“Any male who refuses the amorite is a danger to Annwyn. A traitor.” She smiled as she gave Lyrena the order. “Kill them.”
The hall erupted once more.
Veyka.
Some terrestrials applauded. Bloodshed was entertainment. Many stepped back, forming a circle for the fight. Executions. Lyrena would not lose.
Veyka. We need every fighting, able-bodied soldier.
Her back was to me. She was re-stowing the amorite.
Listen to me.
She straightened.We do not need traitors.
Just because someone disagrees with you does not make them a traitor.
She turned, slowly. But her eyes did not go to the males, some shifting, some brandishing weapons. Lyrena laughed in their faces and encircled the makeshift arena with a ring of fire.
Veyka ignored them all, her eyes fixed on me. Beautiful, raging storm clouds gone to shards of ice.
“Who are you?” she hissed.
I did not flinch. “I am the High King of Annwyn.” I turned back to the spectacle. “No one shall die today.”
Lyrena’s flames banked. She looked past me. I did not turn to see the betrayal in Veyka’s eyes. I could feel it in my soul.
77
ARRAN
Osheen followed me upstairs to the study I’d commandeered. The halls were crowded with males returning to their tasks, recounting what had occurred in the great hall to the females who hadn’t made it down to witness the spectacle themselves.
The door closed. I turned. I expected to see Osheen standing at attention, hands folded behind his back, waiting to report.
But he crossed his arms over his chest, and he did not wait for me to speak before demanding, “What the hell was that?”
I had never seen Osheen angry. But there it was, in the stubborn set of his jaw and the narrow line of his mouth.
“Care to soften those words?” I said carefully. I did not sit, nor cross my arms. This study was a mistake. I was not made to be contained by four walls.
“No, I do not,” Osheen said sharply. “Why would you undermine Veyka like that, in front of all those courtiers?”
Few would have dared to challenge me like this; Osheen never had. Maybe that was why he could do it, and I did not instantly shift into my wolf and rip his head off.
I shook my head. “They are not courtiers. This is Eilean Gayl, not Baylaur or Cayltay.”
Osheen did not take my dismissal. He took a step forward. Outside, I heard the telltale creep of vines on the wall. His power was boiling very close to the surface. “Terrestrials gossip just as much as elementals. You have weakened her position, and for what? A few extra soldiers?”
My hands turned to fists, but my voice was even. “We may need those soldiers.”
“Eight males are nothing in the coming conflict, we both know it.” Osheen did not give an inch of quarter. He stood in the middle of the study, refusing to be cowed. “Why?”
Because she does not trust me.“The amorite is better used for weapons. There is not enough to protect every male in Annwyn.”
“You may be right,” Osheen allowed. “But the male I knew would have slaughtered anyone who dared to gainsay his queen. He would have been proud that she was so devoted to duty, to her kingdom.”
Because I am not worthy of her.
