Chapter 7 #2
Now thirty-four, Henry was angular and tall, with jet-black hair, large hands, and thick fingers adorned with his father’s rings.
Rumors circulated those rings left telltale bruises he liked to admire.
He would have been handsome, perhaps, if his soul wasn’t so wicked and his face wasn’t perpetually twisted with anger and hate.
“Where is Nobles, witch?” he spat, climbing down from the cart. He wore a long coat over his suit and seemed to not care that he was soaked from the rain. “Where are my hounds?”
I folded my hands in my lap. “All dead.”
His lip curled. “Liar. I don’t know how you managed to evade them, but when they get here, I’ll take particular pleasure in watching them put an end to your cursed life…once I’ve finished with you.”
Low growls rolled through the yard. Forbright frowned, then seemed to dismiss it as the ruins of the house creaking.
Only then did he see me clearly. “Where did you find these clothes?” he demanded. “Who would help you?”
I opened my mouth to lie and say I had stolen them, but a realization stilled my tongue.
Who would have helped me? No one from Halston, that was certain. Likely no one from Rivertown either, even if I’d made it that far.
A pair of monsters had helped me—monsters who’d seen a pack of dogs mauling an unarmed woman and come to my aid long before they knew I was fated to break the warlock’s curse. Monsters whose hearts remained good despite all their centuries of suffering.
Who, then, were the true monsters who stalked these lands? The man before me and his late but unlamented gamekeeper, not the so-called beasts of Geedhollow.
His lips twisted in a smirk, Forbright reached into his pocket. He raised his hand and let something dangle by its chain: my mother’s amulet. My stomach contracted.
“You want this, witch?” he taunted. “Tell me who gave you quarter.”
When I’d refused to eat at his table or share his bed willingly, he’d ripped that treasured amulet from my neck, stomped on it, and thrown it into the manor’s grand fireplace. My scream of grief and rage had been the only outburst of emotion he’d managed to wrench from me during my imprisonment.
He surely wanted to assert control over me and torment me now with the last of my mother’s possessions. Instead, the sight of it, still in one piece after being thrown into the fire, reminded me who I was and who had raised me.
“You are a coward,” I said. “A weak man who must resort to kidnapping and forcing yourself on women because no one will have you otherwise.”
Forbright’s face twisted in a snarl. “No one speaks to me like that, witch.” He advanced a few steps, his arms at his sides and the amulet still dangling from one fist. “Tell me who gave you clothes and helped you escape my hounds.”
“Like your father, you are an irredeemable blight on humanity,” I continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “I’m pleased to think we might bring an end to your line.”
“How dare you threaten me?” With a frown, he halted and looked around. “We, you say? Who’s here with you?”
A strange hot tingling sensation swept over me. My skin prickled as magic and the odor of rotting things swirled on the wind. I smiled.
Another set of growls rolled through the night in a much lower register than before.
Forbright’s horse reared and bolted. With a shout, Forbright tried to give chase, but couldn’t run fast enough to grab the reins or the horse’s bridle.
When the terrified horse reached the steep embankment of the road, the cart nearly toppled before righting itself.
The horse and empty cart rattled up the hill in the direction of the manor.
Forbright stormed back, breathing hard and face dark with rage. I rose and revealed the dagger in my hand. Let him think that was the only danger here.
“I didn’t lie about Nobles and the hounds,” I said.
He stopped well out of my reach, his eyes narrowed. His empty hand flexed as if he wanted to wrap it around my throat. “You didn’t kill them. You couldn’t have. Not with that little knife.”
I could do far more with this little knife than he could imagine—my mother had taught me to defend myself from a very young age.
I turned it in my hand so moonlight glinted on the blade. I wanted his attention on me and not on the enormous shadows moving silently behind him.
“That is true,” I said softly. “But I only said they were dead. I never said I was the one who killed them.”
For the first time since I had the misfortune of meeting him, Forbright’s expression turned wary.
“Nobles and the hounds tracked me through the forest for miles.” I took a step forward. Forbright moved back. “You may be glad to know your dogs did go silent before they caught up to me at Geedhollow.”
Two pairs of red, glowing eyes blazed to life behind him. Every creature of the night fell silent. Even the wind stilled.
“Do you remember what you told me at dinner one night?” I continued. “You said you wanted prey to hear and feel the cold silence of death just before your hounds got them. Deer or rabbit, fox or girl, they’ll know death has come by the quiet.”
The shadows with their red eyes rose to their full height behind him.
I smiled and let my gaze move to those shadows. “Have you noticed how quiet it has become, Sir Henry?”
The color drained from his face. Slowly, he turned. The amulet fell from his hand and landed in the dirt.
Two enormous beasts—my beloved Vosten and Toved, in all their monstrous glory—towered over Forbright on their hind legs, claws and teeth bared. Around their necks they wore the thick golden chains forged by the warlock, repaired and now fastened with clasps.
They threw their heads back and roared. The sound rolled across the earth. Forbright screamed and stumbled back into my waiting dagger.
The blade—sharp as a razor and as hungry for blood as my beautiful kings—slid easily into his back between his ribs just below his heart. His shriek turned to a gurgle.
I withdrew the dagger and let him fall in a heap at my feet.
Vosten and Toved dropped to all fours. They lumbered over to stand beside me as Forbright rolled to his back, his eyes wide and full of horror. The beasts lowered their enormous muzzles to Forbright’s ashen face and showed him all their sharp, sharp teeth.
“You asked who helped me,” I said. “Sir Henry, meet the beasts of Geedhollow.”
Forbright’s mouth opened and closed, but no sound emerged except thick gurgles and what might have been whimpers. The stink of urine and feces overtook the smell of blood.
I offered the dripping dagger to Vosten for him to sniff. His long tongue delicately cleaned the blood off the blade and my fingers.
Forbright whined. “Mercy,” he burbled, the word all but unintelligible.
I thought of my scars, and of all the women who must have begged him for mercy and received none. The law had failed them. I would not.
I crouched and picked up my mother’s amulet. The gold was caked with ash, the chain had broken, and the fire had cracked the emerald in the center, but like me, my treasure had survived its time at the manor. I would have called it a miracle if I didn’t know the Goddess had given me this gift.
In fact, she had given me many, many gifts tonight, with the promise of more to come.
I brushed off the ash and slipped the amulet inside my dress, nestling it in my underclothes between my breasts, over my heart—a familiar and comforting weight I’d believed I’d never feel again.
I rose and slid my fingers through Vosten’s hot, thick fur. “Are you hungry, my sulhai?”
He growled low. Toved bared all his teeth. Forbright whimpered.
“Feast, my loves,” I said.
Vosten snarled and went straight for Forbright’s belly as if he’d been waiting to do so from the moment he found out what the man had done. Toved chose Forbright’s groin for his first bite.
I sat in the grass with my back against the garden wall and listened to Forbright’s screams until they ended, and then watched Vosten and Toved finish their meal. It didn’t take long. That was more mercy than Forbright deserved, but I couldn’t blame the kings for making short work of him.
When nothing remained but blood in the grass, Vosten and Toved rose with pleased huffs, licking their muzzles. I stood to kiss their furry heads and caress their horns until they rumbled in contentment.
“Thank you,” I said. “Thank you both, with all my heart.”
The beasts rested their heads gently against mine. Even now they smelled of warm stone, a scent that was now as much a part of me as my own breath and bone.
I didn’t want the moment to end, but someone might come to investigate the strange noises and Forbright’s screams.
“We should go,” I told them. “Do you want to walk back to the doorway as beasts or men?”
In answer, Vosten used his head to nudge my hand toward his neck. I slid my hand along the chain until I found the heavy clasp. I released it and let the chain fall to the ground, then did the same for Toved.
The spells broke in a burst of power and sorcery that stank of sulfur and decay. The beasts’ bulk dissolved into ash and bits of rotting things that fell away, leaving Vosten and Toved back in their natural bodies, on their hands and knees, naked and breathing hard.
I went to them immediately, not caring about their nakedness or the filth left behind by the broken spells. All I wanted was to hold my kings and be held.
Vosten pulled me into his lap and pressed his lips to my hair. Toved kissed the back of my neck. Even over the stench around us, they smelled like home.
A soft, loving, feminine touch caressed the crown of my head and wrapped itself around my shoulders. My mother? The Goddess? It was a blessing either way—a blessing on all of us.
Finally, finally, for the first time since my mother’s passing, peace filled my heart. That warmth freed me to take a deep breath and say, “I know now what is right and true.”
Toved stilled with his lips on my shoulder. Vosten cupped my face with his hands to gaze into my eyes. “What do you know is right and true, Aveline?”
“We are. The three of us.” I rested my hand on his. “I want to go home to our bed. That’s where I want to be and where I want to stay.”
Vosten’s breath hitched.
Toved’s chest rumbled. “Aveline, do you mean it?”
“I do.” I stroked Vosten’s hot hand with my thumb.
“Not because I don’t have any reason to stay here, and not because you helped me rid the world of Henry Forbright.
I want to be your bride because you are wonderful, beautiful, honorable men who think I’m equal in value to yourselves.
Why would I not want to be yours, then, and claim you both as my sulhai? ”
Vosten kissed me first, as I’d suspected he would. He was the older brother, after all, and less patient. His mouth was hard and hot and demanding, and I loved how fiercely he kissed.
“Share, brother,” Toved said, his voice teasing but thick with need. Vosten chuckled and moved out of the way.
As when we’d first kissed in the garden, Toved’s lips were more tender, but in a way his gentleness was hungrier and even more arousing.
When our kiss ended, they took my hands and helped me rise. Toved hurried to get their clothes while Vosten held me against his chest.
“Beloved,” he said, his voice soft. “You are brave and strong, but from here the journey home will be a long walk. Do your feet or legs pain you? You are not yet fully healed from your wounds.”
“Paita gave me a tincture for pain. I brought it with me.” I kissed his chest. “I will tell you if they hurt too much, I promise.”
“Sweet Aveline.” His smile warmed my soul. “It will be the greatest joy and honor of our lives to escort you home.”