Chapter 10
Delphi's stomach fluttered with nerves, but she did everything to pretend she wasn't bothered by Tenebrys's sudden appearance.
She focused on ladling the stew into one normal bowl and another that had to have been used for baking. Tenebrys was huge, so it would probably be a more normal size for him. He hadn't stormed away or tried to lock her up yet, so she took that as a small victory.
When she turned back around, he was sitting at the end of the wooden table she had scrubbed and dragged near the fire. She placed the bowl in front of him with the biggest spoon she could find. He stared at it like it might bite him.
"What is it? Do you not use a spoon?" she asked.
"No. It's…" He sounded a little lost, not looking away from the food. "It's only that I was sure there was nothing left in this kitchen."
"It doesn't have much other than utensils and some spices. They still smell okay to use," Delphi said, fixing her own bowl and sitting beside him. She pushed a small dish of salt and pepper towards him.
"The vegetables I rescued from the garden, and Felix gave me the venison. I can't remember having so much meat to cook with," she babbled on.
His golden eyes just looked at her as if she had grown two heads. Delphi ignored it and scooped a mouthful of stew into her mouth. The hot, meaty flavor made her groan.
"What do you mean that you haven't had meat?" Tenebrys asked. He sniffed at the stew, as if trying to detect any poison.
"I don't suppose you noticed the other night, but we are dirt poor. I had to grow our food or trade for it just to keep something in our bellies."
"Narcisse didn't help? He quite liked luxury when I knew him."
Delphi rolled her eyes. "He liked it all right. He squandered every bit of money he ever made. The day you turned up, I was ready to kill him because he had found my hiding place and had drunk all of my money."
A soft growl rolled out of Tenebrys like thunder in the distance. The hair on the back of Delphi's neck stood up.
"Is that why you were running into the woods?" he asked.
Tenebrys ignored the spoon and lifted the bowl to his lips. He lowered it again, a strange expression on his beastly face, before trying it again. The tip of his tongue licked his lips, and Delphi went hot. He stared at her expectantly.
Right, he had asked her a question. Delphi tried to pull herself together. "It was one of the reasons I was running away. He was trying to marry me off to Louis, the son of a lord he screwed over in Bellemere."
Delphi focused on her soup, and the whole horrible story rolled out of her. She didn't know why she was being so open with him, but she had no one else to talk to.
There was also no other way he would see that she was nothing like her father either. She didn't know why it mattered so much to her. She had never cared what anyone thought.
Tenebrys ate in silence, so she kept filling it, telling him about how she never knew her mother, the way Narcisse had managed to mess up every commission he ever got, and how they had ended up in Grisvallon.
"You are really going to sit there and say nothing?" she asked him, after she had gotten to the bottom of her bowl and he hadn't murmured a word.
"Sometimes it's better to remain silent in an interrogation and let the nervous prisoner ramble," Tenebrys said, lifting his glossy black shoulders in a shrug.
Delphi's eyes narrowed. "You don't have to be a smug dick about it. I'm trying to prove to you that I'm not like my father. I know some alchemy, but not much. I want to help you instead of paying the price for Narcisse's mistakes."
"It sounds like you have been paying for his mistakes your entire life," Tenebrys grunted irritably.
"I know you're angry at me because I'm his child, but I'm angry at you for using me." Delphi pointed her spoon at him. "You used some kind of fucked up dream magic to find me and get to him. Can you at least tell me why? What happened to this place?"
Tenebrys's golden eyes flicked back to the pot. "Any of that stew left?"
"You can have more if you answer my question," Delphi said, getting up and reaching for his bowl. His hand shot out and wrapped around her wrist. It was so big that it reached halfway up her forearm. A dark thrill of danger shot through her veins, and she dared to hold his gaze.
"I think you are mistaken about how this works, little flower. I own everything in this chateau, including you. You don't get to make demands on me," he said in a soft snarl.
Delphi wasn't going to be intimidated by another bossy man. Or beast, for that matter. "Fine. Kill me then. I don't care anymore."
Tenebrys's grip tightened. "I am serious, Delphinium."
"So am I," she said, getting in his face. "Just do it if you're going to, or let me go, and I'll get you more stew."
His nostrils flared and fingers flexed. With a huff of annoyance, he released her.
"Stop making me think I should have poisoned this," Delphi muttered, refilling the bowl. She passed it back to him. "I'm only trying to understand what I'm meant to be getting punished for."
Tenebrys let out a frustrated grunt but finally relented to her request for information.
"In the final battle against the fae, the Unseelie Lord of Plagues released a blight onto the shifter army as he retreated," he began, his voice so neutral that Delphi knew the memory must still hurt. She talked the same way about her childhood.
"My people were on the front lines," Tenebrys continued.
"Seventy percent of us died in the first week.
The other shifter allies were sent away to make sure they didn't contract it.
The Mistwood had already begun to grow, but it hadn't reached here just yet.
I sent a plea for help to Montcrillon. The king there owed us for defeating the fae finally.
The humans would have been fucked without us and the allies I summoned from Runefjell. "
Tenebrys paused long enough to drink down some of his stew. Delphi didn't say a word, worried that if she did, he would stop.
"Narcisse and Cassia arrived a month later with a letter from the lord they had been working for. The king had told them of the message and offered them 500 gold pieces in return."
Delphi choked on her spit. "500?! That is enough to live two lifetimes off."
"I promised him more than that if he succeeded," Tenebrys continued.
Delphi swallowed down her outrage. What in the gods' name had Narcisse done with all that money?
"They got to work, and we were subjected to all kinds of disgusting concoctions to drink.
After months of failures, they started trying to add magic.
It was a plague that had been made by magic, so magic had to be the key.
One full moon, they both disappeared into the Mistwood.
I thought they had abandoned us to die. We were all too weak to go after them. We wanted to die.
"Before dawn, they returned. Cassia looked ill, but Narcisse was shimmering with power.
In the infirmary, he drew an arcane circle on the floor.
I've tried to remember details about that night, but all I can recall is that damn circle and a flash of violet flames.
It roared through the rooms and over us.
I thought it would burn us alive. It did something much worse. "
Tenebrys looked into his stew and then finally back at her, his golden eyes full of pain.
"At first, there was a chill and then agony.
The worst pain I have ever felt in my life.
Pain so horrible that I lost consciousness.
When I woke up again, there were only seven of us still alive, and we were all transformed into this.
" He waved a hand at his face and horns.
"We couldn't shift into a full beast or full human form anymore.
Narcisse and Cassia had fled after they detonated the spell.
When we were strong enough to leave the chateau, their trail was already a month old.
The Mistwood had grown around the estate.
We tracked them to the edge of the forest but found we could no longer leave it.
I have been trying to find Narcisse for the past twenty-nine years. Yesterday was the closest I ever got."
Delphi was going to be sick. She didn't know what to say.
"It will mean nothing, but I'm so sorry that he did this to you.
To all of you," she whispered, swallowing hard.
"I will go through the lab and the books they left behind.
I can try to figure out what they did. I don't have magic like my mother.
It doesn't make sense that Narcisse had the power to cast a spell like that. He must have done something."
Tenebrys snarled softly, "There isn't anything you can do. My only shot to get Narcisse was ruined. I was going to wait until nightfall, get into your dreams, and convince you to bring him into the woods. You fucked that plan up by running into them too early."
"Sorry if I didn't want to be a lord's whore or be burned alive," she snapped back. "I'm better than Narcisse at medicines. He is a hack and would have used my mother's magic somehow to curse you all. He wronged you horribly, but you're also a dick for using dream magic on me."
She bit her lip, stopping any more words from coming out of her big mouth. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction of knowing that it hurt her feelings.
Tenebrys leaned closer to her. "You were the one naive enough to let me into your dreams to begin with." He was near enough that she could smell the alluring, spicy musk of him.
"You're an asshole," she snapped because she couldn't think of a clever comeback when he was looking at her like that.
Tenebrys chuckled, low and husky. Delphi's treacherous thighs pressed together. "And you're just embarrassed that a monster like me got you to come so hard that your little cunt soaked my whole damn paw."
Delphi sucked in a breath, outrage coursing hot through her. She leaned closer until they were almost nose to nose.
"I also remember that your cock was digging into my back the entire time. I'm surprised it didn't leave a bruise," she countered.
His ear twitched, and he said nothing. That's what she thought. He had wanted her just as badly.
She laughed, soft and mocking, before throwing his words from that night back at him. "What's the matter? Cat got your tongue?"
Tenebrys got to his feet, his head cocking to one side, suddenly alert. Delphi opened her mouth to gloat when a howl echoed from outside, closer now and full of warning. Tenebrys picked her up and raced through the halls.
"What the hell, Tenebrys!" she shouted.
He shoved her back into her rooms. "Stay in there. Bolt the door from the inside. Don't come out until I tell you to," he commanded.
"What's wrong?" she asked as he turned away.
"Fae. Bolt this fucking door, Delphi." Tenebrys slammed it behind him. Delphi quickly slid the bolt shut, a tremble of fear running through her.
"The fae are gone," she whispered. She went to the fireplace and found the iron poker. Fae hated iron. That much she remembered.
Delphi checked that the windows were locked. It had been a long time since she had wanted to hide under a bed, but she fumbled her way through to the adjoining bedroom she had cleaned that day.
She crawled under the bed, gripped her poker, and hoped that this was just some dumb joke Tenebrys was playing on her. Something in his face told her he wasn't.
"The fae are gone. The fae are gone," she whispered into the darkness, hoping that if she said it enough, it might actually become true.