Mortified, I tried to kick him under the table and accidently got Callum in the shin instead. “Sorry! That was meant for Ro.”
“No.” Rowan smirked. “I think you hit the right target.”
Callum scowled at him. “Silence that tongue or your face will bemytarget. That I promise you.”
“Are your lovers always this lively?” Lord Onyx asked me, amused.
“Yep.” I smiled. “Welcome to my world.”
One I wouldn’t trade for anything.
“I suppose we should continue our discussion,” Onyx told Maddox. “You mentioned setting aside our differences for Evan’s sake.”
“Yes.” Maddox retook my hand beneath the table. “While I don’t trust you, I do trust that you had his best interest in mind when saying he must remain here.”
“Really?” I asked, taken off guard. “Since when?”
He squared his jaw and said nothing further. Freaking stubborn man.
“I’m curious as well.” Onyx tilted his head. The action caused a strand of his long black hair to fall forward. “Since the moment you stepped foot into my realm, you’ve been less than pleasant despite my many attempts to dissolve tensions between us. When you came to me this morning wishing to make peace, I thought it a ploy meant to deceive me.”
“It’s no ploy.” Maddox glided his fingertips across mine. It seemed to ground him. “After dining with you last night and meeting Varys, I started to see things differently. It gave me a new perspective.”
“Such as?”
“That maybe I was wrong, not only since coming here but in my years as a knight as well. Varys loved Evan’s father, so much so that he started an uprising because King Eidolon played a role in Prince Elias’ death.”
“This surprised you,” Onyx said. “Learning the truth of your king’s actions.”
It wasn’t a question but Maddox nodded anyway. “More than surprised. It made me question… everything. I’ve given many years to the Second Order. To the king. I carried out his orders without hesitation and risked not only my life, but the lives of my men, fighting in his name.”
“Do you no longer find him deserving of that loyalty?”
“How could I?” There was a tremble in Maddox’s hand and a sudden roughness in his voice. “The king not only betrayed his own brother but the kingdom as well. I now find myself asking, what else have I been misled to believe? Who’s the true enemy?”
I could count on one hand the number of times I’d heard Maddox sound this… broken. The hurt was too great for him to keep inside. The truth about the king shook his very foundation and self-confidence, challenging everything he’d ever fought for.
Callum stared at the tabletop. The tremble in his chin left little doubt that he was having that same internal battle. The knights along the wall all fared the same, their expressions grim.
King Eidolon’s involvement in my dad’s death had affected all of them.
Onyx carefully watched him. “What exactly do you propose?”
“Well, you’ve stated Evan must remain in your realm,” Maddox said, a hardness touching his eyes. “And none of us will leave here without him. Even if it were possible to sneak past your defenses and steal him away, where would we go? To a kingdom that wishes him dead for a crime he didn’t commit? Into the hands of mercenaries? I see only one option.”
“Do tell.”
“Joining forces with you.” Maddox’s nostrils flared and his jaw tightened, but he kept his composure. “Working with you instead of against. Living inside this barrier is the only way to ensure Evan’s safety. As such, I’m putting my faith in you to help us protect him.”
I nearly fell out of my chair.
The demon lord’s brow tapered. “If memory serves me well, only last night you voiced howunreasonablesuch a thing would be. Evan staying here. Now you expect me to believe you’ve changed your mind?”
“Much has come to light since then,” Maddox responded, the defeat in his gaze subtly reflecting in his voice. “One being the revelation that, perhaps, I’ve been too set in my ways to see beyond my own prejudices. I refused to consider the possibility that you aren’t the villain I believed you to be.”
I sat beside him stunned into silence.
Did his change of heart have anything to do with him learning Onyx was one of my fated mates? None of the others seemed surprised though, not my men or the knights. They must’ve discussed it last night after Rowan whisked me away.
