Page 58 of Our Vicious Oaths
“I don’t mean with me, obviously, but do you desire children at all someday?”
His laugh was caustic. Dry. “I’m a king.Notdesiring children isn’t a real choice I get to make. I must take a wife and I must sire heirs to place my people at ease that the continuation of the Diamundis bloodline will carry on and that the line of succession is secured.” Malachi poured a second full glass of wine and drained that too.
His answer was the reply any monarch, herself included, was bred to give. The need to proliferate and carry on royal lines was ground into each and every individual who wore the mantle of heir. But it didn’t mean he’d actually answered her. “Desiringsomething and being duty bound to see an action through are not the same thing,” she pointed out. She wasn’t certain why she stated it so gently. Maybe because he’d been gentle with her this morning, and as Malachi guzzled the wine,there was a discernible fragility about him. He looked like he might break at any second, and it rattled the hell out of Kadeesha because she’d never seen this male display any facets other than sheer arrogance or deadliness. “Us faefolk, we’re as close to immortal as any species can get. We can live for millennia, and you’ve proven to be both a stubborn and lethal enough bastard that I’m positive there’s very few individuals who could succeed in killing you now or in the future. So must you really capitulate anytime soon to siring offspring? Does one who is immortal truly need heirs?” She meant the words to be snide, teasing. Yet as she said them, she could hear how they might be interpreted as … comforting?
Malachi barked out another corrosive laugh. “If I try to use that rationale with my nobles, I’ll lose many of the loyal ones I’ve got left. Then I’ll have to turn this court into an actual bloodbath.”
Kadeesha blinked. Slowly. Did he just sayactual, as if the blood he’d already spilled was a mere drop in the bucket?
“Why don’t you want them?” she asked, hurtling right past the chilling picture he’d painted. She found herself strangely curious and eager for the truth.
“You know my court’s history, my family’s history. Watching your parents be murdered as a boy and being terrified their enemies were coming after you next puts what it means to be a monarch and to play the vicious games of court politics into perspective. Tussling with all of that while having a family to protect? It’s downright selfish to aspire to be both a king and a father.” He stated all this in a bland tone, but his hardened stare couldn’t quite mask the flickers of grief that broke through.
“I am sorry that happened to you and your parents,” she said quietly. “Rishaud is cruel and sadistic, and he’s warped the othermonarchs of the Six Kingdoms into much the same.” Sometimes, she found herself wondering how much better off the Six Kingdoms might be if they’d remained independent territories, if they’d managed to band together and slay Rishaud instead of kneeling before him. She reached for the pitcher of water beside the wine and poured a bit into one of the empty goblets. She drank it, needing to clear the foul taste left behind from thinking about Rishaud and the stains he imparted on her own father and court, the wider southern dominions … and beyond.
“What about you? Do you … want children in the future?” Malachi’s question ripped her out of her thoughts about the Hyperion king. Not that they planted her among anything cheerier.
“I have no idea,” she admitted. He’d been honest with her, so she decided to return the gesture. “I was promised to Rishaud when I was a babe. But I didn’t know it until my thirteenth birthday. Then, my father informed me of my betrothal. He and Yashira delivered the news together as a birthday present, if you can believe it.”
He looked at her, and then barked out a laugh.
“I know, right?” She shook her head. “They told me I’d be high queen of the entirety of Nimani someday. They said it was a position of great honor and it would come with a level of immense power that every other female across Nimani coveted. I suppose another young girl might’ve squealed and immediately begun dreaming of her wedding day and subsequent coronation as high queen. But I’d met Rishaud a few times before when he’d either visited the Aether Court or my father took me along on visits to the Hyperion Court. Rishaud was cruel and violent toward those who displeased him on each one of those visits. It didn’t matter who they were, or what position of esteem theydid or did not hold. He is capricious, and his temper is infamous. After I gained that knowledge, I cried that night, trapped in the horror of envisioning what my future as Rishaud’s wife would be like, an endless loop of misery and isolation. I cried many other nights too, until there were simply no tears left. Then, I vowed to devise a plan. I was determined to prove my worth to Sylas as his heir and a squadron general and make him see I’d serve him better if he kept me within his court rather than marrying me off. So, I’ve never looked upon things like marriage and having children favorably. I’ve tried my very best not to think about either at all. Because before my disastrous wedding, Rishaud was the male marked to be my husband and the father of my children, whether I wanted him to be or not. It was a nightmare that would break me if I dwelled on it.” She took a deep breath before looking Malachi square in the eyes. “Therefore, I didn’t.”
And recalling that precise fact to Malachi was the jolt she needed to remember that her tea had grown cold. She’d eaten, as Yashira had prescribed; she could drink up now. She seized the teacup—
The door to her rooms banged open, Nychelle, Trystin, and Yashira rushing inside.
“What is the meaning of—” Malachi started.
“Rishaud is at the gates!” Nychelle snarled. “He claims he’s come to talk peace before declaring full-on war. He’s requested to speak with you and Kadeesha.”
“Then let’s go talk to Kadeesha’s betrothed,” he said, rising from his seat.
Kadeesha stared at Malachi as he stormed from the room, then quickly got up and did the same, the tea still sitting on the table.
Chapter Thirty-One
RISHAUD HAD COME ALONE. CLOTHED IN A PRISTINEwhite coat and pants and a resplendent gold cape that made him seem untouchable, perhaps even larger than life, he stood before the closed gates of the repaired entrance to the palace. A battalion of guards stood just inside the gates. The soldiers faced the enemy king with longswords, claymores, and crossbows at the ready. Above them, dozens more guards—all archers—stood atop the palace’s high walls with void arrows already notched in bows and trained on Rishaud. The Hyperion king might’ve been immortal, and one of the strongest fae alive, and he wouldn’t be slain by even hundreds of wounds inflicted by the weapons, but an assault en massewouldthoroughly incapacitate him for a time. That was, if Malachi’s guards were fast enough and skilled enough to strike at Rishaud before he harnessed the power of the sun to incinerate them all in less time than it took to draw a full breath. That precise threat was evident in the menacing set of Rishaud’s broad shoulders and the cruel, mocking smile that bared razor-sharp canines.
As Kadeesha approached the gates alongside Malachi, Trystin, Leisha, and the whole of Malachi’s Cadre, she didn’t dare takeher eyes off the Hyperion king. Regardless of his claims that he’d come to discuss peace, she didn’t trust his intentions. Like at her wedding, she desperately wished for Zahzah to be at her side. The war serpent would’ve incinerated the bastard before he’d had a chance to strike out at Kadeesha’s father and court. Not for the first time, she berated herself for not foreseeing the danger and insisting that the ceremony be held outdoors with Zahzah present.
She severed mourning the past and anchored herself firmly in the present. Anything less was perilous. Rishaud was too dangerous to be so foolish. If he lashed out with his magic, she would need to act swiftly to throw up a protective barrier—an impenetrable wall of aether flames—between Rishaud and everyone else to keep as many as she could safe. It’d give Malachi time to return a counterstrike, one thatwouldkill even that which was immortal.
“Raise the gates,” Malachi barked to the guards who stood beside the lever once their party had come to a halt right in front of the gates.
“No!” Kadeesha cried out to Malachi. “Are you insane?”
“Paltry gates won’t stop me if I wish to breach this palace, girl,” Rishaud said coolly. Regardless of his outward equanimity, there was no mistaking the promise that she’d pay for her choices in the Hyperion king’s gold stare. Yeah, there was no way in hell Rishaud was here for the reason he’d said.
“You’re being discourteous, Kadeesha,” said Malachi with astonishing civility. He then laid a proprietary hand against the curve of her back.
When she turned toward him slightly, he caught her eye, and the entreaty was clear:Trust me.That was the exact problem, though. Malachi was the sort of male you should never trust. Except … he had proved guileful and the people he helddear were also in striking range of Rishaud. If nothing else, she knew Malachi wouldn’t do anything to place his inner circle in unnecessary danger, and she could trust that, she decided.
All right. But you better know what you’re doing, she projected back at him.
“I don’t need gates to stop Rishaud from breaching my palace when I’m standing right here, Princess.” Malachi spoke aloud to her as if they were lovers having an intimate conversation and Rishaud wasn’t standing before them. Or, rather, as if Rishaud’s presence was inconsequential—inferior to Malachi in every way and beneath Malachi’s concern. To punctuate the statement, Malachi promised Kadeesha, “I can take your betrothed apart, piece by piece, all on my own. I already sliced off an appendage once, so no need to worry.”
Rishaud’s lips curled back. Yet he said nothing, and Kadeesha couldn’t discern what game he was playing with the outward gentility he presented that was the furthest thing from his true form. It left her anxious as the gates rose, leaving Rishaud with an unobstructed path to those on the other side, including her and Malachi’s retinues, who stood in a line at their backs. She decided not to wait for Rishaud to breach his claim that he’d only come to parley. She erected a wall of aether flames behind her that would protect her and Malachi’s folks from harm.
