12. Open Your Eyes
SOUNDTRACK: Relentless by Lost Stars
~ MELEK ~
A piece of my soul left the room with her when she stormed out. I forgot my anger and confusion, and all I cared about was that she wept. I could feel her torment through the bond, whether she showed it to others or not.
But this fucker was standing there snarling at me, and he had laid hands on her.
I turned on the Shadekin General, measuring him.
I stood a foot taller than him and probably twice his weight.
But I had never denied his skill. A smaller, faster enemy could do serious damage.
Turo was not to be underestimated. Still, I ignored the bars and faced him as if I was free so he’d know the only reason he was still breathing was because of those fucking lines of steel.
“If you ever touch her against her will again, I will remove the offending limb,” I growled at him. “With my teeth.”
Turo’s expression turned incredulous. “You speak to me of unwanted advances? You may have deceived her about your intentions, but I am no fluttering virgin. Neither am I ignorant of her. She did not give her body without believing she was received with love, you piece of shit. You won’t fool me.”
Yilan’s bond-vowed. I knew she was a virgin when we bonded.
But his words… it was clear their relationship hadn’t been just politics.
A growl began in my toes and rolled up and out of my fucking soul.
Turo responded by stalking closer, right up to the bars where I could reach him if I moved quickly.
He wasn’t a coward. I’d give him that.
I gritted my teeth and folded my arms to stop myself going straight for his throat as he challenged me with his eyes, his chin jutting forward.
His hand was on the hilt of his sword, his grip tightening and loosening as if he was considering using it.
Ah, not simple courage then. The man wanted vengeance.
I let my eyes drift down to show him that I’d seen his intention, then met his eyes with one brow high.
The General of the Fetch was disciplined. He showed little expression. But there were dark circles under his eyes. His jaw flexed as he gritted his teeth. And the lines in his face had deepened with stress.
I imagined it was something like how I would look if I thought he’d raped her and she was keeping him around.
“I’m seriously considering killing you,” he said bluntly.
“Convincing yourself of my black sin would not absolve you of that crime,” I muttered. “Nor will it change the past.”
His eyes narrowed and gleamed like the edge of a blade.
“I don’t care what happened between you.
I only care how you manipulated her,” he seethed.
“Whatever you did, whatever promises you offered to convince her to fall into your bed, it has broken her. She is not the woman who left us—and that’s on you. ”
I huffed. “Perhaps her life of deception and serving shadows is what broke her?”
Turo’s hand tightened on his sword. “Serving shadows? You— you speak of her serving shadows? Are you joking, or merely stupid?”
“I’m sure you’ll enlighten me.”
“You can play the hero for her, or anyone else you choose—but I was there. I walked among your people. I saw with my own eyes the brutality of your brothers and your King. If you cannot see the difference between a shadow walker, and someone who serves darkness, then you are blinded by the midnight of your soulless heart,” he hissed.
I growled, but he continued.
“Yilan is the most loyal and honorable person—not just woman, mind you—that I have ever met. She has been tireless in her efforts to keep us and our land safe, even putting her life on the line to go after you. And instead of the hero’s welcome she deserves, instead of the reassurance and safety of her home, you are here, stealing her from us! ”
I took a warning step closer to the bars. “There was no stealing —”
“The legends call you an honorable man. She insists you’re good. I do not see it. If you were truly good, you would release whatever hold it is that you have on her. If you truly had a soul, you would let her go.”
“You may have noticed that I am not in possession of my freedom. Ergo, letting anything go appears to be out of my hands,” I said through my teeth.
He ignored me. “She weeps—she thinks she hides it, but she doesn’t. I hear her. I feel her. She is grieving. And whatever causes that grief also compels her to you. She can’t stay away even when she wishes to. Even when we traveled, and you were asleep…”
“Do you all consider sneaking around a virtue? Is that how it is in your culture—love is following someone in the shadows, whether they know it or not?”
He leaned closer, that hand still on his sword hilt. “I was there. I was there to hear and to observe when you didn’t know. Perhaps the great General should be very careful casting shade on those who work in his shadow?”
“You don’t know a thing about me.”
“I heard the roars. I heard the claim. I saw her naked and bound in your presence.”
He shuddered at the memory and in any other circumstances I would have admired his restraint.
If I’d believed I stood before the man who’d hurt her that way, I would have torn out his throat without hesitation.
But the brutality of those thoughts was a reemergence of my old nature, dragged from the depths in response to this threat to the bond.
Swallowing it back, I went still, half of me flashing hot—let him hear the truth! The other screaming caution as Yilan’s warning rang through my head. I bared my teeth and gritted them against the urge to educate him.
“Enjoy the view in your head, Fetch, you will not see it again.”
But Turo took my silence on the point of honor as a diversion from fault .
He was shaking. “If you have any conscience, any honor, you will free her. You stole her body, and she gave her heart because in her mind those two things are entwined, and you continue to compel her, you fucking pig.”
I leaned in. “You need to go, or she won’t be the only one with unwanted hands on her today.”
“Tell her the truth! Admit that you took her, made her want you. Let her eyes be opened—”
“I did not take her—never have and never will. She defends me because she knows the truth. Perhaps your anger should be directed not at me, but at your bond-vowed?”
“She is miserable, because of you!”
“She is miserable because of the choices she made.”
“You take responsibility for nothing? Truly?” Turo snarled.
“Perhaps you pat yourself on the back for being one of the good men among your own, but you carry nothing but empty, hollow honor in comparison to her. You are a prisoner of war, an enemy, and a bane on this continent. Yet she treats you with respect while you spit curses. She put herself in your hands, accepted your deprivation and perversion despite the fact that she is a Queen! And still, when she brings you here, she honors your position. She clothes, houses, and feeds you as a guest of the royal house. She bends her neck while you turn up your nose . You claim honor? I see none of it!”
My heart sank. There was truth to his words, though there were circumstances that colored those details.
I was her mate and his King if she spoke truth.
Yet, here I stood, in prison and removed from everything and everyone I had ever known.
But what could I say without revealing things she’d told me not to?
When I didn’t respond, Turo’s upper lip curled away from his teeth in a sneer.
“I should kill you. At least then she would be free.”
I growled. “Killing me is not the way to her heart—or her body.”
Turo flinched, and his eyes narrowed again. He started to leave, then caught himself and turned back to me, and his throat bobbed.
“I also have the power to free you,” he said, his voice ragged.
I blinked.
Turo cleared his throat. “I could… release you. Give you your freedom. If you would only leave without… without taking any action or speaking to her. If you would agree to just disappear. I could make that happen. ”
My soul flinched.
“Now who dishonors the Queen?” I muttered.
It was Turo’s turn to recoil. He gripped that sword but didn’t move, though his entire body tensed, and his face went tight with anger again. “Bastard. It is only her life-debt to you that stays my hand from cutting your throat.”
I couldn’t resist it. I smiled like the arrogant ass he thought I was. “I’d gamble anything you wish that she stays your hand from cutting my throat.”
Turo hissed a curse, turned on his heel and stormed out, slamming the door behind him.
I slumped and the smile faded. There was no satisfaction in that win. No real triumph over Turo, and definitely no win over Yilan.
I wanted to forget that the entire exchange had even happened, except to warn Yilan next time we spoke that her most loyal man was, perhaps, not quite as loyal as she thought. But his words about her, her character, wouldn’t stop looping in my head.
…Yilan is the most loyal and honorable person—not just woman, mind you—that I have ever met.
She has been tireless in her efforts to keep us and our land safe, even putting her life on the line to go after you…
you hold nothing but empty, hollow honor in comparison to her.
You are a prisoner of war, an enemy, and a bane on this continent.
Yet she treats you with respect while you spit curses.
She put herself in your hands, accepted your deprivation and perversion despite the fact that she is a Queen…
I would have been impressed and curious if I’d heard that report of an unknown ruler—especially coming from a servant so close to the crown.
One who was trusted and would have a chance to see the flaws of character that those held at a distance couldn’t…
One who had reason to make me believe she was two-faced.
A niggle of unease tightened my chest.
I gave myself a moment to consider Turo’s words and how I might have reacted if his role had been mine.
Probably not with the same restraint, if I was honest.
And if he was truly disciplined, truly restrained, then he was also desperate if he was offering to free me against her will.
She weeps—she thinks she hides it, but she doesn’t. I hear her. I feel her.
I growled at the memory of Turo’s words and the proprietary tone. He had spoken of her as an intimate. He thought he could explain my mate to me? Enlighten me on her feelings ?
Jealousy, fear, contempt… I wanted to snarl. I wanted to take her in front of him! He thought he’d heard me roar, did he? He hadn’t heard anything yet, I—
I cut myself off, shaking my head. Clawing hands through my hair. Hating myself.
She was my mate. My Pair. My One. Not a conquest to be claimed and possessed…
…She is grieving. And whatever causes that grief also compels her to you. She can’t stay away even when she wishes to…
Then it struck me: What if it was true? What if her words were all true? What if she believed that she was saving me by bringing me here… and nothing else?
What if she truly believed I should be King, and wanted to put me there for others’ sakes, not just her own?
What if this was God’s plan?
What then?