WAIT FOR LOVE (Lovemark #4)

4. Olivander-1

4

Olivander

The king had already retired for the night to his royal bedchambers.

Since I wasn’t being summoned to the throne room where his scribe was commissioned to notate everything he discussed for public record, the conversation he wanted to have should be a private matter between father and son and have nothing to do with state affairs at all.

But I had a feeling King Ignatius broke protocol all the time in that regard and had participated in more under-the-table chats away from his sanctioned throne room than he had in it.

So I still had no idea what he wanted to discuss as the guard knocked on his door and then opened it for me after a voice called from within, beckoning us inside.

Brushing past the metal-clad sentry, I entered the main receiving room and stopped short, waiting for further instruction as the door shut behind me.

In front of me, the chamber loomed into a forest of sculpted mahogany, whose trunks had been stripped and diced into ornately carved designs as they now supported tables and sofas and chairs. Warm tones of dark green, mauve, and gold decorated the space, not having changed much since the queen had been alive and chosen everything with discerning care.

Ahead, double doors yawned open into the inner boudoir, where I could see two pairs of bare feminine legs tangled in the silken sheets on the royal mattress. Giggles and moans filtered into the receiving room where my father sat at the wide table before his evening meal.

Ignoring the sounds echoing from his bed, he concentrated on meticulously cutting a thick wedge of steak into small portions before piercing one slice with a fork and dunking it into a dark sauce. Once he took a bite, he closed his eyes and murmured his delight, chewing heartily.

He’d taken off his crown for the evening and wore only a dressing robe that gaped open enough at the chest to tell me he wore nothing under it and had most likely already entertained his guests in the other room. Thus, he was merely taking a break now for supper before he returned to them again.

Having gone through this song and dance many times in my life, I stood waiting, knowing he’d get to me when he was ready and not a moment sooner. It was a vain pleasure of his to keep his summoned visitors in suspense, always wondering if they were about to be punished or rewarded and sweating it out until the moment was most inconvenient for them.

It was ill-advised to try to get his attention before he was ready to give it, either. That kind of insult always ended in punishment.

Folding my hands behind my back, I ignored the sound of the harem women keeping themselves occupied with each other and I looked up at the life-size portrait of my mother that graced the far wall.

Erick had once told me everything had been different in the castle when she’d been alive. He’d been seven when she’d died giving birth to my youngest brother, Urban, so he actually remembered how life had been before her demise. I’d only been two at the time, and thus this was all I knew.

But apparently, Mother and Father had been true loves. And the king had been an entirely different man, then. He had cared, Erick swore to me. The queen had made him better as a ruler, better as a father, better as a man. And he’d pampered her relentlessly, guiding the kingdom however she saw fit.

Upon her unfortunate expiration, however, he’d turned bitter and resentful, and over the years, he’d become the tyrant who sat before me now.

“Mmm. Vander,” he called in greeting after he lifted a goblet and washed down the steak, pretending that he hadn’t noticed me standing there for a full ten minutes.

I bowed respectfully, accustomed to my place in his presence. “You wished to see me, Your Majesty?”

“Yes.” Motioning with the goblet, he offered me to join him at the table. “Sit. Sup with your old father, won’t you? It’s been an age since we last dined together.”

Erick had also told me the entire royal court had dined together every night in the great dining hall when Mother had been alive. The queen had adored family time and unity and doing many things as a collective. But the king rarely called for us to eat with him these days, only whenever someone important was visiting.

Knowing better than to refuse him, even though I’d eaten hours ago when I’d sent for a tray to my room. I’d shared the meal with Dori, so no one would know I had company, yet even then, the kitchen always sent up enough that we both still went away full. So I wasn’t hungry in the least.

I picked up a spoon, regardless, and dipped it into the soup bowl that was placed before me.

“I was growing concerned,” the king said, shrewdly watching me sip, as if looking for any reason to critique me. A single c***k in my composure.

He found none.

Lifting an eyebrow, I murmured a placid, “Oh?”

“Yes,” he answered. “You hadn’t come to me with your report yet.”

I paused before taking the next spoonful and met his gaze fully. “My report?”

“Why, Olivander.” He set down his own fork to blink at me in exasperation. “You just returned home from a trip that left my Teller emissary as well as the King of Lowden dead. Why would you not report that to me?”

“I…” Blinking because he made it sound as if it were my fault that the two had been slain—and it most certainly was not—I calmly took a breath and then said, “I thought I had reported everything. Did your advisor not tell you all I had told him?”

He frowned. “Of course, but I would’ve liked to hear it straight from your lips. Yet you didn’t even bother to see me about the matter at all.”

“My apologies, Father. I will, of course, repeat everything verbatim to you again, if that is your wish.”

“It is.” He splayed out a hand and sat back on his chair. “Proceed.”

With a nod, I began, replicating the lie I’d given his top advisor, Illwyn, when I had returned to the castle yesterday.

“My men and I were traveling to the village of Ashley to see about acquiring a new mount for my mate’s upcoming birthday.”

Unity’s birthday was approaching in about two moon cycles, and I had indeed been intending to get her another mare for the occasion and sending it over to Tipton for her. But I’d long ago chosen which horse I wanted to purchase.

The true reason for my trip had actually been because I’d received an urgent coded message from Erick, asking me to meet him in Belle.

In Belle, I’d been shocked to learn that Indigo was back in High Cliff, where he’d traveled from the Kingdom of Far Shore. He was here, looking for his mate he’d recently sensed, which—surprise, surprise—was a f*****g Graykey.

Apparently, Quilla Graykey had been kidnapped by my father’s men and was being held captive somewhere, tortured for information about the whereabouts of other possible Graykeys.

“But before I ever made it to Ashley,” I went on, “my men and I were met on the road by the traveling party of King Tomrick.”

That part of the tale was, fortunately, all true. It was nice to be able to stick to the truth as much as possible. Made the likelihood of being caught in your own fabrications much smaller.

Lips thinning with displeasure because he knew what I was going to say next, the king frowned and began to tap his fingers impatiently on the tabletop. He always did that when something disturbed him.

“I greeted him, of course,” I went on with a nod, “and invited him to pause and take a moment of respite with me.”

“And you didn’t even bother to ask what his reasons for being in our kingdom were?” the king snapped irritably.

I nodded once, remaining calm. “I did, of course,” I answered. “And he told me his trip was of a private matter that I wasn’t to question.”

Narrowing his eyes, the king growled low in his throat. “Weren’t you even the slightest bit alarmed by that kind of response?”

“I was most alarmed, Your Majesty. It would’ve been the first thing I reported to you upon my return, if not for everything else that followed.”

More truth.

I’d been extremely concerned by the King of Lowden crossing our border without our knowledge or permission and then basically telling me to f**k off when I’d asked him what he was doing there. It was definitely something I would’ve mentioned to the king. But then…

“Before I could question him further, Indigo showed up, out of nowhere, and threw dirt on the king, revealing his true identity that had been hidden under a clever glamour.”

Mostly lie.

Indigo had not “shown up out of nowhere,” however, because he’d already been with me when the king had appeared on the road. And it hadn’t been the king he’d thrown dirt on but his mate, Quilla, who’d also been glamoured and was being held captive inside the king’s carriage. But we had eventually sussed out the fake king’s true identity under his own glamour, so it seemed like a believable enough lie to feed my father.

“I saw the transformation myself,” I swore with all honesty. And I had been stunned when I had. “The man parading as Tomrick Gill, the King of Lowden, was actually Qualmer Graykey in disguise. After he admitted to slaying Gill and posing as the king ever since he’d taken the crown, my soldiers apprehended him at once.”

Okay, so we’d actually apprehended him before we knew who he really was, and after we’d discovered Indy’s mate in his carriage, but that was a small, insignificant fib that my father would question relentlessly if I admitted it.

“Son of a b***h,” he growled, closing his eyes and fisting his hands before he brought them down aggressively to slam against the tabletop. “I still can’t believe—all that time—years of assuming it was Gill I was dealing with, only to learn it’d been a damned Graykey in disguise. It turns my stomach.”

“I know,” I murmured.

I’d been deceived by the fake king too. He’d visited our palace plenty over the years, and I hadn’t had a clue that we’d been hosting a Graykey the entire time, either.

“Before we could question him much further, Indigo slew the imposter and then freed his mate that was being held captive in the royal Lowden carriage.”

Technically, it hadn’t happened in that order, but otherwise, that was all true too.

The king’s brow furrowed in consternation. “But how the hell was Indigo able to track her?”

Shaking my head, I was once again completely honest when I said, “I have no idea, Your Majesty.”

The king had ordered Indigo’s love mark to be physically cut off him so he was no longer able to sense Quilla’s location. With it on, he would’ve been able to find her anywhere, but without it, the magic senses that tied him to her were severed. And yet…

He’d told me he’d still had a gut feeling he knew where she was.

I assumed it’d merely been his desperation talking; he couldn’t possibly know where to find her without his mark. But I’d agreed to take him that way, looking for her, to humor him, anyway. Yet he’d been right. He’d somehow known where to find her.

That told me the soul mate bond went beyond the mark. And it made me think that maybe Unity and I would make it past this hurdle of getting reacquainted when she came home, too.

Except our reunion would have to be put on hold for a while because of this nonsense.

“Now, tell me again how Indigo and his Graykey w***e were able to escape from you and your guards,” the king ordered, lifting a condemning eyebrow my way.

I bit the inside of my cheek, hating that I had to make my men look incompetent, but to preserve the lie and everyone it protected, it was what needed to be done.

“Well,” I started, only to pause for a short swallow. “There was quite a commotion after the king—er, the Graykey imposter—was killed. Half his soldiers had been an illusion that immediately disappeared upon his death, but the half that remained flesh and blood were just as shocked as we were to learn their beloved king had already been gone these past few years. They had no idea they’d been serving a Graykey. As a result, chaos reigned briefly as everyone tried to make sense of what had just happened and discern who was now a foe and who was a friend. So Indigo must’ve slipped away then, when no one was paying any attention to him. We searched for both him and his mate, of course, but after a time, we thought it more imperative to come home and report everything we’d learned to you.”