“It is a lodestone, also known as the Bone of the Gods.” Heka turns it over repeatedly, allowing the fire from the torches to catch on its sides, before laying it on his palm like it may come alive and burrow into his skin. “They have fascinating properties, I have discovered. They fall from the heavens to be experimented on by me. I am the god within these walls.”
“And what did you discover?” I ask, cautiously.
“That these pretty little stones have magnetic properties, and with just the right tweaks…” He tosses the stone beetle over onto its back. Now, I can see a sequence of ancient hieroglyphs — magic — scrawled across it. “…it can be turned into a secret talisman to battle against cursed iron, silver, or other metals. I call it anti-metallicum. Funny how something so small may have the power to rip apart cursed chains.”
“This could truly undo Maximinus’ magic?” Excitement rushes through me.
Is it possible?
This could be the secret weapon that Aurelius needs to take down his uncle and then transform his court, kingdom, and every other realm like he has promised.
“I can hear by the fast beating of your heart how much you want to get your wolf paws on this magical talisman.Mytalisman.” Heka slips the beetle into a hidden pocket in his kilt. “But it is still at the experimental stage.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning,” Heka’s eyes gleam, “that I don’t yet know how well or consistently it will work. If you unwisely used it now on your fae, then he would risk pain or death.”
“Who have you been experimenting on then?”
“As much as I love your inquiring nature, maybe that’s one question that you don’t want the answer to.”
Nauseous, I eye the exit again.
Heka turns back to the table, engrossed in another parchment. I skulk past him, making for the doorway.
“You know, Queen KalaKant and her court often kept fae for their beauty,” Heka says without looking up. I stumble to a stop, clenching my jaw. “Also, for the taste of their blood. I was never interested in sex or any of the pheromone imbalances that others calllove. I use Blood Lovers for my hunger and ruts because I must survive, nothing more. But still, when I was a young vampire, I was once persuaded to taste a captive fae out of curiosity to see if the blood truly did taste like nectar. And it does.”
“Good for you.” I stalk to the door without looking around. “Why don’t you tell Lanlin that story when you next see him?”
Hopefully, Lanlin will tear off the raven starver’s sick head.
“The taste isn’t the important part of the story,” Heka continues. “The fae was restrained in iron that burned him, and his weeping made the whole experience of feeding from him most unpleasant. I understand that they sometimes need such treatment to learn to behave. But it’s most uncivilized. I realized that day that I prefer subtler methods. As a scholar, I studied them. Then I taught them to the court. Attention by someone superior, false affection, isolation, conditioning with exhaustingstudy, rituals with little to eat but paired with soft words of praise and reward, all work better to train animals.”
The blood drains from my face.
Slowly, I turn to face Heka.
He’s talking about the Blood Lovers.
Is that what Daire experienced?
Yet is he also talking about Lanlin?
Everything that Lanlin told me about his tutor floods into my mind.
…When I bit him the first time, he didn’t hit me back. He calmly said, “I will prove that you’re safe with me, my Prince. Also, how to turn those fangs into weapons against your true enemies…
Heka used those methods on my Alpha.
He made him feel seen, understood, and accepted in a way that no one else did. He called himmy prince, when no one else acknowledged that he was royalty.
It meant so fucking much to Lanlin.
Yet it was merely part of a tactic offalse affection and soft wordsby a narcissistic waste of a knot who saw him as ananimal.
My throat is thick with tears to remember the genuine warmth in Lanlin’s voice when he spoke about Heka, which wasn’t there when he mentioned his family…his mom.
Was Lanlin ever more than an experiment to his tutor? Had Heka felt a shred of warmth or love for him?
