AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Venali grins cheekily. “The—as you said—royalelven family is Wisteria’s family. And our grandfather is dying to see her.”
“Is visiting really an option?” Stellan asks, moving to sit down in a free chair. He frowns at Venali. “I thought we didn’t have a choice in the matter.”
I squeeze Stellan’s hand as I sit beside him. “We are honored to be invited to visit, and we’re especially grateful you extended the invitation to my husband. It will bring great prestige to the dragon shifters.”
Venali chuckles. “Young cousin, you do have a fae’s way with words.”
I’m not sure if that’s a compliment or not, but I decide not to dwell on it.
“Right now is a difficult time for Stellan to leave,” King Basilicus says, folding his hands on the desk in front of him. “As you saw today, we are dealing with attacks on the royal family. It seems that their target has shifted from us to Wisteria, as she has so easily thwarted their previous attempts. I’m afraid this is only the beginning.”
“We are prepared to offer an alliance.” Venali casually takes a seat on the other side of Stellan. “For the sake of Wisteria.”
“Why does your family suddenly care about Wisteria now?” Warrick asks. “She’s twenty two years old andmarried. Shouldn’t you have been around her whole life?”
“Twenty years ago, Emrys disappeared with Princess Wisteria in the middle of the night. We obviously wanted to see her, but it isn’t something her father was keen on,” Venali says. “When we found out she was here, I came right away.”
King Basilicus nods. “Fine. I will allow Prince Stellan and Princess Wisteria to visit with the elves, though I will request guards accompany them.”
“Of course,” Venali agrees readily.
“Any treaty negotiations will be done by my son. I trust his judgment.” King Basilicus turns to look at Stellan. “Are you okay with this?”
Stellan gives him a curt nod.
“Excellent.” Venali smiles widely.
Stellan looks from Venali to me and back again. “I now understand where you got your charisma from. It definitely has to be an elf thing.”
“Charisma?” I raise an eyebrow.
“Your entire personality draws people to you,” he clarifies. “It’s extremely hard to dislike you—or did you not notice how my whole family fell in love with you?”
Everybody except for his dad—I’m still not sure he likes me. Especially not with all the trouble I’ve caused.
“It’s definitely an elf thing.” Venali scowls, crossing his arms over his chest. “It makes staying hidden from other supernaturals extremely difficult.”
“How have you managed to stay hidden?” Warrick asks. “It’s got to be nearly impossible to hide an entire kingdom.”
“We hide from supernaturals the same way that supernaturals hide from humans. Compulsion—even the weakest elf has enough control to compel others to forget them.”
Warrick furrows his brows as he looks at Venali. “Elves can compel other supernaturals?”
He nods. “Didn’t you know? Or was knowledge of us having that particular skill lost to history?”
Everybody stays quiet, looking at Venali with wide eyes.
“Don’t worry.” Venali sighs, leaning back in his chair. “It doesn’t work on kings or alphas, so everybody in this room is safe from me. And there is no point in us staying hidden now, as the news is out. It’s a small price to pay to have Wisteria back.”
Stellan tenses at his words. “She’snotstaying with you. We will come for a visit, but only with a promise to let usbothcome home.”
Venali lifts an eyebrow at Stellan, then looks at me. “Wisteria is free to do as she pleases. If she wants to stay, she is welcome to, but if she wishes to live with you, she can.” He wrinkles his nose as if the idea of living among dragon shifters is somehow offensive to him.
“Do you really mean to offer an alliance to us?” KingBasilicus asks. “Or is this all just a rouse to get Wisteria on elf land?”
“There is no trick involved.” Venali leans forward. “We are prepared to offer an alliance. With elves backing you, I imagine your enemies will be quick to back off.”
“It’s clear that you’re not comfortable with other supernaturals,” I say. “Why are you doing this now?”
