Chapter Thirty-Five
The Bound
Her skin is ice-cold as I lay her on the bed.
Her veins glow a brilliant shade of white, nearly making her skin translucent.
It takes everything in me to not recoil as the starlight burns through my own flesh.
I keep myself in a semi-stage of shifting, protecting my human skin, but it also means I have very little control.
I fight against the urge to shift fully, panic fading into a numbing calm.
The room is awash in bright light, coming from both of us.
As my hands slip out from under her, the purple glow beneath my skin vanishes.
I gently brush a pale lock from her forehead as Kassius and Enzo come in.
“What happened?” Kass’s voice is thick with anger and panic as he comes to kneel by the bed, his fingers brushing her forehead.
“She was yelling, I don’t know at who. I opened her door and saw her collapse, stars flying everywhere.” He sighs and looks up at Enzo, who’s staring at her in a new way. Not the desperate love-sick way he used to look when he would think of her, but almost angry. Almost hateful .
“Get Master Lenus.” Kass snaps at his so n. Enzo turns and quickly leaves without giving it a single thought.
“What’s happening?” I ask as I watch Kass’s eyes close for a moment.
“She’s been burrowing deeper and deeper into her aether since she erupted the first time.
Her emotions are heightened, and she doesn’t have control right now.
She’s too strong, too strong for only having magic in half of her blood.
Her body can’t handle it, neither can her mind.
Exhaustion, pain, confusion, all of it is eating away at her.
” He stands, his hand briefly touching the crown sewn to her head.
“What do we do?” My voice wavers and I clear my throat. No, you can’t care right now. You can’t . She’s nothing. Just a young girl. That’s it.
“The deep sleep, until she’s well enough. We may not see wounds physically, but we don’t know whether or not she’s healed internally. We don’t know anything about her.” He glances up at me, a silent question.
“She’s injured. Her leg, we forgot about her leg. We cauterized it, but it was bad.” My voice is rushed. How could I forget? She’s been sitting in pain, sitting with her injuries for an entire day.
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Kass snaps, his hands clenching into fists at his side.
He takes a slow deep breath before meeting my gaze again, as if he has to reign in his anger.
This protection he has over her, it’s like she’s Mal.
“It doesn’t matter. We need to put her in stasis until she can heal. ”
“How can we force her into stasis? Isn’t that something that happens naturally?” The clinking of tools makes me look up as Master Lenus hobbles in, his right leg stiff.
“A few injections should keep her down for a couple days.” My eyes widen and I come around the side of the bed, stopping him before he sets his bag down.
“ No . She just spent a year being drugged by her husband and you want to do it again?” My hand grips his shoulder, forcing him away from the bed.
“Ni, it’s for the best.” Kass says from behind.
“I said no.” I get out through gritted teeth.
“Get him out of here.” I glance up as my father leans against the open door, ordering me to leave.
“Father—”
“Out. Now !” He snaps and Enzo grabs my arm, pulling me past him.
“Don’t touch her!” I yell as I am yanked out of the room. My father’s smiling face is the last I see before he closes the door. “Let go of me.” I rip my arm out of Enzo’s grasp and reach for the door again. He shoulders me out of the way, knocking me into the wall.
“Enough!” He yells. “Just leave it alone.” His voice is laced in irritation. I don’t even recognize him anymore.
“What the fuck is wrong with you, man?” His green eyes darken as he stares at me.
“What?”
“All of a sudden because she’s not available to you, you don’t care. You’ve been nearly crying every day for a year and now that she’s here, you don’t even care what happens to her.” I spit.
“That’s not true.”
“My father is in there, doing only the gods know what—”
“ My father is in there, too. He won’t let anything happen to her!”
“Enzo?” A soft, child-like voice pops up from the end of the hallway. We both spin around to Mali, a blanket wrapped around her. “What’s wrong with that girl?” She asks. He rushes down the hallway, scooping her up into his arms.
“Nothing, Mali. She’s just sick, but she’ll be okay. Let’s go back to bed.”
Erik joins me in the hall a few hours after Enzo leaves. It’s the middle of the night, but I can see the stress in his eyes. He offers me a tight-lipped smile as he slides down the wall, sitting across from me.
“Have you seen her?” He asks, but I just shake my head, anger brewing deep in my mind. “She’ll be alright. She’s strong.” He attempts to reassure me, not that I even know why I need reassuring.
“Why didn’t you do anything?” His eyes widen and his mouth clamps shut. “All those years, you never did anything to protect her.” I shake my head and turn away from him.
“You don’t know anything. You weren’t there.” His tone is filled with venom as his face hardens, which only pisses me off.
“Her father beat her, and you just watched.” I snap, fighting against what little control I have.
“I didn’t watch, I intervened so many times. You may think the scars on her back are bad, but you haven’t seen mine.” My mouth falls open as ice spreads through my veins.
“Scars?” I ask, my voice soft. “I haven’t seen any scars.” His eyes soften as his legs fall to the ground. He sighs before he speaks.
“She has scars on her back from a whip her father used. My own father and brother had to hold me back and forced me to watch her be whipped to near-death. She fell unconscious and I could see her spine, see her ribs through the splits in her back. After she was carried away, I was strapped to the same pole she was and whipped. Except he didn’t stop when I fell unconscious.
My father and brother allowed him to whip me until I was seconds away from death.
Even in the infirmary, they didn’t keep me asleep.
I suffered in pain for weeks, but I could see her.
She was asleep, they kept her that way while she healed.
So for weeks, I watched her. Scarlett and I watched her and hoped she would wake.
” Bile rises in my throat as I listen. His voice is strained, almost as broken as hers.
“I didn’t know.” I admit.
“Don’t say I never stepped in. You don’t know her; you don’t know her life. I was always there for her. Always. And even on the road when she was kidnapped—”
“What?” I cut him off, remembering what she had said to my father. He shakes his head and scoffs.
“This only proves my point. All you know about her is what you think Tobias did. You filled in everything else yourself. She is a stranger to you, a girl you’ve barely heard about.
But to us, to all of us, she’s family. She’s ours .
I gave my life for her that day, and I didn’t expect to wake, but I did.
I gave my life so she could get away, but she didn’t. ”
“What happened to her? She mentioned these men, men she accused my father of sending.”
“It’s not my story to tell.” He responds. He doesn’t look at me as he rises. “If anything changes, please let me know.” He doesn’t wait for a response as he walks down the hall, entering Laenie’s room.
He’s right. I don’t know anything about her. All I see is a traumatized girl, but that’s not her. She’s stronger than I expected.
Hatred pools deep in my belly as I pull myself up and open the door to Elaenor’s room. My father is sitting beside her on the bed, where she is naked and exposed as she lies on her stomach. There is only a thin sheet covering her backside waist down, exposing her back.
“What are you doing?” I ask as I stride in, grabbing a blanket off the end of the bed and throwing it over her, my eyes catching on the purple lines across her back before they disappear under the wool. Kass is sitting by the fireplace, talking to Master Lenus.
“We were cleaning the mess of a leg wound you left behind, as well as the many other slices and bruises you failed to mention.” My father says lazily.
“No, it looks like you were eyeing a naked, vulnerable girl.” I snap, making sure the blanket covers every part of her up to her shoulders.
“For gods sake, Nithe.” He mutters and climbs off the bed. “She isn’t your property yet; I don’t know who you are fooling.” He sneers.
“She will never be my property.” I snap as he strolls out of the room. “How could you just leave her exposed like that?” I turn towards Kassius and Master Lenus. “You are supposed to take care of her.”
“Did you see her scars?” He asks, and I shake my head. I didn’t allow my eyes to linger. “She has no physical wounds on the outside, aside from her leg, a deep laceration on her arm, and a few scratches, but there is something in her, something pulling her strength.” He looks back at Master Lenus.
“Like an infection?” I ask.
“Possibly. We won’t know more for a few days. We gave her some herbs to reduce infection—” The master starts.
“Take the crown off.” I demand.
“We should really wait to see what she wants to do when she wakes.” He responds carefully.
“You think she wants it on? Take it off!” I yell louder as I step towards them. Master Lenus nods as he hesitantly rises, coming to the bed.
“Can you hold her up, Your Grace?” He asks while pulling materials out of his bag. I nod as I reach for her. I keep the blanket wrapped around her like a tourniquet as I scoop her up in my arms. I sit down on the bed, resting her head on my shoulder so Lenus has access to her scalp.