Chapter 402

The whole Throne Room seemed to be silent as everyone watched and Elain couldn't make her legs work to get to her feet. She sat at the bottom of the dais as her mate rose, his russet and gold eyes on the faeries who looked down on them. A sound like that a feral cat might make slipped out of Lucien, low and threatening, and Elain was glad that she had not been on the receiving end of that threat. Rian laughed, however, and Elain wondered if he wasn't entirely sane.

"Your seat?" Colm asked in response to what Helion had said to him.

"Yes." Helion appeared relaxed and like he hadn't just spent the better part of an hour battling his way through endless soldiers.

"Why don't you take it from me?"

"I will." Elain heard the promise in those words, and she wondered how Colm and Rian were still standing their ground. She would have bolted from the room long ago.

Looking at both Lucien and Helion standing side by side, it would have been impossible not to noticed the similarities between the two. If Elain had not known the truth about Lucien's parentage, she would have known about it then. The way the two of them stood, holding themselves tall and ready, she could see just what her mate had inherited from his father. The expressions on their faces were near mirror identical, and she just knew that when they moved, that feline grace would be apparent in both of them.

"That remains to be seen." Colm said almost conversationally.

Helion turned his head then, his amber eyes taking in the bodies nearby, and what had been done to the members of his Court, and Elain felt the chill in the air. She realised then that warm and sunny were not the only kind of days that existed, and the High Lord was quickly spiralling into something much colder than she had seen before from him.

"Are you out of your fucking mind?" Lucien asked, and Colm's surprise was evident on his face, "Do you seriously think you have any kind of leverage or power here? Your soldiers are dead; you have lost."

"And yet," Colm leaned forward, "I am the one sitting on the Throne."

He was delusional. Elain stared at Colm, unable to comprehend how he thought that this was going to go well for him. All Helion had to do was walk up those stairs and rip Colm off the Throne. It would be over. Her gaze fell on Rian then, and she grew a little uncertain. It wouldn't be over while that guy was breathing. It wouldn't be over while either of them were breathing, she knew that. Even if Helion threw Colm out, ostracised him, there would still be those loyal to him. There would still be support for him within the Court, and that was not something that anyone could afford to allow. Elain had said it herself to Colm; this would end in blood.

"You have dared…" Helion's voice was icy, and all eyes turned to him as he turned back to the dais, to the faerie sitting on his Throne, "to come into my Palace, to murder members of my Court, and attempt to usurp my throne…"

Colm just looked down at him, a dismissive sneer across his face. "I have dared when no one else would."

"You have attempted," Helion went on, "To have me killed, as well as my heir," Amber eyes flicked toward Elain, "and you have assaulted members of my family."

"And you have proven you can do nothing about it." Colm sniffed, "You are not fit to be High Lord."

"I am High Lord," Helion replied, "And you are hereby sentenced to execution."

"Go ahead and try." Colm lifted a hand and clicked his fingers. Immediately Rian stepped forward and a shimmer appeared to hang in the air between the two on the dais and the rest of them. Some kind of shield? Elain stared. She knew that Rian's shield would deflect anything thrown at them, and that nobody would be able to walk through it. She glanced at Lucien then, hearing his metallic eye clicking and whirring. Lucien surveyed the faeries on the dais, and Elain could just about see his mind working, taking in every detail as he reassessed the situation.

"Is that your plan, then?" Helion asked, "Hold a shield forever while you sit up there, claiming to be High Lord?"

"Not at all." Colm answered, sounding marginally more confident now he evidently felt safer behind Rian's shield.

From somewhere behind them someone fired an arrow. Elain jumped with a start as the bolt came out of nowhere, flashing past them before it struck the shield and ricocheted off somewhere to the left. Colm laughed, leaning back on the Throne like he was having a wonderful time. Elain looked then to Rian whose face was stoic and unreadable. Why was he the one exerting all of this power while Colm did little but sit and run his mouth?

"He's using you, Rian." She said, the words slipping out before she had properly considered what she wanted to say, if she wished to speak at all.

Cold eyes flicked her way and Rian snarled, his lip curling as he looked at her. "What would you know of anything? Five minutes ago you were a disgusting mortal."

Elain shook her head. "He's using your abilities to get what he wants." She held that cold stare, even as shivers moved through her. "Look at what is happening. You're the one doing everything while he just sits there."

"He raised me." Rian snarled, "Took me into his house…"

"For the abilities you have that he does not." Elain said slowly.

"No." Rian glared, "He saw potential in me." He was in complete denial, that was clear, "And now it is my turn to give back, to do my part."

"And what do you get as a reward?" Lucien asked, "When he's the one who gets to be High Lord?"

Rian's cold eyes turned toward Lucien then, and Elain felt some relief that he was no longer looking at her. "I get to be the heir."

"You're not his blood." Lucien countered.

"Amala is." Rian said, "And once we are handfasted…"

"Amala would never be handfasted to you!" Tisia's voice sounded incredulous from the group who had come to stand nearby, behind their High Lord.

"She'll do as she's told." Rian snapped. Considering how quickly Amala had fled the room earlier, Elain wondered if that were entirely true. While what she had done was truly awful, and resulted in the death of so many, Amala's hand had clearly been forced. Elain definitely felt a little sorry for her, and wondered now where she was. Had she gotten out of the Palace? Was she hiding?

"Enough." Colm sighed, waving a hand at Rian who fell silent. Lucien gave a small chuckle at the way the dark-haired male had obeyed without question, and his amusement was clearly not lost on Rian whose face flushed just a little. "We have our plans… we even have plans for some of you." His eyes moved out over the crowd, over those who were left standing. "Several handfastings in fact. There are a lot of eligible Courtiers loyal to me who could do with a female to warm their beds of a night."

"In your fucking dreams." Elain did not need to look around to know that Kera had been the one to voice her disagreement.

Colm ignored Kera's words, however, and went on. "Amala tells me that several members of the Court have useful abilities."

Elain looked to Rian, raising one of her eyebrows. She wondered if he noticed that Colm was blatantly doing it again; hunting for the abilities of others that he could use to his own ends. When the dark-haired male snarled, she knew that he had caught that, and was displeased with the comparison.

"And just what do you deem useful?" Lucien asked, his voice seemingly casual but when she looked at him, Elain could plainly see the thoughtful expression on his face. She had always loved that look, where she could see him thinking, and it gave her comfort now.

"A seer, for instance." Colm replied and Elain reluctantly looked at him, taking in his unpleasant smile. "I'm sure I can find a room just for you," he said to her, "Keep you nice and safe; somewhere you can have your visions…"

"She'll not be your pet." Lucien growled, and Colm gave another false smile. Elain felt sick and an unbidden image swam before her eyes.

Her hands pressed against the firm wood of the locked door. There was no give, no way to open it. There never was. She turned, looking around the room; the cell. For that was what it was. A bed sat against the far wall, a desk by the single window. There was a bathroom on the right, and that was it. Elain walked across to the window and looked out. Below lay most of the Palace, but she had not been down there in weeks. She had not left this room. Moving to the desk, Elain picked up the book which sat there. She had finished it days ago, but nobody had come to replace it with another. Sighing, she looked at the locked door again. Nobody ever came except Colm when he had questions he wanted answered, when he wanted her to see things to help him. She hadn't seen Lucien at all.

Shivering, Elain shook her head. That was a future she did not want, and the fact that it seemed to be a possibility frightened her. There was no way that she was going to allow that horrible male to lock her away in some distant room in the palace to waste her life as his personal seer and prisoner. To not see Lucien…