Chapter 51
Chapter fifty-one
Linnea
Being shackled to a chair was boring beyond measure.
I couldn’t relax, or the chair would tip over when my weight went too far to one side. The guards surrounding me were twitchy enough already, and the bang as the chair fell was likely to make them accidentally attack me in their fear.
They were right to be afraid.
The noises started a while ago, and as the roar of battle got closer, a smile began to tilt my lips.
Carnelian had no idea who he was dealing with.
Azurill played his truth close to the vest, letting Carnelian assume whatever he wanted, and filling in the gaps with wrong ideas that led him to this incredibly foolish scheme.
He’d been planning this for so long, seeding dissent among the lords and taking out my family to make way for the bootlickers who’d trot along faithfully in his wake.
And I was determined to show him what a mistake that truly was.
They’d left me much as I was, not realizing the gems on my dress were sharp enough to cut onyx.
I began slowly running the chain along the sharp diamond encrusted around my wrist the moment Carnelian left the room.
The guards were too concerned about who was coming to worry about who was in the room with them.
Another mistake.
The sound of a man flying into the wall made my head whip up from my task. The scream that followed made my smile broaden.
Azurill.
He was in the room next to me now, and I could practically feel his presence pulsing from it. The magic was rabid, thrashing at the walls and tearing apart any in its way.
The guards seemed to sense this too, however, and they immediately panicked. One of them looked back at me, considering, before looking to the back wall. He nodded to himself before stalking over to me, and I began to struggle in my chains as he dragged the chair backward.
“What are you doing?” Another guard asked him, confused.
The sound of a door opening filled my ears, as if the air had been sucked out of the room, and the guard picked up the chair with me in it, shoving me into what I knew right away was a closet. I stopped struggling immediately, my breath caught in my throat as panic overtook me.
“What does it look like?” The guard snapped, sweat beading at his temples, betraying his nerves. “I’m making sure she’s out of sight.”
With that, he shut the door, leaving me in pitch-black darkness.
I closed my eyes against the tears filling them, memories assaulting me that were fresh once more since the magic trial.
My heart was beating faster than I knew was possible, my limbs all shaking under the onyx chains.
Panic was all I knew for a moment. Except…
I also knew I wouldn’t get anywhere like this.
I slowly opened my eyes, spotting a small crack in the doorframe that let me see out to the room beyond.
So much like another closet, another fight.
But this time would be different. I wasn’t a child anymore, and the enemy wasn’t coming for me, I’d already been taken by that very same enemy. This time, it was my savior breaking into the house, coming to free me.
I wasn’t a damsel in distress any longer, not like I was then. I was a grown woman who had spent her life learning how to survive. I wasn’t going to let his small, dark space entrap me forever. In my youth. In my dreams. In these chains.
I was done hiding and running.
As I spied the guards preparing to attack through the small peephole, I began working again on the chain holding me. I was going to get out of this, and meet Azurill on equal footing. I refused to be trapped in the past anymore. I had a future waiting for me just beyond this door.
I bit my lip in excitement as the chain finally began to give way.
I ran my wrist back and forth more quickly over it, and as a body crashed through the wall, flying back and hitting the opposite one, leaving an Elven-sized hole in it, the onyx chain finally gave, slinking to the floor with a loud clink.
The guards stood ready, but they were basically trembling like children at this point.
The sound of loud, slow footsteps made one of them actually drop his sword before he skittered quickly to pick it up.
When silver eyes appeared through the brand-new, giant hole in the wall, my smile broadened into a full grin.
“Azurill!” I called, throwing open the closet door fully, and those silver orbs found me immediately.
The rage in them made me shiver in delight, and I let the remaining chains fall to the rocky floor as I stood and kicked the chair back, making it hit the closet wall.
It made some of the guards turn back to look, and the split focus enabled us to work in tandem.
Azurill attacked the guards looking at me, and I threw myself at the guards watching him. The surprise was likely the only reason I was able to wrestle the guard’s sword away, weakened as I still was by the onyx. My strength was coming back, but I definitely wasn’t at my best quite yet.
I ran my new sword through the guard who chose the wrong lord to serve, catching sight in my peripheral of the massacre Azurill was making of the others.
While I’d barely made it two steps from the closet I’d been trapped in, Azurill had already taken out half the room.
Blood and limbs were splattered all over the once pristine space.
Watching as he used his magic to rip a man in half shouldn’t be so arousing, but I couldn’t help but bite my lip and press my thighs together before turning to the next guard who got brave. He clearly realized that I was the easier target and tried to grab me.
Azurill was there before he could, and I watched in awe as the man’s hands disappeared before they could touch me.
As the last guard fell into a pool of his own guts and blood, Azurill stood mere steps away from me.
His blood-streaked chest was heaving, and his tattoos were glowing, with power seeping out and running in lines to form gauntlets around his forearms.
I’d never been so turned on in my life.
“Linnea,” he breathed, the sound like a whisper but deeper, the thrum of power in his voice giving it a rumble that had me snapping out of my fog of arousal so I could throw myself at him.
“Azurill,” I cried as I threw my arms around him, uncaring of the mess that was surely ruining my dress.
I only cared that he was alive and before me now.
His arms came around and held me tightly to him, his lips finding my neck and pressing urgent kisses to it, as if he was trying to assure himself that I was real.
“I’m so sorry, Nea,” he murmured, the soft words and the new nickname making my heart trip in my chest. It was even better than Jac, because it was true.
I hadn’t minded going by my middle name, but I’d missed being my true self more than I knew.
I hadn’t heard anyone call me Nea or Lin or Linny, let alone Linnea, in so many years that every time I heard it now I felt breathless.
“You have nothing to be sorry for, Az.” I buried my nose in the crook of his shoulder, inhaling his scent and letting it calm my racing heart.
“Still, I brought you a gift to make up for letting this happen,” he said, an undertone of something to his voice that had me pulling back to look at him.
“A gift?” I raised an eyebrow at him, unable to help my smile.
“Oh yes, only the best for you, my love.” He pressed a kiss to my cheek before stepping away, leaving me blinking away tears.
My love. I definitely never expected to hear those words directed at me in my lifetime, and my heart did this weird melty thing in my chest that made it feel as if it grew in size in the process.
All to encompass the love I held for this man.
This Elven king who didn’t care that I’d spent years out of court and living on the streets, who didn’t care that his brother was suspicious of me, who didn’t care that he’d been right to be—he loved me despite every reason he shouldn’t.
And I was determined to spend the rest of my life proving myself worthy of that love, and ensuring he felt how encompassing my own love for him was. A scale I’d never known was even possible before meeting him.
Because no one else had ever seen all my lies and faults laid bare—and loved me anyway.
Azurill reached back through the hole in the wall and pulled a weeping man through it roughly, throwing him at my feet. A smirk graced my lips the moment I saw the short red hair. Casaan.
“Oh, love, you give the best gifts.” I smiled widely at him, reaching to give him a lingering kiss above the beaten heir. When I pulled back, I couldn’t help asking, “Please tell me you have a knife?”
Azurill smirked and pulled one out of his waistband, handing it over with a flourish. Taking it from him, I twirled it through my fingers as I admired the blade. Perfectly sharp and deadly, and encrusted with the diamonds of the court I’d spent years blaming for his crimes.
I leaned down to Casaan, balancing on the balls of my toes, and brought the knife to his cheek.
“You know,” I began conversationally, “I was merely going to stab you, the way you stabbed my father. The way your men stabbed my mother. A knife sliding deep in your chest to take vengeance for what you did that night.”
Casaan looked up at me with wide ruby eyes, trembling already as he shook his head desperately.
“But then you threatened to kill me in the vilest way I could imagine.” My face, my voice, everything hardened in an instant, and I could feel Azurill snap to attention as the growl escaped his chest. But I kept my eyes locked on Casaan’s.
“Please, I’m sorry!” he begged, tears beginning to fall from his eyes.
I scoffed at him, shaking my head, “Pathetic. Just a pathetic little man, riding daddy’s coattails and taking advantage of those weaker than you. I could think of all sorts of creative ways to use this knife you know—”