AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Hekatah shook her head. The amusements would have to come later.
She considered ringing for a servant to come and put another log on the fire, then dismissed the idea and added the wood herself. Curling up into an old, stuffed chair, she stared at the wood being embraced and consumed by the flames.
Consumed just like all her pretty plans.
First the fiasco with the girl. If that was the best Jorval could do, she was going to have to rethink his usefulness.
Then the Eyrien managed to escape her trap and destroy all those lovely Jhinka that she'd cultivated so carefully. And the backlash of power that had come through her witch storm had donethis to her.
And last, but far from least, was that gutter son of a whore's purge of the Dark Realm. There was no safe haven in Hell now, and no one,no one to serve her. -
So, for now, she had to accept Dorothea's sneering hospitality, had to accept handouts instead of the tribute that was her due.
No matter. Unlike Dorothea, who was too busy trying to grab power and gobble up Territories, she had taken a good long look at the two living Realms.
Let Dorothea have the crumbling ruins of Terreille.
She was going to have Kaeleer.
Chapter fourteen
1 / Kaeleer
Saetan braced his hand against the stonewall, momentarily unbalanced by the double blast of anger that shook the Keep.
"Mother Night," he muttered."Now what are they squabbling about?" Mentally reaching out to Lucivar, he met a psychic wall of fury.
He ran.
As he neared the corridor that led to Jaenelle's suite of rooms, he slowed to a walk, pressing one hand against his side and swearing silently because he didn't have enough breath to roar. Wouldn't have mattered anyway, he thought sourly. Whatever was provoking his children's tempers certainly wasn't affecting their lungs.
"Get out of my way, Lucivar!"
"When the sun shines in Hell!"
"Damn your wings, you've no right to interfere."
"I serve you. That gives me the right to challenge anything and anyone that threatens your well being. And that includes you!"
"If you serve me, then obey me.get ourof my way!"
"The First Law is not obedience—"
"Don't you dare start quoting. Blood Laws to me."
"—and even if it was, I still wouldn't stand here and let you do this. It's suicidal!"
Saetan rounded the corner, shot up the short flight of stairs, and stumbled on the top step.
In the dimly lit corridor, Lucivar looked like something outof the night-tales landens told their children: dark, spread wings blending into the darkness beyond, teeth bared, gold eyes blazing with battle-fire. Even the blood dripping from the shallow knife slash in his left upper arm made him look more like something other than a living man.
In contrast, Jaenelle looked painfully real. The short black nightgown revealed too much of the body sacrificed to the power that had burned within her while she'd done the healing in the landen village a week ago. If cared for, the flesh wouldn't suffer that way, not even when it was the instrument of the Black Jewels.
Seeing the results of her careless attitude toward her body, seeing the hand that held the Eyrien hunting knife shake because she was too weak to hold a blade that, a month ago, she had handled easily, he gave in to the anger rising within him. "Lady," he said sharply.
Jaenelle spun to face him, weaving a little as she struggled to stay on her feet. Her eyes blazed with battle-fire, too.
"Daemon's been found."
Saetan crossed his arms, leaned against the wall, and ignored the challenge in her voice. "So you intend to channel your strength through an already weakened body, create the shadow you've been using to search Terreille, send it to wherever his body is, travel through the Twisted Kingdom until you find him, and then lead him back."
"Yes," she said too softly. "That's exactly what I'm going to do."
Lucivar slammed the side of his fist against the wall. "It's too much. You haven't even begun to recover from the healings you did. Let this friend of yours keep him for a couple of weeks."
"You can't 'keep' someone who's lost in the Twisted Kingdom," Jaenelle snapped. "They don't see or live in the tangible world the way everyone else does. If something spooks him and he slips away from her, it could be weeks, even months before she finds him again. By then it may be too late.He's running out of time."
"So have her bring him to the Keep in Terreille," Lucivar argued. "We can hold him there until you're strong enough to do the healing."
'"He's insane, not broken. He still wears the Black. If someone tried to 'hold' you, what sort of memories would that stir up?"
"She's right, Lucivar," Saetan said calmly. "If he thinks this friend is leading him into a trap, no matter what her real intentions, what little trust he has in her will shatter, and that will be the last time she finds him. At least, while there's anything worth finding."
Lucivar thumped the wall with his fist. He kept thumping the wall while he swore, long and low. Finally, he rubbed the side of his hand against the other palm. "Then I'll go back to Terreille and get him."
"Why should he trust you?" Jaenelle said bitterly.
Pain flared in Lucivar's eyes.
Saetan felt Jaenelle's inner barriers open just a crack. He didn't stop to think. At the moment when she was torn between anger at and distress for Lucivar, he swept in and out of that crack, tasting the emotional undercurrents.
So their little witch thought she could force them to yield. Thought she had an emotional weapon they wouldn't challenge.
She was right. She did.
But now, so did he.
"Let her go, Lucivar," Saetan crooned, his voice a purring, soft thunder. Still leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, he tilted his upper body in a mocking bow. "The Lady has us by the balls, and she knows it."
He felt bitterly pleased to see the wariness in Jaenelle's eyes.
She looked quickly at both of them. "You're not going to stop me?"
"No, we're not going to stop you." Saetan smiled malevolently. "Unless, of course, you don't agree to pay the price for our submission. If you refuse, the only way you'll walk out of here is by destroying both of us."
Such a neat trap. Such sweet bait.
He confused her, had finally managed to unnerve her.
She was about to find out how neatly he could spin her into a web.
"What's your price?" Jaenelle asked reluctantly.
One casual, flicking glance took in everything from her head to her feet. "Your body."
