Ah, he had more than one woman in bed.
Typical Grigory.
“What did you tell me to do?” he asked, the dark tones of his bedroom flashing as he exited the room and entered a familiar corridor.
“You heard me. Zaya.”
“You dialed the urgency code to talk to a woman?” he demanded. “No, wait, for a woman.”
I didn’t reply. Because nothing I could say would resolve the severe lines in his expression.
“Fuck, Adrik.” He muttered a slew of ancient words, most of them curses, as he moved through the familiar halls of the palace. My gut ached at the sight. Home.
How long had it been? Only ten or eleven days? Fuck, it felt like a lifetime ago. And while I didn’t regret my mission, I did miss my life.
Valora met my gaze, her ire lessening by the second as a new emotion brewed in the azure depths of her eyes. She still had a long road to recovery, as was evidenced by the lack of a glimmer in her pupils. If I didn’t know better, I’d say Necros stole more of her power.
But he would have flaunted it earlier if that were the case.
A pounding sounded, Grigory being as delicate as always. “Zaya!”
“Go away!” a sharp voice replied.
Valora was on her feet in an instant, grabbing the device from my hand. “Put her on.”
Grigory did a double take at his screen. “Lucifer’s nutsack,” he muttered, pounding again. “I have a call for you, damn it!”
“Tell her it’s Valora.”
“Yes, let me broadcast that the motherfucking Queen of Caluçon is on the console,” Grigory drawled. “That won’t attract attention at all.”
“Stop being a dick,” I told him.
“I’ll stop being a dick when you stop thinking with yours,” he retorted, banging a third time. “If you don’t open this damn—”
The door flew open with a livid-looking little pixie on the other side. “You’ll what?”
For a woman who’d just been nearly raped to death, she seemed to be up and moving just fine. “Your charm is clearly rubbing off on her, Grigory,” I said, surprised.
“Valora?” she whispered, seizing the device.
“Oh, Lucifer, you’re all right.” Valora pressed her free palm to her heart, her eyes glistening at the edges. “I thought… I thought Necros…”
Zaya’s face clouded over, her body swaying over the monitor, ending in Grigory cursing. He caught the little halfling with one arm and looked at the phone. “Yeah, thanks for that, Your Highness.” His gaze flicked toward mine. “Next time you use the urgency code? Make it a real emergency, jackass.”
The device went silent.
Valora whimpered, nearly dropping the very expensive piece of tech. I plucked it from her fingertips and stored it temporarily in one of my drawers, then faced her. “Satisfied?”
“She’s alive.”
“And safe,” I added, folding my arms.
She nodded slowly. “And her parents?”
Ah, that I couldn’t stop. “They were killed at the borders on Necros’s orders.”
Valora cleared her throat, her gaze falling to the ground. “Because I’d called them here.”