Immortals After Dark 12 - Lothaire

make the pain end!”
    “If Stefanovich hadn’t caught you, then you wouldn’t have your Bride.”
    Inhale for calm. Exhale. Draw from the tie with Elizabeth. “What are you fucking talking about?”
    “Have you never wondered why I would betray ”—Nïx made air quotes—“you?”
    “Because we are natural enemies. Instinctively you despise what I am. It was only a matter of time.”
    She perched on the study’s window seat. “If you hadn’t been caught by Stefanovich, you would have died in the Horde invasion of Draiksulia.”
    “There was no Horde invasion of the fey plane.”
    She snapped her fingers. “ Exactly. You, as well as all our Valkyrie allies, were spared. From just a whisper in your father’s ear.”
    His lips parted.
    “And had you perished then, you never would have made contact with Saroya—who would have killed even more while in Elizabeth’s body, leaving no time for an attempted exorcism.” Nïx’s vacant golden eyes shimmered. “I saw your Bride’s alternate future as clear as day. One fall morning, Elizabeth did the laundry for her mother, folding clothes off the line. Then she took her father’s Remington and walked into the woods alone. She tucked the barrels under her chin. Blood, brain, and bone splattered over leaves.”
    He flinched.
    “I saw it all. Still think me a betrayer?”
    I wouldn’t have Elizabeth if not for Nïx’s actions. He didn’t have her anyway! Then his eyes narrowed. “Why did you leave me so long in the grave? You were there the night Fyodor released me—I saw you in the woods.”
    “My foresight doesn’t work with you. I was only able to find you by reading Helen’s fate. You know what she became to you.”
    “Yes.” My aunt. “An embarrassment.”
    “Speak ill of my dead sister again, Lothaire, and I’ll take my crazy somewhere else.”
    “Somewhere outside of Dacia?” He waved his arm. “If you could find this kingdom all along, you might have told me how! I spent centuries searching. As you well knew!”
    “You weren’t ready to find it yet. Would you rather have warred with them or become their king by invitation? All it took was patience, which is what I told you again and again. But you never listened to me. You broke the trust between us—not me.”
    “Even after all the antagonism between us, I came to you for help just weeks ago. You turned your back on me and sent Dorada straight to my home! Don’t you dare deny it.”
    “I was hoping Dora would find your addy okay. MapQuest is sometimes hokey.”
    His fists clenched tight, his shoulder muscles knotting with tension.
    “You wanted Elizabeth, and you needed Saroya gone—without breaking your vows.”
    Nïx had sent Dorada to help him?
    “My plan was brilliant.”
    “And risky.” If Elizabeth hadn’t thought on her feet . . . We’d both be dead.
    “Great risk leads to great reward, does it not?” Then Nïx chuckled. “I do enjoy telling Loreans, ‘Be advised that your blood debt is now being serviced by La Dorada, effective immediately.’ ”
    He was rocked by these explanations. My millennia’s worth of hatred for Nïx was unfounded?
    Who would be his nemesis, if not Nïx? In the entire Lore, she was the only adversary worthy of him. Which was one of the myriad reasons he hadn’t retaliated after she’d betrayed him.
    Can always kill her, but can never bring her back. . . .
    In a contemplative tone, she added, “You saw Dora when she was jubilant from a long-awaited victory. Most of the time, she’s so apocalyptic. And now she has evil and good pawns to wage her war. I’ll have to fix that in the future.” Nïx frowned, and suddenly she looked very, very tired. After seeming to count on her fingers, she murmured, “ How will I remember to fix that in the future?”
    At length, she glared at Lothaire. “I’m risking an apocalypse for you, and you don’t even want to be with Elizabeth!”
    “She nearly beheaded me! I’ve never been closer to death in all my years!”
    “So now you’re pouting in your castle. After the miseries you’ve inflicted on legions? You can dish it out, but you can’t take it?”
    “It’s different.”
    “How?”
    He stabbed his fingers into his hair. “It simply is.”
    “How?” she insisted.
    “Because I think . . . because I was falling in love with her!”
    “Then why isn’t she here with you now?”
    “It was unrequited!” He’d shocked himself by saying that aloud.
    Lothaire Daciano, a king,