Lothaire (Immortals After Dark #12)(127)

“How? I’ve conquered nothing, have waged no war on you.”

“The royal family has chosen you to be our ruler. Almost unanimously, only one holdout.”

“Why would you do this?” Lothaire demanded, coughing blood. “Why not take the throne yourself?”

“Here, Uncle Lothaire,” the female said, rushing forward with a jewel-encrusted chalice. “Drink this. It has healing herbs—”

Lothaire backhanded the cup against the wall, splattering scented blood. “Uncle?”

Stelian exhaled. “Technically, you are our cousin. But the younger Mirceo and Kosmina call us elder cousins ‘Uncle’ in quaint tradition.”

“Answer my question!”

Trehan said, “As Ivana the Bold died, she cursed her family to war

and backstab until you were made king, until we all vowed allegiance to you.”

“My mother was no witch.”

Stelian waved that away. “Perhaps she played on the intrigues already at work. This was before our time. In any case, six generations were wiped out by assassinations and civil wars. Finally we decided to investigate you, to see if you would make a good ruler.” He swigged, saying under his breath, “Before we all killed each other.”

The three standing males shot looks at Stelian. He merely shrugged. “Lothaire will find out all eventually.”

Viktor said, “We studied you, but decided you were too crazed to rule anything.”

At Lothaire’s scowl, Mirceo hastily explained, “You insisted on appearing at the outskirts of our kingdom, half-dressed, bellowing for someone to ‘f*cking fight you.’ ”

Kosmina gasped. “Language!”

Patting her hand, Mirceo continued, “And you also challenged Serghei, who’s been dead—”

“Dead!” My vengeance is no more?

Mirceo nodded. “For more than a millennium.”

All these years Lothaire had wasted, hell-bent on delivering retribution. To a male who no longer existed.

Trehan said in a measured tone, “Not to mention the fact that you looked as though you intended to consume that Horde leader in the forest. Yet then you settled in with your Bride, and you grew more lucid. We decided to vow allegiance to you and your queen.”

Lothaire tensed even more. So Elizabeth had been the key to his throne. Hag’s prediction had proved correct. Too bad Elizabeth had tried to lop off his head. “Where is”—that bitch—“she?”

He’d throw her in the dungeon of this castle, condemning her to yet another jail.

Blyad’! Why didn’t the thought give him pleasure?

Solely because she was his Bride?

He despised that fated tie to her! And now they were blood-bound as well.

But even with that union, Elizabeth had felt nothing for him—had been violently intent on getting away from him—while he’d lowered his guard. . . .

“After the attempt on your life,” Stelian said, “she was captured by a Valkyrie named Cara the Fair.”

So Carafina took my Bride. Elizabeth was within the walls of Val Hall. Those lightning fiends would terrorize her worse than he ever could. His female had wronged him, and now she would pay.

Lothaire wanted to laugh.

Yet his bitterness staggered under the weight of another feeling.

Loss. All I feel is . . . loss.

“And La Dorada?” he asked. “Did you have a run-in with her?”

“Her ring has been returned, your transaction completed,” Stelian said, adding against the rim of his flagon, “Gods help the poor souls in that book.”

Lothaire already mourned his ledger, his squandered fortune. He would start a new book! Perhaps he and Dorada could trade debts like baseball cards. . . .

Kosmina cleared her throat. When all eyes turned to her, her face turned bright red. “W-we fear Queen Elizavetta is behind the guard of the Ancient Scourge. Th-there’s no way to circumvent them.” The chit was socially inept, more backward than he’d ever believed Elizabeth to be.

“Your uncle knows a way around the Scourge,” Lothaire grated with disgust. “But I won’t be using it.”

Carafina thought to force him to reveal where her sister was? Everyone assumed he knew—simply because he’d been the one to sink her in the first place.

Perhaps I oughtn’t to have chosen a seabed with frequent seismic rifts and a strong current?

When he’d told others he had no idea where Furie was, he’d spoken the truth.

To this day, Lothaire couldn’t find the Valkyrie queen, despite Hag’s help. Even if he could, he would never ransom Elizabeth. “Ugly on the inside!” she’d screamed. “I could never love you!”

She truly hadn’t fallen for him.

For him.

Which indicated that she was an idiot. He had no time or patience for them.

Damn you, Elizabeth, why . . . ?

Stelian tsked. “Feelings stung because of one measly beheading?”

They knew she’d done this to him? I’ll kill them all—

“She left an eighth of an inch of tendon,” Stelian added. “Plenty for regeneration.”

Lothaire narrowed his gaze at him. “You’re the one who voted against restoring me.”

“That I am. Seemed wise then, and even more so now that you’ve lost your queen.”