Chapter 390

I allow a tiny smile to find my lips as my eyes move over Elias’s tense face. He holds my gaze, determined and afraid, and I decide suddenly that he’s…either an excellent actor or very, very earnest.

“He’s fine,” I whisper, nodding quietly to this Atalaxian prince. Immediately, the tension goes out of his shoulders and he exhales a long breath. “He’s fine, Elias. Totally fine.”

He nods, sharp, and looks down at the table as color flushes in his cheeks. “Please. How do you know he’s fine?”

“Because I saw him yesterday,” I say quietly, still studying him. “His name is Ben. He’s one of my best friends.”

A shudder passes through Elias’s shoulders and he raises a hand to his face, covering his eyes. As Elias takes a moment to compose himself I try to think like Faiza, try to understand the stakes here. Because on one hand, Elias could be a man who just shoved a pitcher of cream off the table so his Luna would leave the room, so he could ask me the burning questions he’s had about his mate for…months.

On the other hand, if the Atlaxians are clever – and they are clever, no matter how much I despise the men who control this nation – then couldn’t they put this man here? With this very sad story, just to gain my trust? To play the role of the unhappily married man whose mate is in Moon Valley, just to tug on my heart strings, to see him as my ally? I tilt my head, considering this, considering Elias, wondering – really – what is his stake in this conversation?

Still, my wolf nudges me inside. Except, she urges, we know that Ben is his mate. He can’t fake that. You know how you feel about your mates – the connection…it trumps all else.

But allegiance to a nation? Would it…would it trump that? Would my allegiance to Jackson be stronger than my dedication to Moon Valley?

My wolf whines, uneasy and unsure.

I sigh briefly through my nose, confused. But there’s hardly any time to think on it as Elias again raises his head. “Thank you, Ariel,” he says, quite soft, meeting my eyes. “I am eternally grateful to you for telling me that. It has been…a strain on my heart. You didn’t have to tell me anything at all – especially considering the horrible way that Gabriel snatched you away from everyone you love – and yet you’re kind enough to assure me that my mate is well. You’re a kind person.”

I blink passively at Elias, determined to continue playing dumb and pretty, pretending most of that went over my head. But still, I need information, and Elias – he seems like he knows a great deal about what’s going on here.

“Why…why did they take me away from my family?” I ask quietly, shaking my head at him. “I mean, I am grateful to meet my mate –“

Elias smirks, either seeing through the lie or quietly suggesting that I patently should not be.

“- but surely there were other ways to do it? Especially if…he is determined to make me his Luna?” Softly, I shake my head. “My father isn’t going to respond lightly on a man who did not ask for his permission.”

Elias sighs and shakes his head. “You can ask more blandly than you are, Ariel,” he says, looking seriously into my eyes. “This naïve Princess act – it will be good for the rest of the court, but I promise – you don’t need to do it with me. I’m well aware of who you are – and Gabriel is too. Your cousin’s mate made sure of that.”

“My cousin’s mate?” I snap out, leaning forward, narrowing my eyes. “Do you – do you know something…”

Elias shakes his head, reading the panic in my words. “If something happened to Jesse, I don’t know what it is. What I meant is…well, I don’t know if you know this, but his mate is a creature of Darkness. She’s a very proficient shadow mage who has been using her skills to spy on all of you for weeks. Whatever she knows, Gabriel knows too. Which is how we know that those flames in this battle and the last were yours, and no one else’s.”

Inwardly I scowl, but outwardly I keep my face plain, giving nothing away.

Elias smirks at me. “You’ll be glad to know,” he says quietly, taking another sip of his coffee, “that you’ve really pissed off my uncle and my cousin – the King, and his heir. You completely wiped out our air force with that final blaze – so well done on that. They’re scrambling, now, to figure out how to continue the assault on Moon Valley without one.”

I can’t help but huff a little laugh and shake my head. “Why are you telling me this, Elias?” I wonder, passively, if it’s a lie. But…why tell me lies? It’s not like I’m going to be able to go home and report on them. Simply to further my trust in him? “Whose side are you on?”

“I,” Elias says, quietly putting his coffee back down on the table, “am on whatever side gets me the hell out of this place, Ariel. Although I should more properly say ‘us,’ because I’m not leaving without Pippa or our child.”

My eyes widen in surprise as Elias looks over at the door.

“Pippa is the only good thing in this entire damned place,” he says, quite soft, almost as if watching for her. “She is purely good, in every sense of the term, but I can’t stand to see – every day – how this world crushes down her spirit, obliges her to be smaller to serve the needs of the men in her life. Me included. And our child,” he sighs, turning back to me and locking his eyes with mine. “Is a girl.”

Instantly, I understand. Because I’m not a mother – and honestly, I’ve never given a lot of thought about whether or not I want to be. But the idea of raising a little girl in this horrible world? Where she can’t even shake hands with a man and will be bought and sold through marriage?

No. Absolutely not.

But even as I understand everything Elias has said, I keep my face smooth and calm, blinking at him like a very simple deer who only understands every fourth word that he said.

Elias smirks at me. “I hope you’ll learn to trust me at some point,” he murmurs, tracing the edge of his coffee cup with the tip of his finger. “But I understand now why you don’t. But I promise, you, Ariel – I’m on your side. I’ve done a great deal of work to ensure that Gabriel trusts me, but the moment I get a chance to run? I’m leaving. And…I hope you’ll help me with that. For Pippa, if not for me. She’s my best friend – has been since we were little children.”

I stay very still, my heart aching for this poor man who I hope very much is telling the truth. I want more than anything to lean forward and take his hand, to promise him that I’ll do everything I can to help.

But even as my wolf howls, I just…don’t have enough information yet. I don’t know if I can trust him.

The door’s handle clicks and Pippa saves me, slipping back into the room with another little jug of cream neatly balanced on her hand. “Back!” she says, smiling cheerfully at both of us and slipping the pitcher onto the table. “I hope I wasn’t too long. Did you get on okay?”

“Yes,” I say, smiling up at her, which is easy. “Elias was just telling me that you met as children.”

“Oh,” she says, glancing at me and blushing a little before straightening up and smoothing a hand over her baby bump. “Yes, and now we’ve got one of our own on the way. Such an exciting time.”

She smiles prettily at me and takes her seat next to Elias, leaning happily against him. And as I look between the two I wonder…well, I wonder actually how much of it is a façade between them. Is the love between them quite real? Is it a friendship, a marriage of convenience? Or has Elias been lying to Pippa the whole time, ruthlessly using her as his beard in a world where he desperately needs one to survive?

My wolf nips me internally, almost making me jump. Not Ben’s mate, she says, her teeth flashing a bit. Someone mated to our Benny couldn’t possibly be that cruel.

But as the door creeks open again and my eyes dart towards it, finding a very cruel man indeed standing there, leaning against the door frame, leering at me like he can’t wait to tear me to shreds…

I wonder if that can be true.

Because here’s a man that I’m mated to – unequivocally. And he is…absolutely horrible.

Does this mean that…some part of me his horrible too?

Or is something else going on?