When she gets to her feet again, Luca is standing in front of her. ‘Look at me,’ he demands, his words spoken with an eerie icy calm.
She lifts her eyes. They remind me of a terrified filly’s and my stomach clenches.
‘Explain yourself.’
Mela takes a deep breath and straightens her shoulders. ‘I just wanted to show my lady the city.’
‘At night? After curfew?’
‘I see now that it was foolish.’
‘Did you take anyone with you for protection?’
She freezes, flicking a micro-glance at me that says she’s damned either way. ‘No, my lord. No one.’
She chooses to protect her friends. It’s going to be difficult to continue the lie. Luca might not be a Soul Reader, but he has ways of just knowing things.
‘Then why were four sets of horse tracks found at the western district perimeter?’
Damn.
‘Oh. I apologise, my lord. I ah … arranged for two soldiers to accompany us and watch over Ebony –’
‘It’s “Ebony” now?’
‘I asked her to call me that,’ I tell him, worried where this is heading.
He gives me a potent look to butt out. But that’s not going to happen. ‘Whatever you think she’s done, Mela is my handmaiden, my staff member. Tell me what rule she’s broken and I will deal with her.’
‘Not a chance, Princess. You will stay out of this one.’
‘No, I won’t.’
His eyes flash to all black. It’s only for a second, but I get a blinding sting in my head as if he’s slapped my unsheathed brain with an open palm. My head flops to the side and I blink hard several times to readjust my senses.
Luca shouts a string of commands. The two guards from outside run in and stand one on each side of Mela, while the other two close in around me. I give them each a hard stare and they take a step back.
Meanwhile, Luca has grabbed Mela’s chin and is forcing her to look up into his face. ‘I want their names, Mela.’
She glances at me with remorse and sorrow. Luca notices and kicks her legs out from under her. Knowing I’m going to retaliate, he turns and punches words into my head: Stay out of this, Princess.
I will, if you stop hurting her.
She broke my direct command. I cannot release her without punishment. Understand now?
Depends on the punishment.
His eyes narrow and linger on me a moment longer before he returns his attention to Mela. ‘Their names. Now.’ He leans over her and yells into her face, ‘Give me their names!’
I’ve seen Luca in a rage before, and I can tell he’s just about there now. It’s like watching a storm build, one that you know has the capacity to wipe your house and all your belongings away.
‘But, sire, they’re innocent of any wrongdoing,’ she says. ‘I gave them minimum information. They didn’t even know whom they were protecting.’
‘This will not go well for you if you continue to lie.’
Slap!
His hand shoots out flames as it connects to Mela’s face. Sparks in the air slowly disintegrate while Mela’s body pitches to one side, falling into the arms of a guard, who pats out the fire that catches in her hair, setting her on to her feet with more care than I would expect from one of Luca’s soldiers.
‘Let me explain,’ I say through clenched teeth.
Luca turns and raises his eyebrows. ‘Not until Mela gives me their names.’
Reluctantly she gives Luca two names. ‘May I go now, my lord?’
He looks down his nose at her. ‘Why should I release you?’
‘I gave you the names, and now I would like to run my lady a bath.’ She touches her cheek gingerly, wiping at the blood trickling from the corner of her mouth.
‘You disobeyed my orders. You brought strangers into contact with Skade’s future queen. You broke my trust, Mela. That’s unforgiveable.’
Her frantic eyes flick at me before she pleads, ‘Sire, you can still trust me. I’ll prove it. Set me a test. Tell me what to do. Please, my lord, just give me another chance.’
‘Stop grovelling. It’s disgusting. Without trust, you’re worthless to me.’
‘I’ll earn it back. I’ll do anything. Please, sire.’
This is terrible. I have to think of something.
Luca motions to the soldiers at her side to take her out, but she drops to her knees, ‘Sire, please don’t throw me into the streets.’
‘You’re not leaving the palace,’ he says. ‘With all your knowledge, that would be foolish. You would go straight to my enemies. No, Mela, you will stay where my soldiers can keep their eyes on you until you serve out your sentence.’
She sighs with relief as if she had been thinking he was going to kill her.
‘Luca, before you decide on Mela’s punishment, you need to know that all she was trying to do tonight was change my attitude about wanting to escape. Mela’s intention was to show me that as queen I could be good for the Skadean people.’
Surprise registers as he searches first my face, then Mela’s. ‘Was this your intention, Mela?’
‘Yes, my lord.’
‘Why didn’t you come to me first with your idea, instead of slinking off in the middle of the night like a rebel? I could have given you protection befitting a royal party.’
‘I thought it best to take my lady out in a manner that did not draw attention to her status. My lord, people act differently around royals, and Princess Ebony has a kind heart. I thought if she could just see a future for herself here, she might adjust more quickly.’
Luca rubs his chin. I hope he’s changing his mind about punishing Mela. I recall how he tortured and killed his Prodigy Sarakiel when he felt no option but to act ‘on principal’.
‘Mela,’ he says, ‘whether your intentions were for Skade’s betterment or to serve your own agenda, you broke my trust tonight and for that you must still be punished.’
‘Luca!’
Princess, what would you have me do with her?
Is he really asking me to choose Mela’s punishment? I think quickly before he changes his mind. Clearly he’s going to make an example out of her. He raises his eyebrows at me. I’m running out of time to come up with some kind of punishment, something that will keep her inside the palace, or Luca will dismiss it outright. The kitchens! I link back. He tilts his head with a look that says he might consider that a viable option.
His eyes go to his guards. He must be mind-linking with them as everything happens quickly then. The guards around Mela return to their post outside, while the other pair secures Mela’s hands behind her back.
‘Hey, what’s going on?’
He groans, flashing me an impatient look before announcing, ‘Melanie Blake, handmaiden to Princess Ebony, future Queen of Skade, you are hereby sentenced to sixty hours’ kitchen duties, to be served until completed in twenty-hour shifts.’ He nods at the soldiers. ‘Take the prisoner to Dathien with instructions to chain her to her bed when she sleeps.’
‘Is that necessary?’
He says casually, ‘I am accommodating your wishes, Princess.’
‘But I didn’t say anything about chaining Mela to a bed.’
‘No, that part was all me.’
‘She’s my servant, and I say she doesn’t require chains.’
There’s an electric pause where the two guards hesitate, looking as if they’re not sure whose orders to follow.
‘What are you waiting for?’ Luca snaps at them. ‘Take the maid to Dathien now.’
They leave immediately.
As the other guards hold open the doors, Luca snatches my hand and starts marching me out. ‘Am I going to the kitchens too?’
He gives me a withering look, turning left, the opposite direction to Mela. ‘You can’t stay in your apartment on your own.’
‘Ah, hate to spoil this for you, but I’ve been sleeping in my own room without consequences for nearly seventeen years.’
‘No
t here, you haven’t.’
A few strides down the corridor I stop and refuse to take one more step. Lately I’ve been able to reduce the red haze that blurs my vision when I get angry. I’m seeing it now, so I spend a moment bringing it under control.
He glares at me, crossing his arms over his chest.
‘Why can’t I stay in my room until Mela returns? It’s only for three days, and you have guards outside my door.’
‘Look what happened tonight, Ebony. The guards didn’t even notice there were pillows in your bed until I showed them.’
‘You?’
‘Yes.’
‘OK, then double the guard. Triple it. I don’t care; just let me stay in my rooms.’
‘Your rooms are being examined for secret passageways. Anything else?’
I glance down the corridor to the first of the vacant guest suites. ‘I could stay in one of those. You said yourself they’re always empty.’
‘My forensic specialists are checking every room in the castle. By sunrise they will destroy all internal tunnels. There is only one apartment I can be sure has no secrets, and that’s where I’m taking you now.’
My spine prickles. He’s talking about his own apartment.
‘Will you come willingly, or must I drag you screaming?’
I glance at the two Throne guards following us, their faces as rigid as cement rods. Do I have a choice? If I use my power, what will happen? There are soldiers outside Luca’s apartment, at the top and bottom of the stairs, at the lift doors on every floor. What am I thinking? There are soldiers everywhere. ‘This is only until Mela serves her sixty hours, right? Then I get my room back?’
‘If you still want to return to your apartment when Mela completes her punishment, I will not stop you.’
If I still want to? What’s with that? Of course I’ll want to.
He hooks his arm through mine and we start moving again.
‘You can trust Mela, you know.’
‘She kept a secret from me. And if she’s kept one, how do I know she’s not keeping more? She needs to know what risks she runs when she attempts to hide something from her king.’
I look ahead and, seeing the doors to his apartment, the two soldiers guarding the entrance, the reality of where he’s taking me hits and my legs grow heavier with each step.
‘What’s wrong, Princess? Are you unwell?’ He leans around me. ‘You’ve gone pale. Are you in need of a healer?’
‘No. I’m just tired.’
‘I’m not surprised, since you were gallivanting through the streets of Odisha for most of the night,’ he says, scooping me up into his arms.
‘How did you find out?’
‘I’d been judging souls for hours and wanted a moment alone. I stepped out on to the balcony and saw an angel running down Empress Lane with flames leaping around her head. I thought I was seeing a vision until I realised the angel was you and the flames your hair. I went straight to your room and found the pillows.’
Two Throne soldiers standing guard in full military uniform hold open Luca’s apartment doors as he walks in, carrying me. The doors close behind us, and he sets me down gently on my feet in a living room of massive proportions.
He disappears for a moment, returning with a glass of water. ‘Here, drink this.’
I take the glass under the heavy gaze of his watchful eyes and drink it down. I didn’t realise I was so thirsty. I would thank him if anything about this ‘relationship’ were normal. It’s not. The fact that he can inflict pain on me through his mind, hurting me in places no one can see, puts whatever this is into a category of its own.
When he takes back the empty glass, I look around at an apartment that could be the penthouse suite in a high-end hotel in Sydney’s Northern Suburbs or New York’s East Side. Modern, elegant, spacious, with sleek leather furniture, highly polished timber floors, a fireplace set in glass across an entire wall. As if this weren’t stunning enough, the window is a wall of glass with views across the city. The courtyard, directly below, is lit up like a fairy tale garden, while to the south-east are mountains dotted with the lights of the communities who live up there.
Luca returns and lifts me into his arms again.
‘Hey, I can walk now.’
‘You’re exhausted. I don’t mind. You weigh practically nothing.’
‘I suppose it hasn’t occurred to you that I mind.’
He pauses and glances down at me, frowning, but doesn’t say anything. He walks through another spacious room, then a dining room with a smoky glass table and a sparsely furnished sitting room with artworks like you’d find in a museum.
He answers my question before I pose it. ‘There are twenty-two rooms. You’ll soon find your way around.’
‘Since I’m here only a few days, I’m sure I’ll manage.’
‘Yes, I’m sure you will.’ He gives me a look that makes my stomach clench.
He stops outside a set of double doors for a moment as if to catch his breath, or brace himself, the thought occurs. Turning the gold handle on the left door, he walks through to what is clearly his bedroom, where he sets me down on my feet and steps away to watch my reaction as I take it in.
It’s large enough to be an apartment on its own, with a bed sitting up on a sweeping curved platform of two wide steps. A wall of glass in the same shapely curve as the platform gives another view of the city and mountains. The room is stylish, ultra-modern with cream walls, cinnamon and coffee furnishings and a dark-red quilt covering the huge bed.
‘Breathe,’ he says softly into my ear.
I swallow to bring moisture to my suddenly arid mouth. And why wouldn’t I be nervous? I’m standing in Prince Luca’s bedroom, for pity’s sake. Maybe Luca is right; maybe I am exhausted, because I’m beginning to think that if Nathaneal could find a way to break the hundred-year seal, he would have by now.
I’m beginning to think he won’t be coming after all. That maybe he can’t.
Luca draws in a deep breath through flaring nostrils as he looks down at me. I don’t need to inhale to smell him; his scent is all over the room, a heady mix of the finest vanilla, pine and sandalwood, with the freshness of a forest and the unpredictability of a wild ocean.
I stare back up at him. ‘I’m sixteen. You can’t do this. There are rules.’
He doesn’t answer.
It infuriates me. ‘When you’re not looking, I’ll use my powers and destroy your whole palace. I can. You know it. You saw what I did in the tunnel.’
He cackles. ‘Go ahead, Princess. Your temper in full flight would be very entertaining to watch.’
His lowered voice sends chills down my spine. ‘Ebony, you don’t know how to control your power yet. Using enough force to destroy this palace would destroy you at the same time.’
‘That’s not true.’
He shrugs. ‘At the very least it would weaken you, and in your exhausted state …’ he lifts his open palms in the air, ‘who will be there to stop me from taking advantage of you, stop me from sweeping you away to one of my many homes?’ He raises an eyebrow and gives a crooked smile. ‘Now that would be fun.’
‘Don’t laugh. You don’t know what I’m capable of.’
He becomes serious. ‘If you destroy the palace, you will kill Mela. She’s not a soul, you know.’
‘I figured that out for myself.’ And he’s right; I wouldn’t want to hurt her for anything. Clearly Luca already knows this.
He smiles, but this time there’s no sarcasm. ‘It doesn’t have to be this way.’ He’s almost tolerable like this, without the hard edges and snide remarks. ‘Go to sleep, Ebony. You’re extremely tired.’ He tucks a lock of my hair behind my ear.
His tender voice and the light burning touch of his knuckles on my face blindside me. He pulls the quilt and satin sheets down. My heart skitters in mad panic. No. Please, no, I don’t have the strength to fight him yet.
I watch as he walks to the other side of the room, kicks off his boots, and flops
into a deeply cushioned armchair I didn’t even notice was there. Pulling his feet on to an ottoman, he sinks down into it, crossing his feet at the ankles. ‘Go to sleep,’ he orders, ‘before I change my mind.’
I slink down under the sheets, clothes and all, shut my eyes and try with all my might to fall asleep.
22
Jordan
A car is driving out of Amber’s place as I drive in, a bronze late-model Subaru four-wheel-drive. It takes half a click to realise who it is. ‘Bullshit!’
I pull up out front and run up the porch steps. Amber opens the door on my first knock and jerks backwards when she sees me, her eyes scooting to the road and back. ‘What are you doing here?’
‘What am I doing here? How about, what was Adam Skinner doing here?’
She folds her arms over her chest. ‘You don’t get to tell me who I can or can’t hang out with.’
‘So you are seeing him?’
‘I didn’t say that. What’s it to you anyway?’
‘He’s bad news, Amber, and you know it.’
‘What I know is that you judge Adam too harshly.’
‘No way, you can’t be falling for him.’
‘I can, if I want to.’
I don’t have time for games, so I try to simmer down fast. ‘Amber, listen to me. We haven’t been getting along so much lately, and I get that I’m the last person you wanna take advice from, but I know Skinner. I knew him when we were kids and best friends. I was there when his little brother drowned because of our stupidity, and because Adam couldn’t handle his guilt at not being able to protect Seth, he turned on me. I understood his grief. I’d lost my mother to a drug overdose only two years earlier, so I let him go for it. I never fought back. But since the angels came, something’s happened to him. He’s involved in some real dark, dangerous stuff.’
‘Go on.’ At least she’s listening.
‘An angel got to him. I don’t know how, or when, or who, though I suspect in the hierarchy of dark angels this one’s somewhere near the top. This angel played on Adam’s weakness, gave him powers in exchange for working for him, and now Adam is in over his head.’
She flutters her lashes as if she’s flicking tears, and I panic at the thought that her emotions are for Skinner and I’m losing her. ‘You gotta listen to me, Amber. You can’t let Skinner in. If he’s showing interest in you, you can bet your life he has an ulterior motive. It won’t be because he thinks you’re beautiful and smart and sexy with that hair and those eyes and …’ I take a breath before I chop my rambling tongue off with my pocket knife. ‘It’s because he wants something from you, or …’ he wants something from me, I finish saying silently.