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“I didn’t think you’d answer if she or anyone else were present,” I told him.
“I have a bad feeling about where this is going,” he muttered, clearing his throat. “What is it you want to know?”
“In a few hours, I will be the Consort. I assume that means I have some level of authority when it comes to those here—even Nyktos’s guards.”
Rhain’s golden-brown eyes narrowed. “It does.”
“So, that means if I ask you something, you’d have to answer me honestly, correct?”
“Yeah.” He drew out the word. “I guess so.”
“Then I’m hoping you’ll answer what I’m about to ask so that I don’t have to order you to do it in a few hours,” I said as wariness settled into his features. “I know this is likely a very inopportune time to ask this, but I want to know what Nyktos sacrificed for me.”
Rhain blinked, and it took a few seconds for his expression to smooth out. “I didn’t mean—”
“I don’t think you were being dramatic, as Ector claimed. You know something.”
He stared at me, his shoulders tensing. “Why do you want to know?”
“Because I do.”
“Let me rephrase. Do you actually care if he did or didn’t?”
I stiffened. “I wouldn’t be asking you if I didn’t. You can believe that or not. I know I won’t be able to change your mind. And, to be honest, at this moment, I don’t really care if you do. Just answer my question. Please.”
Rhain held my stare, but then his gaze cut away. He cursed. “I shouldn’t have said a damn thing. He just might kill me if he finds out I did.”
I doubted that Nyktos would kill Rhain. “I won’t repeat what you tell me.”
His eyes shot back to mine, the glow behind his pupils brighter. “And I’m supposed to trust that?”
“Contrary to what you may believe about me, and despite your dislike of me, I don’t want to see you or anyone else here murdered,” I replied dryly. “Especially by Nyktos.”
“Yeah, well, I sure as fuck hope that’s true.” Rhain shifted from one foot to the other, cursing again as he lifted his gaze to the chandelier. “Eythos kept that damn deal he made with your ancestor quiet for a long time.”
Surprise flickered through me. I hadn’t expected this to come up.
“So did Nyktos. None of us even knew about it until…until another discovered it a few years back. How? The fuck if I know. The deals are only known to those who forged the deal and the Arae because those nosy bastards have to know just about everything,” he said, his lips pursing. “She only learned of the deal—not everything Eythos did on the side. But learning about you was all she needed.”
A chill of knowing swept up the back of my neck. “She?”
“Veses.” He laughed, but it was dry and rough. “Yeah, she found out a couple of years back. Threatened to tell Kolis that Nyktos had a Consort in the mortal realm—something she knew Kolis would be very intrigued by. And by intrigued, I mean Kolis would’ve taken you from the mortal realm and used you to get to Nyktos.”
Suddenly, I saw Veses in my mind, standing with Nyktos outside his office, touching him. I heard that you have taken a Consort. I’d assumed that question meant she hadn’t known. But there had been a strange tone to her voice—one not of surprise but of…a
And it would make sense that Nyktos had told her that I was a Consort in title only because she knew about the deal—knew better. Still didn’t sting any less, but it made sense.
“And, lucky for you, I guess, Veses’ obsession with Nyktos is greater than her loyalty to Kolis,” Rhain said, and unease exploded in my gut. “Nyktos was able to bargain with her. Got her to stay quiet.” He stared at the floor, his lips twisting into a sneer. “For a price.”
I went cold. Suddenly, I didn’t want to know. Felt maybe this was best left unknown. But what Veses had said about Nyktos lying to her clicked into place. Rhain had confirmed what I already knew—she didn’t know about the embers, but she suspected there was more. Something that he was hiding, even though he hadn’t known about the embers years ago. Something that he would be…
He’d be willing to do anything for you…
I needed to know exactly what that was.
“What was the price?” I asked hoarsely.
“He agreed to…service her needs with his blood. To feed her whenever she desired.”
My lips parted, and for a moment, I felt absolutely nothing.
“You would think that wouldn’t be often. Primals don’t need to feed that much unless they’ve been weakened, but Veses doesn’t go long without paying a visit. And what could he do? He couldn’t refuse her.” His gaze lifted to mine. “Not when your ass was on the line.”
Then I felt everything.
I jerked back a step, my entire body recoiling from what Rhain had said. I hadn’t understood why Nyktos would allow her to touch him or feed from him. Until now. But I did understand why he wouldn’t tell me. That he serviced Veses to keep the knowledge of the deal, of me, a secret.
Oh, gods. I thought I might be sick. “Why would he do that?”
Rhain stared at me. “You know why.”
I slammed my eyes shut. He was right. I did know. The same reason he hadn’t taken me as his Consort three years ago. To protect me from Kolis. “Dear gods, I…”
The box I’d closed all those emotions away in shattered, and I couldn’t speak around the storm of them exploding through me. Disbelief and horror seized me, much like they had when Kolis had demanded his price, but this was ugly in an entirely different way. I took another step back as if I could distance myself, but I couldn’t. There was no distancing to be done.
How could he agree to something like that to protect me, even before he really knew me? Why would he subject himself to that—her demand of a thing that wouldn’t have been offered to her under any other circumstances?
He’d sacrificed the right to deny someone.
I suddenly thought about how shocked they had all been after learning that Nyktos didn’t react when I touched him. How they’d said he didn’t like to be touched—
And when he’d said he wanted no one but me. Wanted.
Oh, gods.
“Maybe Veses wanted to take you out because she figured out what you had in you and how that could blow back on Nyktos. But she also knew that the leverage she had over him was coming to an end,” he said, and I heard what Nyktos had said the night before—that she no longer has control. “No one can tell me that doesn’t have something to do with her coming at you. Because once you become his Consort, you will no longer be a secret to protect.”
“He could’ve stopped—” I couldn’t bring myself to say it. “Others found out about me weeks ago. He didn’t know that she could still feel me nearing my Ascension…” I trailed off, falling silent.
Because the embers didn’t matter.
Nyktos hadn’t been protecting them. Not a week ago. Not months ago. Or even years ago.
He had been protecting me.
“None of us understood why he tolerated her presence when it was clear that he couldn’t stand her.” Dragging a hand through his hair, he clasped the back of his neck, and my chest felt too tight. “But he didn’t tell us, you know? Only Ector and I found out because, after one of her visits, he was in bad shape. She had…”
It took no amount of imagination to fill in what he wouldn’t say. If Nyktos were in bad shape, it could’ve been because Veses had taken too much blood.
“His cold skin,” I rasped. “He told me it was because he was Death.”
“But he’s not the true Primal of Death,” Rhain said. “His flesh shouldn’t feel that way.”
“It does because—” I sucked in a ragged breath. “It does because of her feeding from him.”
Rhain didn’t answer. He didn’t need to because I knew. I’d been right about my suspicions.
Then my skin warmed, the embers in my chest vibrating as red-hot fury flooded my system, invading every cell of my body. A tremor hit me—