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“Klaus.” Araki stepped back.
The fae came forward. Klaus unlocked the door, and I braced myself, preparing to fight. To claw, kick, and bite, using any means necessary to defend myself. To my surprise, Klaus stepped back to let me pass. As he passed through the torchlight,I was unsurprised to find a murderous scowl on his face. Araki nodded and turned on his heel and started away.
“Do you expect me to follow?” I asked his retreating back acidly.
“Yes,” Araki continued to walk.
Klaus jerked his head at me, telling me to get moving. I sent him a deathly glare, and he glowered right back. The look on his face told me I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for the Union spell. A squeezing sensation settled in my stomach, and my shoulders stiffened. Was that why Araki was pulling me out of this cell? Was he going to take the spell off me so he could execute me? Kill me, as he killed the late king, my parents? I, the last and greatest threat to his crown. I’d given him my name… had he figured out who I was?
I should never have been foolish enough to end up in this situation. Whatever softness Araki had in the forest was a lie. I could see that now. I didn’t have much of a chance to escape here. I followed the King, taking note of our route so I could escape later. We went up a winding staircase with Araki’s broad back to me and Klaus on my heels. The top opened to a narrow passageway leading to the ballroom. The decorations had been removed, but the space was still opulent, dripping with hoarded wealth. Araki led me to the stairs he’d descended that first day. We passed through a long corridor with multiple rooms on either side to yet another staircase. I was getting annoyed with all the climbing when we emerged onto the third landing. There were only a handful of doors in the corridor, though not long as the one below us.
“Here,” Araki announced, stopping before a door with a metal-cast image of a seashell. He opened the door and bowed toward me mockingly. “Your chambers.”
My chambers? What, was this his private torture chamber? I squared my shoulders, lifted my chin, and strode in. I halted, stunned. It was a beautiful room. A carpet made of the deepest shade of purple, thick and warm beneath my naked feet. A fine bed, big enough to stretch out like a starfish and still not touch the edges, sat in the middle of the room. The walls were painted in lovely turquoise with images of sea life dancing in waves. Curtains, ranging from emerald and green to sky-blue, draped around it. Several couches and chairs were set next to the window. A bookcase full of books ran the length of the far wall, from ceiling to floor. I had never seen so many books in my life. My fingers itched to pick one up and look through it, but I resisted.
It looked so much like the room in my parents’ home. The room I’d had as a child. Had King Thebes made this room ready for me? Was that why Araki was putting me in here now?
I turned to face him. “What do you want from me?”
“Pardon me?”
“What are your intentions?” I demanded. “Are you going to keep me a pretty prize locked up here for your…” I trailed off, unable to give voice to my worst fears.
Confusion flickered on his face briefly before his features softened with understanding. “For my pleasure, you mean?”
I frowned at him.
“Nothing of that sort.” A wicked gleam then flashed across his face, and he drawled, “Unless that is what you want,Miss Reilyn. After all, you did proposition me at the ball.” My stomach knotted with heat. Was he flirting with me? I suddenly recalled how his lips pressed against mine and how they had felt that night in the garden. My traitorous eyes dropped to his mouth. I lifted my eyes away from his lips and found a smug look on his face. I immediately snapped back to my senses.
“Never,” I hissed at him.
“Don’t worry. I won’t touch you in that way.” Araki waved off, sounding like he meant it.
I shouldn’t believe him… but a part of me wanted to. The man who prayed for the Cupiditas. I couldn’t stop the relief from flowing through me; I knew he could sense it. Turning my back so I could at least hide my face, I looked around the room again. With that eliminated, I had no idea why he would put me in such luxurious chambers.
“Because of the Union spell, I can’t execute you,” Araki said, stepping into the room. “And I find that I feel stronger with you close by. Most Union spells have a proximity component to them. I’ll have to research what it means for the two of us. In the meantime, the only option is to give you chambers closer to my own rather than keeping you in a cell.”
I ran my hand over the heavy velvet curtains on the bed, then turned back to him. “There’s more.”
A razor-sharp smile spread over his face. It was just as beastly as it had been in the forest. “Quite correct, Reilyn. You will take me to the Nightshade coven hideout, so I can kill the blight once and for all.”
Behind him, still lingering in the doorway, Klaus gave him a startled look.
He was so blunt about it I had to laugh. “Did you think you could shock me into giving up that secret?”
“I’ve decided that the best way forward for the two of us is complete honesty,” Araki replied.
“It’s never going to work. Even if I were to betray my coven, which I will die before doing, they’d have already moved.”
Araki stalked forward, his movements as fluid and precise as a lion’s. He halted and towered over me. A predatory glint lit his eyes. “Really?”
I stood my ground. “Yes. I failed my mission. You’re alive, so they will assume I’m either dead or being tortured for information in the depths of your palace. They’ll have mourned me and moved on to ensure I can’t give them up, no matter your interrogation methods.”
“That does sound rather reasonable,” Araki concurred.
But I knew he was toying with me. Waiting for the right moment. To do what, though? If he didn’t believe me—and he didn’t—why not just state it outright? Why not get to the torture?
“Even if I tried to go back now,” I added, “My people will execute me.”
