Chapter 24
You Need to Be Impregnated
Raven
Present Day - Grypheem
“Imissed you, Raven.” Matty offered a toothy grin, his hair falling forward as he leaned over and clasped my hands in his, pushing up the sleeve of my fleece-lined sweater, his cool skin shocking against mine.
We had spent most of the day just talking. At one point, Julian had come, but then he had been whisked away. While I had never felt at any point uncomfortable in Matty’s presence, we hadn’t touched on heavier topics.
Sticking to the lightness of a distant past where we all spent our days just existing in the small joys granted to us.
I looked up at him. “I missed you too.”
Releasing his hold, he looked down to my wrists, to where the sleeve had been pushed up. He stiffened.
Matty’s face whitened, his light eyes darkening a nearly imperceptible amount.
“There are scars here,” he whispered. “I though–” He shook his head, his attention flicking up to my face and back to my wrist. To the marks Ivan had left.
Ivan.
We still don’t know where he is.
A stab of anxiety torpedoed through me, but I forced it away.
Pushing the sleeve back down, I shrugged a shoulder uncomfortably. “They are.”
Matty opened his mouth again, but a knock came at the door and I took the escape, jumping up from the couch we sat on and running towards it. I didn’t hesitate in whipping it open, but I wish I had.
“Raven, exactly who I wanted to see.” Drago greeted cheerfully, looking over my shoulder at Matty. “I think it’s time you returned to your quarters, it’s getting late and we wouldn’t want anyone getting the wrong impression.”
Turning to Matty, I saw a conflicted expression score his face in tightened lips and a furrowed brow, but he didn’t argue, getting to his feet.
“I’ll see you around soon, Raven. It was good catching up.
” He inclined his head at Drago before walking back towards the hidden stairs that would take him to the dining hall.
I watched him until he disappeared from view and returned my gaze to Drago.
The King of Grypheem.
“May I help you?” I asked uncomfortably, shifting from foot to foot.
“Yes.” Drago reached forward, grabbing my hand, squeezing it tightly and dragging me out of the door.
I could have easily escaped his hold, but most likely not the consequences of fighting a king.
“Julian said he was coming back soon,” I advised as Drago continued to wrench me along.
We made it down one flight of the winding double helix staircase before exiting.
I expected him to take me to a throne room, but instead we made our way to an enclosed patio.
Food and drinks lining a large lavish dining table with an entire wall of windows to watch outside as the snow continued to fall.
The sun was nearly setting, and I found myself in a trance as the trickling light caught on the flecks of white in the air creating a magnificent prism.
“There isn’t snow in Violencia.” Drago released me before shutting the door behind us. “Your men are preoccupied but I will return you to them soon enough.” He added cryptically, walking across the room to a chair, gesturing for me to take the one directly to his left.
It was just the two of us in this room, and it put me past the point of breaking. I didn’t know this man, didn’t trust him. And just a few days ago he had proclaimed I was pregnant.
But I wasn’t, I couldn’t be. The birth control administered in my Faction days was long-lasting and not easily removable and it had never failed.
I decided the best move was to play this out, to see what Drago wanted with me.
Walking swiftly across the floor, I found the chair next to him and leaned as far as I could.
Before me was a plate of food and two cups.
One was a crystal goblet filled with clear liquid and the other was a mug that smelled of fruit and herbs.
Picking up the mug, I took a better whiff and crinkled my nose.
It smells similarly to the High Priestess.
“Water and tea. Help yourself,” Drago encouraged.
I didn’t, setting the mug back down.
The window was directly behind my seat, and I could feel the cool air creeping through it, but I didn’t care. My eyes were trained on the door, waiting for whatever it was we were here for.
“I need you to understand Raven, this world is different. Women are our most important possession, but we must still follow the laws. And Cherished women, Sacred or otherwise, who break them must be sent to the Isles of Sacerdos. There are no exceptions.”
I didn’t understand what he was saying, but then the door was whipped open.
“Please!” A woman was held between two much larger men, she was sobbing. The long white robe she wore was covered in blood on the bottom. “It wasn’t my fault.”
My heart beat like a hummingbird in my chest, soft and quick, fluttering all the way up my throat.
Drago stood. “Silence!”
A man I vaguely recognized came through the door next. He offered a low bow, bending at the hips.
“Troy, please raise. Explain what has happened,” Drago commanded.
His voice was different in this instance, authoritarian and domineering.
Troy rose, pushing back his over-sized glasses up the bridge of his hooked nose. “It was as we suspected. This sacred cherished was found too late. She has lost the child. The soul from above has been extinguished.”
Drago’s lips flattened into a tight line as he approached the woman.
“You have broken the law. Your husband did not receive the High Priestess’s blessing to marry you and while that was not your crime, you have injured a Cherished.
Extinguished a soul from above. For this, you must be sent to the Isles of Sacerdos for your atonement. ”
The woman’s sobs intensified. “But my husband claimed me! I didn’t do anything! I did everything right and still this happened. Please, I’m begging you.”
The woman’s blonde curls were tangled as she flipped her head forward planting her lips on the ground.
She had a miscarriage.
It was a common occurrence, more often than not a completely unavoidable, albeit heartbreaking one.
A part of life.
Here, it is a punishable offense.
I wanted to go to the woman, to hug and comfort her. But I was frozen in my seat. These countries had already felt off, but this was solidifying it more and more.
“Your husband will be imprisoned; he had no right to marry you before you bore your first child and without the Priestess’s blessing.
As he was not with you at the time of this, he will have the choice of the Redemption or life imprisonment.
But he must atone for his crimes, for keeping a Cherished hidden.
” Drago flicked his hand. “Take her away. My word is final. Find her husband and lock him up.”
The two men holding the woman dragged her back out the door, leaving a trail of blood as they did so. Evidence of the woman’s suffering, of the pain she must be enduring.
It was one thing to lose a child, but this went much further.
I had no doubt that going to the Isles of Sacerdos was a one-way train to hell that I had no intention of ever taking.
Troy didn’t move, his attention solely focused on me. “Shall I relay the news to the High Priestess?”
“Yes Troy, that will be all. And I need you to clear the castle. No one is to enter this level or any above it for the rest of the evening,” Drago commanded.
Troy’s lips twitched in frustration. “Respectfully, it is only a matter of time before the High Priestess comes for her. We cannot hold a sacred cherished here, we cannot support her to take two partners. It is sacrilegious, she is nothing more than a common who—”
Drago raised his hand, forming a fist. “Silence! You will not speak of your future princess in this manner. Griffin is still abiding by the law, even if you choose to interpret it differently. Please leave at once, relay to the High Priestess that a cherished will be enroute to her.”
Troy offered the slightest bow before leaving, slamming the door behind him.
Drago heaved a long and despondent sigh, his wary eyes finding mine.
My throat was suddenly too dry; I tried to swallow but choked. Coughing as my vision blurred and I reached blindly for a drink. My hand found the mug first, but I moved on to the crystal, choosing to chug the bitter water instead.
“This castle is filled with spies everywhere. And that is why you being pregnant must be the truth,” Drago explained, reaching for his tea, taking a sip and staring at me with his glazed eyes.
“I can’t be, I had—”
“Birth control? Yes, I removed it on the ship. It is illegal in our countries, you could have been taken for it.”
Nausea rolled through my stomach at the invasion. My tongue thickened in my mouth, and I attempted to swallow but my mouth was dry again. Too dry. “What does that mean?” The glass in my hand slipped through my fingers, falling to the ground, shattering into pieces.
“That means you need to be impregnated. I don’t care who the father is, it really doesn’t matter. You just need to prove your value as a Sacred Cherished and then when you are pregnant you must not lose the child.” Drago watched me cryptically, his attention zeroing in on the shattered cup.
My eyes swayed to it, my vision painting as it went leaving a smear of vibrant hues, hypnotic colors echoing around it. “Why must you all poison me?” I whispered.
I knew I should be anxious, terrified. But I physically couldn’t be. My stomach was filled with butterflies, warm drunk slightly fluffy butterflies.
Euphoria shot out to my fingertips, and I held in the urge to moan.
“This is a favorite that Harold and Sharon used to utilize at parties back in the day. I felt similarly to how you do now when I met your dearest sister.” Drago hummed his happiness as he got up from his chair.
My vision swayed, my body hovering between numb and pleasure.
He gathered me into his arms. “It’s time, sweetheart. To finish what I started. We must get you pregnant.”
His words churned through my belly rolling uncomfortably and I wanted more than anything to escape this haze. But I couldn’t.
I was drugged.
An idiot who walked into a room with a king and gladly drank the poisoned water.