Page 177 of Enchanted Heir
If Isla was wanting to stick together with the other consorts, the night was clearly off. It wasn’t just us being paranoid. And it wasn’t as if we hated her either, she just had her friend circle and we had ours.
Gwen arrived shortly after Isla, giving me a look as if telling me to be careful.
Seeing her face, her concerned glance, had my heart rate accelerating. Gwen was a disloyal. What if the king had found out? He’d kill her right in front of us all just to make an example of her. Gwen and I may have had our differences from back when I was in Keir’s Assemblage, but she was one of my first friends here. I didn’t want anything to happen to her.
“Think if we all just walked out like we were dismissed, the king would notice?” Molly whispered. “We are officially the only women left in the room.”
“He would,” I offered. “Prince Krewan said the king is to give some sort of speech to close out the night. I assume we are to stay for that.”
“Fantastic.” Renna drained her champagne glass.
In less than an hour, all eight consorts stood together. I wasn’t sure if it was out of solidarity or fear. We were the only women in a room of what had to be close to a hundred Enchanted men. All of us were uncomfortable. All of us just wanted to leave. But as I looked up at the balcony to see Keir and Krew sitting on either side of their father on their chairs, which were definitely designed to be similar to their actual thrones, I knew we wouldn’t be leaving until the king finally decided to do his wretched speech.
I was absolutely certain I was going to fall over from extreme exhaustion when the king finally stood and put a hand up, wanting everyone to quiet down.
It took a few minutes, some of the men completely inebriated at this point.
“Here we go,” Renna whispered to me.
“Ready or not,” Gwen muttered from behind me.
I rolled my neck to the side, feeling the tension in my shoulders.
“Tonight,” the king began. “Tonight we celebrate! Stay as late as you want and drink as much as you want. After much planning and waiting, tonight we revel in retribution.”
I was frozen to the spot. Retribution? I wanted to step to the side and stand directly in front of Gwen, not knowing what he meant but wanting to make sure she wasn’t whatever payback the king had in mind.
“Almost two months ago, Nerede attacked one of the two heirs of Wylan.”
All blood immediately drained from my face. What had he done? Who had he killed? Was Nerede even left standing? There were a hundred people I immediately worried about. My mother. Warrick. Flora. Hattie. My eyes were on Krew’s and though he was a long way off, I felt his eyes looking back into mine. How his magic wasn’t running erratic was beyond me.
“We have hunted down most of the people responsible for this deplorable act, and then we waited for the right time to strike back.” The king paused, that evil smile that frequented his face perched there tonight like a permanent feature. “So we waited until the disloyal there became less scared. Until they thought they were safe enough to come out of hiding. Until we heard the whispers on the wind.”
Behind the king, both princes looked completely devoid of emotion. I wondered how many times they’d had to do something like this, sit and pretend like they were okay with everything, when clearly, they were not.
The king looked back at Krew and then at his army before him. “Tonight, we struck back. Tonight Nerede is reminded of its place in this world, and that no one,no onedares to threaten an heir to Wylan.” He paused and raised his goblet in the air. “Tonight, Nerede burns.”
The rest of the men raised their glasses, and then the cheers started up.
“I am not drinking to that,” Molly said defensively, turning to me and wrapping an arm around me.
I started shaking my head as Renna also looped an arm through mine.
But then I felt the magic. There was a burst of blue magic and not one, but two princes came off the balcony and landed right in front of us.
“They wish to celebrate with their women,” the king’s voice boomed, resulting in lots of laughter.
The king had just ordered destruction and havoc in Nerede, yet theylaughed?
“We are dismissing you,” Keir offered. “Right now. All of you together. My consorts, follow me.”
“Mine follow me,” Krew added.
I tried to move, I tried to do anything but continue to stare at the floor, yet all I could do was repeat the wordstonight Nerede burnsin my head.
Krew was there, his gray eyes inches from mine, taking my cheek in his buzzing palm. It only took a half a second and then his palm was still though I knew his magic was lurking. “Jorah, love. I need to get you out of here. And then we will go help. Just come with me, please.”
I gave him a nod and a smile like nothing was wrong when very literally my entire world had gone up in smoke.
