Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“What do ye mean things I ken nothin’ about?”
Emilie hurled the words at her husband’s back, wasting no time at all as she turned on her heel and stormed after him.
Archer was almost at the door when she reached him, hurling herself in front of his large body to bar his exit. His lip curled as she stared up at him, a beastly snarl sounding somewhere in the back of his throat.
“Move out of me way,” he commanded, his gray eyes flashing like the edge of a sword.
“Nay,” Emilie argued, immediately shaking her head.
She had no idea what had gotten over her. Never in her life did she think she would be standing toe-to-toe with a man, refusing to bow to his whims. Not over something like this.
But how dare Archer say things like that to her? How dare he insinuate that she doesn’t know what true monsters look like?
“Ye claim that I daenae ken ye,” she hissed, pressing her back into the wood of the door. “But ye daenae ken me. Ye think I daenae ken what true evil looks like?”
Emilie spread out her arms, her fingertips reaching around each side of the threshold.
If he wants out of this door, he’s goin’ to have to push past me entirely. And I’ll nae be goin’ down without a fight.
Archer scoffed at her.
“What?” he asked, his tone dripping in sarcasm that sent frustration souring in Emilie’s belly.
“Ye think because ye were tryin’ to be a nun ye ken of the devil?
Ye think the things I’ve done daenae make me devilish on their own?
Well, think again, lass. Because the staff can fill yer head with all the bonnie words that they want about how I’m fair and I protect me people.
But they daenae ken the half of what I’ve done to keep war away from them. ”
“I ken what monsters are because I’ve seen them,” Emilie argued back.
The words began pouring from her lips, one after another, so fast that she didn’t have time to think about them before speaking.
“Ye’ve met me parents,” she continued on, each word coming out faster and more harrowed than the last. “Well, they left me in a convent when I was six. Six, Archer. And it wasnae because they wanted what was best for me, or because they thought that I would be a good nun. Nay, it was because they dinnae want me.”
“What do ye…” he began, trying to interrupt her, but Emilie was too far gone.
Her story began pouring out of her. He’d shared a bit of his past with her, and now it was time for her to do the same.
“They made that all too clear on the day they dropped me off,” she continued as if her husband had never spoken.
“They told me that they’d never see me again.
Me own maither left me cryin’, tryin’ to reach out for her to cling to her skirts, but I was bein’ held back by nuns.
She told me that I was nay use to them, that the only good I could do in the world was there, at that nunnery.
Where maybe, even though I was a burden to me family, I could make up for it through me service to God. ”
Emilie’s breaths were coming fast now, the all-too-familiar panic that so often consumed her when she talked about her parents washing over her entirely.
“So, I did that,” she breathed. “I threw meself into me service to God. And I love it, I do. Daenae misunderstand me. But in all that time, knowin’ that me own family left me there because they dinnae want me.
Because they were disappointed every time that they looked at me? It ate at me every single day.”
“Me faither may nae have hit me,” Emilie continued.
“But I promise ye, it dinnae make his words and actions hurt any less. Nor did me maither ever extend so much as a kind word. In fact, she was even worse than he was. So daenae stand there and tell me that I daenae ken what a monster is. I’ve been familiar with them for me entire life.
And if ye’re the child of a monster, well, so am I. ”
Her hands fell to her side, and Emilie pushed off a bit from the door. For the first time since she’d begun speaking, she focused on her husband’s face.
When she’d begun, he’d looked like he was ready to flee. In fact, he’d been actively focused on the door, which was why she’d had to hurl herself in front of it.
But now? Everything about him had darkened.
His eyes, which usually were the gray of steel, were now the color of a vicious, storming sea on a cloud-filled day. His shoulders were straight, a muscle ticking in his jaw as he clenched his teeth.
“Yer parents did what to ye?” he growled, and the violence that his tone promised made the hairs on the nape of Emilie’s neck stand on end.
“They never hit me,” she quickly reminded him, suddenly worried about what her words might have set in motion.
“That doesnae mean they dinnae hurt ye,” he menaced.
She snorted, hoping to bring a little bit of levity to the moment.
“They’re hardly the only ones that have ever hurt me,” she said, giving her husband what she hoped was a sly grin.
But her words only served to make his gaze darken further.
“What do ye mean?” he asked, his eyes flashing. “Who else hurt ye? Are ye tellin’ me that someone put their hands on ye?”
Emilie realized her mistake immediately. She shook her head, holding her hands up in front of her in a sign of placation.
“It’s nothin’,” she said.
She wished more than anything that she could take it all back. That she could unsay the words that had put him in this state.
Why did I have to go on and on about me parents? Why couldnae I just let him leave when he was ready and primed to storm out the door?
Emilie knew the answer, even if it was one she didn’t want to admit to herself.
It was because she hadn’t wanted Archer to leave. Plain and simple.
He had opened up to her more than he ever had. More than Emilie had ever expected. And then, he’d had the audacity to say that she didn’t know him.
And sure. Maybe she didn’t know everything there was to know about him. But for him to insinuate that she didn’t know anything about how humans could be monsters, or that she hadn’t yet learned anything about him. It had made her more frustrated than she could remember being in quite some time.
She had wanted to prove herself. And she had wanted to keep him there with her.
So, she’d rushed forward, and she had done the only thing she could think of to get him to stay. She’d told him exactly how much she related to how he felt about his parents.
And now, Emilie wished more than anything that she could take it all back.
“Who else?” Archer demanded, stepping forward to glare down at her.
He was so much taller than her that she had to crane her neck to see his face, and as her eyes scanned over it, it was filled with an ice-cold fury.
“Nay one,” she said quickly, shaking her head.
“Daenae lie to me,” he growled.
Emilie’s breath shuddered as she drew it in, her chest feeling tight.
“If anyone has touched ye,” he menaced, “if anyone has so much as breathed in yer direction without ye wantin’ them to, ye better tell me.”
“It’s just me parents,” Emilie blurted, sending up a quick prayer that he would believe it would somehow make it better. “They’re the only ones who’ve hurt me. The only ones who’ve hurt me in any meaningful way, anyway.”
She had hoped that the words would make Archer relax. But if anything, his stance grew even more menacing.
“Then, I suppose yer parents will have to pay,” he growled.
Emilie began shaking her head. Before she could think better of it, she reached up, placing her palms against Archer’s chest.
She could feel it heaving beneath her hands, could feel the strong and steady beat of his heart.
“Ye’re mine,” he growled, the sound of it sending small bolts of lightning flicking over Emilie’s skin. “And if anyone lays a hand on ye or hurts ye in any way, then it’s me job to protect ye. I will always protect what is mine.”
Emilie’s palms began to sweat at his words, her heart racing so fast she could feel it in every fiber of her being.
“It was only words,” she assured, her voice coming out breathy to the point where she hardly recognized it as her own. “And I daenae want you to do anythin’. I daenae want anythin’ to happen to me parents. Or anyone, for that matter.”
A muscle ticked in Archer’s jaw, but he gave her a quick nod. She wasn’t sure if she could trust that he wouldn’t do anything to them, or that he wouldn’t carve out a war path if he believed someone had slighted her. But his nod, his acknowledgment of her words, it was a start.
Emilie began to drop her hands, but before she could, Archer had covered them with his own. Emilie’s eyes went wide, looking up at him as her heart began to hammer even faster.
“Archer,” she whispered.
But her husband said nothing more. The air between them seemed to heat all at once. His presence filled the mere inches that separated them.
And before she had a chance to react or to realize what was happening at all, her husband’s mouth had found hers.
Emilie gasped, her body going rigid at the sensation beginning to race over her. But then, something inside of her seemed to click into place.
Her body, her instincts, began to take over. Her mouth started to move of its own accord, returning Archer’s kiss with a fierce passion of her own.
His tongue darted out, prodding against her lips and begging for entry. She parted them, and his tongue darted in, swirling with hers.
She had thought that it had felt good the first time he’d kissed her. But this? That had been nothing compared to how she was feeling now.
Emilie rose up on her toes, meeting, pressing every curve of her body against Archer’s. A moan sounded low in her throat, the sound filled with a desperate need that she hardly recognized as something that came from her.
Archer’s hands roved over her body, the warmth of them seeping through the fabric of her gown.
The heat of him pervaded every one of her senses. She couldn’t think. Could hardly breathe. Could do nothing but revel in the desire that was coursing through her for this man.
I could drown in this feelin’ for the rest of me life, vows be damned.
The thought was like ice in her veins.
Immediately, Emilie stopped moving. She wrenched her mouth back, taking a step away from her husband so that his arms were forced to drop down to his side.
Archer’s brows knit together in confusion, but she didn’t give him a chance to say anything.
“I cannae do this,” Emilie stammered.
She reached behind her, grasping the doorknob and whirling just as she pulled the door open.
As she turned, she could have sworn that a look of hurt mingled with the confusion that was written so plainly on Archer’s face. But she drove the thought out of her mind.
If she worried about her actions hurting him, she wouldn’t be able to bring herself to leave. And she needed to leave, needed it desperately.
Emilie did not look back at him as she turned and walked as quickly as she could out the door and into the corridor beyond, leaving a stunned Archer staring after her.