26. Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Six
Caspian
S titching along my abdomen tugs when I trip over my own foot and tense the muscles to keep myself upright. I wince, breathing deeply until the sharp pain subsides.
Elowen insisted on healing each of my wounds, but I only allowed it for the worst of them. She’s intelligent, so I’m certain it wasn’t difficult for her to surmise why I refused.
I deserve to heal this on my own and live with the scar that will no doubt replace it.
Ariella was right…she had tried again and again to push me away, and I did not leave. Even now I’m pacing the castle gates as I impatiently wait for her to return. My steps grow faster with each minute that passes—it’s nearly midnight.
I know she’d truly kill me if I showed up at the guild to drag her ass back here, but I’m a moment away from taking such a risk. I freeze. She must think my father will have her head regardless of her return. She did shove her blade into me…in the courtyard, of all places, so there was not one chance for me to twist what happened to the king. I should be embarrassed with the amount of begging and arguing I did to halt my father’s execution order, bu t I’m not. If I hadn’t managed to convince my father that I fucked up by challenging her, he would have sent a search party through Valoria with orders to kill on site.
When he finally relented, I asked about Isaiah. As much as Ariella attempted to hide her love for him, it was clear just how much he meant to her. And just like everything else I’ve asked him, my father shrugged and said he didn’t know, but he was sure an answer would turn up.
The thing is, they never do. And I never cared enough to look deeper.
But now I have something to care about.
My shoulders drop the moment she appears on the street ahead—thank the fucking Angel. The lights surrounding the castle wall highlight her hair and face, both splotched in deep red. There’s likely much more coating her clothes, though it’s impossible to see with the black fabric.
My chest squeezes impossibly tight. Seeing her tears earlier…
She’s several feet away when her eyes look up, quickly examining my body before shifting to something past me.
I know my suspicions are correct when she pauses momentarily before shutting down everything except the raw hatred seeping from her. I groan when she marches right by me, carefully jogging to catch up.
“Ariella, wait…” She does. I step around her stiff form, forcing my hands to remain still when all they crave to do is hold her. She lo oks so…empty. Vacant eyes glare at me, while her skin lacks its natural glow.
She’s hurting.
“Are you okay?” I scoff—stupid fucking question. “Of course you’re not…I just mean, how can I help you get through this?” She rears back, lips parting and closing twice before her eyes search mine.
“You’re serious? You wish to know how I am after I attempted to kill you?” A sad smile pulls at my lips.
“If you were truly wanting to kill me, why were you not shocked that I was waiting for you?”
She blinks. “What?”
I laugh, the movement bizarre given our current circumstances. I make a show of looking around the courtyard before speaking, “It’s just us two here…there’s no need to hide.” Her tired eyes narrow as she crosses her arms, covering a small book she holds. “Elowen informed me that your blade missed every organ and vital piece of internal flesh. That you’d merely scraped inside en ough that I coughed blood.” She shifts, pursing her lips as she avoids meeting my gaze. “Angel. She said the chances of that happening incidentally are nearly zero…”
“Okay, and? What the fuck do you want from me, Caspian? It doesn’t matter what I did—I was not lying when I said your entire family will pay.”
“I know.” She huffs, rubbing a hand over her face. A haunted glimmer passes through her eyes when dried blood flakes into her hands, but she quickly stifles it. “I want to help you.”
She chuckles cruelly, stalking past me once more. “I’m serious—I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but I wish to figure it out just as much as you do.”
I swallow thickly when she spins to look at me as if I’ve lost my mind. Her eyes flit to my abdomen where spots of blood appear on my cream shirt. “You misunderstand me, prince…I don’t fucking care about figuring out whatever it is your father is doing.” She’s so close—her blazing eyes glaring up at me—that the heat of her breath fogs the space between us. “I’m going to kill him.”
I search her eyes for a deeper meaning, or evidence of a lie, but there is neither. This beautiful, deadly woman is threatening to murder my father—the king of Eldoria.
The confession should anger me. It should provide my addled heart with enough evidence that she must be stopped. She’s openly threatening my family…
And yet…
My attention catches on the book peeking from under her arm. I stiffen so quickly that I feel my stitches strain. I am certainly the most foolish prince to ever live.
Lord Erendor Mistaire . Written carefully across the leather is the name that has created an unstable wedge between my father and me for years. Just because he is king does not permit him to give orders above the law. My head tilts to the cloudy sky, the murkiness a mirror to every nerve alighting under my skin.
Above the law…says the prince who has fallen for the assassin.
The daughter of the man my father executed just outside the gates behind me. How did I not piece it together before?
“Okay.”
“Okay?” I nod weakly, dropping my chin as I attempt to breathe through the uncertainty warring through me.
“I will not help you kill my father, and I will interfere if I catch you. I intend to learn what he’s hiding, not take his life. I know what he’s done, but he’s still my father, Ariella…and as much as it goes against everything I’ve been raised to be, it’s not my place to deny you a chance at revenge.” She bursts out laughing, throwing her arms out dramatically.
“Are you fucking kidding me? I just told you that I’m going to kill your father—the king, Caspian—and you still wish to care for me?” She’s right…it’s crazy for me to stay.
“No,” I state darkly, and her head whips to face me again. “I don’t wish to care about you. I have begged the Angel to remove your presence from my mind after eliminating you from the competition was no longer an option. Fuck, Ariella, we should hate each other! We come from opposing backgrounds—I should want your head for everything that you’ve done…especially now that you’ve threatened my entire family after shoving your fucking blade into me.” I’m nearly shouting, my heart beating up my throat.
I don’t think as my hand reaches for her face, wrapping to cup the back of her head and tug her to me. She doesn’t resist. I rub away flaking blood as I search her eyes. “I don’t want to feel this way about you. I shouldn’t— I can’t . But I do…and maybe my feelings are far too intense to be normal, but I don’t fucking care.” Her forehead creases before I graze my lips over her trembling ones. “Did you think I was lying when I confessed that I wish to bathe in every depraved part of you?”
Her breath hitches before her tongue sweeps across her bottom lip. “You’re a fool, prince.” I grin as my lips press to hers; she melts into the touch, her panting chest pushing into mine.
The kiss is soft and far more intimate than either of us is used to. Her free hand latches to my arm when I tilt my head to deepen the contact, my stomach churning as she arches into me. The metallic scent of her envelops me, settling into my head like a traumatic memory. Pure sorrow slams through me, serving as a reminder of what happened in this very spot just hours ago. When I watched the last bit of mercy leave her glassy eyes, the weight of both realms crushing me the moment she turned around.
I pull back, my heart dropping as her features immediately harden when her eyes flick behind me. She reaches for my hip, pushing me to the side as she saunters ahead where my father glares .
“Just the king I wanted to see!” His disappointed gaze slides from me to her. I’m torn with what to do…I’d confidently admitted I would stop her if she attempted an attack on my father, but now that it is only us three in this dark, eerie courtyard, I cannot find it in me to get in her way.
She halts a breath away from my father while tapping the blade on her thigh; her other hand holds her father’s book at her back, but I’ve no doubt she could end him with no hands if she truly wanted.
Duty eclipses emotion, and I move to step between them, though my feet remain glued to the ground. My eyes widen as I glance at my father, who thankfully focuses all his angry attention on the assassin. She’s fucking warded me in place…heat slides through my limbs as I readjust, crossing my arms as if I’m merely waiting for their conversation to end.
Cunning little wraith.
Like she heard my thoughts, she peers over her shoulder to regard me with an amused look. My father’s gaze shifts to me as well, though he is everything but amused. She smiles evilly, saying one last thing to him before she stalks into the castle. The pressure around my feet dissipates, though I remain in place for a few moments more as my father studies me. My father’s fists clench and unclench, the expression he wears telling me that he’s struggling to keep his word .
“You said you would not harm her,” I recount, shuffling around him when he doesn’t respond.
The icy wind does nothing for the sweat building along my neck, which worsens when I enter the castle. I’m uncomfortably warm in these clothes—perhaps a cold shower will help. I look down as I speed through the dimly lit hallways that lead to my room; blood continues to spot through my shirt, and I sigh heavily. Elowen will scold me to the Aether for tearing any of my stitches.
Silver hair clouds my mind with ideas I shouldn’t entertain. I cannot tonight, anyway. She’s going to be pissed when I visit her later.
I nod to Gavriel when he appears next to me, too caught in my thoughts to defend myself when he grabs my neck and shoves me into a room.
“What the fuck, Gavriel?” I whip around to confront him, pausing as he slams the door and closes the distance between us.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” I put my hands to his chest and force him back. He groans, swiping a hand over his mouth. “I was against you being near her from the beginning—I even told her to stay the fuck away from you! But clearly you’re both children who do not know how to follow simple directions!”
My brows scrunch together, something acidic shuffling around my stomach. “Gav…where is this coming from? What do you me an you told her to stay away from me? Why would you do that?” He doesn’t need to specify who he’s speaking of; I already know how he feels about the wraith.
He curses and paces the room—I look around to the rows of towels, linens, and cleaning supplies. He’s shoved me in a storage closet. Fucking bastard couldn’t wait one more minute until we reached my room?
“Okay,” he announces, raising his hands as if he’s just relented on an internal argument. His dark eyes meet mine. “You’re going to listen to me, Caspian. She is not good for you…she kills the people you are destined to protect when you take your father’s place on the throne. I don’t know how else to explain that it’s impossible for you to have her, even if I did agree with it. Fucking Aether, prince, she stabbed you and the first thing you do upon waking is beg for her life to be spared? That should be evidence enough for you to realize she doesn’t fucking care about you!”
He’s wrong. “That’s not true.”
“Not true? She threatens your life each time you’re near her—”
“Shut the fuck up, Gavriel. You have no idea who she is or what she’s like. You only see what you wish to see, and that’s fine, but you will not lecture me on my decisions.”
He chuckles, though there is no humor in it. “Right…and what about your father? ”
I scoff, shaking my head as I lean uncomfortably against a set of shelves. Their wooden edges press into my ribs, and the towels tempt me to use them as a barrier. “What about him?”
“He undeniably also has something against her! He may not have said so much in words, but the attempts on her life are a clear enough sign that you should be running the other way. Why do you insist on pursuing her still? I thought you were smarter than this…”
I clear my throat, the day’s events quickly catching up to me as my eyes become heavier. “Ouch.”
He sighs loudly, dropping his head back. “I just don’t want you to get hurt—again—or killed because of a woman you barely know.”
I wait until his eyes meet mine. “I know enough,” I whisper, my tense muscles relaxing when he nods. I know he’ll drop the subject, regardless of how he feels. I cannot fault him for his words; he’s like a brother to me and was terrified when he’d found me bleeding and unconscious outside.
“I wandered the halls last night…” he trails off, and I raise my brow expectantly. “I walked past the south entrance that leads under the castle, and there were two sentries stationed in front of the door.”
My face scrunches deeply as my mind whirls through a hundred things that could explain why guards were assigned there. “To the tunnels, right?” He nods, leaning a shoulder against the shelves next to me. “Why the fuck would that require protection? Did you check the other entrances?”
“No—and before you ask, I didn’t go down there, either. Do I look fucking stupid to you?” He holds up a hand when I grin. “Don’t answer that.” I laugh, my chest feeling lighter than it has in hours.
“Okay, well I need to sleep before we talk about what to do next. Are we okay?” I gesture between us, narrowing my eyes.
He rolls his, slapping my hand away as he walks to the door. “I’m still angry with you.” I burst out laughing when he stalks from the room, muttering about my clear lack of self-control.