Chapter 391

“Get out of here, Elias,” Gabriel snaps, keeping his eyes on me. “I need a moment alone with my Luna.”

I go stiff and so does Pippa, both of us staring at the cruel, blue-eyed prince leaning against the door. My eyes flash between him and Elias, noting their remarkable similarities, though Gabriel is…broader, a bit, and more muscled. And with none of the mobile kindness of a face used to smiling.

“Sorry,” Elias says, light, ignoring his brother’s command. “I’m not finished my breakfast.” Casually, he reaches for a bread roll.

“Out,” Gabriel snarls, taking three steps forward and kicking Elias’s chair.

“Highness,” Pippa says, her voice softer and more tentative than it was before. She hangs her head slightly, not meeting Gabriel’s eyes. “It’s not appropriate for you to be alone with the Princess –“

“Oh, shut up, Pippa,” Gabriel snaps, vicious. “No one asked you.” Pippa’s face colors and her head dips more.

“Watch yourself,” Elias snaps, spinning to his brother, a very real threat in his voice. “Don’t you ever speak to her like that. Besides, she’s right, as usual.”

“Sanctimonious frauds, both of you,” Gabriel says, rolling his eyes before turning them back to me and giving me a lurid little smile. “Besides, I’m just trying to play things on Moon Valley’s terms. Where women are alone with men they’re not married to all the time. To do…whatever they wish.”

His eyes snap with precise deliberation immediately to Luca’s mark on my neck. I flush but fight, hard, the urge to cover the mark with my hand. I don’t say a word, just staring up at my mate, wondering how the hell I’m supposed to manage this.

Because I believe Elias when he said that Gabriel knows things about me – from Jesse’s mate turned spy, apparently. So, playing dumb isn’t going to help me here, is it?

But perhaps playing afraid…

I immediately give into the impulse, my wolf huffing her agreement, and cringe away from Gabriel in my chair, looking up at him with wide and vulnerable eyes.

A slow smile grows on Gabriel’s face and I wonder, again, just how this horrible man can be my mate. What the hell did my grandmother see in him?

“I won’t ask you again, Elias,” Gabriel says, not looking at his brother. “Take your little pet pigeon and get out of here.”

“Good thing you’re done asking,” Elias murmurs, beginning to pour a cup of coffee and adding cream and sugar, pushing it my way across the table. “Because I’m finished telling you that I’m not going anywhere. If you want to have breakfast with us, take a seat. If not, continue lurking in the doorway like some ridiculous vampire who hasn’t been invited in yet.”

My eyes dart to Pippa when I see her shoulders twitch with a laugh, see her flick her eyes to Elias, who gives her a calm wink. And to my surprise, Elias’s quiet composure…works.

Gabriel scowls but he moves into the room and shuts the door behind him. And then he moves to take the little chair next to me, effectively joining our party.

Avoiding the very real impulse to shift into my wolf and bite his stupid face, I turn slightly towards this new mate, still shrinking away from him a bit, playing up my fear. Because, after all, I need information above all else right now. And I have a better chance of getting it if he doesn’t see me as a snarling threat.

“What, Ariel?” Gabriel says, smirking at me as he lounges back in his chair, crossing his leg casually and resting his ankle on his knee. “Trying to burn me up with your pretty flames? Finding that a little difficult at the moment?”

I force my eyes to go wider, as if the idea is terrible to me. Even though I’d do precisely that if I had access to my powers and any way out of the Atalaxian palace alive.

If, even, that’s where I am.

“Where…where has my magic gone?” I ask, my voice tremulous. “I feel so…naked without it.”

Pippa blushes at my phrasing but Elias just continues to eat, buttering his bread, staying steadily at the table and letting me work.

Gabriel’s dirty little smile grows. “I took it away.” He waves a hand around at us. “I’m in complete control here, Ariel. Control of you, of your magic. Of everyone’s magic.”

“How do you do that?” I speak as if in great wonder, even though I’m a little surprised that he’s spilling so much detail so easily. Is it just arrogance? Or a true desire to let me know precisely how captive I am, and him with all the power?

“It is my gift,” he says, shrugging. “From Darkness himself.” Gabriel flicks his wrist, a glowing blue light sparking there, trembling within his hand like lightning held there, or electricity. My eyes go wide at it because…well. That’s very interesting, isn’t it?

“Yes,” Elias murmurs, dry, dusting crumbs off of his hands and onto his place. “Very convenient for the rest of us, to have any of our own magic negated because Gabe needs to have complete control. Explain to me again how your manic need to control everything in the entire court doesn’t amount to a rather insane level of hysterical anxiety, big brother?”

“It has nothing to do with anxiety,” Gabriel snaps. Inwardly, my wolf exaults a bit to see him discomposed by his brother. “My gift is a protectant, a forcefield over this entire court, keeping all other magics that could harm us out –“

“Except those gifted by Darkness,” Elias drawls, lifting his eyes to his brother’s with a smirk. “Convenient for you.”

“Yes,” Gabriel returns, his teeth clenched. “It is. So if you’re finished being jealous and demonstrating your uncertain wit – the only dubious claim you have to talent at all – perhaps I could return to my discussion with my mate?”

Elias shrugs like that doesn’t bother him at all and then leans towards Pippa, perfectly calm, murmuring a question in her ear about whether or not she’d like one of the sweet pastries. As he does, I watch Elias closely – because even if Gabriel has marked Elias as only dubiously clever, he really has given me a great deal of information here.

My magic – that given by the Goddess – it’s not working because Gabriel is blocking it. And he’s not blocking Darkness’s gifts – or can’t – which is the reason why I can still go to that other realm.

But…why all the cages?

“You will attend to me, Ariel,” Gabriel says, low and slow.

I snap my eyes up to him, realizing that I really was lost in my thoughts. I frown a little, not knowing precisely what he means.

“Your attention will be on me, at all times,” he says, leaning forward towards me, holding my gaze. “Like a proper Atalaxian woman and Luna.”

Even as my wolf rankles in me to be so ordered – what nonsense, that a woman’s attention should always be on a man – I straighten my shoulders and turn towards him, willing fear back into my expression and my voice. “Yes, Alpha,” I say quietly, ducking my head a bit. “As you will it.”

He considers me for a moment and then smirks. “I know that you are faking your obedience, Princess,” he says, leaning forward and capturing my chin again, as he did before. It takes a great deal of effort to not clench my jaw, to keep my canines from elongating. Just…letting him do it. “But that is all right. It will all be real soon enough.”

Slowly, I shake my head. “Truly, I am grateful,” I say quietly, attempting hard to be earnest. “I…I wish to be with my mate, of course.”

“Yes,” he drawls, studying my face. “But which one?” He drops my chin as if done with it, a bit disgusted, and then leans back hard in his chair.

Inwardly I scowl, because I didn’t know he knew about Luca and Jackson. Of course, with the mark on my neck clearly I’ve had interactions with men before, but I wouldn’t be the only girl in Moon Valley to have been marked by their lover before they met their mate. Still, clearly he knows – but how much? Does he simply know that they exist, or does he know the details of their stories, their identities?

“How…how do you know about him?” I ask, seeking more information, my hand drifting up to cover the mark on my neck.

“Them,” you mean,” he drawls, smirking at me. “Luca Grant and Jackson McClintock? My intel is good, Ariel. My spy the best.”