Bound by Devotion

Chapter Nine

SO... WARNING! This chapter has one of "those sexy scenes" in it. It's the last. But I said I would warn, so, here it is, lol. 

It IS at the end of the chapter, however. 

Together, they found Cora in the study. She was sitting beside Duglas on the couch. She met Eve's eyes eyes and stood. "What's wrong, Eve?"

"I touched it. I touched the rose. Cora, I know."

She looked confused. "What do you know?"

"The voice. The one that has me do things. I know who it is." Cora glanced at Kornae's face before taking Eve hand. She led her to a seat hand gratefully, Eve sank on it. Kornae sat beside her. "I saw what they did to him. I know where he is. What I don't know how to do it get there."

"Eve, get where? Where is who?"

Eve looked at Cora. "The rightful Shadow king."

Cora dropped back to where she was sitting. "Are you certain?"

"I watched, no... I lived through what they did to him. I know the magic it took. I know the effort it took, how many people it took. Yes, Cora. I'm certain." The Unseelie magic surprised her. Based on who Kornae named, she didn't expect that they had a traitor in their midst. Yet the green magic that helped burn her, no, burn him alive spoke of someone else. Someone who could still be within the palace walls. She glanced at Kornae. She didn't want to say it. Didn't want to put anything else on him.

"What is it?"

Not right now. After this talk, she would tell him. She would tell him and they would deal with it like a Queen and her King.

"Later," she said.

His eyes never left hers. If he was trying to intimidate her into saying, it almost worked, but after a moment, he released. "Done."

She let her breath out slowly.

"The Shadow king has been speaking to you. Obviously, he's not dead. Is that why..." Cora asked, but she was looking at something that Eve couldn't see. "I need to check something. Something that my friend said was only a rumor. You said you touched it?"

"I actually stabbed the thorns in my hand when Kornae scared the hell out of me."

"If you had been doing what you were supposed to be doing, that wouldn't have happened." She turned to him, about to tell him what he could do with his 'supposed to' when she caught the smile.

"Is it still in the library?" she asked, standing again.

"No, well, yes, sort of."

Cora simply looked at her.

"It disintegrated while I, while he, was being imprisoned," Eve said.

Cora's eyes widened. "You took what was sustaining it. It was meant to deliver a message. That's why..." She headed to the door. "Follow me and witness prophecy."

"I've done enough of that," Eve said as she got to her feet. There was a low laugh behind her and no, she was not going to throw herself on the man.

They followed Cora as she made her way to her rooms. "What caught my attention, the day they attacked me, was a rose just like that one."

"And you didn't take it to Naiel?"

She shook her head. "No, and for reasons I'll explain if my suspicions are founded."

They stopped at her door and she waved her hand over it. She led them inside and headed straight to the mantel over the large fireplace in the corner. "It's true." The softness of her voice was almost a reverence. Eve walked up beside her and there on the gleaming black wood, was a pile of ash in the shape of a rose.