Chapter 42 Unforgiving Witness
❀ Maeve ❀
The Crimson Amulet?
“Alpha Mordane’s amulet?” I asked, incredulous. “What do you want with it?”
“You hadn’t figured it out?”
His tone rubbed me the wrong way.
“No. Maybe I shouldn’t have to ‘figure it out’. Tell me if you want and stop keeping me in suspense, Nikolai.”
He dampened a smirk, a wise decision with my current mood. “Before Graves ever became a threat, my first mission was to retrieve and destroy it…”
“Let me guess,” I interrupted, raising my brows. “Does it stand in the way of Drusilla’s reign?”
The Regent of Veilmoor was starting to sound a whole lot problematic. In fact, I suspected there was more at play here. What if the vampire was really using me to betray and overcome IronWolf pack—
“Yes.” He said, tone matter-of-fact.
“Explain.”
He clasped his long fingers together impatiently. “What do you know of the war?”
As if everyone didn’t know about the war.
“I just know both factions fought over the control of Blackbridge, and the wolves captured and destroyed Queen Lyssa. In the event of that defeat, the vampires backed off. Until recently, when vampires have encroached into Blackbridge…”
“You’re missing a large chunk of history, Milaya. Can’t blame you, you’re young.”
“I’m not that young…”
“You’re literally as old as the war, Maeve. When is the day of your birth?”
At the question, I realized my twentieth birthday was in just two weeks. Nikolai already knew I was nineteen, born during the war twenty years ago.
I’d always celebrated it with my mother, who’d made sure to make it special despite our financial constraints.
“The last day of the year,” I muttered, already calculating. I had to have my mother back before then.
He stroked my arm absentmindedly, his pale skin stark against even my own.
There are levels to this paleness—I observed.
His voice turned grave. “Queen Lyssa wasn’t just captured. Alpha Mordane tortured and experimented on her. With Graves’ help, they fashioned the amulet from her harvested blood. It gives him the powers of a crimson vampire in addition to his Lycan strength.”
My mind whirled. Although I wasn’t all that surprised—I’d always suspected something was off about that gold chain with its eerie amulet on his neck. I’d never seen him without it.
“And because it was made from her blood, it has her essence, and so the Crimson Stone recognizes it?”
“Exactly.” Nikolai growled. “That’s how Graves got access to her to harvest so much of her blood. Both have to be destroyed, or else the Crimson Stone will never permit another on the throne. Time is running out. Without a chosen ruler, Veilmoor will crumble in on itself.”
It all sounded so dire. Was that why Alpha Mordane wanted more of Queen Lyssa’s essence? Did he want more power?
My brows furrowed. “What if you destroy it, and the Crimson Stone still doesn’t choose Drusilla?”
“She’s the only female Crimson vampire alive. It’ll choose her. But in the event it does not, she carries her firstborn within her.”
“She has a mate?”
“No. She took another for the sake of the kingdom.”
I couldn’t wrap my head around it. What if she found her mate in the future? Would the male be forgiving of her choice?
“The sacrifices we make,” Nikolai muttered. His tone was accusing.
“Nikolai, I can’t purposely weaken the entire fortress for you. I can’t take that risk.”
He leaned up abruptly, fists flexing with frustration. “It would be for one single night. No more than I and a handful of my soldiers will handle it.”
“Will you kill him?”
He faced me, tone grave. “If I have to.”
“And you’re planning to kill Bastian too. I can’t. You’d be destroying one kingdom to save another!” My heart thudded in my chest.
He couldn’t expect me to make this choice!
“Can you not trust me in this?” His eyes were intent, boring into me with so much emotion.
“There has to be another way.” I breathed.
“The vampires are not the aggressors, Maeve. You’re wrong in your beliefs about the cause of the war.”
“Am I now? Will you really say anything to convince me to betray my pack?”
Nikolai traced to his feet, the suddenness startling me.
“You’re not even part of the pack. The mutt refuses to claim you, don’t you see? They’ll never accept you!”
“They already have! The only thing hindering my claiming is you!”
We were both breathing heavily, the tension sharp enough to cut. I couldn’t wrap my head around what he expected of me. It was just too much!
“Is that so then?” His gaze roiled with disappointment and pain. “I stand in the way of your happiness?”
I averted my gaze. “You know that’s not what I meant.”
He suddenly took my arms, drawing me up. His jaw bunched with tension, his body thrummed with heat.
“I suppose I should trace you back then. Leave you be. Clearly you don’t feel anything for me, and my affections hinder you.”
He tensed to trace.
“No!” I yelled as I wrenched out of his hold, staggering.
“You can’t eat your cake and have it, Maeve. End this now.”
“How can you say that?!” My throat burned, vision blurring with unshed tears. “I’m your bride, aren’t I? So why are you finding it so easy to send me away?”
His eyes flashed. “Because you’ve made a choice.”
“You have to see that this isn’t easy for me, Nikolai. I want to trust you, but you haven’t given me reason to. I can’t do this, I’d never forgive myself.”
He suddenly cupped my face, his forehead pressing into mine.
“I shouldn’t put this on you. I only asked because you’d offered to help. And I won’t force your hand, especially when it could endanger you…” he trailed off, voice husky.
My chest ached with quiet sobs. “What will you do now? You can’t find Graves, and you can’t get the amulet. What will she do to you?”
“Nothing I can’t handle.” He rasped. “Close your eyes, Milaya.”
Once I did, the ground fell away beneath me. I gasped and clutched his hands when I saw he traced us back to the greenhouse in IronWolf.
“Nikolai, if he leaves the fortress, I’ll inform you…”
“He never leaves, in order to be close to the one cage that can hold his beast. He can’t control it and grows more feral every day.”
He drew back, lips downturned as if making a painful decision. “Take care, Maeve.”
“No! Wait!” I lunged, but he’d already vanished.
Shaking, alone, I glanced around the empty structure. I hadn’t even gotten the chance to ask him to try and track my mother.
Bastian’s convoy of men had gotten caught up battling the ever-growing numbers of the feral vampires, and too much was at stake to sacrifice men on the hunt for a sole woman. They’d opted to secure District 1 as a whole. I could only hope Mother was safe.
I slapped a hand to my forehead. Was I so selfish? So callous?
I’d disappointed Nikolai and still I was focused on myself.
No wonder he’d left me. Was this a breakup? Definitely.
My wolf whined in my head. I couldn’t lose Nikolai, and I couldn’t be what he needed. Would it be so bad to plant a few runes in the fortress to support his cause?
I shook my head, my fingers skimming my lips. Everything was crashing down like a line of dominos, and somehow, I was right in the middle—too weak to stop it.
Before I could ponder more on the predicament, Bastian’s voice purred in my head through the link.
‘You’re not here. Haven’t I told you? I love a good hunt.’
My skin pebbled at the pure want in his voice. But I’d just been in close proximity with a vampire, with no time to bathe or slather on perfumed oils.
With a strangled cry, I turned and ran for the stream behind the fortress.
Get to the water before Bastian catches me, and unavoidably, the scent.
I burst out into the night, the moon a luminous, unforgiving witness.
Behind me, footfalls echoed.