stone manor perched among the vast limbs of the trees. As big as an eight-lane highway, the trees branches felt more like roads than vegetation. Her crystal tried to flare to life and tell her all about the trees, but she shut it down. She needed to focus if they were going to outwit Lady Melissi and her allies on the High Congress.
Chapter 10
Gwarnon
He stared at the holographic display of his mother, the technology making it appear as if she actually sat at the table across from him on his ship.
With long, blue streaked black hair like his own and lovely silver eyes, she was one of the most physically beautiful women the Lord of Life had created. She used that beauty like a weapon, though it was ineffective against him. Not only was he her son, but he loathed her and knew her soul and mind were tainted. Despite this fact, she’d dressed for seduction—as usual. Her prefect breasts pressed up in her black Matriarch gown for full effect, the gleam of her bonds evident against her pale skin. Behind her, his four fathers stood, her men either just as depraved as her or too weak to stop her.
At Gwarnon’s side stood Chel, and his blood brother’s hatred for Lady Melissi mixed with Gwarnon’s own. Both men were dressed in their officer’s uniforms, the deep green of Chel’s armor reflecting the light while the black Gwarnon wore seemed to absorb it. Lacey had only been gone for ten hours, but he already seethed with the need to go look for her. Lord Rell swore he would find her, but Gwarnon was running out of patience. With every moment that passed without Lacey, his inner beast got stronger and stronger, clawing at the bonds surrounding his soul, making Gwarnon linger alarmingly close to what his soul knew was the Madness.
He would have lost his mind hours ago if he hadn’t abruptly felt waves of love, so strong they brought him to his knees, resonate through his bond with Lacey.
“Did you really think you could betray me and I would not find out?” Lady Melissi’s image gave Gwarnon the haughty, smug look he hated so much. “That I was oblivious that you were Lord Rell’s lapdog? I have been aware of every one of your pitiful attempts to thwart me. That is why you fail again and again—so pathetic, so stupid. It is a wonder you didn’t choke yourself to death on your birth cord. Why, of all my children, are you the one that survived? Such a waste.”
Gwarnon, used to his mother’s manipulations and caustic words, refused to fall for her bait. He knew without a doubt she was entirely ignorant to the majority of his maneuvers against her. If she had even the slightest clue as to some of the things he’d done to chip away at her empire, he would have been dead long ago, only son or not.
“What do you want, Mother? I have a meeting with the High Congress in a few minutes.”
Her smug smile returned, a vicious pleasure gleaming in her silvery gaze. “I just wanted to look at you one more time before I break you.”
With that, she ended the connection, and Gwarnon let out a low growl. “What is that bitch up to?”
“I do not know, but Lord Rell has contacted me and told me to help you stand strong. That what is to come is going to hurt, but that new dreams rise from the ashes of old ambitions.”
He glanced over at Chel, the green of his armor bringing out the pale green flecks in his blood brother’s hazel eyes. Gwarnon expected to see panic or worry on his brother’s face, but Chel seemed almost serene somehow. Even though it stung, Chel had a stronger bond with Lacey than Gwarnon did. He knew it was partially his fault, but he could not help the envy he experienced knowing Chel could feel their alyah better than him.
“How is she?” he asked Chel on their psychic link.
“Happy, but also worried and anxious,” Chel responded. “Her implant is still blocked to us, so I cannot communicate with her, but wherever she is, she is not in danger.”
“And she is not on Earth, not if we can still feel her,” Gwarnon added, reassuring himself. “Once this is over with, we will find her.”
A high security message came through his implant from Lord Rell.
Trust Lady Elsin and Lady Yanush, though it will go against everything you believe.