Chapter 100 The Devil and The Red Sea
❀ Maeve ❀
My wolf senses bristled.
Had I a stalker? A spy?
Nikolai’s hand closed around mine from beside me.
“Don’t be too hard on yourself,” his deep voice enveloped me in the chilly night. “Most beings never reach your level—”
“I don’t want to be compared to people like that!” My words cut through the stillness like a whip. “Why don’t you pressure me with more notable examples? Like Lilith, the human who demanded an audience with a regent and acquired more power than she ever dreamed?”
Enough power to dare attack an IronWolf princess and Veilmoor queen.
I hadn’t told him about my run-in with Lilith, and I feared I never would.
How would he feel, knowing he’d failed in protecting me yet again?
I shifted my gaze back to the mysterious figure in the distance, but the dark shape had melted into the shadows.
“Do you sense anyone around? I don’t think we are alone.”
“You’re safe.”
He didn’t even give it worthy note.
“So you do know who it was?”
“You don’t need to worry about anything but your training—”
I cut him off. “Just tell me, and stop shielding me from harmless information.”
He made an effort to remain blank, but the glow of his eyes pulsed in that way it did when something irked him.
“It was your uncle.”
My chest tightened.
It was still strange hearing them referred to like that. My family. My relatives.
I glanced again in that direction, but Nikolai gently directed my gaze back to him.
“He was most likely checking up on you, making sure I was treating his niece with the utmost respect.”
“I didn’t really get that impression. Why would he skulk in the dark and leave once I noticed him?”
Nikolai’s lips curled. “You seem to forget something about him.”
“I barely know him,” I deadpanned.
“He’s a vampire. Vampires do skulking. Dark and mysterious.”
I folded my arms. “How charming. I seem to have had my fill of it from you, so his annoys me.”
He wrapped an arm around my waist, a grip all too familiar.
I closed my eyes just as he traced.
When my feet hit solid surface again, I couldn’t hold back a smile.
I’d become a natural at reading his actions. No longer did tracing with him have me reeling and disoriented, and sensing just when he would seemed like a precious bond between us, however simple.
The high crashed just as it had come.
Had I become so desperate for connection that I was recognizing it in the simplest situations?
Greedy for it.
But my mood significantly improved when I saw where we were.
“Oh…” my stomach fluttered.
“This is one of my favorite spots.”
There was a thick outdoor blanket spread over the tiles of the rooftop. He held me as he lowered to a seat, my frame leaned against his side.
We were on top of the mansion.
“I can see why,” I whispered.
From this level, the night was brilliant. I hadn’t really had the chance to admire the beauty of nighttime.
I looked to him and saw he was staring out at the moon with a languid expression. His gaze was soft, lulled.
“So this is where you escape to whenever we have fights.”
“Fights? Only one that I recall.” He turned that red-lit gaze on me. “When I reacted so poorly on the day of the Crimson Stone.”
I remembered that night. I’d just found out about my dual identity and was bleeding from an arm.
He’d traced me to bed with his fangs hot from the scent of my blood.
But then he’d left me, thinking his presence, or bite, would have overwhelmed me.
“If you’d just asked me, I would’ve told you I wanted any sort of distraction that night. I wanted you.”
Our gazes locked, tension crackling between us.
But then his mien shut down. His eyes dulled, jaw clenching.
“I don’t want to be just a distraction. Not when you need your head sharp and focused.”
He was doing the exact same thing as that night. Dictating the moment. Leaving me cold.
“Focused on what?” I asked.
“On becoming queen. Your life will change drastically—”
“Already has. Pray tell, what other life-tumbling changes should I expect from Veilmoor?”
He pressed on, unbending despite my sour mood.
“You’ll need to make decisions not based on your emotions, but for the good of the kingdom. You’ll have to choose obligation over distractions.”
I nodded slowly as it all came together. “And you’d rather not be my distraction because you’ll happily name Bastian one?”
“Precisely,” he grated.
“You know what,” I quipped, crossing my legs, “I think you like him.”
Nikolai tensed. Then he slowly swiveled his attention back to me.
“Did you hit your head, Milaya? Or has the cold from the mountains affected you?”
“No, seriously. Think about it. You keep postponing killing him. It’s almost as if after that one fight where he took your arm, you want him to take the other one.” I leaned in. “You probably ache for it…”
“He lives still because he has a greater—”
“Greater purpose for now. Got it.” I rolled my eyes. “Is Alpha Mordane really still alive and raging? The amulet still exists?”
Nikolai remained silent, clearly holding something back.
“Please tell me. I don’t like being kept in the dark. How can I prove myself if I’m always being sheltered?”
With obvious difficulty, Nikolai took my hand in his.
“Now that it’s been confirmed you’re the next queen, the amulet is an even greater threat.”
A gust of wind whistled right then, increasing the chill.
“I don’t understand.”
Like a root deep in my subconscious, though, I did.
“All living blood of the previous queen must be destroyed for the stone to recognize you as the only true queen.”
That meant I was at risk from both the stores kept by Maverick Graves and the Crimson amulet of Alpha Mordane.
He met my gaze. “That’s why I let the wolf live yet. I don’t know what the holdup is.”
“Knowing Bastian, it must be a matter of life or death if he hasn’t destroyed the stone by now.” My fingers shook. “Nikolai, you must let me see him.”
He drew back as if struck. “What?”
“Bastian doesn’t know what I am. He doesn’t know the risk. If he learns the amulet is a direct threat to me, he’ll be motivated to do what’s necessary.”
“If he isn’t already motivated, he never will.” Nikolai’s eyes flashed, his fangs glinting around his harsh words. “Mordane’s death makes Bastian the next alpha. Mordane’s feral state under the amulet endangers the pack. If that isn’t reason enough, then I see now that he truly is weak.”
My brows drew together. “He’s not like that. Mordane is his family. His uncle. He must not want to murder him, and that’s why he hasn’t succeeded. You have to let me talk to him.”
“To tell him what?” Nikolai hissed. “You think he’ll choose you over his beloved last family, then?”
It was my turn to recoil.
But Nikolai had a point.
What exactly had I been asking for when I demanded to tell Bastian about the circumstances?
We remained silent for many moments, both of us deep in thought.
The fury arose.
I had been too distracted to remember the threat of Lyssa’s, my mother’s… living blood to me.
All this time I’d supported its destruction only because it was wrong to desecrate the life force of a woman like that. Evil queen or not.
She was dead. Her blood should be left to rest.
I hugged myself around the stomach.
The problems I’d once looked at as a spectator had made a roundhouse turn straight to my doorstep.
These were my problems now.
My eyes went wide, my head pulsing.
The threats were too much. Too much to keep up with.
No longer was I dealing with physical, controllable pressure. I now had an object and vats of blood to contend with.
Something like a whimper escaped my throat.
Nikolai pulled me closer.
In that second vision of Queen Lyssa, I’d witnessed my grandmother, Lyssa’s mother, saying something about the stone sending pangs of pain.
Just because she’d been delaying the transfer of the throne to the chosen heir.
Was I to expect pangs of pain now?
“Milaya, I’m here for you.”
“But it’s not enough, is it?” I snapped, turning to face him, the floodgates opening. “You couldn’t keep Lilith off. I don’t trust Drusilla or Vladis. And you left the destruction of the amulet to Bastian all this while, even knowing it was a threat to me?”
He winced at my words. Deep inside, I winced too.
But this wasn’t the time for politeness.
“What am I going to do?” I breathed. “I’m doomed if I stay and doomed if I leave. A curse and a bloodthirsty stone will haunt me for the rest of my life.”
I stood up, staggering.
My heart thudded hard against my ribs.
When Nikolai reached out to steady me, I slapped his hand away.
Peering up at the moon, I was tempted to scream and demand—why?
Why?
I never thought I’d miss my former life in Blackbridge, with my fake mother in our dilapidated house.
Why had I ever agreed to attend that mating ceremony?
Why had I ever met either of my mates at all?