Blood Oath (The Darkest Drae Book 1)(22)

There were different rules in this place.

This was not a game I knew how to play.

The king cleared his throat, and I looked at the fair man. He licked his lips as he closed the bottle. His gaze returned to me, and his eyes glinted with the first pieces of hardness I’d seen.

“You are to curtsey before your king, girl. Or did your rebel mother not teach you manners?”

His words were a trap, and I peered down, my gaze falling on the bloodied hem of my tunic. My mother was dead because of his orders. He didn’t kill her with his hands, but what he’d done was worse. The king had no idea who he’d killed with his instructions to his guards. I doubted he cared. The girl, Madeline, lay on the floor at my feet.

I curtsied. Low. And waited.

“Hmm. You may rise.” Turning in his seat to face his first, King Irdelron asked Lord Irrik, “Does she not speak?”

Lord Irrik stared through me to the back of the room. “Mostly nonsense, sire. She hasn’t been coherent in my dealings with her, limited though they’ve been.”

His voice was emotionless, but another glint ran through the king’s expression as though he heard something I did not in the Drae’s voice.

He leaned forward. “She’s truly worthless?”

“That is for you to judge, sire,” the Drae said in a disinterested voice. “I followed a woman from the rebel meetings to her house. When I questioned the girl’s mother, she pulled a knife.”

“Your mother was a rebel, girl?”

I kept my focus on the king, and my tongue twisted before I managed the words, “If she was, Your Majesty, she did not include me in her plans. I had no idea she was anything more than a mother until tonight.”

It was true.

The king’s gaze slid to Lord Irrik, who was still as a statue. “She’s pretty, don’t you think, my Drae? Is that why you lowered yourself to kiss the daughter of a rebel? Three times, according to reports from others in my guard? Once in her house, once on the street, and once at the gate to my castle?”

Three times? I felt violated.

“She was hysterical. She came into the room as I killed her mother and started screaming. Her screams irritated me.”

I gritted my teeth but remained silent as I processed what Lord Irrik had said. He killed my mother? No, she’d asked him to, to protect me. He’d refused, and she’d stabbed herself. But then he stepped on the blade to finish her off. The images flashed through my vision, twisting and distorting in my memory.

“Is that so?” the king mused. He tapped a finger on his jaw and propped his chin on an elbow to one side. He glanced toward the Drae again. “Have we apprehended any other rebels?”

“Three others. The rest have gone into hiding. I don’t believe the same strategy will work again. They are fast learners.”

What others?

The king’s face twisted, and the mask he’d kept in place until now slipped. “Peasants,” he sneered, turning his attention to me. “Trying to kill me and take my throne? Do they think I will ever let another take it, girl?”

I jerked, heart hammering. “No, King Irdelron.”

That was the truth as well. They knew he was a power hungry, selfish sod. If he’d kill his own children, it was no surprise he’d kill the peasants.

The king glanced over my head and raised both brows before setting his eyes on me once more. I heard twin sets of footsteps march up behind.

The Drae to the right of the throne twitched, nearly imperceptibly.

Cold realization settled heavily in my chest. The king wasn’t going to let me go. He was going to kill me. My eyes slid to Madeline’s corpse; she’d said there was only one way out of here, hadn’t she? The seconds stretched, and I contemplated my fate. I had accomplished nothing of significance in my life, and I didn’t want to die here.

I tensed as the footsteps halted beside me. If the king thought I wasn’t going to try to run he had another thing coming. I waited for the order that would seal my fate, muscles coiled to escape.

Lord Irrik spoke, “Perhaps it would be wise to question the girl. If she knows anything, she may be able to corroborate whatever the other three prisoners disclose. She’ll be easier to break than the others.”

I shifted my eyes to the Drae, furrowing my brow.

The king still watched me with his assessing gaze, and I hoped I hadn’t betrayed anything.

A slow smile twisted the king’s features. “Lord Irrik, what an excellent plan. You echo my own thoughts. Though I must ask, seeing as you’ve kissed her several times, is your lust for her going to interfere with the interrogation?”

Lust! What the hay?

King Irdelron leaned back in his gilded throne, and studied me over his steepled fingers.

The Drae’s face remained impassive. “I am bound by oath, sire. And I would never lust for a human.”

Irdelron laughed, a cruel barking sound. “Then you will be alone for eternity.” He raised his hand and waved me forward. “Jotun, take this wisp of a girl and find out what she knows. Feel free to show her your brand of hospitality, but don’t kill her. I want her alive—for now.” His eyes slid to Irrik, then back to the guard. “When you’re done, find suitable accommodations for such an esteemed guest.”

His words were all courtesy, which was enough to convince me I wouldn’t be getting hospitality whatsoever.