Chapter 39 Eviana
EVIANA
She stood next to his chair, her hands clasped in front of her and staring straight ahead.
He hadn’t spoken to her in hours, but she didn’t dare move.
Gone was her usual chair near the window.
Not that it mattered. They were in the Underground.
There was no nature down here. No plants to indulge in, and she wouldn’t have been able to anyway.
Not with the two bands on her wrists, steadily draining her magic.
She couldn’t touch it, but she could feel it slipping from her day by day.
Valter could speed the process up. He could add more bands.
Could take them off altogether and force her to expel her magic until there was nothing left.
Eliza had told her that was the only way the Mark that blocked their bond could be erased.
She had to be so depleted of her power that there wasn’t any magic left to hold the Mark in place.
She wasn’t sure if Valter knew that or if he was simply keeping her from accessing her gifts as additional punishment.
Either way, the choice to have it slowly trickle from her soul like this was an intentional one.
Not being able to expel her magic or have access to it was slowly driving her mad.
Or more mad than she already was.
Valter was flipping through ledgers and reviewing files on his computer, when her stomach growled. Of course her food allowance was limited right now. It would keep her reserves from replenishing.
Valter paused what he was doing before flipping another page.
“For so many years, you were taken care of, Eve,” he said casually. “Had everything you needed. The highest of honors for a Fae. I gave you everything.”
She said nothing. Didn’t dare to breathe too loudly.
This wasn’t the first time he’d berated her about this since they’d come here.
She actually preferred the days he completely ignored her and just made her stand around all day.
Those days she slept on his floor. The days he was chatty, she ended up in his bed.
“Ungrateful,” he spat, and she tensed, sensing the shift in his mood.
“Everyone is so godsdamn ungrateful for what I have given them over the years. My advisors. You. My own fucking sons.” He was flicking the pages of the ledger harder now, one of them ripping with the force.
“I give and sacrifice for you, them, this fucking realm, and still I find betrayal everywhere I turn. I should kill them all and start over. Do it right. What do you think of that, Eve?”
She still didn’t move, unsure if he wanted an answer or wanted her silence. She used to know. Used to be able to read him and could use the bond to her advantage. But now she didn’t know, because he was on the brink of losing control and there was nothing he valued more.
Valter sat back in his chair, legs spreading wide as he tapped his forefinger on the desk over and over.
“I could, you know,” he mused. “Dispose of my so-called advisors. Get rid of my offspring and create new ones. Sons that actually respect me.” He paused, tapping his finger on the desktop. “I’ve already started in that regard.”
She didn’t know what that meant, but she didn’t have time to think about it as he continued.
“But what of you, Eviana? What do I do with you?” He spun in his chair, and she remained still.
She could feel his eyes on her as she stared straight ahead.
Heard him shift and reach for her hair, winding it around a finger.
“Your betrayal was the biggest of them all,” he said, his voice too low and calm.
“Death is too merciful, but I also need a Source I don’t have to question.
Don’t have to wonder if her loyalty has been swayed.
Even so, I had a feeling this day would come.
Realized my mistake all those decades ago leaving you to grow up at that Estate alone.
Never spoke to you or visited you until you were old enough to claim. ”
Eviana wanted to vomit knowing exactly why he was telling her this.
“I realized I need that loyalty to be there from the very beginning. Not something forced later,” he continued. “I’d say it’s working quite well, wouldn’t you?”
As if on cue, the door opened, and Priya came skipping into the study. Her hair was falling out of its ponytail, and her face had a smudge of dirt on her cheek. In her hands was a small potted plant, and she was alight with excitement.
“Hello, Valter,” she sang, not even glancing at Eviana.
“My sweet Priya,” he said with a smile, dropping Eviana’s hair and pushing back from the desk. “What do you have there?”
Priya came around the desk, passing so close to Eviana, her little arm brushed against her. She couldn’t hide the sharp breath she sucked in, and Valter didn’t miss it either.
“You were right, Valter,” Priya said, that excitement growing. “I was able to bring this plant back. Do you think it will grow a flower?”
Valter pretended to study the plant as though unsure. “I don’t know,” he said with fake confusion. “But you know who does know a lot about plants?”
Priya’s brows pinched. “Who?”
“Eviana,” he said, gesturing to where she stood. “Eviana has a special gift for plants and flowers, just like you.”
The girl’s eyes widened. “She does?”
“Tell her, Eviana,” Valter said, and with Priya’s attention on her, Valter gave her a sharp, knowing smirk.
But she couldn’t find the words. Her daughter was staring up at her, not knowing who she was, and this was crueler than anything Valter had ever made her do.
“Eviana,” Valter said in warning, that finger tapping on the desk again.
She swallowed thickly, squeezing her fingers where they were still clasped in front of her. She had no idea how to speak to a child. “Yes,” she managed to rasp. “I find plants and flowers fascinating.”
“Will this plant make a flower?” the girl asked sharply, holding the pot up for her to see.
She glanced at Valter, and he nodded once, his eyes narrowed. Unclasping her hands, she ran her fingertips along the leaves, her power weeping at being separated from what it could use to save them.
“Yes,” Eviana whispered, knowing exactly what type of plant this was. “It will produce the most beautiful and bright flower.”
Priya’s face lit up, and she turned back to Valter, Eviana already forgotten.
“Did you hear that, Valter?” she asked excitedly. “A flower. Maybe it will be like the ones in the woods!” Then she paused, and Eviana could just make out the small frown from her side profile. “When will we go back there? I miss my friends in the woods.”
“Ah, I’m afraid it might be some time, my Priya,” he said. “Remember we are staying safe right now.”
“But there aren’t even trees here,” Priya said in confusion.
And Eviana’s eyes fluttered closed in heartache. She was so powerful, her magic was already starting to make itself known. Priya would feel drawn to nature, find comfort in the trees and soil. She was already feeling the effects of being away from her gifts, too small to understand any of it.
But Valter would make sure he was the one to help her discover all of that.
He would ensure that everything that little girl came to love was associated with him in one way or another.
It was already starting with this simple potted plant.
He would never stop. He would find every possible way to make sure Priya was his.
Take her. Break her. Be her savior. Repeat the cycle.
For the next hour she stood in silence, listening to Priya chatter on and tell Valter one thing after the next.
How her favorite food was vanilla pudding.
Her favorite color was green. How a Spryte had taught her how to call a bird to sit on her shoulder and how the trees had once caught her when she slipped while climbing one.
She sat on his lap, drawing on a piece of paper while he continued to flip through ledgers, and she sang and kicked her feet because this is what she knew as happiness.
What every child on the Estates dreamed of having.
Someone who cared.
Or appeared to.
Too young to understand the world was full of villains who survived on innocence.
A knock sounded, the Fae nursemaid Valter had brought with them at the door to collect Priya to prepare for dinner. She skipped from the room with her plant, her face alight with a joy Eviana was sure she’d never felt in her decades of existence.
The door clicking shut behind her was loud in the ensuing silence, and her eyes fell closed as she waited for Valter to speak.
“She will hate you some day,” her Master mused. “She will grow up knowing that to be a Source is the greatest honor she could ever hope to achieve, and she will love me. She will hate you because you are my Source, which means she cannot be.”
She heard him stand, felt him stop in front of her. He cupped her face gently, waiting. And when she opened her eyes, she found his hazel ones on her with a cruel smile on his lips.
“She will blame you for everything she cannot have. Everything that goes wrong in her life, every hurt and treachery, I will make sure she can trace it back to you.” A tear slipped free, and he leaned in, pressing his lips to the wetness.
“She will hate you, and she will love me,” he murmured against her skin.
“She will want me and blame you for not being able to have me. It will not be me who ends your life one day, my flower. I will be many of her firsts, but you will be her first kill.”