‘Aeros,’ Elijah interrupted. ‘The Tyrant Emperor.’

  20

  BETRAYAL

  ‘How lovely to finally make your proper acquaintance, Keira.’ The emperor leered. ‘It’s been rather tedious waiting for you two to return, I must say. Elnatan told me you had a soft spot for this body, but I suppose he was wrong.’

  Keira stared at the man whose mannerisms were all wrong for the body he inhabited, her pulse pounding in her ears.

  ‘W-why are you here? What have you done to August?’

  ‘August…’ Aeros dragged out the sound of the name as if tasting it on the tip of his tongue. His gaze took in the shape of his hand, his slender arms, and flickered to the window where August’s pale reflection stared back at him. Then he began to speak, as if reading August’s mind. ‘The boy went hunting, hoping to take down the mythical stag so he could secure his girl’s hand in marriage – how disappointed he’ll be to learn of your...divided interest.’ His eyes flickered mockingly between Keira and Elijah, and it punched Keira in the gut. August had gone out to find the stag. For her.

  ‘He could hardly believe his own eyes when he spotted it. So elated. So relieved. Little did he know he was the prey.’

  With the same amusement in his voice, the emperor went on to recount how he had shifted out of the stag’s hide, overpowered August, and then possessed his body before he could even notice.

  Keira’s insides ran cold. ‘I thought you were cursed to be a stag forever?’

  ‘The witch that cursed me made it so that upon Helena’s death, I’d be confined to a stag’s body until my hands were once again stained with the blood of the woman I loved. I was unable to change into another form. Unable to access my magic. Forever hunted. Irony, I believe, is what she was going for.’ He shrugged. ‘Considering a stag has no hands and Helena would already be dead. I guess she did not account for the bonds of family and how far one’s siblings are willing to go for you.’ His eyes flicked to Elijah, and he lowered his gaze.

  A crawling sensation of unease tickled at the back of Keira’s mind. ‘What is he talking about?’

  ‘He didn’t tell you? Well, that’s Elnatan and his secrets for you. Days ago, my dear estranged brother sought me out in the woods, carrying bloodied cotton, which he applied to my hooves. Swearing he would make up for his mistake. Swearing he would help me restore our family to its greatness. The blood belonged to Helena’s heir, liberating me from my curse. Allowing me to jump bodies.’

  Cold washed over her. Days ago…the cotton pads. She had seen Elijah pocketing them after cleansing her wounds from the day they went hunting. The day he startled the stag so that she missed her shot – the same night they’d had their first lesson…before he’d left the cottage.

  ‘Keira, it’s not—’ Elijah started, but she merely stared at him as the extent of his betrayal sank in.

  Had everything been just a ploy? To win her trust? For what, to free his brother? And last night…her skin grew cold and warm and uncomfortable.

  ‘Don’t lie to the girl, Elnatan,’ Aeros drawled. ‘It is rather pointless with all that is to come.’

  ‘You don’t need her. Let her go.’ Elijah’s voice was low and hoarse, tinged with the same emotion as when he’d berated her for going to Faerie on her own. Fear.

  With the emperor’s eyes flicking between them, Keira could feel her own fear rising, and it was all she could do to keep from trembling as Aeros rose and stalked towards her.

  ‘Oh, but you know that isn’t true, Elnatan. Only she can open the palace. Only her presence can reveal the place where our siblings are kept. Besides,’ he said, and reached for her. ‘She is my insurance policy. I want her by my side when I take back what’s mine.’

  ‘Don’t touch her!’ Elijah rushed forward, but the emperor merely threw his hand out and pinned him to the wall.

  ‘Elijah!’ Keira gasped, before the emperor’s sleek fingers clenched around her chin, examining her face. Her skin crawled at his proximity and the look in his eyes.

  ‘You look so much like her; no wonder my brother has taken a liking to you. He was always rather good at sleeping his way towards what he wanted. Be it with my wife, or the Spring Queen.’

  ‘I never slept with the Spring Queen,’ Elijah growled.

  ‘Semantics.’ The Tyrant Emperor shrugged. ‘He sold her his servitude in exchange for my annihilation. Whether it was a physical or metaphorical bed – you got in with her nevertheless, did you not?’

  Only subjects of the Queen may enter the ward, Keira thought, the words echoing in her mind.

  The Tyrant Emperor smirked. ‘Of course, she won’t like it when she discovers you played her.’

  Keira frowned.

  ‘Oh, he didn’t tell you?’ He glanced amusedly at Elijah shaking his head, pleading softly.

  ‘Elnatan was tasked to find you and bring you to Faerie. Instead, he brought me to you.’

  The chair flew at the library door and ricocheted in broken pieces across the floor.

  ‘Well, at least we’ll have firewood,’ Elijah murmured before he sighed in exasperation. ‘Keira…Keira!’

  Ignoring him, Keira rushed forward and threw herself at the door again. No sooner had they returned to the old ruins, before the emperor had locked them up in the palace library to keep them out of his way, sealing it shut with his magic. No matter how hard she pulled at the handle or pushed against the wood with her shoulder, it would not budge.

  ‘He can’t just leave us in here!’ she shouted, banging at the sturdy surface with her fist before she hissed, retracting her hand. This time having surely injured it.

  ‘Here, let me,’ Elijah murmured, taking her palm before she could protest, and healed the ache away. She did not thank him. Did not stop to think about the last time he had nursed a wound of hers. Instead, she avoided his gaze and rushed over to the window, debating whether she could make the jump. Clearly, she could not, what with the ground being at least two floors down.

  ‘Keira… It’s not like you think.’

  She felt him reach for her, but with every word, Keira retracted further into herself, rebuilding her walls.

  Too many secrets. Too many half-truths. Too many lies.

  Once again, she had chosen to be intimate with a man who’d led her behind the light. This one who’d nearly seduced her into giving him everything, and for what?

  ‘Instead, he brought me to you.’

  He’d just humoured her. Kept her on a string for his brother, or the Spring Queen – maybe even both. Having his bit of fun while he did it too.

  Her skin burned with the memory of how close they had come the night before. Of all that they had done.

  I came on his face even, she groaned internally, even as her body tingled at the memory.

  So stupid.

  She should have talked with him. She should have forced him to tell her everything the minute she learned who he truly was.

  But just like with August, she had been swayed by pretty words and empty promises. Avoiding the truth even though it was staring her in the face.

  August.

  The memory of their dinner resurfaced, and she recalled how his strange mannerism had put her off. How repulsed she had felt by him, even then, and how she had applied that to her feelings for him in general.

  But it had not been him. It had been the emperor seated before her, digging for details about the palace. About her. And on top of it all, her feelings had been influenced by Elijah.

  Her chest twinged, once again uncertain about her feelings for both him and August. Once again uncertain about what had been real and what had been pretend.

  All she knew was that August’s body had been possessed because of her. If she had merely accepted him when he first asked, he would not have gone out to secure the stag. The guilt of that knowledge was almost worse than the hurt from Elijah’s betrayal, and she promised herself she would do everything she could to see August safe. But Elijah?

  Perhaps jumping out of the window would hurt less.

  She wrapped her arms around herself, taking in the library. It was a beautiful space with bookshelves built into white walls, mosaic tiles, and a black spiral staircase leading down to the second floor with an empty pool, and she felt certain she would have enjoyed it despite various signs of decay had the situation been different. The entire way over here, her mind had been in pieces, reeling with the information that had come to pass and the fact that the Tyrant Emperor was before her, forcing her through the woods while using August’s body as leverage. Once or twice, she had considered screaming for the Woodland Witches, but there was no telling what the emperor would do if they heard and came to her aid.

  Once outside the ruins, the emperor had forced her to open the doors, their shoes clapping against cracked tile floor as they moved down the hall and up the majestic staircase leading to the second floor. A giant ballroom waited on the other side, with two-floor windows covering one of the walls, stretching from one end to the other. Immaculate frescoes of gods and demons painted the others, but it was all a blur as her gaze flicked about, pausing at a grand table set with fine dinnerware with gold and glass goblets as if the palace still expected to host a large party. As if it had been frozen in time, since the day the palace was sieged, and the Cardinal Seven were imprisoned.

  She had seen them then – the copper vessels that held them, placed on pedestals – just before the emperor locked her and Elijah up in the library.

  ‘Keira…’ Elijah’s fingers touched against her arm, bringing her back to the present, and she closed her eyes against the tingles that spread throughout her body. ‘Please, we need to ta⁠—’

  ‘No,’ Keira bit back, retracting her arm, before she spun on her heel and pushed past him. ‘We need to get out of here.’

  ‘We…can’t. His magic is too strong.’

  She narrowed her eyes at him. ‘Then use your magic and stop him before he attacks the village.’

  Elijah raised a brow. ‘Even if I could, we still need to talk.’

  ‘So, people are just going to get harmed while we chat?’

  He raised the other. ‘Why do you care about them anyway? Those people have been nothing but terrible to you.’

  ‘Yeah, well,’ she scoffed, ‘people can surprise you.’

  Catching her glare, his voice softened. ‘Keira, you have to listen to me, I didn’t⁠—’

  ‘No, I rather think I don’t!’ Keira snapped, beckoning to the door. ‘The Tyrant Emperor is out there – in August’s body – prepared to do gods-knows-what, and…’ she paused staring at him, chest aching. ‘And you helped him do it. You’ve been helping him this whole time.’

  ‘But I haven’t! That’s what I’m trying to tell you! Aeros is twisting the truth. He lies!’

  ‘And you don’t?’

  His forehead crinkled as bafflement filled his gaze. ‘When have I⁠—’

  ‘When you didn’t tell me who you were, Elijah! Or should I say Elnatan?’ she spat out. The effect was immediate.

  Elijah straightened, realisation dawning on his features that she knew what the name entailed – that she knew far more than the emperor had revealed – and the air thickened around them. Her heart pounded harder.

  ‘How long have you known?’

  ‘Gale told me,’ she whispered. ‘Before I went to Faerie. You played me for a fool.’ She hated how the hurt snuck into her voice. ‘You strung me along and went behind my back to lift the emperor’s curse. Why?’

  ‘I had my suspicions after you told me about the hunt and the mythical stag. I needed to know for myself whether it could be true. If it was, I could not risk anyone killing him…not before I’d made things right. But I never played you for anything, Keira.’

  To that, Keira laughed bitterly. ‘No? What about the images you’ve been putting into my head?’

  ‘Images?’

  ‘Yes, of me and you doing…things! Before the hearth, outside. In the bath!’

  ‘In the bath?’ he crooned with a bit of a chuckle, looking from her to the stairs. Eyes twinkling. ‘Do tell me more.’

  She scowled at him. ‘Don’t play coy. You messed with my mind. You made me feel things I otherwise wouldn’t. You toyed with me!’ She pushed past him, but Elijah grabbed her and forced her to face him, this time entirely serious.

  ‘Keira, I didn’t⁠—’

  ‘You lie!’ She cried, tears pebbling in her eyes. ‘You’ve bewitched me so that I would want you instead of August.’

  ‘Me?’ Elijah scoffed, surprise marring his expression as he let her go. ‘It is you who’s bewitched me. It is I who can’t stop thinking of you. Desiring you. Contemplating all the ways I want to be with you, repeatedly. Yes, I saved my brother, but that was before I fell in love with you!’

  She stood still, gaping at him, as if rooted to the spot. ‘You’re not serious⁠—’

  ‘No?’ His expression heated and darkened. ‘I was in agony when you went to meet with August. If anything, it is you that has been toying with me.’ He stood so close now. So close, that it was just him and her and the impenetrable air of heat around them. ‘I’m here, ready and willing to be yours, and you refuse to see it.’

  ‘Prove it,’ she snarled.

  He grabbed her chin and pushed her back up against the bookshelves, barely giving her the chance to yelp before his mouth was upon hers.

  His kiss was more brutal than anything he had done before.

  Starved. Feasting. Devouring. Angrily bruising her lips in all the best ways. Conveying with every crush of his mouth, with every swipe of his tongue, what she had known in her heart before she learned who he was; that he wanted her, as much as she wanted him.

  It broke her further, because she knew she couldn’t trust it. Knew it wasn’t enough.

  ‘I wanted to give you the benefit of the doubt,’ she whispered, voice thin against his lips as they came apart, ‘but you’ve been manipulating me the whole time.’ She had to believe it. For once, she had to believe it. She couldn’t be the fool falling for the sweet words of men over and over again.

  Elijah growled against her mouth, grip tight on her chin. ‘I’ve never done anything to you beyond helping you free yourself.’

  She sneered. ‘Is that what you call it? August wanted to marry me! I was prepared to let him go because, for some reason, I could not stop thinking about you. Now I know what that reason was. A mere spell of a djinn.’

  Elijah paused and opened his mouth but closed it again and shook his head instead. It annoyed her further. Particularly when he stepped away from her.

  ‘My future could have been secured, if it hadn’t been for you! I’d be back at Thornfell again; I’d have a family – it would be like the past never happened!’

  ‘He doesn’t even deserve you!’ Elijah roared, turning back around on her. ‘He took advantage of you and then left you in the gutter. That’s what he did.’

  ‘He told me he regrets it. He told me he loved me!’ Saints, she hated how desperate her voice sounded. Desperate to believe her own words. Desperate not to let Elijah burrow himself deeper into her heart.

  ‘He is a man! Human men will tell you anything you want to hear if they know it’ll allow them to wet their stick.’

  She glared at him.

  ‘And he would continue to do so if you were to marry him, but he would never be loyal to you. Never value you,’ Elijah rattled on, erratically pacing the floor while trying and failing at calming himself. ‘He’d never worship you. Not in the way you deserve.’

  ‘As if you would,’ she snarled under her breath, her voice vibrating with her suppressed rage and need. Need, because no matter how mad she was with him, his words did settle into her heart. Stroking that yearning within her in a way that only he could.

  She gasped, feeling the floor disappear under her feet as Elijah hoisted her onto an abandoned desk, placing himself between her legs as books toppled over the edge.

  ‘Let me take you to church and find out,’ he growled. ‘I dare you.’

  She inhaled sharply, feeling her pulse thundering through her body, pounding in her core. It was there, in his eyes, a promise. A promise that if she said the word, if she asked for it, he would give her the kind of pleasure that would have her screaming his name.

  This was different than before, more than a lesson; something that would take her beyond the edge and into a gaping pit of decadent darkness.

  Heat pooled between her legs, warring with the wrath already chasing through her body. She wanted to lash out at him. To make him hurt the same way she was hurting, and to make him spill his secrets. She also wanted him. Terribly. Achingly.

  Despite the emperor and everything else she wanted to trust him. Yet, she knew that he would only hurt her further. Would only leave once he’d had what he wanted, like August had done.

  She just needed to prove it to herself once and for all.

  A sort of chilling calm blanketed over her as she realised what she needed to do, complete with a charged thrill of anticipation skittering down her back, along her arms, and into the very tips of her fingers. If men wanted to use her, so be it. But she would return the favour if that’s what it took to get the truth.

  No sooner had she thought it than her fingers curled against the edge of the desk, nails digging into the wood like claws. Her eyes narrowed and she moulded her lips into a sneer. ‘You lie,’ she crooned.

  ‘What?’

  ‘You’ve had your chance for weeks. Instead, you’ve been preparing me for someone else.’

  Disbelief marred his face. ‘Unbelievable.’ He laughed under his breath and stepped away, but the sound was void of humour.

  ‘What’s unbelievable is that you never manned up to claim me for yourself. What did you do when you watched me pleasure myself? Did you picture me with August?’

  Colour drained from his face.

  ‘Did you picture our sweaty, heaving bodies writhing against one another?’