Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
CYPRIEN
Iwoke up the next day to a sharp intake of breath from Antonia. Startled, my muscles tensed. My back hurt, but not nearly as much as it should have. “Stay still, Cyprien,” she scolded, nudging me back down to the mattress. “I need to examine your back.”
“What does it look like? It’s not hurting as much as I expected.” I tried to crane my neck to get a better look, but Antonia swatted me back into position.
“Lay down and relax so I can see. It’s only been 24 hours and your wounds are almost healed!” Astonished, Antonia ran her hand across my back. I winced at the near absent sting. “It’s a miracle.”
“That’s impossible,” I grumbled into the pillow. “Just let me up.”
“Fine, see for yourself.” Her exasperation was obvious.
I moved slowly, doing my best not to disturb my injuries too much.
You don’t realize how much you use your back until you can’t.
I eventually gave up trying to be gentle, crawling out of bed on all fours.
The absence of pain could be chalked up to nerve damage, right?
I shuffled over to my mirror and when I turned my head, I gasped.
The fresh wounds that had been oozing blood and throbbing with pain just hours ago had transformed into nothing but red, angry welts.
They were sensitive to the touch, but mostly healed. “What the fuck?”
“My mother claimed the salve had magical properties,” Antonia said in disbelief. “I never actually believed her. But, the proof is in the pudding as it were.”
I was gobsmacked. There was no way magic was real. Surely I would have noticed it before. But nothing else could explain the rapid healing. “Antonia?” My voice was barely above a whisper, “What’s happening to me?”
Antonia caught me as my knees gave out. “Nothing is happening to you, dear boy. The salve just helped you heal, nothing more. I swear I had no idea it would work that quickly.” She knelt beside me and pushed the hair out of my face. “Don’t lose it on me now, Cyprien.”
“I just don’t understand. If magic salves are real then what else is hidden from us?
Witches? Fairies? Fuck, what about unicorns?
” I was fully panicking. What would my stepfather think?
It would be like his punishment meant nothing, like I had gotten off easy.
He was going to kill me. “What am I going to do when Octavius finds out? I don’t think I can bear another one of his punishments. ”
Antonia soothingly combed her fingers through my hair. “He doesn’t have to know. He’s in town dealing with some business with his solicitor. You can hide up here and he’d be none the wiser.”
“And if he finds out that I was healed and hiding?” I gently extricated myself from her arms and stood. “No, it’s too risky. It would be better if I just go about my day and let him find out sooner rather than later.”
Antonia got to her feet as well and took my hands. “You may be healed superficially, but you still risk re-opening the wounds.” Antonia brushed one of the welts, and I winced at the sting, conceding. I could barely manage bathing, let alone farm work with such injuries.
“I can handle the meals at least… and if I bleed through my shirt, all the better for the illusion of being gravely injured.”
Then, my day got exponentially worse: My stepbrothers barged into my room. “What the fuck?” Stefan snarled, catching sight of my back. “How are you so healed?”
I backed away, trying my best to defend myself. “I don’t know! Yesterday Antonia treated me with some antibiotic salve and I woke up like this.” With both of them studying their work, I shook, afraid that they’d rip the welts open themselves.
“That’s impossible,” Sebastian marveled. “That whip destroyed your back.” I flinched at his touch, only to be scolded. “Hold still, Soothead.”
“It still hurts.” I murmured, turning my head to look at him over my shoulder. The heat in his eyes settled discomfort deep in my gut. “Please, Sebastian… don’t.” Antonia was still standing next to me. She couldn’t know what they did when no one was looking.
“Antonia, you are dismissed. We will take care of Cyprien for the rest of the day.” Stefan moved closer to me and gestured Antonia to the door.
I flinched, sure that Antonia noticed. Glaring at my stepbrothers, she left the room…
hesitantly. We all watched her leave, tension thick in the air.
“What will you do to make sure our father doesn’t hear how quickly you’ve healed?
” Stefan asked. “If he thinks Antonia is using magic, he’ll throw her out on the street. You don’t want that, do you?”
Sebastian ran his hands up and down my back, ignoring the way I hissed in pain. “Yes, Soothead, what will you do to protect your mother figure? I have a couple of ideas.” His breath was hot on my back. “I think you’d do anything we asked of you.”
Shuddering, I shook my head. Surely they weren’t trying to blackmail me again, but the sinister grins on their faces only confirmed my worst fears. “What are you asking me to do?”
Sebastian’s eyes darkened and he looked me up and down, “We aren’t asking anything.”
Knowing that it was in vain, I tried to reason with them anyway. “Are you not satisfied after having your way with me yesterday?”
“We’ll never be satisfied, Soothead.” Stefan chuckled. “You’re our perfect little toy, convenient and free of charge. That’s all you’ll ever be: someone’s whore. Why not be ours and keep a roof over your head?”
My eye twitched. I struggled to keep my composure, my words little more than a whisper. “I don’t want to be anyone’s whore.”
“It’s not about what you want. You do realize that you don’t get a choice in that, right?
You either belong to us, or everyone else on the streets.
The only other option, is death.” Sebastian shrugged, as if it were the simplest decision in the world.
His words hit me square in the chest. Was he right?
Was I doomed to be nothing more than what I was in that moment? No… there had to be more out there.
“Aw, did you honestly think that there could be something better for you?” Stefan sneered. “Who do you think you are? You are a nobody. There is nothing better for someone like you. We’re the best you’re going to get.”
I couldn’t stop the tears then, nor the full body-shaking sobs that followed. Their cruelty knew no bounds, and I was their only target. They would never let me be anything other than what I was: Trapped. That shattered me like nothing else could.
ALARIC
Everything was happening so quickly. The invitations were being reviewed by my mother and would be going out the following day, the ball taking place two days after that.
Fortunately, my father finally permitted me to have a proper visitor.
Travis and I sat across from each other, and he listened as I spoke of my obsession with the farm boy and lamented my current situation.
“So you don’t even know his name?” Travis was always asking the important questions. “How can it be that you’re so obsessed with a man you’ve met once, and whose name you don’t even know?”
I scrubbed my hands over my face and shook my head.
“I don’t know how it happened. It’s as though I’m under a spell.
I can’t get him out of my head nor the fire from my loins.
My cock is raw from working it with my hand for hours at a time.
I cannot bear the thought of anyone’s touch but his, and I have to get black out drunk to sleep.
Then I wake and the torture begins anew.
I’m painfully erect at this very moment, as embarrassing as that may be.
” Travis poured me a fresh brandy and I tossed it back like it was a potion that might cure me of my ailment.
“Slow down, mate. Breakfast is barely over.” Travis patted my shoulder and pinned me with a serious look. “You’ve got to get yourself under control. You can’t have an erection when you get your costume fitted tomorrow. And Depths forbid you go walking around the ball itself hard as a rock.”
I swatted at his retreating hand and scowled.
“Liquor is the only thing that dampens the heat. Without it, we wouldn’t be having this conversation, I’d be too consumed by the flames to form a coherent thought.
I am far too sober, man.” Reaching across the table, I grabbed the brandy and chugged the sickly sweet liquid straight from the bottle.
We sat in silence as I polished the booze off.
Travis sat, patiently, the words he wanted to say on the tip of his tongue.
I placed the empty bottle on the table and stared into the fire.
He’d say what he had to say when he was ready.
I saw the face of the mysterious farm boy in the flames again, beckoning me.
It was almost too much, and I forced my attention back to Travis.
He was watching me with a speculative look on his face.
He opened his mouth as if to speak, then seemed to think better of it.
I watched him and waited. He must have been building up to something–something that I potentially wouldn’t like.
“What’s got you so twisted up?” I finally interrogated. “Out with it, man!”
Guilt flashed across his eyes, and he let the silence stretch between us for a long moment before speaking again.
“So… I was thinking that maybe, if it’s okay with you, I could…
” He paused as if agonizing over his next words then spat the rest out almost too quickly for me to follow, “ask your sister for a dance at the ball.”
I blinked, noting the blush on his cheeks and the way he squirmed in his seat.
“Is that all? You’ve tied yourself in knots because you want to dance with my sister at the ball?
” My eyes squinted of their own accord, suspicion beginning to grow in my belly, “Or is there something more to this request?”
Travis shifted in his seat and refused to meet my eyes.
“I, uh, that is, what I mean to say is…” As it dawned on me what he wanted, he gathered the courage to continue.
“I’ve run out of time to do this any other way than messily.
I was hoping, if she’ll have me, to marry Lydia…
I don’t want to ask her without your permission. ”
I didn’t fight the goofy grin that curled my lips.
I slapped him on the back, and he flinched under the touch “If I were to trust any man with my sister, it would be you. You’re honorable, come from a great family, and you’re my most trusted friend.
I know you would do right by her. So, as long as she consents, you have my blessing. ”
His face lit up like I’d gifted him a pile of gold. “Thank you so much, mate. Now I just have to see if she’ll have me.” He grinned and shook his head. “Well, my problem is settled, or as settled as it can be at the moment. Let’s see if we can work on yours.”
“What do you mean? I’m trapped here until the ball and will be forced to pick a female to marry–unless I want to be sent to the Outer Kingdoms. I don’t think that anything can be done for me.
” I reached for a new bottle before continuing.
“Unless you know another way to satisfy my father’s demands. ”
“No, I don’t think there’s any hope on that front. He seems pretty intent upon getting an heir. I was more thinking about sneaking you out or sneaking him in.” Travis waggled his eyebrows at me. “Maybe a good tumble in the sheets with him will get him out of your system.”
“Don’t give me false hope. If my father were to find out, he’d castrate me and send me down the River in a box. It’s best if I don’t try to circumvent his plans. I shall just have to suffer.” I was being dramatic, but I felt I was allowed due to my circumstances.
Travis shook his head and sighed, defeated.
I opened the bottle in my hand and took a long pull off of it before handing it to Travis.
He took it, but didn’t drink. A strange look crossed his face then he perked up a bit and turned to smile at me.
“I have a better idea. What if he came to the ball?” He put his hands up to stop the instant denial on my tongue, “Listen.
Your father said all eligible individuals between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five.
He never said they had to be nobles, right?
He had a point. I brightened up at the idea. “You’re absolutely correct. We must assume that he wanted all of his loyal subjects to have a chance to come to the ball. But how do we make sure the farmboy receives an invitation?”
“Oh, I could hand deliver it to him, I’m sure I could get access to a blank invitation.
I’m willing to bet that I could even put it directly into his hand.
” The idea grew on me more with each passing second.
“Okay, I need to go so I can set this plan in motion. I’ll be back tomorrow morning to let you know how it goes. ”
He stood and darted from the room, leaving me to my swirling thoughts.