Page 4 of Light Up the Night

“Messiah getting the dingy ready?” I asked, pouring us both a glass of wine.

“No, he said he’d be back with his brother.” Keif shrugged.

“What?” I rushed for the door and threw it open. Sure enough, the dingy was already on its way. “Damn it!”

Keif opened and shut his mouth a few times. It was painfully obvious that he was uncomfortable and still a bit uncertain about things between us. It made me seethe. I should have spent time with him before we left Rochambeau. I owed him that much, at least.

“Sorry,” I mumbled, giving his arm a squeeze. “Have a glass of wine with me?”

He sighed through his nose, long and slow before committing to a nod. I hadn’t waited for it; I was already returning with the glass before his chin stopped tipping.

“You know I adore you, right?” I asked, crooking his pinky with mine. I led him to the sofa but got the impression he was hesitant. Guilt flipped my stomach and almost soured my smile.

“Really? You forgive me for embarrassing you?” he sheepishly asked, sinking onto the cushion next to me. “I don’t know how I let myself get so…” His face flushed, and he held his palms out.

“Dependent,” I finished for him and immediately sought out my wine.

“Yeah,” he whispered, hanging his head. “I don’t deserve a Queen. I’m just a—”

I placed my fingers over his lips. Unsure of what to say, I simply leaned in and brushed my lips against his. It made me feel lower than low. I might as well have been Isabella herself, but I still looked into his eyes and found a tone that was forgiving. “Let us never speak of it again.”

We lay, cuddling on the sofa for some time, before Messiah casually entered the room. Behind him, his twin Pariah stood in the doorway. They looked nothing alike. Pariah boasted his dreadlocks in a high gathering that left them draping down around the honorary scars that lined his stern face.

“Please, come in.” I smiled.

I thought perhaps he didn’t speak the common tongue, because he stood rigid and stared at me like he could see through me. His pupils were huge, and his eyes glistened.

“Thank you.” His head tipped and he smiled like we had just shared a joke meant only for the two of us. It unnerved me. I was used to aggression in its most primal forms… I wasn’t sure what this was. “My brother tells me that you wish to war with the Savage Beauty.”

It wasn’t a question, and he wasn’t exactly speaking to me. His attention was already returned to Messiah.

“I will have what’s mine returned. If I have to war for him, so be it,” I snapped, standing up from the sofa.

I didn’t like the way his gaze lowered to me, nor did I like that fucking smirk of his.

“Tell her,” Messiah encouraged in that smooth sexy voice of his. His brother shot him a side look and another smirk before tipping his head in agreement.

“Azaria of the Savageland only has one weakness. It’s her men.” He shrugged with one shoulder and shook his head like he was perplexed by it. “She has a child, but…”

“No.” Messiah shut him down quick. “We do not wage war with children. No innocents.”

I’d never been faced with such decisions, but it wasn’t something that required a great deal of consideration. The thought of using children as pawns in adult games was not something I wished to be known for, so I nodded in agreement and folded my arms over my chest.

“So, what… she took one of mine, now I’m supposed to take one of hers? I don’t want her fucking king, I want my king.”

His crude laughter was worse than his cocky smile. “No, you will take one of her kings and use him as hostage to get your own back.”

“And just how, pray tell, am I supposed to do that? It isn’t like I can waltz up to her palace and beg his audience.”

“You take him,” Keifer interjected.

“Indeed. Pariah knows a way through the Forest Wilds,” Messiah carefully explained. “It will take us to one of her palaces. A back entrance, so to speak.”

I studied the three of them, suddenly questioning just how much wine I had drank.

Through the Forest Wilds.

These jokers were telling me that a whole other world existed beyond the Forest Wilds and no one knew of it?

“Raise the anchor!” Messiah bellowed on my behalf.

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