Page 131 of The Serpent Prince

Slowly, something was falling apart in his chest.

“You must come and address your people in the throne room. A crowd has gathered outside, demanding to see the new king, ready to pay their respects.” She paused. “Also, Esa is gone. I don’t know how she bypassed the binding, but she disappeared.”

The Drasil. Imani must have broken Esa’s binding before their confrontation.

He pressed his fingers against his forehead. The hole inside him was gaping and bleeding, still raw.

“Kiran,” Zadie pressed again, stepping closer to him. “If you have Imani restrained somewhere, I can go get her. You need your …” She trailed off. He knew she had been about to say heartmate, but he had never told her about Imani’s escape.

He grabbed a nearby chair and smashed it against the wall. Splinters flew everywhere, hitting his skin and the floor. He shut his eyes and raked his hair off his forehead, pacing and panting, kicking the remnants.

Yes, he needed Imani here with him. Yes, he desperately wished she were somewhere in the vast rooms of their palace where Zadie could simply fetch her and he could hold her in his arms. And no, he no longer wanted her chained up. That idea had been a colossal fuck-up on his part. He had panicked. He needed to keep her here any way he could—her magic and connection to his magic were too powerful to give up to the other side, no matter what he truly wanted. But he had acted like a king, not a heartmate.

Another moment of silence passed between them. He turned and looked at his mentor, the Essenheim witch who had turned dark. Dark like him. Like his heartmate.

He sighed. “Imani is gone, too.”

“What? Gone? But she’s …”

“I know,” he said quietly, his voice oddly devoid of emotion when he had so many inside him.

“How could she disappear so quickly? A matter of hours?”

“She opened a doorway.”

“But only a …” Zadie didn’t need to finish her sentence.

He cut her a fierce look. “She has something called a Drasil wand. I went through all her belongings today and pieced the truth together. Imani is an ingenious witch, and I should have known that sooner or later she would have put all the twisted pieces of my plan into place … that she would’ve found a way out of what I had in store for her. This world will tremble in her presence.” Kiran’s tone was unforgiving and tense.

“You are a new king, consumed by your grief,” Zadie said, trying to reason with him. “I know that Imani was⁠—”

“Do not speak her name in these halls again if you wish to live.” Kiran’s voice had dropped low, sounding ragged. He lifted a bottle of whiskey to his mouth and drank deeply.

Zadie watched on with displeasure.

Kiran coughed and put the bottle down. He was pretty far gone, and his words almost—almost—slurred. “The rumors are true—Tanyl took the crown as an imposter. Imani is the rumored missing Essenheim queen everyone is searching for. She came here for a Drasil wand, just as Ara had before, which is something we should have known but didn’t. Now Imani has it and returns to claim her place as the true monarch.”

There was a long pause.

“Kiran, what have you done? Do you realize what will happen since you’ve let her go?” Zadie’s voice was a rasped whisper. “You know who Tanyl is in bed with. Imani may be formidable, but she’s alone and won’t take on the Upper without allies. She’ll be looking to shore up her forces if she doesn’t plan to share the crown with Tanyl.”

“She doesn’t, and it does complicate things, but when the time is right, I’m invading the Essenheim Kingdom and killing whoever gets in the way. She knows this and doesn’t intend to change her plans; neither do I. Our timing and strategy may need to shift a little.”

“This is a disaster, Kiran,” Zadie hissed. “Her next logical move will be to find allies, and people will rally around her with the real crown. For Imani, the Norn elves will come out of seclusion to help, and some of the shifters, along with Esa’s pixies. It might be enough to take on the Upper.

“The deities and angels can’t risk getting too involved, so we know they’ve sent minimal forces and assistance to aid Tanyl; however, we know immortal breeds are far stronger than we are. That said, with the numbers, Imani could have a swift victory if we wait too long. She could create a horrifying army against us by then, especially if she wields a Drasil, like you say. We’d be up against a far stronger enemy than we anticipated with just Tanyl. Plus, her magic isn’t to be underestimated. I say you conquer Imani first—soundly and soon. If I had to guess, she plans to overthrow you and Tanyl and rule the Mesial realm alone.”

“Not if I get to her before she gathers support, like you said.”

Each word that flung from his lips was a barb that tangled inside him. Each second Zadie looked at him like that, like he had fucked up everything—worse than that even—was torture.

“What will you do with her when you catch her?”

“Even if she bends the knee, she threatens my rule as long as she lives. I’ll do what I must.”

It was true that Kiran and Imani were closer to equal footing than he wanted to admit. Despite the horde, Imani could be more substantial. And now, with his chest gaping open where his heart used to be, Kiran was also not the witch he had once been. He was stripped to the bone, burned, and left in a heap of fiery anger. What he had believed he could be someday, after he’d become king, even hoped he was to some extent, he no longer could be—a caring heartmate, someone with a mate he could trust. Who the fuck had he been kidding? What did he know about loving someone?

By attempting to control Imani by force, he had thrown away the only pure love he might have ever known, besides his mother. So, right now, he had fuck all except the power of the Niflheim throne, and he would be damned if he let it go when Imani’s feelings toward him had wavered.