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He swallowed hard. “Do what you need to do, Danni. I know you don’t want me, and as much as I want to kill him for touching you . . . I don’t want you in pain.”
My lips parted.
For the first time in my life, and possibly his, Markus had grown a conscience.
“You too,” I said slowly. Breaking his gaze, I turned toward the trail to begin my hike back. Nova followed suit. I paused most of the way there and glanced back. He was staring at the ground. The look on his face was familiar. It reflected the way I’d felt the night my life had been taken from me. Stolen. The world had been ripped out from under my feet.
Even if Markus was giving me permission to have sex with my own partner—pretend or not—didn’t matter to me. It was a huge step for him. It was selfless. While I would never accept him as my mate, I could acknowledge the difficulty he’d gone through to tell me that.
“Thank you, Markus,” I said quietly. His head snapped up, his eyes vulnerable. I smiled sadly at him. The journey he was beginning . . . It wasn’t an easy one. I didn’t know if he’d make it to the other side or fall off on the way. But this—this was a good start.
CHAPTER 16
Elias
Istood at the window of my main office, looking out over the main property, hands on my hips, lost in thought. I should have been focused on the correspondence that had arrived from the House of Gold and Garnet. King Vesperus and I had working plans. A strategy in place.
Mathis needed to be dealt with. Dethroned. Eliminated.
I didn’t care how.
But to unseat or assassinate him without retaliation from the other Houses required solid proof of his crimes, and that was hard to come by. Mathis covered his tracks well. Finding a crack in his armor required stealth, allies, and focus.
I lacked the latter.
Instead, I read the words ten times over, but they didn’t register. Flashes of Dannika appeared in my mind. Up against a tree, her legs around my waist. Stealing glances at dinner when we were with other members of the High Court. The way her lips curved into a sly smile when I caught her watching me. We didn’t talk about the kiss. She was in bed asleep every night before I got back to our room.
“Elias,” Ysabeau said, cutting into my thoughts. We’d been discussing tactics for an hour, but I couldn’t concentrate. My mind was somewhere else.
“Yeah,” I answered, my tone flat. “I’ll take a look at it. Get you my response to send out.”
“Pay attention.” She snapped her fingers, and I shot her a look. She pointed to my desk, then held up a phone.
The screen was lit up. Shit.
I picked it up, pressing the green button to answer. “Vesperus,” I said by way of answering.
“Elias.” The King of Gold and Garnet’s gravelly voice filtered through the line. “I assume you’ve gone over the information I sent?”
“Yeah, I was just looking through it here.” I sat at my desk, filtering through the papers. Ysa glared at me, pursing her lips. She gestured harshly to its location, irritation leaking through the motions.
“Do you know who the mole is?” Vesperus asked.
My mouth fell open, and I stared at Ysabeau. The deadpan look I got in return spoke volumes. She was immensely frustrated with me.
I squeezed my eyes shut. Dammit. I’d lost focus completely. A leak in our ranks was a problem, one that needed to be dealt with swiftly. Everything could unravel, and I hadn’t put this much time and energy into destroying Mathis to let it all go to waste. “I hadn’t gotten to that part yet,” I answered, clenching my jaw. I opened my eyes, taking time to scan the details of what he had sent me. I cursed under my breath. “Is your intel reliable?”
“Rock solid,” he answered from the other end of the line. If he was irritated with me, it was impossible to know. “Any ideas?”
“None off the top of my head.” I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Those in the know are few and far between. It won’t take long to weed them out.” And rip them out by the roots.
“Send me what you have as soon as you find out. Read through the reports. We don’t know how long he’s been a mole, but plan for damage control.”
“Count on it,” I assured him, dipping my head to my second. “Ysabeau has a knack for sniffing out bad apples.”
She smirked in return.
“Find them fast, Elias. You know what this could do to us. Empress Asbesta has been hands-off enough that she’d find a way to get around any charges from the other Houses. The same is not true for our situations,” he pointed out. I knew all too well what was at stake. I hummed my confirmation in response. “You sent word you had something new to discuss with me.” Vesperus left his statement hanging as a question.
