had been deep underground, I realized when we emerged from the stairwell into a grand foyer, sparkling and gleaming in gold. It was so bright that I momentarily had to shield my eyes with my shackled hands.
“Hurry,” the older male snapped back at me and the guard pushed me forward. My bare footsteps rasped across the hard, cold floor. We came to a stop in front of two large doors, one with a depiction of Kakkari and the other with a depiction of who I assumed was Drukkar.
The Dakkari’s deities.
I didn’t study them for long before the doors were pushed open and we stepped into the throne room. A grand, cavernous hall that seemed endless. It took everything in me not to gape. I didn’t think I’d ever been in a room so large. White columns and archways soared overhead and I craned my neck to see where they ended.
The grand hall was sparsely furnished, except for a high dais with a single, golden throne atop it. Lozza had one similar. Before the dais was a wide space. Perhaps for dancing and the celebrations I’d heard the Dakkari were so fond of, or for public hearings.
Or private sentencings, I thought, my gaze zeroing in on the group of males that sat around a magnificent long table. It was set off to the left of the hall, nestled before large archways that opened to the outside, that allowed a cool breeze to whistle around the wide columns. And beyond that, there was a perfect view of Dothik, in all its glittering glory. With its tall turrets and high, safe walls.
The older male scurried forward, stooping down next to the male at the head of the table and speaking into his ear.
The Dothikkar.
He was everything I’d envisioned the Dothikkar would be. Advancing in his years, intimidating with his cool glare, and downright terrifying. Though his waist was larger than I thought it’d be—his belly was spilling over the waist of his trews—he still made an imposing figure, lounging back in his chair as if it were a throne.
He met my gaze, his expression darkening at whatever the older male whispered into his ear. When his eyes tracked down my body, I remembered again that I was practically nude and shifted my shackled wrists until they were shielding my breasts from his view.
It was then that I looked at the others seated around the table and all the breath in my lungs whistled out in what sounded like a terrified whimper. Instinctively, I stepped back, gathering energy, imagining it shielding me, but I still had not recovered it.
If I thought the Dothikkar was intimidating, it was nothing compared to the sheer terror of being in the presence of the seven other males seated around the table.
Especially one in particular.
Blood started rushing in my ears when I met the thunderous expression of the Dakkari male from last night. His hair was pulled back from his face, emphasizing his strong cheekbones, the granite line of his jaw, his lips, but it did nothing to diminish the ferocity and rage in his gaze. He scowled, his scar pulling down, his eyes locked on me like I was prey.
Why is he here? I thought wildly. Is he a guard, after all? But if he is, why didn’t he turn me in? Why let me go?
“If you stare at my Vorakkars like that, vekkiri,” came a low voice, “they may take offence.”
Vorakkars.
The hall swayed, black spots pricking my vision. I would’ve stumbled had the guard from the dungeon not been gripping my forearm.
Echoing footsteps brought my attention back to the Dothikkar, the king of Dakkar, and the male I’d been tasked to speak with.
Only my tongue felt swollen in my mouth and my gaze kept flickering back to male whose red eyes burned into me, leaning forward at the Dothikkar’s table.
He was a Vorakkar.
They all were.
I’d heard stories of them all my life. Frightening tales my mother had whispered to us into the night, making them seem more monster than male. Terrible feats of strength and cruelty that they waged in their endless wars, ancient kings in their own right, lording over the lands of Dakkar where even the Dothikkar’s influence and power could not reach.
My father had been killed under a Vorakkar’s orders.
And last night, one had had me in his possession. I remembered the darkness in his mind and I knew, right then, that my mother’s stories had been true. That they were more monster than