Chapter 8
8
I awoke in a healer’s tent. Near me, I heard a high-pitch cry of the wounded. A stern-faced healer had her hands above me. They glowed as I felt my flesh knit together, and I realized after a few moments that the screams in the tent were my own.
Then, the glowing and the warmth was gone, and I teetered on the edge of consciousness. I felt the healer wrapping my hands in bandages, and I barely held on as I heard a familiar voice.
“She’s alive?” a man’s voice asked.
“She is. Bandages need to stay on just for a bit longer while the flesh heals, but they can be taken off in a half an hour or so. That sword cut deeper than any magic I’ve seen. I’ll leave you with her,” the healer replied, finishing bandaging my hands.
My fuzzy vision clarified and I saw Callum standing above me. “Callum,” I whispered, feeling weak from all the pain and blood loss I’d endured.
He crouched next to my bed, his expression hard. “I’m glad you’re okay. Why did you go for the sword?”
I flinched. Why had I fought so hard for the damn thing?
Because you needed it. It called for you.
But I wasn’t going to say that out loud. “I don’t know,” I said. “I survived, though. Thank you for the dagger.”
Callum looked at me, frustrated. “I’m glad my dagger helped. But how about you trust my advice in the next one?”
The next one. Fuck. That was right. This had only been the first trial. Which meant… there were five more after this.
“Commander,” a voice said from behind him. “Are we good to escort her back to her cell? We have to head back to the palace to prepare for the ball soon.”
“No, I’ll escort her,” Callum said to the guard. “You are excused.”
The guard left us alone in the tent, and my vision cleared enough for me to sit up. “Ball?” I asked.
Callum nodded. “It’s honorary for all of the survivors of the first trial to be invited to the Saltspire Palace for a ball as celebration of the beginning of the trials. It’s happening tomorrow.”
A ball ? Maybe that past version of me was some sort of fair maiden who loved frilly dresses and dancing with princes, but this version of me was a survivalist, I decided.
“Do I have to go?”
Callum quirked a smile. “Can you walk? I’ll take you back.”
“I think so,” I said, slowly pushing myself up off the bed. Callum held me steady, but the healers had done their job. I was a little woozy, but my strength was coming back.
Callum put a hand on the small of my back and led me out of the tent, which was set up outside of the coliseum. It was quiet now, all of the audience and contestants now dispersed.
“The Saffron I knew loved to dance,” he said as we walked back to Ashguard on that narrow dirt path.
I felt my exhaustion hit me at once. “Dancing hasn’t been a top priority of late.”
“I’m… I’m glad you survived,” he said, his strong demeanor of Commander Callum Wells slipping a bit as I heard the pain in his voice as he continued to lead me back to the prison.
“How am I supposed to get through five more of those?” I asked, trying to keep my voice light. But my body already felt so beaten. So tired.
“Just take it one step at a time, okay?” he said, and I nodded in reply.
We walked in silence for awhile through the winding dirt path that disappeared through the patches of forest. As the sun was setting, the forest seemed darker. More sinister. I felt as if something was watching me from the dark corners of the forest… but I averted my eyes, not sure if I wanted my intuition proved right.
“Here, this way.” Callum led me down an unfamiliar staircase that entered the silo that was Ashguard. I followed him, and the downward slopping tunnel split off to a hallway that led to another hidden stone staircase.
“Where are we going?” I asked, holding onto his strong arm as he helped me navigate the narrow staircases.
“I was thinking you could come back and use my bathing chambers,” he said. “The other guards in my wing have left to prepare for the ball tomorrow.”
Tomorrow. Which meant… “It isn’t interfering if I… spend the night with you?”
“As far as I’m aware, it makes no difference where you sleep. And as I said, most of the other guards have been relieved from their duties here in Ashguard until tomorrow. But if you prefer to stay in your cell…” He paused on the staircase, giving me time to decide as he watched me in the flickering torch light.
“No,” I said, biting my lip, and Callum’s eyes trailed to my mouth. I swore I could see his gaze heating, just slightly. “I want to spend tonight with you.”
“Good,” he said. “We just need to make it past Cassandra and her priestesses without being seen. We’ll need to move fast and quiet.”
He pulled me down the stairs, and we hurried down flight after flight. I marveled at all of the hidden ways there were to navigate this sprawling underground prison—Ashguard felt endless as we made our way down stone halls.
We reached one of the top floors. “I’m just down the hall,” Callum said, then froze, pulling me to his side as voices echoed from down the hallway.
“Someone’s coming,” I whispered.
“In here,” Callum said, and then pulled me into a room off the hallway.
The room looked like a meditation room, with cushions on the floor in a circular pattern, a bowl on a pedestal in the center. At the far end of the room, a roaring fire had been built. Callum and I waited and listened at the door.
“Are they coming this way?” I breathed.
“Yes,” he said, but maintained his calm. “In here.”
Callum led me to a closet on the far side of the room, and I stepped inside. He pulled me down by my waist, holding me against his muscled frame as the voices in the hallway grew louder. There were narrow slats in the closet door, and through the cracks I could see the entire room as the door to the hallway opened.
I watched as two guards entered, holding Otto, the old man, by his arms. They threw him onto the ground, and he started shaking.
“Leave us,” that feminine voice said, and Cassandra stepped into the room. The guards turned on their heels, leaving Cassandra alone with Otto.
Otto started hyperventilating and shaking. He tried to back up, attempting to get away from her. His back hit the pedestal at the center of the room, and he was forced to look up at her.
“Oh, Otto,” she sighed. “What am I to do with you?”
He laughed, his voice shattering into several different voices. His body seemed to not be his own, and it was shaking and jerking—just like I had seen him do so many times before at roll call or in the dining hall. “I tell you the truth!”
She tossed the hood of her cloak back before sinking into a crouch next to Otto. “I told you when you arrived here that each false prophecy would cost you a year of your life. Have I lied to you yet?”
Suddenly, her hands were on him, and the man let out a high-pitched scream. I sucked in a gasp—but Callum quickly covered my mouth with his strong hand and held me to him as I looked on in horror.
As Cassandra gripped Otto’s face in her hands, the folds of his face grew more dramatic, the wrinkles grooving deeper into his flesh.
She was aging him with her magic.
Cassandra let go of his head unceremoniously and it cracked back, hitting the pedestal. Otto let out a low moan, his body still trembling with slight convulsions. She kicked his limp body with her blue satin shoe.
“Give me the truth, seer.”
“As you command,” he rasped out. Then, his body stilled. Like a puppet on strings, his back arched, and he sat up straight, his eyes glassy and glowing with a strange light. He began to speak in not just his voice, but a voice of something else. An ancient voice. “The one who takes has come to claim what belongs to them. There will be no stopping them. They will sip from the well of the gods and be fed by power beyond their own. They will fight, and they will win—but at great cost.”
“Yes, but do you speak of the Siphon ?” Cassandra demanded, impatient.
Otto just blinked. “The Siphon will rise.”
“When? Are they here among the prisoners now?”
Otto let out a gasp and fell back on the floor, breathing hard.
“Useless,” Cassandra muttered. She went to the door, yanking it open. “Get him out of here. Then head to the palace to begin preparations for the ball.” The guards came in, dragging Otto to his feet.
Cassandra exited the room, the guards following behind, Otto in tow.
The door closed, and Callum released my mouth. His body was so close to mine as he reached over and opened the closet door, his hand on my lower back as he led me back into the meditation room.
“Is it safe?” I whispered, my heart racing as he pressed his ear to the door that led to the hallway.
“Yes,” he said after a beat, and opened the door for us to hurry out.
Each step in that hallway had me fearing for what might await us, but luckily, the nightmares of the prison did not follow.
Callum’s quarters were luxurious, even though they were sparse with not much in the way of personal effects. A fire was roaring in the hearth, making the room smell warm and inviting. Thick carpets lined the floors, but what caught my eye was the massive four-poster bed by the fire. It was piled with furs and pillows, and looked so deeply inviting. There wasn’t much else in the space except for a small sitting area and a rack full of additional weapons, swords, and daggers of different sizes and curved edges.
“Nice place you’ve got here,” I said, trying to keep my tone light after what I had just seen with Cassandra.
“My bathing chamber is through this way,” he said. “Let me draw you a bath.”
He disappeared, and I sat down on a small bench and removed my boots. I was still covered in blood and grime from the trial, and I felt out-of-place in his spacious quarters.
Callum returned to the bedchambers. “Are you okay? After what we just saw?”
“Cassandra has the power to age others like that?”
Callum grimaced. “She does. It’s why the King keeps her here. No prisoners would dare cross her.”
“That explains the total silence every time she speaks in front of everyone.”
“They definitely fear her more than me,” Callum said, trying to keep his tone light.
I looked up at Callum, taking in his broad shoulders, his strong frame—and the softness in his expression. My curiosity finally got the best of me and I stood, crossing to him. “What were we exactly… before?”
Callum hesitated, and then reached down, taking my hands in his. “We were as good as betrothed. Our families were just waiting for me to finally get the nerve to ask you to marry me, but it was expected we’d end up together.”
I blushed. So my body’s reaction to him was based on our history, then. “What… happened? You said I was taken? By whom?”
Darkness immediately shut down Callum’s face as he looked away from me. “You were taken hostage by the rebels. Taken by… Tristen, the Shadowfire Assassin.”
The floor felt like it dropped out beneath me, and I stumbled, Callum looping an arm around my waist so I stayed upright. “Tristen took me?” I asked.
“Yes,” he grit out. “He took you from me. The rebels of Stormgard came and claimed what they said they needed to win the war. They torched the homes of those who didn’t agree with their methods, didn’t immediately give them what they wanted. When I ran back from the militia’s camp to find you… you were gone. Others saw him drag you away.”
My blood ran cold. “What did… what did he do with me?”
Callum’s jaw tightened. “I don’t know. That was the last I saw of you, but I searched every day to find you. I sacrificed everything to try and bring you home. I need you to know that. I wouldn’t let that bastard steal you away from me forever.”
I tried to process all that he was telling me. Tristen had taken me? And Callum… he had been the one who had loved me? Truly loved me? The new information hurt my head.
Callum reached to brush a strand of hair out of my face, and I flinched out of instinct, still wound up from the adrenaline of the day and the first trial. Callum let his hand fall.
“Sorry,” I said. “It’s just… it’s so much.”
Sadness glimmered in Callum’s eyes. “It’s okay. I… I just want you to know I don’t… expect anything from you. Whatever happened to your memories… I know what we were then doesn’t mean we might be anything now.” But his voice broke at that last sentence, and he cleared his throat. “But I do have one thing to offer you: a hot bath.”
My eyes shot up to him. “You have me, Callum.” I knew in that moment I would have paid any cost to be immersed in hot water after all I’d experienced that day. I would have razed armies for a nice bath.
He laughed at my joking tone. “You were always easily seduced by a hot body of water.”
“Anyone who isn’t is a true monster,” I said.
Callum smiled down at me, and that smile was like a ray of sunshine in that dark dungeon. I let his gaze wash over me, even as my thoughts warred inside my head. Then, he led me to the bathing chamber.
“Enjoy,” he said, closing the door and leaving me alone with a warm clawfoot tub steaming with hot water.
I quickly shucked my ruined clothes and dipped beneath the hot surface of the water. My aching muscles relaxed with the release as I held back a moan, submerging myself into heated water that lapped at my battered body.
On the wood table beside the bath were vials of different perfumes and soaps. I reached for oils of pressed flowers, opting for the one that smelled of lavender. They were so small they must have been precious—but they were all laid out for me, as Callum had laid himself bare with the truth of our shared past.
As good as betrothed.
That would explain the comfort I felt around Callum, then. And why he had risked his standing as Commander to try and keep me safe.
But my thoughts kept drifting to Tristen. He had taken me in my past life. Kidnapped me. Wrenched me away from Callum, from my home. Somehow, it felt at odds with the man who had stepped in to save me in the first trial. But had Tristen really saved me for my sake? Branding me as The Lord Killer had prevented me from getting mercy from the King—but that mercy had led to a crucifixion of the prisoner who had begged and won it.
I felt uneasy about the whole situation. But Tristen had said himself he wasn’t to be trusted. Even though he had saved Rachelle and kept his promise, maybe he was keeping those of us alive who would be an easy kill for him later.
My head spun, and I dipped below the surface of the bath, holding my breath. Begging the water to cleanse me from my chaotic thoughts.
I kept myself under the surface of the water until my lungs were screaming for air. I leaned into the pain to let myself forget the past twenty-four hours, and I tried to keep the encroaching darkness at bay.
I emerged from the water with a gasp. I felt my breath accelerate, the water splashing over the side of the tub as panic overwhelmed me.
The doors to the bathing chamber opened, Callum standing there with a towel. “Saffron? Are you okay?”
I took a few deep breaths, sucking in the air. “Yes,” I said, breathless. “I’m just…” Suddenly, I started shivering, despite still being immersed in the warm water. My body betraying my broken mental state.
“Saffron,” Callum said softly, walking to me. He knelt next to the bathtub, his gaze on my eyes as he reached out and clasped one of the hands I was gripping the edge of the tub with. Both of his hands held it tight, and he leaned over and kissed my wet skin. “Breathe. You’re safe.”
My breathing quickened, but I pulled it together. I couldn’t let myself get too close to breaking. I stood, and Callum stood with me, steadying me as I stepped out of the tub and onto the soft rug. He didn’t say a word as he wrapped me in a towel.
What else had been stolen from Callum and I? I wound my arms around his neck, my head resting on his broad chest as hot water dripped down my warm body. I didn’t want him to see how much I had been shaken by everything that had transpired so far.
I can’t let him see me fall apart.
“Thank you,” I whispered. Not just thanking him for what he was doing now—but also for the kindness I suspected lay in our history. A history I so desperately wanted to read, that was so cruelly stolen from us. A love story buried in the ashes of my mind.
Callum pulled away slightly so he could look down at me, trying to read my expression. Suddenly, the towel wrapped around me felt like such a flimsy barrier as his gaze took its time roving over my expression. My lips. Down to the swells of my breasts, barely covered by the towel.
I met his heavy-lidded gaze, caught the question in the way he looked at me. But his hands didn’t move from where they lay at my back, holding me to him.
“What do you want, Saffron?” he said, his voice gruff as if it was an effort to ask.
My heart skipped a beat as my lips parted, ready to answer when?—
A knock sounded at the door. Callum froze.
“Stay here. Don’t be seen,” he said, slipping out of the bathing chamber, closing the door behind him to keep me hidden as he went to greet whoever was knocking.
I pressed myself against the wall of the bathing chamber, listening through the crack in the door as he opened the outer door to the hallway.
“Yes?” he asked.
“Cassandra is requesting your presence,” a polite female voice responded.
“Now?” Callum asked.
“Yes, now,” the female voice responded, still polite but sounding a bit annoyed.
“Okay. Give me a minute and I’ll get ready.”
The door closed, and Callum slipped back inside the bathing chamber. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. Stay here and don’t answer the door for anyone,” Callum said. He lingered, as if not wanting to be torn away from me.
“Go,” I urged, not wanting the woman at the door to be suspicious. We were playing a dangerous game when it came to sneaking behind Cassandra’s back, and I didn’t want Callum to pay the price.
He nodded, but before leaving, he left a quick kiss on my forehead. He donned one of his uniform jackets—he clearly had more than the one he had given me yesterday—and strapped a dagger to his belt before disappearing from his bedchamber.
I waited for a moment until I heard his steps disappear down the stone hallway. I slipped into the bedchamber and saw the clean clothes Callum had set out for me on the bed. I sat down on his bed, running my hands over the fur blankets that covered it. A luxury compared to the cot I had been sleeping on each night.
That’s when I saw something on the side table. A single blue ribbon, like a woman would wear in their hair. I reached out and touched it, feeling its silky texture. Then, as if on impulse, I started to braid my wet hair, fixing it into a plait that ran down my low back. I tied it off with the ribbon. It felt right. Felt like it was mine.
I waited for a few moments longer, but Callum didn’t come back. My body felt so heavy, the exhaustion pressing me down into the bed. I slipped under the covers, feeling the luxury of the silk bedsheets and the heavy furs that kept the cold out.
I’d wait up for him. Make sure he was safe. Then, I would ask him about our past. About our love story. I’d…
Sleep took me instead.