“Where are they?” he shouted, spittle flying from his lips.
“Who?”
“Your other two daughters. Faith and the other one. The ones who lit up the other spires. I’m not stupid. I know they came here together. I had Faith in my clutches. In custody. No records of her birth or her fingerprints exist. Of course, she was one of the mysterious females. A fucking princess. But Thordis Jax saved her, took her away.” He growled, beyond livid. To know he held Faith, had her life in his hands and then she slipped away… “Trinity might be in the palace, but the other two are on Alera. I will find them and kill them both.”
I didn’t want to panic at the thought of Faith being held by Wyse, so I thought of how proud I was of her, of all three girls, instead. Yes, without any Aleran records, it had been easy for him to take the mental leap about Faith and Destiny. Not hard to put together. But now, he had no clue where either of them were. I smiled. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Tell your master that.”
“I do not have a master.” He towered over me, his hand raised as if to strike me again, his voice low and each word clearly enunciated. I did not flinch or turn away, but stared him in the eye and dared him to do it.
“Lord Jax has one of them, Celene. Not the old man you once knew, but his son. It has to be her. I had her in my custody. No birth records. No schooling, bank accounts. Fingerprints. Nothing. I am sure she is one of yours.”
He began to pace. “But Thordis Jax took her away. I would have guessed his apartment, but since my team checked thoroughly, no. Tell me where they would go, where she would hide, and I’ll save her from him and his… attentions.”
The lewd innuendo was obvious, but I wasn’t taking the bait. I knew the elder Lord Jax, and his mate. Lady Jax was a shrew. Calculating and brilliant, mean to everyone but her family. For them, for her small son—a strapping young man I remembered as a sweet-faced toddler—she would bring hell down on anyone. Well, he wasn’t so small now, but a full-grown male and clearly interested in Faith.
Lord Wyse didn’t understand Earth women. Faith didn’t need Thordis Jax. She didn’t need his attentions, or anyone saving her from them. If Faith wanted Thordis Jax, then she’d have him. Or not. The fact Lord Wyse thought my daughter needed protecting from a male made me want to laugh.
I thought of Lady Jax, then her mate, Lord Jax. I remembered him fondly. No one loved to laugh more than he did. And he adored his mate, at least all those years ago. I doubted that would have changed. If any of my daughters were in that house, they’d be safer there than they would be with Lord Wyse, that was for damned sure. He’d had Faith in custody—in his evil grasp—but she’d somehow slipped through his fingers. No wonder he was pissed.
“Better Lord Jax than you, cousin.”
“Where are the jewels, Celene?”
God, he was like a broken record.
“They won’t do you any good, you know,” I said again, even though he knew all this. “Even if you had them, they’re useless now with four spires lit at the citadel. Killing me does nothing.” I looked him over, from head to toe, slowly, with as much disgust as I could muster. “And you’re not the most attractive male on the planet. You’ll look like a complete idiot with a pretty necklace on your greedy neck.”
He did not respond, but stared at me for a full minute before speaking. “Not when you’re all dead, Celene. I’ll wear them to your burial ceremony. Yours, and all three of your daughters’.”
1
Faith Jones Herakles, The Royal Palace, Planet Alera
“I had sex with a bad guy. A really bad guy.” I moaned, ran my hand through my tangled hair. The sheet I’d been wrapped in when I arrived lay in a crumpled heap by the bedpost in my sister’s royal bedchamber. Seeing it was a reminder. Of him.
I kicked it in frustration, narrowly missed stubbing my bare toes on the large wooden frame of the bed. The fabric smelled like Lord Thordis Jax, the sex-on-a-stick, sexy as hell, too damn good looking for his own good, male claiming to be my mate. The Aleran rotting in my sister’s dungeon—well, technically, it was my dungeon too—right now for trying to have her kidnapped and killed. The male Trinity believed had betrayed the entire family.
And I wanted him again anyway. I felt achy. Needy.
Empty. My pussy. My chest. My skin. I needed him to touch me in a way I’d never needed anyone.
This Ardor was serious fucking business.
“Look on the bright side, Faith, at least it wasn’t Zach Richardson.” My sister, Her Royal Highness, Princess Trinity Herakles, had the good graces to look sympathetic. She had her mate. Her Ardor was over. And she was so blissfully in love, every time I saw her and Leo together my heart hurt.
Jesus. I had it bad. For a traitor.
Despite the rambling nature of my thoughts, I couldn’t believe what she’d just said.
“What?” I stared at her, thought of Zach, the total loser from high school, then burst out laughing, which only added to my emotional roller coaster. Sad, mad, angry and now laughing like a lunatic.
I’d been quiet on the ride to the palace. Was quiet still—which was very unlike me. I talked smack as a general rule. But then, the last few days of sneaking around, lying low, and cleaning a traitor’s house, had taken the proverbial wind right out of my sails. I felt as if I’d been stunned by an ion blaster. Again.
Only this time they’d aimed right for my heart and somehow skipped the rest of me.
When the guards had burst into the bedroom in Thor’s apartment, I’d been confused. When I saw the assassin who had tried to kill us—no, who I’d tried to kill us the night we arrived on Alera—I’d been terrified.
But finding out Trinity was there to save me from a traitor?