Shit. What had she gotten into? How on earth could she face a monster like that alone? “Is there anyone here who is a good guy?”
She winced as she shook her head. “He exterminated those who he couldn’t threaten or blackmail to join his side.” Taking a deep breath, she stretched as if working out a cramp. “Mother, Nik, and I are the only ones he doesn’t own. And the only reason we are still alive is because he needs the royal family alive to give the appearance of being respectable and the rightful king. It almost killed my mother to marry him, but she did it to protect Niki and give him time to get his revenge on Arcos’s offspring, find the Uniter, and return to the throne.” She rinsed the rag and rubbed it over her neck. “Fydor would have killed him years ago if she hadn’t married him. We kept hoping Niki would change his mind and step into the place of king while he searched, but he was so crazy with grief over Father’s death and completely consumed with revenge, he didn’t see what Fydor was doing.” She wiped the blood on her forearms and rinsed the rag in the now red water. “I didn’t either, at first. Not until I heard Mother screaming at night. Then I figured it out. That’s when I started…” She covered her face. “Doing my part to distract him. To relieve Mother and give Niki time to find and kill you. But then you turned out to be the Uniter as well, and things got complicated.”
Elena was horrified.
She took a ragged breath. “Well, now you’ve been found.” She dipped the rag in the water again. “And Niki’s time is running out. What do you plan to do? You’re supposed to be the answer to the problem. The cure. The miracle. The Uniter.”
Elena’s chest felt like it was being squeezed, and she couldn’t get a breath. She had no idea what she was going to do. Hell, she didn’t even know what she could do. This family had suffered so much. And Nik was probably suffering right now. She had to stop it. “How many men does he have?”
Aleksi pulled a bathrobe out of her wardrobe. “Thousands. Tens of thousands. He commands my father’s army and the Slayer Elite Forces in addition to the armies of other species he has blackmailed and bribed into submission.”
“No. I mean how many people here, right now in the castle that would defend him.”
“Most are only loyal out of fear. If he’s on the losing side of a battle, they will follow the winner. If Nik took the throne, most would fall away from Fydor immediately to follow him. My uncle only holds them through ill-gotten power. And I know he’s behind the death of my father. I just can’t prove it. If I could, this would all be over.”
“How many?”
“Thirty tops. Maybe ten at this time of night.”
Elena thought about Uza’s cat shifters and how she had fended at least thirty off. How her body had sensed where they were and when they would strike. Right now, her best hope was that she could do that again with tougher opponents and much higher stakes. And she felt strong, too. Nik’s and Ricardo’s blood had made her powerful. She could do this.
“Is Nik in the tower opposite this one?”
“Probably. The dungeon is under the building, but the tower is where Fydor likes to work. He calls it his rec room.”
A plan began to formulate. “Who is in the dungeon?”
Aleksandra took a large towel and wiped off her chest and abdomen. “Fydor’s enemies. Well, the ones that he hasn’t killed yet because they might become useful. Ow. Shit.” She patted at a nasty-looking gash over her ribs.
“How many guards?”
She leaned down to wipe her legs. “At this time of night, two in the front hall, one will be in the rec room if that’s where he’s holding Niki, one outside my mother’s room, and two in the dungeon.”
“Do people know about the prophecy of the Uniter?”
“Everyone does. Everyone is waiting. If you reveal yourself as the Uniter, some will fall away from Fydor’s hold just because of the prophecy.”
Perfect. “Will they recognize the symbol of the Uniter?”
She smiled. “Of course. Nik bears the whole prophesy, but every Slayer bears the symbol. They appeared on our skin at the moment of the kings’ deaths. Fydor says it is black magic. A curse. Probably because he doesn’t bear the mark.”
“Awesome. Are you feeling up to a fight tonight?”
Aleksandra’s smile was huge. “I will be. Just need some more time to recoup.”
She smiled back. “I have a plan, but first I need to borrow some clothes, and I want you to tell me everything you know about your uncle.”
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Fydor paced the far end of the cell. Nikolai knew there was no way in the world his uncle was going to buy this sack of lies. No way in hell. Nobody was that stupid. He wiggled his fingers to keep them from going to sleep. The cuffs chaining him to the wall were not tight, but they kept his hands above his shoulders.
Fydor stopped pacing and faced him, hands behind his back. “So, you will agree to stand on the balcony and swear allegiance to me in front of witnesses and a gathering of subjects?”