Page 100 of To Bleed A Kingdom

Lena’s expression is hardened to stone as she watches him, seeming unfazed by what he may reveal about her. Only her trembling, vambraced fists betray her fear.

My instinct to protect Lena wars with my need to know who she is as I debate whether to end him now or search for more answers about her. But when I remember asking her time and time again about herself and her refusing me at every turn, my need to know her truth wins out.

“Who’s searching for her?”

“The King, of course.”

“Brecca has no king,” I snarl. “All their royals died during the Battle of Brecca.”

“Yet, you live,”he says with a sinister smirk, and I grind my teeth at the reminder of who my sire is.“Word of advice, Captain: you should enjoy her while you still can. Because when he comes for her – and he will come for her – she'll be chained to his bed for all eternity.”

Without thinking, my arm snaps out, slamming into his face and crunching bones beneath my fist. “He won't touch her!” I roar, spittle flying into his face.

He bares his teeth with a bloody smile. “So naive to think you can win against the Goddess of Death’s most favored.”

“What does he want with her?” I snarl, feeling a knot of foreboding burrowing into me as I watch Lena toy with the straps of her vambraces before dropping her hands to her sides with an expression of reluctant acceptance.

His eyes widen, frenzied with excitement, and he appears even more deranged with the flames reflecting off the glassy sheen. “She is the key to him ruling all of Vanyimar. And when he finds out you’ve been keeping her from him, you and your mother and your siblings and your whole fucking kingdom will burn.”

“Who is she?”

He lifts his head off the ground and whispers, “Your damnation.”

At the thought of this so-called king forcing Lena into his bed to be raped and abused, a slave to his perversions, a blinding, white-hot rage consumes me, slicing into me with a blistering heatalong with a wild, instinctual need to protect Lena above all else.

I slam both palms down onto the traitor’s chest, relishing in the sounds of his screams and cries as I release a torrent of fire that sweeps over him, melting his skin and bones until he's nothing but ash.

“You shouldn't have done that,” Griffin chides.

“I know.” Standing from my crouch, I follow Lena’s every step as she slips through the crowd.

“We could've interrogated him.”

“Yes.”

“We can't get anything from him now, can we?” Ajax says, waving away smoke as he moves to stand on the other side of Kace. “Do you think what he said was true? About Lena?”

“He sounded mad,” Griffin adds from beside me.

“He did,'' I reply, watching Lena jerk a nod to Amara and Zander as she passes them by, ascending the porch steps to the seer’s shop, Fortunes and Truths.

“But he still may be right about her,” Kace says, rubbing his jaw. “Do you want me to bring her in?”

“She won't talk,”Griffin answers for me, watching Lena as closely as I am.

“Do you want her followed?”

I shake my head. “She’ll notice, then she’ll shut me out completely. I need her to tell me what she knows willingly.”

“She won't.” Griffin folds his arms over his chest. “She doesn't trust us.”

Lena places her hand on the iron handle of the shop’s door and pauses. Turning her head to the side, she meets my gaze across the courtyard. Her amethyst eyes are unflinching as mine drill into hers, meeting my challenge with one of her own until she opens the door and vanishes inside.

“Then I'll have to find a way for her to trust me.”

Chapter 20

Lena

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