6. Chapter 6
6
Chapter 6
Violet
After almost dying and then being entranced by death himself, I had forgotten about my life. About Calum.
“Go away. I don’t want to see you,” I said as I pushed past him, trying to get to the bathroom. To get away from him.
But he didn’t listen. He grabbed my wrist and pulled me towards him, and nothing could hold me back.
Before I could even comprehend what I was doing, I slapped him. I slapped my Sovereign—which would be punishable by death—but more importantly I slapped the person I loved the most.
I felt so betrayed by him.
“You lied,” I said as I fought back the tears.
“Violet, I—”
“No. I am going to talk, and for once, you’re going to listen to me,” I said, cutting him off. “I knew from the beginning that you’d have to marry someone else. I knew you didn’t have a choice, and it was your duty. We could have just spent the years we had together knowing that it would come to an end. But YOU said you wouldn’t marry someone else. YOU said you would find a way out of this. You didn’t have to say any of that to me, but you were adamant that it would be me and you in the end. You said it so much that you actually had me believing that it was true. And until the moment you left, you promised me that you would come back to me. But then I saw you today with her. You lied.”
“Who brought you here?” he asked, completely ignoring everything I just said.
“Who do you think? Your mother. The one who would love nothing more than to see me hurt.”
“Violet, I didn’t know you would be here,” he said while trying to grab my hand.
I took a step away from him as I said, “Are you kidding me? Is that supposed to make me feel better? What were you going to do? Marry her and have someone get rid of me before the two of you returned from your honeymoon?”
“No, I didn’t mean—”
“Fuck you, Calum,” I screamed before I started wailing on him. Hit after hit. He let me hit him for a while because he knew he deserved it. Then the anger turned into sadness and all I could do was cry. He wrapped his arms around me, and I didn’t fight back. I was too tired. Tired from the days without him, tired from it all.
“Violet, please listen to me. It’s all fake. Everything you saw was just a show,” he said while resting his chin on my head.
I pushed away from him. “You expect me to believe that?”
“When I got here, I did just like I told you I would do. I was horrible. I wouldn’t even look at her. I was rude to everyone. I tried everything I could for her to refuse to marry me. Then, one day, I overheard her talking to her mother. Her mother told her that she found out why I was acting the way I was. They found out that there was someone in my realm.”
“How?” I asked.
“We must have a traitor in the castle. Someone has been feeding them information. Her mother then told her that once they figured out who it was that they would kill my lover. I couldn’t chance anything happening to you, so I started to act like I was interested in her. I was hoping that it would prevent them from digging deeper to find out who you were.”
“So, what, your plan was just to marry her to protect me?” I asked.
“No. Something is going on here. Her brother—the Sovereign—he’s weak. Something is affecting his power, and I am going to figure out what it is. I’m going to use it as leverage to get out of this. But no one can find out it’s you. I can’t risk something happening to you.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. He’d never lied to me before, and I could tell by the look in his eyes that he meant every word he said. He’s just trying to protect me. But I couldn’t get the image of her in his arms out of my head. Even though he was doing this to keep me safe, it still hurt. I didn’t think I could watch them together until he figured a way out. But his plan? Crazy. I was starting to lose hope.
“What are you going to do? Save that . . . evil man . . . from whatever is taking his power and hope that in return he tells you that you don’t have to marry his sister?”
“I-I don’t know yet,” he mumbled.
I started to walk away from him, but he grabbed my hand and pulled me back to look at him.
“Violet, please,” he said as he looked at me with worry in his eyes.
“Have you kissed her?” I asked even though I didn’t know if I could handle the answer.
“Violet . . . I . . . Yes. I had to make her believe that I wanted to marry her.”
I felt like I couldn’t breathe.
“Did you have sex with her?” I said barely loud enough for him to hear me as I turned away from him again. I was too scared of what the answer would be.
“What?”
I whipped around and before I could stop myself, I said, “Did you fuck her, Calum?” I could feel the rage building up again. If he had sex with her, I’d be done. I’d find a way to sneak out of the Night Realm tonight, and I would never see him again.
I caught him off guard with that. I could tell by the look on his face as he said, “No. I did not fuck her. I told her we had to wait until our wedding night. I wouldn’t do that to you. I love you, Violet.”
“I need some time to process this. Please leave,” I said, even though seeing him leave would hurt worse than him staying here to fight with me.
“Violet, please—”
“Leave, Calum.”
He stood there and just stared at me as if he was contemplating doing what I had asked of him. This had been the longest we’d been apart since the day I moved into the castle.
“No. I will not leave. We’ve been together for sixteen years, and I’ve never done anything to make you lose trust in me. I know what you saw hurt you, but it’s the only way I know to protect you. And now you’re here, which is going to make everything harder. How am I going to keep my eyes off of you when you enter a room? I can’t let anything happen to you.”
“Then why are you here, in my room? You’ve told me that the Sovereign of the Night Realm controls shadows and knows everything that goes on in his realm. Are you not risking everything by being in my room right now?” I asked.
“I told you that he’s weak. Well, weak compared to what he used to be. I was able to place a ward on every room that fae from my realm are staying in. No one can hear anything that goes on in our rooms. We are safe in your room.”
“Does it keep people out, too?” I asked even though, considering a few moments ago, the shadow king was in my room, I knew the answer to that. I just wanted to see what Calum thought.
“No, if I did a ward that strong, someone would notice, and it would draw more attention than we needed. So I placed a small ward that would go unnoticed. Just one to keep noises from escaping,” he responded as his eyes slowly drifted down from my eyes to my lips.
I was so hurt after seeing Calum with Nathara and learning how he’d been acting with her, but I knew he was telling the truth. He wouldn’t lie to me. I had to trust him to get us through this, even if I had to sit back and watch.
But, gods, I missed him. I missed his touch. I missed the way he would make me feel with his touches. I needed to feel him.
I looked down at his body. His shirt was tight, accentuating his biceps. I opened my lips slightly, and my eyes made my way back up to his. He took that as an invitation and closed the distance between us. Calum grabbed my face in his hands and kissed me roughly. Grabbing my waist, he picked me up and lay me on the bed before climbing on top of me.
He pulled his shirt over his head while barely breaking our kiss. It was like he didn’t want to miss a second of our bodies touching. Like he had missed me just as much as I missed him. He didn’t even take the time to take my dress off. He just pulled it up enough where he could grab my panties and rip them off.
I didn’t even notice that he had managed to pull his pants down too until I felt him thrust his length inside of me.
It was rough. Not rough wild sex like we’d done so many times before, but rough and fast like he needed to finish as fast as he could because he had somewhere else to be.
Because he did have somewhere else to be.
His fiancée was waiting for him at the party.
He finished. I didn’t. He rolled over and pulled me into his arms.
“Violet, I’m sorry you had to see me with her tonight, but I’m afraid that you’re going to see a lot more of it. I am trying so hard to find what or who is making the Sovereign weaker. I don’t know how long it’s going to take me to figure it out, so that means I don’t know how long I’m going to have to pretend to be in love with Nathara.”
I squeezed him a little harder when he said that. I didn’t want this moment to end. All I wanted was Calum.
“But I will figure it out, and I will get out of this engagement. I promise.”
“I know you will,” I whispered.
Did I? Did I really believe that he would get out of this? I had to. He was all I had.
He kissed my head before getting up to put his clothes back on.
“I will be back. As soon as I get the chance, I will be back here with you. It may be a few days and it may be the middle of the night, but I’ll be back.”
“I know you will.”
Calum transferred out of my room.
I got it. Nothing had ever been easy for me, and I shouldn’t have expected anything else.
Of course, I was born with a heart condition that caused my father to treat me like an injured bird that needs to be protected at all times.
Of course, the love of my life is engaged to another.
Of course, I am going to have to watch them together for possibly the next three months.
And, like always, I had to sit back and accept it all. I had no power. I was from a realm where females were only good for one thing: lying on their backs. I’d been taught to submit to everything that was given to me.
I’d felt weird tonight, though, ever since I was late to take my medication. I felt angrier, more confident with my thoughts, and more articulate in putting those thoughts into words. I think it was from the near-death experience, but I even stood up to Calum, which I’d never done.
I’d always been able to say what I felt around him, but he always had the final say in everything. If I didn’t like something, I told him my opinion and he would listen, but in the end, he made every decision.
But now . . . fuck it.