A Soul for Vengeance

Chapter 22



Dev had lost count how many times Arden had passed him as she paced outside the Empress’s throne room. “The Empress is already upset that you destroyed part of her gardens last spring. I don’t think she’d like it if you wore a hole in her floor.”

She paused long enough to scowl at him, the green ring in her eyes glowing, before resuming her continual back and forth. “I’m growing tired of waiting. Either she’s going to help Kell, or not. I can’t afford to waste too much time before leaving.”

His gut knotted with worry. Despite the near bliss of their lives in the bedroom, Arden remained determined to return to Ranello on the first ship out of Hebera. Of course, that meant he was bound to follow her to that cursed kingdom unless he found a way to talk some sense into her.

Not that he’d ever managed to do that. Sense and Trouble were not well-acquainted.

He crossed his arms as the ring in her eyes continued to glow. “What’s he telling you?”

“Loku keeps telling me to barge in there and demand an answer,” she replied without breaking her stride. “He’s even volunteered to talk to her himself.”

“You’re not stupid enough to allow that after all the stunts he’s pulled.”

She chewed her bottom lip. “I’m not stupid, but I’m bordering on desperate.”

That was dangerous enough. He caught her by the shoulders and waited until she looked up at him. “He never offers to do anything without it being to his advantage.”

She nodded. Experience had added wisdom to her face over the last year and a half, turning her from a wayward barmaid to a regal woman, but the stubborn set of her jaw remained the same. “It’s no different than that night I ran off to save Kell’s party from the undead.”

“And we almost got killed for it in the process.”

She jutted her chin out further. “Ranello’s my home, and I hate that I’ve been kept in the dark about everything that’s happened there.”

Her accusation hit him like a slap in the face. “We did it for your own good.”

“One of these days you’ll realize I’m able to make decisions for myself.” She shook him off and resumed pacing. “The only reason I’ve stayed this long is because it’s in Ranello’s favor if I can convince Marist to send reinforcements. That way, I’m less likely to have to call on Loku for help.”

His lips twitched. She was learning to control the chaos god far better than her predecessors. The last four had been intoxicated by Loku’s power and tumbled into madness, but Arden had managed to keep her wits about her and then some. One more reason he’d fallen in love with her. “You know you’ll have me.”

She slowed, the tension draining from her face as it melted into a smile that made his chest tighten. She leaned into him, brushing her lips against his. “I know.”

He caught her mouth before it got too far away and kissed her back, deeper and more demanding than her innocent peck. She responded with a moan that had him on the verge of throwing her over his shoulder and carrying her back to her room. Then her tongue came into play, and he abandoned that idea in favor of taking her right there in the antechamber of the Empress’s throne room. By Jessup, Arden did things to him that brought him to the brink of insanity.

She ended the kiss, her eyes full of her mischief and her cheeks flushed. “We’d better stop before Marist catches us in the middle of something naughty.”

The ring around her eyes brightened, and she gasped, the color in her cheeks growing redder.

“I can only guess at the crude comment Loku just made, but enlighten me.”

She raised one brow to ask him if he was serious before saying, “He was just saying that it might remind her what a good, um, time was.”

The doors to the throne room opened, revealing Empress Marist. The thin line of her mouth expressed her displeasure before she snapped her fan in front of it. “Thank you for not quoting him directly.”

Dev let his arms drop to the side, and Arden stepped to the side, widening the gap between them. Few people knew of his feelings for her, and until the Empress named a new Protector, he felt obligated to keep them concealed. Relief washed over him when he glimpsed the empty throne room behind the Empress. “Where’s your uncle?”

“I dismissed my advisors a good ten minutes ago.” She parted them as she passed, indicating that they should follow her. “I needed a few moments of private council before speaking to the Soulbearer.”

“Are you going to help Kell?” Aden asked, tailing after her cousin.

The Empress refused to answer until the doors to her private quarters were shut. She dropped her fan on a table and studied them, her head tilted to the side and her lips pursed. “I still haven’t decided.”

Arden’s shoulders rose, and the green light around her irises grew stronger. “I don’t have time for your games, Marist.”

Haughtiness replaced her pensive air as the Empress looked down on Arden. “I shouldn’t need to remind you that I’m still the Empress of Gravaria, and you should address me as such.”

“And I shouldn’t have to remind you that I control a god.”

The Empress laughed. “More like he controls you.”

“I’ve managed to contain him so far, but he’s been dying to tell you a few things.”

Before Dev could stop her, Arden surrendered control to Loku. Her posture relaxed, and the arrogant smirk on her mouth only accented the eerie yellow-green of her eyes. The deep timbre of his voice replaced hers when her lips moved. “Ah, dear Marist, would you be so kind as to contact Ivis for me?”

Much to her credit, she appeared completely at ease with Arden’s transformation and Loku’s request. “If you have something to say, then say it to me.”

A blast of icy wind blew through the room, dousing several sconces and whipping the curtains in the air. Loku’s cold chuckle sent a bone-rattling chill down Dev’s spine. The chaos god had crossed the line from annoying to outright dangerous. “I would, but I know for a fact she’d be much more interested in what’s at stake.”

The Empress opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out. A silvery hue clouded the blue in her eyes, and she bowed her head like a submissive servant.

Dev’s breath caught when a different voice—one that was warm and nurturing with a touch of flirtation—came from the Empress. “What do you wish to say to me, Loku?”

“Ivis, my darling, it’s wonderful to hear the dulcet strains of your voice again. The last time I heard it, you were instructing a group of mages on how to trap my soul in a mortal body.”

The tension between the two deities crackled through the room like a brewing storm. Dev stepped back, not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. Loku, he’d heard more times than he cared to remember. But a conversation between two gods—one of them channeled by the Empress herself—elevated him to a height of disbelief where he wondered if he wasn’t imagining it all.

His gut told him no.

But he refused to leave Arden’s side now, not when she’d placed herself in danger once again by surrendering to Loku.

Ivis rolled the Empress’s silvery eyes. “Have you manipulated your Soulbearer into letting you take control of her body just to threaten me and my High Priestess?”

“The threat isn’t me, my dear. It’s the Thallians.”

“And how would a group of mortals threaten me?” Ivis lowered herself into a chair, the grace befitting her Imperial High Priestess.

“Centuries ago, you managed to grasp a monopoly on the faith of those foolish Ranellians. Seriously, one day, you must share your secret with me. But, now that those godless Thallians have conquered them and ransacked your temples, what do you think will happen to your faithful? When they cry out in pain, in grief, and you ignore their pleas?”

“Who says I’m ignoring their pleas?” Ivis crossed her legs and rested her hands on her knees. “I have foreseen these events and ensured Kell has the tools he needs to eventually free his people.”

“But have you seen what I have in store for Ranello?” Loku’s wicked grin played on Arden’s lips. “My Soulbearer needs little nudging from me to return to Ranello, and once we’re there, she’ll most likely call on me to help free her people. Then I will be lauded the Savior of Ranello. I will gain your followers. And you of all people know how fanatical my followers can be.”

“I’ll have my High Priestess and her associates lock your Soulbearer up so that scenario never plays out.”

Loku jerked his thumb to Dev. “Do you think he’ll let you lock her up? He’s already resigned as her Protector, and she has him so p-ssy-whipped, he’ll follow her like a loyal dog.”

The insult rankled Dev’s insides and tightened his muscles. If the Soulbearer had been anyone other than Arden, he would’ve ended this conversation with a solid whack of his sword’s hilt against the skull. It always shut Loku up in the past. “I think your assessment is a tad off there, Loku.”

“Please stay out of this for you own safety, Sir Devarius,” Ivis ordered.

“Yes, please do stay out of this conversation, Dev,” Loku added with a dismissive wave of his hand. “We both know what you told my little Soulbearer seconds before Empress Tight-Ass interrupted you. And we all know how easy it was for her to sneak past the secure confines of the Conclave a few months ago.”

The Empress’s eyes transformed to the color of polished steel. “Then I will have to assist Marist with casting a stronger spell.”

“You can’t channel magic through her like I can through Arden. I can see it all now. Loku, the Magnificent. Loku, the Merciful. Loku, the sole deity of Ranello.” Loku’s laughter bordered on maniacal now.

Ivis’s gaze darkened, and a powerful wave of magic swept through the room to silence Loku. “Why are you making the mistake of telling me your plan, knowing full well I’ll thwart you at every turn?”

“Because, dear Ivis, I know how much my Soulbearer loves her homeland, and I want to keep her happy. If you can convince your High Priestess to help Kell drive out the Thallians, I promise not to be so…” Loku fiddled Arden’s fingers in the air as though he were searching for the right word, “…apparent in my assistance.”

Both of the Empress’s brows rose under Ivis’s control. “I never thought I’d see the day where you’d be willing to do something without taking full credit for it. What are you hoping to gain with your modest assistance?”

“Like I said, I want to keep her happy.”

And Dev knew why. A happy Soulbearer was less likely to use containment spells. “He wants to restore her trust in him so he can manipulate her later.”

Loku made a clucking sound with his tongue. “One of these days, Dev, you’ll learn she’s not like the other Soulbearers. She’s very special to me, and I don’t mean because of her tits.”

Ivis cleared her throat. “Please keep the conversation civil, Loku.”

“When have you ever known me to be civil? Besides, you like my unfiltered bluntness, Ivis. I make your life a little more unpredictable and a lot more fun.”

Dev had once heard Loku say life was dull without a little chaos, and as long as Arden was the Soulbearer, his life would never be dull.

Much to his astonishment, a coy smile appeared on the Empress’s lips. “Too bad you don’t have a body anymore.”

Loku’s roguish charm vanished, and the dangerous edge returned to the room. “Then at least take me seriously with this. Arden will leave for Ranello soon, with or without Marist’s assistance, and I’m determined to give my Soulbearer whatever she desires any way I can.”

The yellow-green glow in Arden’s eyes flickered out, and she fell onto her hands and knees.

Dev ran to her. The dazed expression on her face pinched at his heart and fanned his anger for the chaos god. Did Arden have any idea what Loku did to her body every time he seized command of it? He tucked her head under his chain and held her close while the effects wore off.

The Empress remained in her chair, the silver shimmer in her eyes dulling. When she spoke, it was in her own voice again. “Ivis has relayed some rather disturbing news to me, Sir Devarius.”

“You don’t know the half of it.”

“In your opinion, is Loku capable of carrying out his threat?”

“And then some.” All of which endangered the woman he loved. “If I had a choice, I would keep Arden here, but I know better than to expect that. I ask you not as her Empress but as her cousin, please agree to send some reinforcements with her so she won’t unleash that monster.”

“And jeopardize the security of my borders in the process.” She went to the window overlooking her almost repaired gardens, staring at the workers who filled in the massive sinkhole created when Loku battled Nelos in the underground temple. “If I side with Ranello in this battle, I risk further alienating our peace with Thallus.”

“Begging your pardon, Your Majesty, but I think Thallus has already jeopardized the peace between our nations by threatening Gravaria.” Arden stirred against him, and his breath hitched. What if he hadn’t been able to get her out of Ranello before the invasion? Would he still be holding her now? “I don’t want any harm to come to her, mentally or physically.”

The Empress bunched her skirt up into her fists, and a wince of pain strained her already pointed features. “Very well, I will agree to discuss what kind of aid I can give Prince Kell. No promises, though.”

His worry ebbed. Even if Empress Marist could spare a dozen skilled mages, it would take some of the burden off Arden. “Thank you, Your Majesty.”

“Yes, thank you, Marist,” Arden said in a voice weak from exhaustion. “Shall I contact him now for you?”

The Empress released her skirt finger by finger, her mask of composure sliding into place. It was a mask Dev knew far too well. Whatever hint of emotion she’d revealed before was buried under duty. “Yes, please do.”