Page 54 of Realm of Wind and Vines
I raise my eyebrows in genuine surprise. “What about your friends back in the Unseelie Court?”
For a moment, I swear I see a flicker of deep longing in his eyes. But then he breaks eye contact and instead stares at the dark wooden wall across the street. “Being the king comes with a lot of power. But it’s also a very… solitary position.”
“You don’t have friends? Or people who can give you advice at least? People you trust?”
“Trust?” he scoffs. “What is trust?” Letting out another huff of disbelief, he shakes his head. “No. Power is everything in our court. And if I’m not powerful and intelligent and strong and ruthless enough to keep it, someone else will take it from me. So all my life, I have only ever been able to rely on myself.”
“That sounds… lonely.”
A small sigh escapes his lips. “Yeah.”
Another second passes. Then alarm flashes across his face and he snaps his gaze back to me. Threats practically pulse in his eyes as he locks them on me.
“If you ever tell anyone I said that, I will trap you in your worst nightmares for two days straight,” he warns, his voice low and vicious.
I just flash him a wicked smile back. “If you try to trap me in my bad memories, I will shove a wildfire of fear into your chest and increase it until your mind breaks.”
He blinks, looking surprised that I threatened him back instead of caving. Then he lets out a short laugh and shakes his head. “You know, I’m actually starting to like you a little bit.”
“Ah, now it makes sense.”
“What does?”
“You’re attracted to women who hate you.” I bait him with a knowing smile. “That’s why you’re so obsessed with Isera.”
“I’m not obsessed…” he splutters, barely getting the words out without tripping over his own tongue. “With her. Obsessed? She’s… That’s not?—”
I chuckle and turn around to reach for the edge above me. “I’m going to check from the roof again.”
While Orion continues huffing threats below, I pull myself up to the roof again and then roll over so that I can see the streets around us. Shifting my gaze from side to side, I scan the area for our target.
Surprise flickers through me when I find someone else instead.
Barely a few steps away, right around the corner from where Orion and I were talking, is Isera. I had no idea that she was there, because we couldn’t see her from where we were standing. But from up here, I can.
Silver moonlight falls across half of her face as she stands there in the shadows of the building, looking in our direction rather than at the rest of the street. She’s leaning her back against the dark wood, and her arms are crossed over her chest. But there is a thoughtful expression on her face as she studies Orion without him knowing that he is being observed.
I wonder how much of our conversation she overheard.
Movement suddenly catches my eye on the street next to ours.
My heart leaps.
He’s here.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Wood clatters against wood as Imar is thrown in through an open door by Draven’s wind magic and hits the table and chairs that were arranged on the floor inside, knocking them over. Imar gasps, shaking his head and blinking furiously as if trying to figure out what just happened.
Draven simply stalks in after him and yanks him up from the floor before slamming him down into one of the few chairs that still remain upright. Air explodes from Imar’s lungs, and before he can recover his breath, Isera covers his arms and legs and torso in ice, trapping him to the chair.
From my place by the wall inside, I just keep leaning back against the dark wooden panels with my arms crossed over my chest and watch them unseen from the shadows.
“Here’s what’s going to happen,” Draven declares. “You’re going to send a message to Gremar and tell him that there has been some kind of emergency and that he needs to come to the Golden Palace straight away.”
Imar, who is a member of the Red Dragon Clan and who was the chief administrator responsible for organizing theAtonement Trials, snaps his head up and stares at Draven in shock. “You… What the fuck do?—”
“The only words that should be coming out of your mouth right now areyes, sir.”
