Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Dahes’ Whore
MAGNOLIA
For once I listened to Cash. I barely slept, staying up the entire night, trying to convince myself that I wasn’t completely terrified of Dahes.
It didn’t work.
All it did was make me irritable from lack of sleep.
Bran froze in the doorway the second he burst through my door. “You look like shit,” he said, looking me over.
I didn’t say anything as he started getting me ready. It took everything in me to hold my tongue. Maybe I was just as bad as everyone else, just as manipulative, but I needed to see what he was going to dress me in.
The tight grip around my chest loosened when he didn’t opt for any jewels and dressed me in black. At least it meant he wasn’t intentionally trying to kill me.
“What’s with the sass this morning?” he snapped as he tightened the ties around my waist.
“Care to enlighten me as to why you’ve been dressing me up as a dragon’s favorite meal this whole week?”
He pulled the strings tighter, causing me to momentarily lose my breath as he smirked. “So you’ve found someone else to ask all your annoying questions to. Good.”
“I’m serious, Bran. Why did you dress me in jewels?”
He shrugged, then went to get my shoes. “To prove a point.”
“Which is what exactly?”
“That you aren’t scared of dragons. You’re the girl who escaped the Dead King, and everyone should be terrified of you. If you want to survive here, you’ll need it.”
“I need people to be scared of me?”
“Yes,” he nodded, finally meeting my gaze. “I have no idea what Moriann is like, but people take advantage of the weak here.”
I scoffed. Yeah, the two kingdoms were eerily similar.
“And you weren’t worried that an actual dragon would eat me?” I diverted, instead of talking about my home kingdom.
“Everyone knows that dragons don’t come to the Vargothi until the third day.”
Right. Everyone except for me apparently.
“And on top of making sure everyone takes you seriously, I’ve been making you look fucking hot, so I think a thank you instead of attacking me first thing in the morning would be nice.”
“Thank you, Bran,” I mimicked his voice as best as I could, which was surprisingly easy.
“You’re insufferable. I’ve done you two favors now and all I get out of it is your attitude.”
“Two favors?”
“I’ve made you formidable, making sure everyone is afraid of you, while also making sure you’re as marketable as the next fucking Vargothi winner. Everyone wants you. Everyone’s intrigued. You’re the talk of the tournament just as much as the actual fighters are.”
I shrank into myself. That’s not what I wanted.
“So yeah, you’re welcome. All you need to do is find someone that’s interested in you. Doesn’t really matter if it’s a rider or a Wielder, but you’ll have an easier time with a Wielder. Then you’ll have another reason for the king to keep you and…”
I stopped hearing Bran’s words as his meaning hit me. He was trying to get me to stay, so I’d have a permanent place in Viven. I stared at him in bewilderment for a second before I closed the distance between us and engulfed him in a hug.
He was so taken aback that he staggered backward for a second before he finally wrapped his arms around me.
I wasn’t sure how long we stayed like that before I realized it was the first real physical contact I had purposely made with someone in the past seven years.
For some reason, I couldn’t not like Bran. I instantly trusted him, despite the fact that he was rude and lacked civilized manners.
Tears ran down my face, but I didn’t care.
“Oh, Suns, why are you crying from a hug?” he pulled back appalled, and I couldn’t help but laugh.
I definitely did not say it was because it was the first time I wasn’t even remotely scared of somebody—that I touched someone without my Token manifesting, that I wasn’t getting flashbacks from that night…
“Ugh, you ruined your makeup. Here.” He leaned toward me as he fixed whatever smudge I had under my eyes. “Now, don’t cry again or I’ll throw you into the Triovian wearing more jewels than you can hold.”
Bran left before I could even respond and I found myself smiling as I rushed after him. I didn’t have time to care that what he’d been doing was actually the worst possible scenario for me.
But to have someone care about me…
I hadn’t had that in years. I forgot what it was like to have someone look out for me, to have someone in my life that matters—to matter to someone in return.
The fleeting moment of blissfulness washed away as soon as it came because it dawned on me just how lonely I truly was and always would be.
As soon as I walked into the dining room, I felt Arrik’s eyes on me. I didn’t care if he hated me for not taking his advice. I wasn’t running away, although I thought about it all last night.
Was I really protected from Dahes here? He told me he would go to the sinking islands to enter my head, but I still hadn’t felt him yet. Maybe he miscalculated?
I had the location memorized of where he wanted me to go. He told me he’d send a thatcher, but would he even be able to enter my mind to tell me when to go there?
I shook my head, forcing the thoughts to leave as fast as they came.
It was a delusional fantasy.
It didn’t matter where I was in the world, I was never safe. He would always find me.
And even if by some miracle he couldn’t, I still had to go back—because of him, because of Masin. He’d be the first person Dahes would go after if I didn’t return, and if Dahes hurt him, then these past seven years would have been for nothing.
Even without selling my soul to the devil, I was trapped, because Dahes knew my weakness, he knew the one person I would do anything for.
I zoned out half of breakfast, trying so hard to push him from my mind, to not think about Masin’s dimples or how blue his eyes were.
It wasn’t until the entire table went silent that I realized everyone was staring at me.
“What?” I asked.
Cash was the one who spoke. His blonde hair looking more brown from freshly showering. He ran his fingers through the thin strands, pushing it off his forehead. “I asked if you’ve ever seen Dahes’ whore when you were in Moriann.”
“His what?”
“His whore.” Cash smirked as he eyed me. “Come on, convict, don’t tell me we know more about Moriann than you do?”
A chuckle ran out across the table and my cheeks instantly heated because I had no idea what they were talking about. I shifted in my seat before shaking my head. “I’ve never heard of her before.”
King Elion chuckled. “The Dead King has always been known for secrecy. He’s a recluse and apparently most of Moriann hasn’t laid eyes on his whore so I’m not surprised. He tends to covet things he loves.”
I turned to Elion, taking in his words. It was proof that there was more history there. But was it true? Did Dahes have a lover?
I’d never seen another female in his castle before, but then again I spent half the time isolated in my room…
The only person I saw frequently was the ghost with the soft eyes and swollen belly. They couldn’t be talking about her, right?
I knew Dahes had some kind of effect on the dead, I just had no idea to what extent. She could carry tangible objects with her hands—did that mean Dahes could do that to her entire body?
Cash laughed, breaking me from my thoughts. “Half of Moriann hasn’t even seen his real face. Not with the devil’s mask he wears all the time.”
“Have you ever seen him?” someone to my right asked.
I nodded, then forced myself to swallow the lump that suddenly stuck in my throat, before I got out, “Everyone has seen him at least once on the streets.” It wasn’t a lie. I saw the Dead King three times before I made my deal with him.
“No, I meant have you ever seen him without his mask on?”
I stilled, having no idea how to answer because I hadn’t until he owned me.
Lira was sitting next to Arrik again, and she’d tell Elion the moment I lied, but if I admitted to it, Elion might know something was off.
Dahes never went outside without his mask on.
I honestly wasn’t sure if anyone other than me had ever seen him with it off.
Before I lived with him, I’d only seen the alabaster plaster.
It looked like a second skin, but was too sheer, too luminescent to be real.
White horns spiraled up his temples—I learned later they were part of the mask, but it looked so lifelike, especially when he drew his hood, obscuring his features even more.
The only part of him that showed were his glowing eyes. It was how I knew the second they changed. Through the mask, I had watched the blue band form around the outer rim of his white irises at the same time I felt a burning in my own.
King Elion waved his hand. “She wouldn’t know.”
I tried to not react as everyone kept talking about Dahes, but I could barely zone out the remarks—how they guessed what his whore looked like, how they took bets on if Dahes fucked her while wearing his mask.
How they wondered if his horns were real or if he had sharp teeth that ripped open jugulars.
“I heard his whore brings bodies back to him. That she drags them through the streets for him to rip apart,” Cash smirked, murmuring into his drink.
“Talk about fucking dark foreplay,” someone else said.
I paled as I tried to force myself to keep eating, to look natural even as my insides were spinning.
My spoon slipped from my fingers, clattering onto my plate as I whispered, “What did you say?”
Cash turned to me. “His whore drags bodies into the castle at night. Heard she’s just as fucked up as he is.”
His whore…
Drags bodies…
I wanted to vomit. I wanted to scream. My ears kept ringing, and despite the fact that the conversation didn’t slow, I couldn’t hear anything anymore.
Because I knew then… that was the reputation Dahes didn’t want me to know about.
I was his whore.