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“You dare humiliate me like that in public?” he roared.
Keres let out a tinkling laugh. “Humiliate you? Of course not, darling!”
“Don’t give me that darling bullshit.”
He stomped forward through the open door and pushed Keres hard against the desk. He was a hulking figure and towered over her, even at Keres’s considerable height. Yet Keres looked so small next to him. So small physically at least because their magic wasn’t even. Keres was more powerful. It was easy to sense that just from looking at them.
Then, why was she acting meek around him? She could stop this. There was something Kerrigan was missing from their dynamic.
“Two Daijan are better than one,” Keres said with that same insipid smile. “Don’t you agree?”
“It was my fight. Mine. You weren’t even supposed to be here. One of them was supposed to die. Not both be bond to you.”
Ah. So there it was. Vulsan had wanted the Daijan bond for himself.
“Now, really, you’re making it out to be a whole thing, my love,” she teased, running a lacquered nail down his cheek. Forced. So forced. “I didn’t come here to steal your thunder. I came at your bequest, remember?”
“I invited you at the beginning of the tournament.”
“I was away on business.”
“That you refuse to tell me about,” he reminded her.
“When He Who Reigns calls, I do as I am told.” Her voice turned suddenly stern. “As do we all.”
Vulsan looked half-ready to pounce on her. But he just clenched his jaw and balled his hands harder into fists. “Fine. That doesn’t excuse you from ending my fight early.”
“Did you not see what was going to happen?” Keres asked him as if he weren’t fully cognizant.
“The match was nearly ended.”
“And then your pet, Iris, loosened his leash.”
Keres threw her hand at Fordham, who hadn’t moved from his position since Vulsan had entered the room. He was frozen like a statue with shadows curled around his fists. Kerrigan barely had to glance at him to know that he was moments away from releasing his abilities and ripping Vulsan’s head off his shoulders.
Vulsan, thankfully, didn’t spare him a glance. “So what?”
“So, he has shadow abilities. That’s how he got away, and he was going to take her away too. They were both going to vanish.”
“They wouldn’t have gotten through the magical barriers I put up.”
“Then, he would have jumped them just inside the arena, and they would have run. I could sense his intentions.” She arched an eyebrow. “Unless you’re questioning my abilities now too.”
“No,” he growled. “Just your use of them without discussing it with me and ending my fight and stealing my Daijan.” He leaned further into her personal space, and Keres shrank back. His smile grew the less space she took up. “It almost seemed like you wanted to spare their lives.”
“Why would I care about two of your little gladiators?”
This time, Vulsan did fully look at Kerrigan. “She looks awfully like you, Keres dear.”
Keres gave another perfect laugh. “Are we going to be upset over every girl with red hair and freckles?”
But Vulsan moved away from Keres, giving her the space she desperately needed. He stalked around Kerrigan like a predator debating where the best place to draw blood was.
“She wears Doma colors. Calls herself a Doma. And when I saw her in the streets the first time, I thought …” He trailed off. He flicked a piece of her red hair out of her face. “I thought you were someone else.”
“Who could she possibly be?”
“She has his features,” Vulsan said, low and menacing.
Keres arched an eyebrow. “Whose features?”
He pointed to Kerrigan’s ears. “She’s Fae-touched. You remember him. The Daijan that escaped.”
She scrunched up her face as if she had no idea what he was referring to. “Who escaped?”
“The Fae,” Vulsan snapped. “She’d be about old enough to be yours. How old are you, girl?”
Kerrigan held her breath at his scrutiny. Pieces were falling together. Kivrin had been a Daijan in their household. Keres had released Kivrin from her service when she found out she was with child and delivered Kerrigan to him after she was born without Vulsan knowing. But even his suspicions brought Vulsan a world away to make sure to leave no stone unturned.
Lying was her only safety. “Twenty-two.”
“See,” Keres said. She pushed off from the desk and rested her hand on Vulsan’s shoulder. “Can we put this old argument to rest? She is no more my offspring than anyone else. We have been trying for … many years. Don’t you think I would be with child—with your child—if I’d had someone else’s child already?”
Vulsan shoved Kerrigan backward hard enough to knock her into Fordham, who caught her easily. She could feel a bruise blossoming from the force of his attack. Her heart beat rapidly, trying to keep up with the fear that she was no match for him at present. Keres could only do so much.
