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“It only appears that way now because we prepare for the games.”
Games? She was afraid to ask and reveal her ignorance. “I see.”
“Thousands of people from the six realms will be flooding into the city soon. Preparations to host the event and to provide lodgings and protection for the visitors are in the process of being made ready.”
She suppressed the protest that hovered on the tip of her tongue. How could he know they were threatened and risk having so many people gathered in one location? The utter madness of it flummoxed her.
A snarl rode the air, raising the fine hairs on her arm. She looked to the mountain. There was a sharp tug inside her, and darkness roiled through her veins. Her beast responded to the call on the distant horizon. “What is it?”
“The wraiths.”
She filed the information away. “How is it that you have tamed such fearsome creatures?”
“It took a couple hundred years.” Then he went maddeningly silent.
They stood without speaking, him overlooking his domain, and she blatantly admiring his raw power and elegance, his savage beauty.
“What is your age, hari?” he asked, his regard still directed at his kingdom.
Yet Tehdra sensed he was aware of every nuance of her expression. Fascinating man.
“I am three hundred years,” she answered truthfully.
“How is it you have existed so long without any Taijiu training?”
His voice contained the darkest of warnings, and she would be foolish to ignore them. She should be doing everything to steer their conversation onto impersonal grounds. But the need to know this man, if only briefly, rolled through her, and her feet remained rooted on top of the turret. He was hers…why not learn and enjoy him, if only for a few blissful days?
Yes….
The hungry hiss of her demon beast had her heart lurching. “In my kingdom only the wealthy can afford such a privilege. Is it not the same for Nuria?”
A soft grunt slipped from him. “Tell me of your family,” he commanded.
“My mother perished but my father lives. I also have two sisters,” she recited the information Bylan had provided. In truth both her parents lived, and she had a younger sister. Distaste filled her. She did not enjoy telling a lie to her mate. It’s for his protection.
“And what about you?” she asked.
He shifted to face her, and the raw beauty of him sucked the breath from her lungs.
“I have a sister and a brother.”
So he had an heir if he was murdered. A snarl rumbled from her beast at the assessment. “And what of your queen?”
“I have no queen.”
“The city whispers of the lost allegiance with Boreas.”
She treaded on dangerous ground. The burn of his power slid against her skin in a pained caress.
“The princess was a mean to an end.”
She’d not expected him to make such an admission. “You held no affections for her?”
Emerald eyes ensnared her. “No. Though I found myself admiring the method she used to extricate herself from my clutches.”
“What would have possessed you to claim a queen you did not love?”
“Duty.”
