Page 62 of Darkest Heart

“Yes. Four this week.”

I wanted to tell him about the aniccipere attack, although I assume he suspected. But Azia made me swear not to, and I couldn’t trust anyone. Not yet. Velda was always at his side, whispering into his ear about what to do next. She and Gwen trailed after my father as if he was their god. “What do you need me to do?”

He ran his hands through his hair, looking up at the sky as he gripped his curls. “You’ve always been the best at finding out secrets. I need to know who is summoning demons. Because, Niall, if they’re inviting them into this world, then the underworld is unstable. We can survive a war with the other kingdoms, but not with the underworld. Salenia…” He shuddered, and my eyes widened.

“What about her?”

“She’s tricky.”

“You’ve met her?” My eyes widened. How had I missed this?

“She came here once but possessed the body of a vampire. We were young. Sargon was about to ascend the throne. Well, she was supposed to be his bride.”

“What?”I shouted, and he shushed me. How much more did I not know about this family? “But Ravena…”

“She had nothing to do with it. My brother figured out it was her. She was using mind control.”

“How?”

“She’s a goddess. No one can influence free will entirely, but she was utterly magnetic. When you looked at her, you almost wanted to do her bidding. She’d made him forget things, implanted false memories into his mind. He hasn’t been right since.”

“How did he figure it out?”

“She got jealous. My brother met Ravena and liked her. You know Salenia’s story. I’m sure you can imagine how she felt seeing him lust after another woman, a mortal one at that.”

I recalled the story of Vener and Salenia. “Right, Vener. She made him into a vampire.”

“She made him immortal.” He peered around, the sounds of jeering in the background silencing us for a moment. “He met Anastasia, and they were soulmates. I believe he loved Salenia, from what I’ve read. But the soulmate bond is stronger than anything.”

I shook my head. That was right. She only cursed him after he made Anastasia immortal too. “So why does she need to meddle with anything up here? She has her prison. She has Vener and Anastasia forever trapped there with her.”

“That’s what we need to figure out. I’ve been worried about a war with other kingdoms that I’ve let things run amiss here. I need to you to find out who’s been summoning demons. Not your Blood Brothers,” he said before I could. “No one can know about this. I need you to search and keep this strictly between us. I trust you, Niall.”

We’d never been close, not really. Everything about our relationship was contractual, but he’d never looked at me more like a son than now. It was unnerving. “I’ll look into it,” I assured.

“Good.”

Another round of applause erupted, snapping my attention back to the tournament. It must be over. “We’re going to have a war with all the kingdoms soon,” I warned while I had his ear. I’d been careful to get the last batch from Salvius, but we were drawing far too much attention to ourselves with all this debauchery. I wouldn’t normally care, but I planned on taking this kingdom as my own and I needed one intact to rule. “What are we doing to build defenses?”

He waved his hand dismissively. “We’ve had the mortal kingdoms in our pockets for centuries. The only real threats are Asland and Kibet. They’re the only ones we could never corrupt. The guilds and everything can say what they want, but none of the royal families would dare turn on us.”

“Why?” I probed.

He sighed exasperatedly, turning back to face me. “Because being powerful is not about who has the most weapons. It’s about knowing what the other powerful people want, and being the only ones who can give it to them. I’m not concerned, neither should you be. We have been modernizing, mostly in case we come up against Asland. But I don’t want you focusing on that right now.”

I nodded slowly, and he huffed, then sped away. Azia’s light flicked on, and his door opened. Of course he had been watching us.

***

Steam swirled over the cups as he brought out a tray and handed me one. I wrinkled my nose at the smell of nettle and peppermint. “This isn’t blood.”

“Drink it anyway,” he said, and sat in front of me. “It’s good for you.”

Whatever that means. I took a sip, mostly to quench the desire to bite him instead. “Demons are breeding mortals in the castle.”

“I thought as much. Have you told Kalon about the attack?”

“No.”

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