Chapter 20
Twenty
WE MADE PLANS TO set out the following afternoon.
No one seemed bothered by the prospect of travelling by day.
Since we’d have to take the larger carriage, it was safer for the horses to travel then, Raleigh told me, making no mention of how much less safe that would be for him.
Yorik and Lukas had come in their own stagecoach, complete with a half-drained and entranced driver, a lad a few years younger than me, who I later learnt had passed out from exhaustion and spent the night unconscious in Enrique’s room.
As the gentlemen discussed their plans, I tried to keep my eyes open, but as the night wore on I knew if I had to stay any longer I would fall asleep at the table. Raleigh was also searching for an exit, so the moment I finally let my head droop he was on his feet.
‘Why, look at you, my darling. You’re exhausted. You don’t need to endure the plans of boring men. Allow me to escort you back to your room.’
He offered his arm as always, but this time I actually took it. Beneath his magnificently billowing sleeves, his arm felt slimmer than expected. The knowledge was strangely intimate.
‘I don’t mind, my love,’ I forced out. ‘I’d never sleep again if it meant I could spend every moment with you.’
‘Oh, Clara, whatever did I do to deserve your perfect sweetness? Apologies, gentlemen. I must excuse myself. If you need anything, Enrique will be more than happy to oblige.’
Enrique made a face to say he was nowhere close to being happy to oblige, but nodded wordlessly, which I had to admire.
‘Is there a room where we might rest?’ Lukas asked. ‘I know it’s early, but the road really does take a toll, you know.’
Raleigh made no attempt to disguise the fact that he found the request to be deeply tedious. ‘Make up some rooms for them,’ he said.
‘Ra— Your Serene Highness,’ Enrique began, ‘I’m not sure—’
‘Not you.’ Raleigh waved his hand vaguely and the energy in the room shifted slightly.
I shot Moira an outraged glare. After all these months of cleaning my room to avoid her complaints of extra work, it never occurred to me I could have just asked the castle to make my bed for me.
‘There are adjoining rooms made up on the first floor. Enrique, you’ll have to take them there.
You’ll know where to go. Now, if you don’t mind, I have a bride who requires my attention. ’
Raleigh whisked me away then, back into the protective fold of the corridors. But even after the whoops and jeers following us died away, he didn’t drop his arm. He spoke in a whisper I could only just make out through the silence. ‘Keep the pretence a little longer. Just in case.’
I didn’t argue; I was in no hurry to let go of his arm. It almost felt like a shame when we reached my room. Raleigh lingered in the doorway, and I hovered on the other side, delaying shutting him out. ‘It would be safer if you stayed,’ I said.
The barest trace of a shadow passed over him. ‘I shouldn’t. Moira may kill them if I leave them alone too long.’ I couldn’t tell if he was joking. ‘You should be safe enough up here.’
I tried to smile. ‘That’s not especially reassuring.’
‘No,’ he said, ‘I suppose not.’ He didn’t return my smile. ‘Sleep with one of your crucifixes if you need to. Just …’ He pursed his lips. ‘Whatever happens, pretend you love me.’
What?
‘Raleigh, what is going on? Why do we have to pretend we’re in love?’ I stumbled over the last words and hoped he didn’t notice.
‘I’ll explain later.’
I didn’t believe him. ‘What’s going to happen at the end of the year? This has something to do with our deal, doesn’t it?’
For a moment I deluded myself into thinking he would actually answer me. Instead he turned around and opened the door. ‘Just stay safe. Please.’
He slipped away before I could protest any further, leaving me more alone and more confused than I had felt in months.
I’d barely managed to fall asleep when I rose from my bed again. The air around me felt sweet, pillowy. Was I dreaming? I must have been. Why else would my body be moving without my input? I crossed to the window and drew back the curtains.
Ah, there was Lukas. Beautiful Lukas.
He was silhouetted by moonlight, golden hair billowing like a halo around his head as he waited for me in the cold, two hundred feet from the ground. I wasn’t surprised. My heart called to him, welcomed him. Somehow it felt inevitable: him, us. I undid the latch and let him in.
I was overjoyed to have him near, thrilled when he alighted in my room. His beauty was overwhelming. I sighed softly when he crooked a finger under my chin, coaxing me closer. His touch was everything I craved and yet I longed for more.
‘Raleigh really didn’t entrance you, then,’ he mused. ‘How fun.’ He slid an arm around my waist, tilting me back so that my full weight was balanced on his arm. His lips hovered tantalisingly close to my throat. I closed my eyes, leaning into the touch.
‘Do you really love Raleigh?’ he asked.
Love Raleigh? In my mind’s haze I tried to place what the words meant. They conjured up something familiar to me, but I no longer understood it. No deal. No queen.
‘Love Raleigh?’ I repeated back dreamily.
‘Tell me the truth,’ Lukas whispered. He dipped his chin, his lips burning like ice at my throat. I felt the warm metal of Moira’s necklace brush against him …
Reality rushed forth like blood from a slit throat as Lukas dropped me, jerking away as if scalded. No. There was an angry red welt on his chin from where he’d brushed against the silver chain. He had been scalded.
‘Does your beloved know you wear silver to bed?’ he spat.
I turned to run, but Lukas’s hand caught mine in a vice before I could do any more than spin around. He dragged me back to him, pressing our chests together, laughing at the way my breath stuttered. His breath was like acrid copper, sending a ripple of revulsion to my toes.
‘If you truly love each other, why delay the wedding? Why the separate rooms? Why the separate sleep schedules?’
I twisted my hand from his grip, mind racing for the right words to keep up the pretence. ‘Are you really questioning our love?’
Lukas’s laugh was one of derision, a cold mockery I felt right to my bones.
‘He never told you about his deal, did he?’ His sneer revealed a flash of fang.
‘He doesn’t love you, pet. He’s trying to prove a point.
’ His thumb pressed against my lips. I could feel the tendrils of his glamour curling back around me, slipping into the tiniest cracks of my mind no matter how hard I tried to push them away.
‘Our queen could love you more than Raleigh ever could. Return to court with us tonight, without Raleigh, and there will be pleasure awaiting that you could only dream of. But first, tell me the truth. Do you love Raleigh?’
‘I …’ I clutched my necklace, clarity firming up at the corners of my mind.
‘I love him,’ I said. ‘But …’ I looked over Lukas’s shoulder, doing my best to play the lovesick maiden.
I had to distract him, at least long enough to make it out into the corridor.
While I would never be able to outrun Lukas, with any luck the corridors might protect me under the same enchantment that protected Raleigh.
If not … well. The outcome would be the same as if I did nothing.
‘I don’t know if Raleigh knows how much I really love him,’ I finished.
Lukas looked at me like I was pathetic. Good.
I kept going. ‘I tell him, of course, but my heart is just so full.’ I stepped to the side, trying to keep my face straight. ‘Lukas, you’ve known him longer than I. How can I make him understand?’
‘You don’t love him,’ Lukas said. I could feel the glamour in his words, creeping around me.
I tightened my grip on my necklace, trying to push the feeling away as it closed in.
But I hesitated a beat too long. Lukas cut off the ground I’d gained towards the door, put both hands on my shoulders and pushed me against the wall.
‘You’ll forget about him. Think only of me. ’
My mind slipped further, his spell clouding all but his lowering face.
I couldn’t outsmart someone who could take control of my mind.
I knew I couldn’t fight him either, but when I felt the edge of his teeth graze my skin it was a choice of dying immediately or dying in a minute. I chose the minute.
I tore my necklace off, a new fury burning through me, ‘Don’t touch me.’ I shoved the cross into his face, his skin giving a satisfying hiss as the metal made contact. He howled in rage and agony, both hands flying to his smoking wound.
In the moment I’d bought myself I threw open the wardrobe and, with all my strength, swung the Orlfen crucifix out, right as Lukas lunged for me.
His head snapped back with a sickening crack.
He crumpled. Red welts began to rise where the cross made contact, but I didn’t have long to admire my work.
I flew to the door, tearing off into the corridor before he could find his feet. The world around me swayed. I sprinted through the darkness, my nightdress rippling around my ankles, relying on the castle to guide my way.
‘You can’t run from me.’ Lukas’s voice drifted down the corridor, but when I whirled around, bearing the crucifix, the empty corridor stretched on eternally behind me. My heart hammered. Was that part of his game? Or had I really lost him in the enchanted halls?
‘Protect me,’ I whispered to the castle.
The walls creaked as if in reassurance. I kept running, racing down passages I’d never seen before. With every corner I expected to see a flash of gold or feel the sharp graze of talons, until I collided with something hard and the breath was knocked from my lungs.
I cried out, thrusting the Orlfen cross towards the figure.
‘Argh, Christ. Clara, it’s me!’