Page 95 of The Curse of a Kingdom
Devon turned around to face them, his pale fingers tapping over the stone railing. “Who is this Ari person I keep hearing about?”
Orion ignored his brother’s question. It was worth putting a pin in the way his stomach churned at the idea of revealing the Beekeeper to his brother. Then the flash came to him like a cold winter’s breeze.
Devon held Nava by her neck, his face twisted with rage. Blue fire burned behind him in houses built on the sides of large trees. He made it to them fast. "Devon, let her go." The bitter taste of panic and dread coated his tongue.
Devon's grip tightened against her throat, and the smell of magic wafted around them. "And why would I do that?" Menace dripped off each word. "Keeping her will ensure you don't kill me, brother."
"If you don't let her go, I will kill you," he promised and meant every single word.
His breath tore out of his lungs as he shook off the memory and took a step back. He wished he could ignore that vision—the betrayal that churned in his gut. Orion stormed back inside the room.
His heartbeat drummed against his rib cage, and the air was too thick to get enough into his lungs. Were all the people he thought of as family meant to betray him?
“Are you all right?” Nava’s heels clicked on the marble floor. Her voice was like a healing salve over a wound he had just reopened. She was by his side in a blink, grasping his forearm, blue and brown eyes studying him closely.
“I—” He cleared his throat, as the touch alone grounded him. “The king can take care of the demons tonight. It’s better if you are away from him while he doesn’t know you are my mate.”
Why, if Devon had attacked her, was he here with her? Now her hostile predisposition toward his brother made sense. Why was she trusting him?
Everything fit into place. Devon was under some sort of bond. That much had been clear when they had talked about it, a life debt or a blood bond by the trust Nava had with him not hurting her.
Nava had said she almost died when the king took him from the Grey Island . . . and Devon had been in prison. Had the desperation of almost dying forced her hand to trust Devon, even after what he’d done to her?
They had traveled through a portal to get to this kingdom, and Nava had paid the price. She had lost memories that were too dear to her, which led her to a panic attack.
There was one person in this world who would do anything for him, and that wasn’t his father or his brother, but this woman. Just like at one point in the last decade, he had dropped everything that made him the man he was for her. His identity as he knew it hung from a fine thread.
“I don’t understand why we have to run and hide. If the rumors are correct, your father had a soulmate he loved. He should understand that he can’t kill me and keep the heir he so desperately wants.”
“My mother might have been his soulmate, Nava, but she ended up dead after she betrayed him. He won’t look at this with a rational mind.”
“Not to stir the pot further, but if he already took your memories once, he could do so again when he finds out you have let us go.” Devon’s voice was claws and poison gripping his gut, and the images of him hurting Nava were hard to ignore.
He closed his hands into fists and allowed his breath to even out. “I now know what he did to block my memories, which would lead me to a better defense against another attempt, but . . . it’s always a possibility.”
Orion was battling and losing a war against what he desired and what needed to be done. He needed to get the keys or else they would be tracked. Them being able to move around the city without trackers would give them freedom enough to live outside the castle while he figured out what needed to be done. With the kingdom, his past—and his future. Many questions were swimming in his mind, and he couldn’t make a decision when lives depended on him.
Orion didn’t want to keep Nava from being around nature even for her protection, especially when things like the Zorren were wreaking havoc.
With the new memory of what happened in the Grey Island with Devon, Orion couldn’t leave Nava alone in that house with his brother while he was so far away in the castle. “We will go first to the king's room to get the keys and then head to the safe house.”
“Why do we need the keys so badly?”
“I, for one, would like my magic back, especially if we are going to be hunted by the king and his dogs.”
Nava’s brows furrowed as she crossed her arms over her chest. “Who’s to say you won’t betray us when you get your magic back? Are you even still under the life debt?”
Ah, a life debt. “Who do you owe your debt to, Devon, Nava or me?”
Devon’s lips pulled into a lazy smile. “Like I said, search your own damn memories.”
“Enough with this. It’s your life debt, Ark. You saved him last year from me.” Nava cleared her throat, looking uncomfortable. “He had me and was hurting me—was hurting so many. I was angry, and I didn’t know what I was doing with my magic.”
His throat went dry, and he wished the images didn’t flash through his mind the way they did.
Bees swarmed towards Devon from the sky, stinging him until he lay too still on the ground. He had asked Nava to stop.
Orion’s heartbeats were too heavy. “I—remember it,” he admitted. Nava’s lips parted as she searched him for more. Hope glowed behind her dark lashes. “Did you call for the life debt?”
