargain with us for him?”Naaveen asks, the question also one I’ve been pondering.
I had anticipated that maybe the king thought Kassiel disposable. From the little answers I’ve got from him, it felt that maybe The Devourer was more important than he believed. Why else would the king bind his lifeforce to Kassiel’s for over two hundred and fifty years?
“It would be easier if we had a minder.” I finally throw out the suggestion. Everyone had an idea of what should be done, but we couldn’t come to a majority agreement.
“Why didn’t we blasted think of this before now?”Yasper, a man of about thirty—three turns, practically bellows out in a mix of frustration and amusement. He starts to laugh, the relief breaking the tension in the room before stopping to yawn. His dark brown eyes light up as he scrunches his ivory nose.
“Jessamine, could you send for a minder who is awake at this hour to come and assist us? Maybe then they’ll tell us what lurks in the inner workings of The Devourer.” Helena sits there, her feline eyes holding the woman’s gaze.
Jessamine pushes to her feet and turns hastily, her dark green robes swishing around her feet. She looks like an autumn goddess in this dim light with her golden skin and long thick braid of auburn. The gold loops in her plait glint as she continues out the door.
None of us like to keep Helena waiting. She’s impatient and hates to waste time, so it’s no surprise Jessamine returns nearly minutes later with a young male minder.
“I found him along the market starting to enter one of the taverns. Obviously he thought he had better plans.” Her pointer finger trails along his neck and down to his shoulder as she continues, “Although I was very glad to see that he was easily incentivized.”
The young man blushes so hard, his pale skin could be confused as a radish. He clearly doesn’t know that Jessamine has luxuria, with her ability to imitate lust in someone. Gods it’s worked on me before too when she used her sultry magic. Even without it she is striking, though her beauty is nothing compared to her wit.
“What is your name, minder?” One of the older men on the council calls out from the corner of the room.
I pull out a wooden chair and plop in it exaggeratedly. The table is expansive, easily fitting twenty or more people comfortably. Tonight, however, it seems to swallow the room with the limited bodies to sit at the oak wooded top.
Others follow suit, pulling out the large chairs in a symphony of scrapes along the floor.
Jessamine brings the young man closer to us. He looks around the room and decides to choose a seat closest to the door.
“They call me Irthrid.” His demeanor seems calm enough, he must have already taken a collective reading from the council.
“Whatever you hear or learn from this meeting must remain confidential, you understand that don’t you, Irthrid?” Naaveen’s words settle the room into silence.
“Of course. I’m well aware of the dangers should anything leave this room.”
I wait for someone to reveal the secret residing in the next room. No one offers anything and I realize they’re leaving the space for me to lead this discussion.Great.
“Irthrid, we’ve found ourselves with a great opportunity. The problem is that we, as the council of The Hidden, can’t reach an agreement until we know… certain things.” My eyes bore into his, the golden glimmer focused and eager.
I decide that I’m too nervous to sit through the impending interrogation and push to my feet. Pacing the length of the table, I look to the side door that locks Kassiel behind it.
“Naaveen, will you go get him?” Caym asks.
I can’t bring myself to look at anything except that door. Naaveen steps into my peripheral, his bronze skin even darker with the spent light.
My gaze returns to Irthrid who watches the egress. I wonder how he’ll react to seeing The Devourer. That’s the funny thing about the iron manacles, they prevent the wearer from usingtheir magic, but also null any magic from being used on them. It’s a secret not many know.
Kassiel’s green eyes immediately search mine, suspicion haunting his face. After dipping my head at him, he looks around the room, calculating and cold. The ambience of the room, with the low lighting that casts shadows, only encourages his look to be more sinister. If I hadn’t spent the time with him that I had, I’d believe him to look like a wrathful devil.
“Devourer.” My voice comes out too small. He sat in that damned room without knowing anything of his fate, trusting in me and Caym, even Leeson. And now I’m the one addressing him like a captive instead of the man I shared some of my most intimate moments with. It’s cruel, that face of condemnation can be so familiar and one that you’ve bared your soul to.
“Little warrior.” My heart breaks a little at the way he’s looking at me with uncertainty in his eyes. Like I’m about to throw him away like used paper once I’ve scratched my pain onto the sheet. Our eyes lock, and I can’t bear to look away.
