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“You will both serve me as your new king, but not as my ambassadors.”
Meck pursed his brow, and Ferryn clenched his jaw, still on one knee, their bleeding fists over their hearts.
“You will join my Kel Klyss. That is the only way you may serve me.”
Their tight expressions instantly softened to surprise.
“Keffa will guide you in your trial. If you endure it and survive, then you will have your rightful place in my Kel Klyss as my kin.”
Meck swallowed hard. “Thank you, my lord.”
Ferryn was speechless, the brothers sharing a brief smile.
“When?” asked Meck.
“Now.” Then I turned to Pullo. “Prepare them for the rite. Their trial begins at once. I’ll speak to Keffa to oversee their trial and send word to Dalya at the Temple.”
“Yes, sire.”
Then I turned back toward my war room on a heavy sigh. It seemed my visit to the princess would have to wait.
Chapter 7
UNA
“Thank you, Hava.”
She set the stack of histories of Northgall on the table next to the hearth. I’d asked for reading material to help pass the time.
“Can I get you anything else?” she asked, noting my somber mood.
It had been at least a fortnight since I’d been taken to the throne room and then locked into this room.
“I’d love to know what my fate is to be. Is this my life now?” I asked with a touch of bitterness. “Sitting in a luxurious apartment, bathing and eating and sleeping?”
Hava glanced at the two chambermaids who were changing the linens on my bed. “I cannot say what is to happen.”
I walked to the boarded window, crossed my arms, and peered through the sliver to see what little of the gray sky I could. “You might at least un-board the windows. I can’t fly away.”
They’d figured out I couldn’t fly since I’d not once tried to use them to escape. When Hava asked me outright last week, Iconfessed the truth. There didn’t seem any point in lying about it.
“They don’t want you to…harm yourself, my lady.”
I turned, ready to tell her that I wasn’t about to take my life. I could endure quite a bit of pain and still survive, as my torture in the very dungeons beneath me as a young girl attested.
But suddenly, the echo of someone approaching in the corridor drew louder and closer. Someone moving swiftly and with purpose. We both watched the door.
There was a murmur from the guards, and the door unlocked. Then he entered, the prince himself.
My chest constricted, and my knees quivered as I blew out a shallow breath, hardly daring to move. He wasnotthe wraith fae male I remembered who carried me out of the dungeon beneath this palace. Not at all.
Striding to the center of the room was the tall, armor-clad figure of King Gollaya, his black-fur cape billowing behind him, his gaze solely on me. He was taller than most of his kind, his chest broad, and he appeared far more intimidating than any I’d encountered. That included the loathsome ones who’d abducted me.
I wasn’t sure if it was the black steel armor plates jutting at his shoulders or the curved short-sword at his waist or the intensity of his stare, but he was wreathed in power and potency that pushed oppressively against me.
His four horns still bore no rings of gold. Not crowned king yet, it seemed.
He bore more demon runes etched in his forehead than back then. He’d only had two small symbols above each brow when I’d first met him. Now, there was a line of black demon sign curling up his brow and disappearing into his hairline.
