32. Chapter Thirty-Two
32
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
ELODIE
W e hadn’t made it far when I felt it. The overwhelming rush of power that swept down the corridor, followed by a roar that sent goosebumps pricking at my skin; I was certain even the floor shook from its force. I spun as I was drawn back the way we came, but we had turned a corner, and I could see nothing but the empty hall that betrayed no sign of what had happened.
I moved towards the noise—to the source of that power. It was a crazy idea, reckless. The energy screamed danger, not come closer, and when a hand clamped on my arm to turn me back, I flinched away but she held firm.
“That is not something you need to see right now. Leave him to his anger,” Alouette said. When I nodded, she let me go, eyes narrowing in judgment over whether or not I was going to listen.
As we started walking, she held out the black fabric. “Here, put this on. Who knows what he’ll do if someone catches a glimpse of you like that?” she teased.
“Thanks.” I frowned, taking the top from her and shrugging off my jacket for her to hold as I tugged it over my head to cover my ruined dress.
Had he told her to bring this?
Licks of energy continued to follow us, teasing at my hair as I re-belted my jacket and wrapped my arms around myself.
“He called you,” I said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yep,” she replied.
I cast her a sideway glance, she was taller than me but not by much. Thin and lithe, she stalked down the corridor. There was something animalistic in the way she moved, and I wasn’t ashamed to admit the woman was intimidating.
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why did he call you?”
She shrugged. “Why not?”
A thought popped into my head, one that didn’t sit well, though I couldn’t say why. “Are you and him… together?”
I was pretty sure of the answer, since she wasn’t acting like someone who had seen her boyfriend pressed up against a random girl in a dark corridor.
She barked a laugh. “No. He’s much too big and brooding. I prefer my lovers a little more…delicate.”
She quirked an eyebrow at me, laughing, and I found myself quietly joining her. It felt strangely comforting to laugh with someone, and I relaxed a fraction in her company. Even if the laughter hurt my pounding head and didn’t last all that long.
We walked in a mutual quiet after that, the magik that had followed eventually fading away. Without its presence, I found myself holding my breath every corner we turned, worried about what would find me.
“You’re safe,” she said, as I flinched at the distant sound of a closing door.
I didn’t like feeling like a scared little girl. That wasn’t me.
“Marcellus told me to take you to your room, so I will take you to your room. Nothing is going to happen to you. Although judging by what I saw back there you probably don’t need my help.” I frowned slightly at the ground, my eyes boring into the scarlet carpet beneath my feet. Despite the warmth that permeated the stone around me, a coldness had sunk into my bones that had me clutching the thick fabric tighter.
“I can’t control it,” I admitted.
“You will,” she said, with such certainty I almost believed her.
“Did you know him?”
I really hoped she didn’t.
“That guard? I mean, his face was a little smashed in, so it was hard to tell, but no, I don’t think I did.” I cringed as the memory of his broken form flashed through my mind—Alouette noticed.
“Are you sorry you did it?”
“No,” I said, instantly straightening my spine a little.
He deserved every bit of what he got, but it was a strange feeling knowing what I was capable of.
And knowing a part of me had enjoyed it.
“Good.” She smiled at me, and I felt as if I’d just passed some test I didn’t know I had been taking part in.
“Tell me what happened.” Her voice was calm, but there was no doubt it’d been an order.
Taking a moment, I gathered my thoughts before speaking. “He was waiting for me when I came in from the garden, said he was my guard now. He touched me, and my magik wouldn’t respond, so I kneed him in the dick?—”
She cackled with glee, and I turned to her in shock. “I heard you were fond of punching people in the face but kneeing someone in the dick is even better.”
It only took a second to realise she was talking about Bastian. That I had punched the fucking prince of this kingdom, and I groaned at the memory. How many people knew about that?
“Sorry,” Alouette said, mirth still in her voice. “Continue, you kneed him in the dick and then…”
“And then I ran. He caught me and then he… well, he caught me. When my magik finally responded, it—” How do I even describe what I did?
“It smashed his piece of shit body into the wall so hard, you cracked the stone?” she offered, and my eyes flew wide.
“Did I really?” Granted, I was more focused on his mangled body, but surely I hadn’t cracked stone?
“I dunno, you might have?” she said with a shrug and an easy smile. “Too much blood for me to know for sure. I’ll ask Marcellus when he’s done handling his emotions.”
Up ahead, sunlight filtered into the corridor from windows that looked out at the vast forest I could see from my own window. We must be on the right side of the castle now.
For once I was looking forward to being in my room.
I needed to be out of these clothes, to burn them if I could. I needed to rid my skin of the memory of his clammy hands on me.
“How do you know Marcellus? Are you a guard, too?” I would use her as a distraction to not be alone with my thoughts before it was absolutely necessary.
“I am definitely not a guard. And neither is Marcellus, so don’t let him hear you say that, or he’ll get his knickers in an even bigger twist then they are now.” She smirked at me, leaving unspoken what we were both thinking, but I couldn’t understand how it could be true.
That his anger hadn’t been because I hurt someone. It was because someone hurt me . There was a tiny flutter of magik inside me, like butterfly wings on my soul, that was preening at that fact.
“As for how I know him,” she started, her teasing coming to an end, “I grew up in Aerius, though I wasn’t born there. I was a scrappy thing back then, and one of the High Court found me, decided I could be of some worth if I was trained up a bit. When I met Marcellus, he trained me, too. I… left, for a while and when I came back, I was even better than before so he asked me to join him here, and I did. I’ve been with him ever since. Not with him, with him, of course,” she added with a wink.
“That was a lot of words for very little information,” I said, and she snorted a laugh.
“It was. Much of it isn’t mine to tell, so I won’t.”
Fair enough.
“Marcellus was born in Aerius, wasn’t he?” The information I’d gotten from Kaius was starting to help.
“Did the howling wind give it away?” A small smile played on my lips.
We turned a corner that I recognised and saw the guard standing against the wall outside my room, looking in the opposite direction. From here, I couldn’t tell if it was the one who had taken me to the gardens.
Had they been in on it together? Was I going to be left locked in that room with this man outside who would try and do the same thing?
A noxious mix of disgust and anger filled me as magik trickled into my hands. I wouldn’t let that happen again.
Alouette gave me an approving look before a pulse of calm radiated from her; it nudged into my side, reminding me of when Titan would bump into me back home. Too soon it was gone, and I ached for its comforting touch as the guard turned our way. It was the same one from this morning, his face scrunched into deep lines of confusion when he saw me.
“What—” he began, before Alouette lifted a hand and he clutched at his throat, eyes popping wide with shock.
“Is he the guard from this morning?” she asked, as his eyes whipped back and forth between us.
“Yes.” I held myself high, because if he was in on it, I wouldn’t let him see he had affected me.
His face began to turn red, and he scrabbled at his neck, desperate to break the invisible bonds cutting off his airway as he sank to the floor on his knees. Alouette’s finger twitched again, and the man gasped, sucking in harsh breaths as his face began to regain some colour.
“Why did you leave your post?” Alouette’s voice held a subtle growl. Who was this woman, and how did she hold so much power?
“I didn’t!” His eyes were wide in disbelief as he stayed on his knees in front of us. “I would never leave my post, General.”
General?
“Then why were you not the one who brought her back to her room?” He took in my dishevelled appearance, and his face fell. His hand reached out slightly towards me before thinking better of it and pulled back.
“I… he said… the guard, he said I was to go back to my post. I said no, I had my own orders, but he told me the order came from the Commander. I… fuck.” His head hung in defeat, and I felt a little sorry for him—not much, just a little.
If he was acting, he was doing a fantastic job of it. Deserved a gold sticker .
“Why would you listen to him when you had your own orders?” Alouette pressed.
He looked up, and his eyes met hers. “He was wearing a two flame signet, he outranked me. I was in no position to go against him.”
She tense beside me. “Up,” she commanded. “Take yourself to the Commander, I’m sure he will enjoy a little chat.”
Face paling, he stood. “But…” he started, gesturing towards the door he had been guarding.
“You know full well that I more than outrank you. She is safe with me. Go.”
With one last look my way, he swallowed thickly before bowing his head to Alouette and turning away. She reached out to my door, and as it swung open under her touch, we both walked in, her eyes sweeping around the room in a way I found reassuring.
“Not many places for someone to hide in here,” I said, and her face twisted into a grin.
“Very true, I’ll leave you to get yourself sorted. I’m sure you’re going to want to shower and then burn those clothes.” My heart leapt as a sudden thought came to my mind, and I threw my hand out to stop her leaving.
“What if the next guard is part of it somehow?” I blurted out.
Alouette turned to me, her light green eyes sparkling. “I’m your guard now, and while you are beautiful, I find no fun in taking what isn’t given freely. Plus, I’m taken.” She lifted her hand showing me a gold band circling her ring finger. I released a breath, feeling immediately safer knowing she was going to be outside.
“There’s barely anyone in this castle who can open this door anyway. You’re safe in here, we’re only outside to stop you escaping,” she said with a wink and laughed at my confusion as I turned to stare at the door.
“So, I’m not locked in? But I tried to open it when they put me in here?”
“Obviously, they weren’t going to let you run away the moment you got here. But no, you’re not locked in, although you wouldn’t exactly get far if you did try and run, considering there will always be someone outside. You’re not supposed to know that but us girls have got to stick together.” Alouette smiled at me, and I felt my mouth curve into a small smile right back.
“Do you know why I’m here?” I didn’t hold much hope for an answer, but it was worth a shot.
“Nope,” she said, popping the p. “That is above me I’m afraid. Not much is though, so that must mean you’re pretty important. Go get changed, I’ll help you burn those clothes later.” With that, she left, and I watched the door softly close behind her.
My mind spun as I stood in place; it was too much to process, too much to take in. There was a tiredness in my bones that I hadn’t felt since that first night here. I let my jacket drop to the floor, finding the hem of the new top and peeling it off. Air hit my exposed breasts, and I cringed. I ripped off the torn dress, kicking it away from me and continuing to undress until I stood naked with only Kaius’ pendant laying comfortingly in the space between my breasts. Staring at the heap of ruined fabric, I knew I would take up Alouette’s offer of burning it.
The shower was scalding as I stepped under the spray, enjoying the burn of the water against my skin. I let its heat wash away the oily caress of his hands, his words. I let it wash away the scared girl who had panicked, until the one left standing was the girl who had fought back.
The girl who had unleashed her magik, had attacked her attacker and liked it. Liked the feeling of her power crashing wildly through her veins.
I could see his body now, slumped against the wall, unmoving. I could see the radiating puddle of crimson across the floor.
I did that.
His face was whole again and close to mine as he pawed at me with hands that had no right. I sank to the floor, the tears that spilled down my face washing away in the spray of hot water. I could let them escape here in the safety of the shower. I would rebuild myself as many times as I needed to, but right now I would let myself fall.
My skin was raw from the heat of the water cascading down me when the tall woman found me curled on the floor of the shower.
It could have been minutes, it could have been hours. All sense of time had slipped away along with the water that circled down the drain, but when her gentle hands reached for me, I let her pull me up and wrap me in a soft towel.
Her magik had soothed my skin, chasing away the sting left behind by the water. Alouette joined her, and between the two of them, they dressed me and put me into bed. It could only have been midday.
They didn’t talk, didn’t ask me to talk, and I was grateful for the comfortable silence I felt around these two women who I barely knew.
When all the blankets were tucked in around me, Alouette scooped up the clothes I had kicked into a corner and silently left the room. The slight smell of burning reached under the door as she did what she said she would.
The tall woman—I should probably ask her name one of these days—had brought my lunch over to the bedside table, stroked my head once then left, leaving me alone with only the ticking of my clock as company. My chest ached with the care they had shown me, and it made my thoughts drift to the family I had left behind.
What I would give to have Titan’s warm body in the bed next to me, to have Nanna fussing and Briar telling me stories. To have Polly ready to fight the world beside me.
I cried for them then. Today had broken a barrier inside me I didn’t want to rebuild yet. I wanted to feel the pain of their absence, their loss. It mixed with the guilt I felt at the part of me that didn’t want to leave yet, the anger at what that guard had tried to take from me. The loneliness I felt being in this room, my frustration at having no idea why I was even here in the first place.
The tears mixed together, each one for a different reason, and yet all the same. Magik was swirling within me just as the emotions that were pouring down my face.
As the tears slowed and my face dried, I built that barrier back up brick by brick. At the top, next to the love for my family, was the need to master this power that I knew was within me.
I would never let it slip through my grasp again.