The only fae among the Lohti traveling with them was Kalo and her. The only two people immune to his power. Once he was mended, he would be nigh unstoppable. They were prisoners, yes. But only until Raziel had regained his strength and was done humoring them.
Or until it was no longer politically convenient to do so.
That was going to be the challenge.
Nadi had to try to find a way to make it beneficial for Raziel to “play nice” with her people. The trick was how? And why? Especially when they clearly despised him, and for good reasons.
No, every possible approach had just as much of a chance to turn into a bloodbath.
She finished the stew, scraping the bowl clean with the last of the bread, and set it aside. The food sat heavy in her stomach, but it was sustenance, and she’d learned long ago not to be precious about such things.
Raziel stirred beside her. His eyes flickered open, those crimson irises catching the faint purple glow that filtered through the gaps in the wagon’s living walls. For a moment, he simply stared at the ceiling, and she wondered what he was thinking. What calculations were running through that ancient, twisted mind of his.
“You’re staring at me.” His voice was rough, weaker than she was used to hearing it.
“Someone has to make sure you don’t die in your sleep.”
“How touching.” He shifted, wincing as he pulled himself upright against the wall. The chains around his wrists clinked softly. “How long was I out?”
“Hard to say. A day, maybe more. The light down here doesn’t exactly make it easy to keep time.” She paused. “I also have no idea how long I was asleep for either.”
He nodded slowly, taking stock of himself. She watched him flex his fingers, roll his shoulders, test the limits of his body. Still weak. Still diminished. But there was something different in his eyes now—something sharper, more focused. The vulnerability she’d glimpsed when he’d first woken on the shores of that underground lake was gone, buried beneath layers of cold calculation.
It unsettled her more than she wanted to admit.
“I need to feed.” He said it matter-of-factly, like he was commenting on the weather.
Nadi’s jaw tightened. “Kalo won’t help us. He said you could starve, for all he cared.” That left exactly one option. Her.
“Kalo says a great many things.” Raziel’s lips curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “But he also saved my life, which suggests he has plans that require me breathing. Or whatever it is I do.”
“And what do you think those plans are?”
He turned those red eyes on her, and she felt the weight of his gaze like a physical thing. “The same as ours, I suspect. He said it himself, he wants to burn down the vampires who’ve been feasting on his people for centuries. He blames us for the addiction issues that have spread among his kind. The difference is, he thinks he can control how the fire spreads.” A pause. “He plans to use me to do it. He won’t be able to do either of those things. The fire will consume him instead.”
There it was. That casual dismissal, that absolute certainty that he alone understood how the game was played. It was the same tone he’d used when he’d first proposed their alliance, back in the ruins of the abandoned family estate.
Help me murder my entire family.
She’d agreed because she’d had no choice. Because her own family had been slaughtered, and revenge was the only currency she had left. Because even then, she’d been refusing to accept that some part of her had already fallen in love with him. But now, watching him in the dim glow of the living wagon, she found herself once more wondering what came after.
What happened when the Nostroms were ash and bone, and Raziel stood alone atop the empire he’d built from their corpses?
Where did that leave her people?
Where did that leaveher?
“You’re thinking too loudly.” His voice cut through her spiraling thoughts.
No point in lying. “Fine. I’m thinking about what happens next. In the rare chance that we win all this. After.” She met his gaze squarely. “You told me once that you wanted to burn it all down and rule over what’s left. What does that actuallymean, Raziel?”
Something flickered in his expression—surprise, perhaps. “It means exactly what it sounds like.”
“And the fae? My people? What happens to them in this grand vision of yours?”
He was quiet for a long moment. Too long. “They’ll be free of the vampires who’ve hunted them. Isn’t that what you wanted?”
“Free to do what? Serve a different master?” She heard the edge in her own voice and didn’t bother to soften it. “You’re still a vampire, Raziel. Your kind has been feeding on mine since before either of us was born. You have slaughtered how many of us? Why should I believe you’ll be any differentnow?”
