With one last glance behind me, I studied my mate in all her ethereal beauty. Her eyes shone with something I couldn’t place. She held herself like a noble, not a hint of fear leakinginto her posture, even though I was about to leave her among a group of predators.
The doors slammed shut behind me, sealing me on one side and her on the other. Behind them, the audience would murmur, would gasp, would roar, once I released them from my thrall.
I held it as long as I could, hoping Sylaira would seek shelter with Heraphia.
Let them whisper. Let them plot.
There was nothing worse they could do to me than what my sister and her husband had planned. But as I followed them into the privacy of the royal feather, royal guard flanking us, I gripped the truth in my hands.
Sylaira was who I was born to protect.
And if someone ever laid a hand on her again, I’d show them that tonight wasn’t a loss of control—it was a mercy.
45
The lock clicking into place behind us was a tolling of my impending death. The air was still, tight in my throat. The long-dead gilded branches on the walls seemed to reach for me, closing in like they’d trap me should I try to run.
Stadiel snarled, stomping past me and into the royal sitting chamber. “Do you realize what you’ve done?”
I claimed space in the middle of the silver-threaded rug, crossing my arms over my chest. “I do.”
Iaoth stomped forward, nails digging into my flesh as she gripped my forearm. “How dare you let her have power over you. She was meant to serve the war, not be bound to you!” Her lips curled back from her teeth, and she dragged a sharp breath between them. “How long have you known she was your mate?”
To lie or to speak true?
It was too risky to utter a falsehood, not when she could enter my mind and steal my memories with a flick of her magic. Especially now that we were touching. But I refused to flinch away from her.
I’d fucked up, and if I wanted Sylaira and myself to survive, I had to be strategic. Looking like I was hiding something would only raise further suspicion.
Good thing I was an adept liar.
“She escaped from me on one occasion after I initially captured her. In that pursuit, I used my Command on her. When I looked her in the eye, our bond snapped into place.”
That, at least, was the truth.
“Youhumiliatedus by keeping this secret.” Iaoth vibrated like the broken bird that lived inside her would burst from her skin at any moment. “And after everything we’ve done for you?”
She spun, releasing her vise-like grip on my arm, and threw herself onto a settee.
I didn’t bother arguing that they’d never truly done anything for me, and that I had always been the servant in the relationship. Instead, I waited for the next harsh words to fly.
“You tossed Dasha aside like she was nothing. Then, you attacked her father for dancing with your,” she paused, claws digging into the velvet, “mate.”
“He was hurting her,” I snapped. My teeth clicked shut a moment later, and I forced myself to take a breath. They wouldn’t care, and I couldn’t lose my cool.
Stadiel regarded me with hawk-like scrutiny. I held his gaze, refusing to cower to my sister’s husband. “Not only that, but you Commanded the entire Angel court. Wounded many houses’ pride. They will not stand for it. And neither will I, having had my own house attacked.”
Iaoth sat up, her glare hot enough to burn. “Tell me,brother,” she spat the word like it was poison, “what is so special about this Seer that made you abandon your duty tonight.”
“The Goddess fated us to be together.”
“Bah,” she said, waving her hand. “The brother I had would never have let something like that stand in the way of what he was ordered to do.”
I could only blink at Iaoth. Mate bonds were the highest blessing from the Goddess—seconded only by Sight.
The mirror I’d been staring into all these years shattered. All the illusion that my little sister, the one who’d played with me in the orchards as younglings, remained deep inside, locked away for her own protection, vanished.
For the first time, I saw exactly who Iaoth had become. And in that same broken shard, who I had allowed myself to be. A good dog, waiting on his next command.
