“You—”
“Your Majesty,” I purred before he made a fatal mistake. “I do not want to kill you, Palomides. Not yet.”
He held his silence now. Except for the whimpering.
“You will honor our bargain,” I said, examining my fingernail. Even the scent of his blood was irritating. “If you do not, I will return to Castle Chariot. Alone.”
I disappeared. Materialized by the window. “You must know by now that the High King is the level-headed one.”
Disappear. Reappear. Now at the foot of his bed.
“But I am faster on my own,” I whispered in his ear.
Before he could flinch away, I’d moved to the fire once again. “I will not need anyone’s help to punish you for your disobedience. Tomorrow, you will take us to the amorite mines. We will take as much as we can carry with us now, and make all the arrangements to set up the supply lines.”
His bleeding had slowed. That wouldn’t do.
I threw myself through the void one last time.
When I landed at his bedside, my dagger was already in my hand. I swiped it up across his face, flaying the skin from his jawline to his graying eyebrow.
Palomides collapsed back on the bed, screaming and clutching his face. I stalked back to the warmth of the fire on my own two feet. Warm once again, I sheathed my knife and rested a hand on each hip.
“Palomides.”
He silenced at the command. His whole body shook, but for a moment he managed to drag himself back up to face me.
“Remember, when you think of betraying Annwyn… there are no wards that can hold me.”
My feet were too loud on the stone floor, but Arran was already awake. The fire raged in the hearth here as well, illuminating his bare chest, the brutal black lines of his Talisman a sharp contrast to his glowing golden skin.
“Is it done?” he asked evenly.
I jerked my head as I unbuckled my weapons, letting my belt fall to the floor. “Palomides will do as he’s told.”
Arran’s chin dropped. The barest suggestion of a nod.
It may have been a trick of the light, or his chin might have shifted to the side a fraction of an inch. Question or invitation.
It did not matter. I threw myself into the chair before the fire and pretended to sleep for the rest of the night.
67
ARRAN
I love you.
In that moment of true fear, when Veyka thought one or both of us might not survive, those were the words she had given me.
That was how serious she considered the threat of the succubus. And she was right. Palomides may have been the first to see the utility of those mindless monsters, but he would not be the last. The ambitious lords and ladies of Annwyn, or even kings and queens on continents beyond, could take the amorite for themselves and set the succubus upon their enemies. The less powerful, the poor, the fae citizens of Annwyn, would be sacrificed to the succubus on the altar of power. If our enemies learned that the succubus wanted Veyka… it would be too easy.
But those concerns, the safety my kingdom, those were not what echoed in my head.
I love you. I love you. I love you.
Before those three words, nothing else mattered.
My beast had tried to snarl them back. They’d been on my tongue in the moments when my bones cracked beneath the strain of the Black Knight’s attack.
