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He traced the outline of my tattoo with his fingers and the fire glowed under his touch. We fell together and I knew with every mating I was losing more of myself and loving more of him.
ChapterTwenty-Two
Something woke me—not a vision or a dream, but a kind of knowing. I stretched carefully, and Julian’s arms tightened around me. I looked up and saw he was staring at one of the destroyed bookshelves.
“Can they be replaced?” I asked. “Your hoard was like nothing I’ve ever seen before.”
Magic tingled along my skin. Broken pieces of pottery and torn pages of books began to reassemble themselves. Shredded canvas knitted itself back together and shards of glass fit together like puzzle pieces. The remnants of his destruction swirled above us, and the room slowly put itself back together.
I laughed in sheer awe of his power. “You amaze me. I’ve never been very good at physical magic.”
“You’re better now that we’ve bonded. You’ll have to start practicing. You never know when it will be useful.” He traced circles over my back absentmindedly, his thoughts somewhere else.
“Tell me what’s wrong.” I leaned up on my arm so I could look down at him. His gaze was shuttered and he’d rebuilt his shields. He evaded my question.
“Did you know that this room was part of the original caverns my father hid his clan in after the Banishment? None of the other Archos were ever able to hunt him or his people. He protected them well until he stole away with my mother.”
“What happened to them when he went away?”
“They became reckless. The need to hunt and survive without a leader drew them out of hiding. Many of them were slaughtered by the other clans. Others abandoned the clan completely and went out on their own. But this cavern stayed hidden. And when I’d aged and my time with the Faeries was through, Esmerelda brought me back here. My clan adopted her.”
“That was a nice thing to do,” I said. Drakán weren’t known for their hospitable natures, especially with those who were different. With Esmerelda being the daughter of Thelos, one of their most hated enemies, it was very un-Drakán-like for them to even considering welcoming her to the fold.
“I’ve told you before that loyalty is very important to me. Esmerelda raised me, and it was her Fae grandfather who showed me how to rule. If Esmerelda had tried to raise me with her Drakán father, then I would have been killed long ago.”
“What happened when you were old enough to return to your clan?” I couldn’t stop touching him. I had to have constant contact with his skin, and I could tell by the way he kept running his hands from the base of my neck all the way to my thighs and back up again that he felt the same.
“Xana had held things together as best as she could. We desperately needed numbers. And we needed more warriors. Times were much harder then than they are now, and human food was harder to find. The cities weren’t as populated as they are now.
“I gathered everyone who was left and we expanded on this underground room, digging tunnels and building rooms. All of Belgium has caverns and secret passageways beneath it—an underground city where we once lived. I made everyone swear the blood oath, and I was immediately able to get a better grasp on their abilities, so I knew how to make them stronger. I culled out the strongest of the clan and trained them for battle. And when we weren’t training, I gave orders for everyone to find strong-willed humans to mate with. It took more than two hundred years to build the clan back up to where we could defend ourselves if we were attacked.”
“But you did it,” I said. “You were meant to lead, Julian. I was wrong before to call you a tyrant. These people need you. All of the clans need you.”
“Yes,” he agreed. “The Drakán should be mine to rule, as they should have been my father’s before me. And it is you who should be at my side as queen. If we don’t take action soon, then our numbers will die out completely.”
It took me a moment before I understood what he was really saying, and when I did I held his cheeks between my hands and looked directly into his eyes. I wasn’t going to let him avoid this confrontation by closing himself off.
“Am I understanding this correctly? You want to ignore the Prophecy and declare yourself as King of the Drakán?”
“Not exactly. I would like to form a temporary coalition of all the clans to flush out The Destroyer. I would declare myself king and swear an oath to step down when The Promised Child was born.”
This had the potential for disaster written all over it. Namely, it would be a cold day in hell before the other Archos deferred to Julian for anything. Alasdair had rather see our entire race destroyed than give power to anyone other than himself.
“I guess I’ll be the voice of reason and ask how you think you can accomplish something like that. This very discussion is the reason we were banished in the first place.”
He was quiet for a long time before he spoke again. “We are true lifemates, Rena.”
“I know that.”
A seed of fear planted itself within me. I shook my head in denial and pushed away from him. For the first time since we’d mated I couldn’t bear to touch him. My blood ran cold as I realized what he planned—what he’d probably planned all along. I’d played very nicely into his hands. I was a fool.
I pulled the sheets around me so I was completely covered, but Julian lounged against the shredded mattress and sheets in naked splendor.
“Hear me out, Rena. You and I have already united two of the clans by our mating. You are the daughter of an Archos. And I am more powerful than your father. It makes sense that I should lead both clans.”
“Gods, what have I done?” I scrambled off the bed, trying to put as much distance between us as possible, but he grabbed the sheet and tugged me back. I let it go and went in search for my clothes. They were scattered across the floor, and I pulled them on hurriedly, my hands shaking so bad I could barely get the buttons through the holes on my blouse.
“You planned to take my father’s clan all along,” I accused. “As soon as you saw the mating fire and realized who I was and that I had no knowledge of the mating fire. Was the story of the mating fire in the archives Dimitris stole from my family? Because there’s no mention of it in our new archives. I played right into your hands, didn’t I?” I laughed bitterly at my stupidity.
