Page 122 of Crown of Chaos

“Thanks.” I gave her a slight smile before clearing my throat. “We need to put distance between us and this place and find somewhere that neither Aurora nor Hecate can scry for.”

“I vote we all move back to the library. If what Knox told you is true and he sent his army to protect us from Aurora, then I’m inclined to believe he wouldn’t hurt the children,” Siobhan said, likely remembering how children were treated in his camp and how Knox and his men reacted when Hecate used them against us.

“You’re sure that he won’t harm them?” Avyanna questioned, her hand pausing where she’d been sharpening her horns.

“Knox gave the order that no children were to be harmed,” I assured her. They had gotten attached to our wards, and I understood the hesitancy to trust their lives with someone they couldn’t be sure of. Only, I was sure that no harm would come to them from Knox. “I fear that something will happen if we leave you. The protection barriers only last for so long, and I don’t know how long we’ll be gone. I can’t deal with what needs to be done without knowing you are safe while I do so.”

“You opened a portal between here and the library. We can easily enter it if anything happens while you’re gone,” Soraya pointed out, frowning as one child began fussing in her sleep.

Avyanna set down the pummel stone to offer the small girl comfort. My heart wrenched, knowing that the child had endured utter hell in her brief life. Another child whined, and Avy shifted so she could rub circles between her shoulder blades.

“They would be safe with him. It would allow you guys to focus on finding a place that is more permanent for us to settle down once Esme and I get back.”

“We can’t just leave them, Aria. They need us,” Siobhan stated, her nose lowering to the sleeping babe in her arms.

“I also can’t promise that Knox won’t reach you, or that you’d be safe with him,” I pointed out, rubbing my hands down my face with exhaustion.

The night with Knox had been magical, but it had allowed little sleep. Not that I was complaining because I’d satiated the hunger of my heat cycle on his magnificent cock, but I was exhausted. I bristled, groaning as Esme laughed.

“You keep making those noises, and my beast is going to get jealous that you got off and she got my hand,” Esme scoffed with a groan of her own.

“I can’t even be sorry about it. That man is like a drug, and I am the proverbial addict who craves a fix. I enjoy the rush and chase that comes from it,” I admitted, watching Esme’s shoulders moving with her laughter. “What? It’s the truth. He left no inch of me untouched, and the man is a beast when he claims.”

They laughed, which caused heat to flood my cheeks. It was nice having friends who didn’t judge me or expect anything from me. They laughed at me, sure. They also laughed with me and were happy that I’d been happy if even for a moment.

“Do you think Aurora hid your other sisters in the tomb?” Soraya asked, her eyes slanting as she watched me.

“I don’t know,” I replied, hating my uncertainty about what Sabine and Kinny had said.

I didn’t trust them, and that was the sad reality of it. I’d thought I knew them, but they’d known that my whole life had been built on a lie, and not one of them had thought to tell me. They’d destroyed any trust I had in them the moment not a single one of them denied knowing the truth.

Sabine had basically raised me under the guidance of Aurora, who was my mother. Most had stood there, allowing me to endure sessions of torture meant to weaken me to the point of death.

Sure, they weren’t strong enough to protect me as I’d needed to be. I could forgive them that, but when they had grown up, and still had done nothing? What about then? If they really cared for me as they claimed, well, they should have at least tried to help me.

Aurora had tried to drain the doppelgänger I’d created, and I’d watched as they’d moved to help her. Kinvara had been the only one to hesitate because I was one of them. The others had jumped the moment Aurora had demanded they do so.

No, I couldn’t trust them.

“It doesn’t matter where they are,” I reaffirmed, hating the guilt that washed through me with the words leaving my tongue. “They made a choice, and it’s one they’ll have to live with now. I can’t trust them, and I am not chancing them betraying me again. Too much rides on us not screwing up right now.”

“That can’t be a simple choice to make,” Soraya muttered with pain dancing in her stare.

Soraya’s sister had been lost. And while I understood her pain, it was something she had to sort out and learn to live with. It was something all of us were adjusting to and learning to cope with. Grief was something that either swallowed you or became your armor. Soraya had been through hell, and trusting people didn’t come easily. But she was learning to trust that I wasn’t like my bloodline and that my intentions were pure. Her armor was there, just waiting for her to pull it on.

“No, but I know it is the right one,” I replied after a moment. Exhaling a shaky breath, I peered at the children who were slowly waking. “I don’t know what to do.”

“About your family?” Soraya asked before her attention moved toward the children. “Do you think King Karnavious will kill us?”

My lips twisted before I pushed them to the side, considering her words. “No, I don’t. I think he’ll want to punish you for the betrayal, but I don’t think he’ll murder you. Murdering you guys would hurt me, and he claims to want to avoid that at all costs.”

“How much longer will the barrier hold up in the library?” Siobhan asked.

“I honestly don’t know. I thought we would have a year, but it’s weakening faster than it should,” I admitted.

The barrier getting thin was why I’d had us leave it last time, but that was when I still thought Knox had sided with Aurora. I would have to trust Knox to do the right thing. I didn’t think he’d hurt them. He would not allow Siobhan and Soraya to walk away from betraying him unscathed, not as the high king of the Nine Realms. He couldn’t. It would be considered a weakness or a kindness toward his enemies.

“There’s another option,” Avyanna said. “It was my home, and a once glorious place. The demon queen came one night and demanded the lord repay the price of demons slain on his lands. The lord refused, claiming the demons he slaughtered were in the wrong, and had broken the peace between realms by taking women from our kingdom into theirs. The demons slaughtered were ones returning to capture more women, but the lord was ready when they came back. It was done justly, but the demon queen stated otherwise. His refusal to pay for the lost lives was seen as an act of war, which she wouldn’t allow to go unpunished. After the fighting broke out, everyone fled. That was how I’d ended up engaged to the lord, who paid my parents a sizable bride price for me. Many people who fled did insane things to protect their young.”

---