Red and Her Wolf (Kingdom, #3)

Looking at her, he felt anger and grief. It shouldn’t be this way. She was laughing, blue eyes twinkling at something Marika said. If only he could have been there for her that night, held her and nurtured her back to health, things would be so different now.

“Have you had a moment to read the scroll I gave you earlier, wolf?” Kermani asked as the small child laid a gilded silver hookah before them. Reaching out, the slight man grabbed one hose and handed him another.

“Sheesha?” he asked, shaking the hose at him.

Ewan had smoked a time or two with Jinni and never found the taste appealing, but he took the tube and nodded. “A little.”

Kermani inhaled and reclined back once more, a look of contemplation drawn across his brows. “Have you read the scrolls yet?”

His countenance and voice were modulated, polite. But a greedy gleam burned like flame in his dark brown eyes.

Ewan shook his head, pulling in a small amount of the perfumed tobacco. There was a taste of ripe cherries, slightly bitter and astringent on his tongue, but better than the stuff Jinni forced him to inhale.

The scrolls Kermani referred to were the ones he’d handed Ewan the moment Violet had been taken to the bath. His second set of directions from Miriam, and though curiosity burned him, he wanted to study the document at his leisure. “Nay,” he said around a puff of water laced smoke.

“How many stops have you?”

Something about the way the slight man asked gave Ewan pause. Rather than answer directly he shrugged and said, “several.”

“Ah.” Kermani nodded, rubbing his jaw, eyes glinting with something akin to fascination. “Indeed.”

Talk ceased after that as a troop of women covered in sheer red and purple gauzy linens entered the room, heralded by the sounds of bells attached at their hips and ankles. Their laughter was effervescent as they swished and swayed, moving with the casual grace of a jungle predator. A seduction meant to tease, but nothing more.

Ewan glanced at Violet and this time, she was looking at him. Cold, violent hate glittering in the depths of ice blue eyes.

***

Grabbing his forehead, Ewan leaned back against the cold wall of his room. Again there were nothing but pillows scattered everywhere. A thin, rough mat would serve as his bed. He looked at the weathered scroll beside his foot.

Kermani had insisted he’d not read the letter, but, something about the way he’d asked with that avaricious gleam in his eyes made Ewan wonder.

Where was she? Soon after the dancing ended, Violet had been spirited away, and save for that one moment when she’d glared at him with unconcealed hatred, she’d never acknowledged him.

“Bloody hell,” he growled rubbing at the ache spreading through his left temple.

Maybe he’d imagined it all, Kermani’s look and Violet’s distaste.

He snorted, she was safe and his mate. The rest would come with time, for now, he must focus on the task at hand, seeing her safely to Malvena’s castle.

Breaking the wax seal with his thumb, Ewan opened the scroll. It was blank. Flipping it over, he was shocked to notice it was blank also.

“What is this?”

The moment the words left his lips the scroll flew from his hands, hanging suspended before his face. Pearlescent light danced across its surface and then Miriam’s soft voice filled his room with a distant echo.

“Greetings, my wolf. I am happy to know ye’ve made it safely to the thief’s den. A word of caution before I proceed, trust no one. Tell nothing of your trek. We can all be bought for a price. Kermani is a good man, but caution is always best…”

Frowning, Ewan glanced around. There were no doors, but he was all alone, in a separate section of the underground home. Kermani had thought it indecent to allow him to sleep too close to his harem.

He licked his lips.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t tell ye more before, there was no time. I hope ye’ve destroyed the map I gave ye earlier, there are spies everywhere. Dani and I will travel a circuitous route, our hope is to arrive at the same time ye do with Violet. Ye and the girl will travel by dream stone, I’ve hidden them along the way. Press the stone and a portal will open to yer next location. Do not engage Malvena until we have arrived. Violet is strong, but she is young and untried. I did my best and raised her with all the love I could…”

The scurry of feet caught his attention; he glanced down to notice a mouse scuttling through a small hole in the wall opposite. Hyper aware and sensitive to his surroundings, he prayed Miriam’s message would be brief.

“It is time to tell ye of yer mate, of the darkness that keeps her soul captive…”

Like a fist had punched through his heart, he sat up straighter, desperate to learn more.

“She was conceived of dark magic, as I’m sure Dani told ye by now,” the voice turned distant and thoughtful, “perhaps it was wrong, to keep her na?ve of her past. But it was the only way I knew to nurture the hate. Ye see, her magic cannot be worked through good. She is powerful, very powerful, but it is only through hate that her magic can work. So I let her hate ye. For that, I’m sorry…”