Chapter 24
HEMMING
“ I t’s just me,” I whispered when she started to struggle, removing my hand from her mouth. The fight left her in an instant, and she spun to face me. Even in the dim light of the room, I could see the relief on her face.
“You nearly scared the life out of me,” she breathed.
“I’m sorry. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine,” she said, folding her arms around her body as though she were cold. But I knew that gesture; I’d seen it many times before. It was an attempt to warm herself from a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature around her.
Vesstan…
My hands balled into fists to steady myself against my growing rage. “What did he do?”
Her hair fell loose as she turned away from me. “Nothing.”
“Ariel—”
“Nothing yet . I’m not sure I have long before nothing becomes something .”
Everything in my body screamed at me to pull her close and promise her I’d never let that happen because I’d rip him to pieces if he even tried, but I didn’t, because we both knew I couldn’t. Instead, I watched stoically as she paced the room, working through everything that had transpired over their dinner in her mind. Once she finished, she stopped before me and looked up with renewed strength in her eyes. “I need to get him to tell me where the Oracle is tomorrow, and then we can get out of this wretched place.”
“And I will help you however I can, but right now, I must do this.” I took her face in my hands and tilted it up until my mouth captured hers. Standing there in the darkness of her room, I kissed her long and slow, until the worry wracking her mind dissipated and her body melted into mine. And though I wanted nothing more than to take her to bed and wipe her thoughts clean with salacious deeds, my head knew better.
But the press of her curves against me was a heady magic that made it hard to think clearly.
“We cannot stay here a moment longer than necessary, Hemming,” she whispered against my lips. “We need a plan of some kind.”
“Do you have something in mind?”
She pulled away from me slowly, never breaking eye contact. “I do—but you won’t like it.” I steeled myself for what I feared was coming. “If I continue my charade, I might be able to convince him to show me the Oracle tomorrow. He finds my contrived innocence endearing, so it’s possible that will work.”
“And if it doesn’t?” I asked.
She took a deep breath and straightened her spine. “If it doesn’t, I’ll try offering him what I already know he craves.”
“No.”
“Hemming—”
“There has to be another way to get to the Oracle. One that doesn’t involve you risking your virtue and your life?—”
“And what would that be, Hemming?”
Anger welled in my gut at her challenge and the fact that I had no alternative to give. If it took a god to kill one, brute force would get me nowhere but the grave, and that would leave Ariel alone with a monster.
I’d never hated the truth more in my life.
“I don’t know, but I cannot just sit by and watch him…” I turned my back on her as I tried to control my emotions. Seconds later, her arms wrapped around me from behind.
“It might not come to that, but if it does, I see no other way,” she said softly before kissing my back and resting her head against it.
“This farce Shayfer demanded has been hard enough to maintain. Not being able to touch you—pretending I don’t love you—that alone has been torture. But to stand by and watch Vesstan touch you…” My eyes slammed shut as I struggled to shut out the image of his hands wandering all over her body. “Something inside me is going to break, and when it does, it will take down more than just this feeble house of cards.”
She hugged me tighter as she murmured my name in a placating tone. “ Hemming ? — ”
“I promise you that I am not being dramatic, Ariel. You know me better than that. I will not survive…”
She pulled away and stepped in front of me. Those green eyes I loved looked up at me beseechingly, and she reached up to run her hands through my hair. My hands slid down her arms to rest on her hips and pull her closer. The tiny moan that escaped her when our bodies met nearly undid me.
I pulled her face to mine and kissed her with an urgency that had the beast rumbling his approval. A soft laugh escaped her even as her lips had their way with mine.
Until a gentle knock had her yelping with surprise.
Fear flashed in her eyes before it washed away with recollection. “My father…”
She hurried over to open the door while I stood in the center of the room, trying to dispel the lust from my body as Kier walked in. Suspicious eyes that reminded me so much of Kade drifted to me, silently demanding an explanation for my presence in his daughter’s room. “Am I interrupting something?”
“No, Baba,” Ariel replied, an edge of nervousness in her tone. “Hemming was just?—”
“—discussing our current situation with Ariel upon her return from her dinner with Vesstan.”
“Hemming serves as my advisor and protector. He can be trusted in all matters.”
Kier’s doubts were plain in his taut expression. “I hope that is true, because you will need to trust those around you if you wish to survive Vesstan. But all the same, I wish to speak to my daughter. Alone .” He glared over Ariel’s head at me.
I did not move.
“I’ll be fine, Hemming,” Ariel said in an attempt to dispel the tension in the room. “You should return to the others and see if Vesstan sent food and clothes for you. Just be careful not to be seen leaving.”
“If that is what you wish,” I said, nodding at her with a formality that felt foreign and wrong. But I could not force myself to move, and my reluctance did not go unnoticed.
“Vesstan will not come for her yet, if that is what troubles you.” Kier spoke with a confidence I found equally reassuring and unnerving.
“How can you be so sure?” I asked, a note of doubt in my voice.
His brows pulled together at my challenge. “Because I have seen how he works before. He likes to chase—but he will not chase for long.”
“Then it’s as I said earlier to Hemming: we must get what we need from the Oracle and leave before Vesstan grows tired of his pursuit,” Ariel said in a determined tone.
“ Leave ?” Kier repeated the word as though he didn’t understand it, and every fiber of my being went cold.
Ariel, however, just looked confused. “Of course we’re leaving, Baba. But not without you.”
Kier’s stern expression quickly bled to one of sadness. “My sweet daughter…I cannot leave this place.” He took her hand in his and brushed her fingertips against the silver collar around his neck. “I am bound to this land by Vesstan’s magic—there is no possibility of leaving. Ever .”
Tears instantly welled in her eyes. “But…we can’t leave without you…”
He released her hand to cup her cheek. “I know this, Ariel, but it isn’t my bond that impairs your plan.” His other hand drifted to her face to wipe a stray tear. “Because there is no leaving this island. For anyone .”