Chapter 31
It wasstrange to be wearing lipstick again after so long, but I liked it. I liked the feel of moist lips. I liked the heavy lashes with the mascara the brides had given me, and the blush I knew was on my cheeks. I guess I liked putting myself together now since Mama Si. I’d actually missed getting ready for the day in front of a mirror in the morning.
Neither Valentine nor Grey were there for breakfast. Only Tristian and Romin joined us, and the rest of the day, it was just us.
At dinner, I was impatient as hell to know where they were, though I suspected I already knew about Grey.
God, had that cougar last night even been real, or had I made all of it up?
“Where do they go all day?” I asked out loud when my mind got too crowded with questions.
“Out. Hunting and tending to the people. They build everything themselves. Catch fish in the nearby waters. Make sure they’re all fed and clothed and satiated,” Rachel said, like she did all those things herself and she was proud of it. “The people live well in the Whispering Woods.”
“When will I get to see the town?” I said, and for some reason it didn’t even occur to me to tell them about Grey. I just wanted to know what the Evernights built and how they hunted and how the people felt about them themselves.
“After the Blood Call, I assume,” she said with a shrug.
After the Blood Call, the one thing that was going to give me both the freedom to do anything I wanted in this place and enough magic to protect myself with, and the final link that would practically chain me to one of the brothers forever.
Romin, Emil, Grey, Tristian, all impossibly beautiful, all looking forward to tasting my blood, while I tried not to throw up every time I thought about it. I tried not run blindly and as fast as I could just to get away from the very idea that one of them was going to eatme.
Maybe not eat me but feed off me.
“Oh, don’t look so grim,” Lucinda said, and I immediately straightened up in my seat. The brides said those words to me often when I forgot to control my expressions, or when I was too overwhelmed to care—like tonight.
“I’m not, I was just—” I started to lie, but she cut me off.
“I was talking to Cynthia,” she said, nodding her head across the table, at Cynthia, who was indeed pushing the food on her plate around, looking…well, as grim as I usually did.
“Oh.” How had I even missed this when Cynthia was usually very chatty all the time? “Is everything okay?”
“It’s Master Grey,” said Rachel from the seat next to her.
“Or rather, the absence of Master Grey,” Lucinda corrected, grinning ear to ear.
Cynthia looked up at her. “You’re a brat.”
“I didn’t even say anything!” Lucinda said, but she winked at me as soon as Cynthia looked at her plate again. I widened my eyes at her—she really was a brat, but that was a damn compliment to Lucinda so all she did was shrug her shoulders.
With a loud sigh, Cynthia put the silverware down and sat back on her chair. “I just don’t understand. I don’t get it—why?!”
“Why…what?” I asked, feeling even more guilty. I’d been so locked up in my own head with my own thoughts that I hadn’t heard a single thing they’d talked about all day.
That—and last night. Why the hell did I want to keep what happened last night from her? She was Grey’s bride, wasn’t she?
Ugh, that word…
“He won’t come to us at all,” Cynthia said in a whisper, looking behind her at the doors to make sure they were still closed. “He hasn’t even spoken to me in weeks, and I don’t get it. We know how to please him!”
“Yep, yep, mhmm—and Amita is devastated,” said Lucinda, nudging me with her leg under the table as she tried to keep a straight face but failed. It wasn’t that she was bad or heartless or anything—on the contrary. She just claimed that trivial drama made for the best entertainment for her. As long as it wasn’t serious, she could laugh and have fun with just about everything.
“Oh,” I said again because what the hell else could I say? I had no clue how to even have a conversation with a bride about why her Master wasn’t fucking her. I didn’t want to, especially since I felt so damn filthy for not telling them about last night.
“Yes, Fall. That’s a very bad thing,” Rachel said bitterly. “I mean, where is he even getting blood—animals?”
“Exactly!” Cynthia cried.
“I’m sure he’ll come around,” I muttered. It was the best I had, and I stuffed my mouth with food so I didn’t have to say anything else.
“He will,” Cynthia said with another exasperated sigh. “Thank you, Fall—of course, he will. He always does.” Her eyes were actually filled with tears. Fuck, it made me so uncomfortable, even though I meant what I said.
“But why? What are his reasons?” Lucinda asked. “I’m sure he has a few.”
Cynthia shook her head. “He’s either busy or tired or says he won’t be around for the night,” she reluctantly said.
My mouth opened—he really is busy, I wanted to say. He really is hunting—I saw him last night in the kitchen. I cleaned the blood off him myself. He took me to see the cougar he saved…
I clamped my mouth shut again. No, I would not be telling anyone anything simply because I didn’t want to be interviewed about it all night long. I didn’t need their attention on me, not today.
At least that’s what I told myself.
Then one of the doors to the dining room opened, and Aster’s eyes met mine.
“Miss Hayes, Master Romin requires your presence in his office.”
All chatter between the other brides stopped instantly.
“Please join him—immediately.” Aster gave me a plastic smile, turned around and stepped out the door, closing it behind her almost soundlessly.
I turned to Lucinda, doubting my own sanity for a moment. “Did she just?—”
“Yes,” Lucinda said. “Master Romin is waiting—go. He hates to be left waiting.”
Fuck. Me.
“Move, Fall, dear,” said Vera from the other side. “You know the way.”
I did know the way.
And I did move, but reality didn’t feel very real as I walked all the way to the first tower all by myself. No guards, no other brides, just me.
Romin wanted to see just me.
The doors to his office seemed to just pop up in front of me out of thin air—how the hell did I get here so fast?!—and the guard didn’t even give me a second to get myself together before opening them.
The next moment, Grey filled my vision and my legs stopped working, my body frozen in place right in the doorway.
Fuck, Grey was coming toward me, and he was bloody—again.
This time a tiny bit of blood was coming out of the corner of his lips, and his dark grey shirt was torn, his left sleeve completely shredded like someone had clawed at the fabric. I could see the curves of his biceps through the tears perfectly fine, and I might have stared for a moment there. That’s why I noticed his skin was dirty again, and thin raw marks sliced their way around those thick arms here and there. His hair was all over the place, muddy as well, same as his dark wash jeans, but at least the denim wasn’t torn anywhere that I could see.
Was it the cougar? Was he fucking wrestling with that beast in his tower?
Curiosity burned me like wildfire.
His eyes, though. The way his pupils dilated at the sight of me, like he was just as surprised to see me there as I was to see him. His step didn’t even falter. He didn’t freeze in place like me. He wasn’t limping at all like he had been doing last night, and that just shocked me. How the hell had he healed so fast? That wasn’t even twenty-four hours!
Inside the office, Romin was talking to someone else—I imagined the other brothers, but Grey was on his way out.
Grey was right in front of me in the blink of an eye.
Shit, shit, shit—move!
“Good evening, Fall.”
There I went, doubting my sanity again.
I squinted my eyes, trying to figure out if I’d really made the whole thing up last night.
“Can you not hear me?” he said, and the corner of his lips, that same one that was bleeding, curled up. As in, in a smile. On Grey’s face.
“You’re not limping,” I muttered, then cleared my throat. “And, yes, good evening, Grey.”
That’s when I realized—I called him Grey last night, too, and he didn’t correct me. I was supposed to address them as Master before their names, yet he didn’t say a single thing, except…
“You look beautiful tonight.”
I was struck speechless for so long he almost smiled again.
My cheeks were on fire when I remembered what I had on.
Why the hell did I wear a blue shirt again today? Why, why, why had I gone into the stupid closet this morning searching for every blue item I could find?!
“Thank you,” I finally choked, feeling as if I was in someone else’s skin. “Why, uh….why aren’t you limping? Are you…is that…” I pointed at his torn shirt, at the scars on his arm, but I couldn’t produce enough words to speak properly.
Because I was too busy wearing blue.
“My leg healed after you cleaned it up. It barely hurts now. And, no, this wasn’t the cougar. This is…” he looked down at himself for a moment, as if he were suddenly shy. “Something else,” he concluded.
“Oh.” What? What’s something else?!
And why the hell does blood and grime look so good on you? What’s your secret?
I bit my tongue harder.
“Are you coming in?” Grey stepped to the side, waving behind him at Romin’s office.
Holy shit, I was in his way. I’d stopped in the middle of the doorway, and he couldn’t walk out. That’s probably why he’d stopped there to talk to me.
Move it! I shouted at myself in my head again, and I finally did. “Yep—sorry.”
“Don’t be. I’m glad I caught you,” Grey said, and he sounded like that again—different, like last night.
“You sure you’re okay?” Because all that blood he’d lost was no joke. And also his arm really looked like it needed some cleaning and some bandages.
In fact, I wouldn’t mind doing the work myself if he wanted…
The way Grey looked at me you’d think I had suddenly turned pink.
“I am,” he finally whispered, a look in his eyes I couldn’t quite decipher.
“And, uh…and the cougar?”
“Healing nicely.”
The way he said that word. So…nicely.
I nodded, unable to reply, so he said, “I’ll see you soon.”
Grey walked out of the door, still not limping, and I could have sworn on all the stars that he was smiling again as he did.
“Fall, you honor me with your presence.”
Romin’s voice rang in my ears. I turned to find both Emil and Tristian coming toward me, toward the door, while Romin waved for me to approach him.
“Good evening, beautiful Fall,” Tristian and Emil said in unison as they passed me by.
“Good evening,” I said with a forced smile and a nod, still feeling like I was in a dream.
“Love the makeup, but you look better without it, I promise,” Tristian whispered as he walked out the door, earning a slap on the back of the head from Emil. Then they both laughed before the guard pulled the door closed, cutting off the sound of them.
I let go of a long breath.
“Come closer,” Romin said. “And please excuse my brothers. We had sort of an…emergency, so to speak.”
Swallowing hard, I started walking toward the table.
“What kind of an emergency?” I couldn’t help but ask, not after seeing Grey with a bloody lip. Had he gotten another cougar or something? Maybe some other animal?
Romin shook his head, reaching out his hands for me. I reluctantly put mine between his, and he held it tightly. A miracle I didn’t flinch. “Just my brothers being silly, as always. Grey went too close to the borders on the shore today. The magic of the curse did a number on him—I’m sure you saw.”
Holy shit.
“Really? That was magic?” Grey had looked so much worse yesterday when he’d fought a cougar. He’d been barely standing then.
“Oh, yes. He put all of us in danger. So reckless,” Romin said, trying to sound disappointed, but it was obvious he was amused. The brothers didn’t have much love for Grey. They rarely dared to even tease him.
“To go so close to the shore is ludicrous. He could have gotten himself killed,” Romin continued, sighing dramatically.
I shook my head. “Why?” Was it because of another animal? I couldn’t think of another reason why he’d want to go close to the borders like that, knowing what would happen, but…
“Because of books,” Romin said with a laugh. “He went to pick up bookshe ordered from one of the Isles. He wanted to handle them himself, when he could have sent our people to pick up the delivery without putting anybody in danger.” He tsk-ed. “But that’s my brother for you. He does what he wants, consequences be damned. Come. Sit.” He waved at the chair near him, the same place I sat that very first night I came to this room.
Books.
So Grey not only caged cougars to heal them and save them from lions, but he also liked books.
Curiouser and curiouser…
“Fall? Are you listening?” Romin said, pulling me out of my trance. “Join me for a drink.”
I’d rather not, I wanted to say. I’m really tired, I wanted to say. I should get to bed.
“Of course,” I said instead, but my mind was still with cougars with glowing eyes and books and the shore, with Grey, dirty and bloody, almost smiling as he went.
Romin waved a hand and a tray with a bottle of wine and an empty glass appeared right next to his on the table. He used magic with the same ease as Genevieve had, and he was grinning ear to ear as if he were proud to show me.
“Figured I could pour you some wine myself. I don’t want any distractions,” he told me, then grabbed his own glass. “Cheers.”
I clanked my glass to his and drank. “Cheers.”
Fuck, I was going to die of the anticipation alone.
Was he going to bite me? Was he going to grow fangs and declare that he wanted to taste my blood first before the Call and before anybody else?
Or was he just going to taunt me?
“I’ve taken your, uh…situation under consideration, Fall. I understand that you weren’t told the whole truth about us and the Whispering Woods when you offered yourself in the ritual.”
Oh. My. God.
I looked up at him and sat a bit straighter, praying my ears hadn’t lied to me. “You do?” Hope was like the sun suddenly shining over my head, warming me to my bones.
“Of course,” Romin said. “I understand, and that’s why I’ve given you more time than I have anyone else, to get used to this castle, to all of us.” My stomach fell instantly. “I’ve given you as much time as I could give you, but you’re ready to get to know all of us now,” he declared, slowly leaning closer to rest his elbows on the table. “After all, we don’t know whose bride you’ll be soon. Better to be prepared beforehand is what I always say.”
That little warmth I’d felt died a quick death. I swallowed hard, taking another sip of the wine, focusing on the rhythm of my heart so that it didn’t show even half of what I really felt in those moments.
“So, from now on you will be spending time with each one of us, alone, until the Blood Call,” Romin said, reaching out his hand toward my face, touching my jaw with the tips of his fingers. It was all I could do not to move away and start running already.
“When will that be?” I dared to ask, just so I knew how much time I really had before it was over.
Romin shrugged. “The Blood Call? Honestly, nobody knows. For most, it’s two weeks after they come here, but you’ve already been here for three, so it might be longer. The Blood Call knows the right time. It knows when you’re ready.”
I nodded and took another sip of the wine as he watched me, hoping my hands weren’t shaking as badly as I thought.
“You are so incredibly beautiful, Fall…” Romin’s voice trailed off as he touched my chin next and raised my head, turning it toward him. I had no choice but to look into his eyes, to see every perfect line of his face from close up. He really was a sight to see—a rough kind of beauty that lured you in and at the same time promised you that it was as dangerous and as deadly as it was appealing.
“Thank you,” I choked, hoping to break the spell his eyes were trying to cast on me.
Romin smiled, showing me his teeth. “I would be honored to call you mine. I’d give you the world if you were.”
My heart was breaking so fast so hard, it was a surprise he couldn’t hear it. “That’s not up to me, is it? The Blood Call decides.”
My blood would decide which one of the brothers it was compatible with, however that worked. There really wasn’t much I could do but sit there and take it—that’s what my life had come to. I’d willingly submitted to those around me, and now when I didn’t want to do that anymore, I was forced to.
“But you decide who you feel comfortable with,” Romin said, taking my wine and putting it on the table before he framed my face with his big hands, bringing us even closer. His lips were so close to me that my stomach twisted and turned—would he kiss me?
And what the hell would I do if he did?
“You decide who you let in your company, Fall. I want to get to know you. I want to understand you better so that if I’m lucky enough to be your Master, I’ll know how to give you everything you need and want,” he said in a hushed whisper, which made the entire conversation infinitely more intimate.
Everything I need and want is to leave here, I wanted to say, but I wasn’t brave enough to face whatever he’d choose to do to keep me here if he knew my intentions.
“Fall, look at me.”
I did. It wasn’t just his voice, but that aura, that power that hung about him that made it impossible to disobey him. He was so close that I saw the colors of his eyes, and the black of them opened into a rich chocolate brown.
“I promise you one thing if you become mine: I will give you everything your heart desires. You’ll always come first, and I don’t just mean in bed.” Slowly, his lips stretched into a smile and heat poured all over me. Fuck, I was melting away and I could feel it.
“Like I said, it’s not my choice,” I whispered and casually moved away, grabbing the wine from the table again. If I was going to have to sit here and listen to him talking to me like that, I would rather be a little tipsy.
Romin smiled. “You intrigue me. I am praying, Fall,” he said in a hushed whisper. “I am praying for you like I never have before.”
Oh, please, please don’t. “You have the most brides out of all your brothers,” I said, half-joking, just to remind him of the fact. “I’m sure you’re plenty busy.”
“But I want you, too,” Romin insisted, taking a big sip of his own wine. I had no clue what the fuck I did, but he seemed to be even more infatuated with me right now, grinning like the devil while his eyes glistened. “Maybe it’s no accident that we haven’t been able to sire an heir for such a long time. Maybe it’s no accident that I am not a father yet. Maybe I was waiting for the exactly right match, someone I fully, truly want.” I threw up in my mouth a little. “And I usually get what I want, so here’s hoping that we’ll be each other’s forever.”
He raised his glass to mine. A miracle I didn’t spit out that bile for real as I clanked it, then pretended to drink but simply touched the wine to my lips. I would not drink to that absurd statement. Never.
If Romin noticed, he didn’t care. “Go ahead, then. Tell me about yourself. I want to know everything.”
I forced a smile on my face. “There really isn’t much to tell.”
“Well, I want to hear it anyway.”
And so, for the next hour I had to sit there and talk and talk and talk without actually telling him anything significant about me.
By the time I made it back to my room, I was so exhausted, so desperate to escape this reality that I slept with wet cheeks without bothering to even take my makeup or my clothes off.