A week later, Ariel had just finished changing for dinner when the door to her room swung open, without a knock.
Gasping in alarm, she turned to meet Valteri’s stern glower. What the devil? He’d never once opened her door without an invitation.
And never had she seen him in this state.
“Something amiss, milord?”
His breathing heavy, he stepped back. “There’s a noble ass in the hall who claims to be your brother.”
She felt her jaw go slack at that unexpected news and his word choice. Though to be honest, Valteri thought most people to be asses.
He just normally didn’t say it out loud.
“My brother?”
“It’s what he said.”
She stared at him in total confusion. Could it be? Had her family finally found her?
And yet …
Something didn’t seem right. She still had that strong sense that this was where she belonged.
Her bond to Valteri and the others here had grown stronger every day.
Although that didn’t make sense, either.
Still, something felt wrong. There was a hollow feeling in her stomach. A foreboding that she couldn’t place told her that whoever waited for her wasn’t family.
He was someone else.
Something else.
Curious about this person and her great sense of foreboding, Ariel followed Valteri into the hall, where a tall, flaxen-haired man stood in the center of the room. He eyed the soldiers around him as if they made him uncomfortable.
The hair at the nape of her neck rose instantly. Every piece of her was on sudden alert. Something about the stranger seemed familiar.…
Yet, she couldn’t quite place him.
She hesitated.
Suddenly, he turned around and faced her. Her trepidation tripled.
Run! An inner voice shouted at her to seek refuge, as fast as she could go.
This “ass” was evil.
She knew it. Cruelty bled from every pore of his body and it set off every alarm in hers.
An affectionate smile curved his lips. “Dearest Ariel!” He rushed toward her. “Thank the heavens that you’re safe. I was so afraid I’d lost you.” He grabbed her into a bone-crushing hug.
Ew! Her entire being cringed. It was like hugging a louse.
Pushing against the stranger, she needed to put distance between them.
Trying her best to dig her elbows between them, she grimaced. “Do I know you, sirrah?”
He released her instantly.
With a step back, he gave her a hurt pout. “What game is this, my Ariel? Surely you’ve had your sport by now. Why, I ought to beat you for straying this far from me, and troubling these good people.”
Ariel practically ran toward the one person she knew she could trust—Valteri. “I don’t know him!”
Before she could reach the safety of Valteri, the stranger grabbed her by the arm and pulled her to a stop. His rough fingers bit into her flesh, burning her with his cold grasp. “Stop this, this instant!” he growled.
She opened her mouth to speak, but quickly closed it as Valteri stepped forward and removed the steel grip from her elbow.
He placed himself between them. “That’ll be enough of that.” His tone promised violence if the man didn’t back down. “I know not what happened to her, but she no longer remembers herself. Or you, apparently.”
The stranger shifted his horrified gaze from Valteri to her. “You truly don’t know me?”
“Nay, I do not.”
He held his arms out to her, his features a becoming mixture of affection and tolerance. “Ariel, dearest, I’m your brother, Belial.”