My feet hit the steps in an awkward stumble. I caught myself before tumbling.
“Ask your prince,” he said. “If you’ve been a good pet, he may indulge you.”
At the base of the dais, Tallon waited, a sneer tainting his face. “Come, Nienna.”
He called me to heel—like a dog.
Rage flared hot in my chest. Words crowded my tongue, barbed and furious. But none escaped. Instead, I stepped into place beside him and slid my hand into the crook of his arm.
I had a game to play.
Now I only hoped I was on the winning side.
Chapter Fifty
Nienna
Ihad always imagined the Velli as monsters, but I never truly understood the full being of their horror, the way it moved and breathed and fed.
Tallon brought me to a dining hall where the scent of roast meat clung thick as smoke. Fat hissed over an open flame somewhere beyond my sight. Heat pressed against my face. The air tasted of iron and char, metallic and sweet, coating my throat until I swallowed against it. The only green in the room came from wilted herbs strewn over slabs of red meat, a mockery of balance. No fruit or bread. No softness.
He meant to retake Radaan. And his heir… would belong to Vellos?
I sat beside him, spine stiff, poking at my plate so it would appear disturbed. My fork scraped porcelain in small, deliberate arcs. I lifted nothing to my mouth.
From the pointed glances he cast toward my untouched food, he knew. Of course he did. It was a strike. Petty. Useless. Theonly sliver of freedom left to me, my only way to rebel against this carnage.
And it was carnage.
Many of the Velli didn’t eat at all. They only watched. I couldn’t tell the difference between the sects at first glance, yet the divide pulsed through the room like a fault line. One branch existed as fuel, offered up and drained. The others prowled, power-hungry and ambitious.
We had entered in the middle of dinner, though it felt endless, stretched thin and eternal. Two men brawled in the center of the hall, boots skidding across stone slick with something dark. Their bodies blurred in motion, fists cracking against bone. They wasted their power, spending it in a show of power.
Around them, the Velli gorged.
No clothing marked rank. No sleeves, patches, colors. Nothing to distinguish predator from vessel. Yet it took only a breath to see it. A Velli would shove someone back by the crown of their forehead, pointed teeth flashing as they sank into their exposed throat. They drank deep, jaw working, then tore away with a gasp, head tipping back as though savoring wine.
Laughter burst and echoed off the high ceiling.
Others wandered toward the center of the room where a waist-high railing encircled a massive hole. Its depths swallowed light. Velli staggered there on uneven steps, hands braced on metal slick with old stains. They reached down their own throats and vomited blood into the darkness below. The sound came wet and violent, bodies heaving until emptied.
When the spasms ended, they wiped their mouths with the back of their hands, crimson streaking their chins, and turned to find another to feed off.
It was terrifying. I sat tucked between Tallon and Egath, caged by their presence, and that felt safe in the most warped sense of the word. I knew this evil. Tallon wouldn’t rip out my throat.That would be too merciful. No, he would draw it out. Humiliate me. He would make a spectacle of me every step of the way.
“Prince Tallon!”
My muscles seized. I forced myself not to bolt as a tall Velli with short curls approached. His skin gleamed under torchlight, eyes bright with something fevered. “I’ve not met the Fortune.”
“Uzair, he’s not interested in sharing.” Egath snarled, draping an arm around my shoulders. His grip seemed almost possessive, territorial.
I tightened my hold on the fork, weighing my options. Could I plunge it into someone’s eye before they ripped me open? Would it buy me minutes? Seconds? Would seconds matter? The urge to lean into Egath’s side disgusted me. Survival carved its own instincts into me.
“But he shares with you?” Uzair’s gaze slid over me, assessing.
“Not her.” Tallon set down his utensils with quiet precision. Metal clicked against ceramic. My attention snagged on the knife near his hand. “I’ve shared with him, though. A woman back in Radaan.”
My breath snagged. Gayle. The image of her battered, broken body rose sudden and unwanted.
