This pushes her off-kilter completely, and she glances behind her at the door to my woman.
I step forward, putting a little more pressure on her. Praying she will cave. "Please, let me see your friend. I need to speak with her."
She purses her lips. "Tell me why you have such an interest in her."
I take a deep breath, unsure of how to answer her. The truth is that I have been drawn to my mate since the moment I laid eyes on her. I feel a connection with her that is beyond my control, and I have been unable to ignore it. I know that it sounds insane, but I can't help how I feel.
"She is my mate," I say.
Arlet looks horrified. Her white skin turns impossibly paler. "Like... your wife?"
I tilt my head to the side. "Yes."
"Hostia2," she breathes. "That means Estela is a queen? The Queen of the Trolls?”
I blink. “Queen of the Enduares,” I correct, but my mind is racing. She surrendered her name.Estela. The victory is sweet as I turn it over in my mind, dissecting the syllables from the way that Arlet said it. If my memory is correct, it means something like… star. My star.
"Yes," I confirm.
Arlet looks at me as if I am a two-headed beast. "You... can't speak to her." She twists her filthy furs between her fingers. She’s nervous.
My eyes go wide. It all makes sense now, the withdrawal of her presence in my mind. My anxiety. My— “She’s not in there,” I say.
“How do you know?” the human gasps. This time, when I move toward the door, she doesn’t bar my way. I push inside, smelling her bloody, metallic scent everywhere in the room. It drives me insane, riling my being to action.
Stalking over to the bed I had laid her down on, I pull back the covers and find one large bloodstain. I can’t stop how my breathes come quicker and quicker.
When I whip around, my braid swings around with me, knocking off a potion sitting on the table near her bed. It shatters on the ground, and Arlet flinches.
“How long has it been?” I demand.
Arlet chews on her lip for a few moments before moving forward. “Less than a half hour? She told me to stay here and distract you if you came."
I know it is irrational, but this feels like a knife in my chest. Betrayal. My mate has betrayed me by leaving. Does she wish to kill me?
Anger rises within me like a tidal wave. She left without a word. Gone, and I cannot feel her. I have failed to protect her, to be her mate. I feel the weight of my duty as the new King bearing down upon me.
"Where did she go?" I ask Arlet.
The redhead shakes her head. "I don't know. She just said she was going to look for her brother.”
Estela could get hurt, or worse, captured by the giants. I need to find her, and fast.
Without another word, I rush back into the palace. There is a tunnel that leads directly out of the mountain. I can ride one of theglacialmaras.
1 Demon.
2 Shit.
Chapter7
Lepidolite
ESTELA
Mikal is... gone.
My mind swims with a life full of him. Learning to balance him on my hip as I crushed herbs after a long day of scavenging, binding his cuts and breaks, and watching him shoot up like a reed until he appeared tall enough to touch the sky.