7. Chapter 7
7
Chapter 7
Violet
I didn’t sleep much that night. I was trying to process everything that happened yesterday: meeting the Sovereign of the Night Realm, Sebastian, and seeing Calum with Nathara. It was too much.
Then I started to think about my father. I didn’t get a chance to see him last night. After seeing Calum, I couldn’t focus on anyone else.
My father was bound to Calum. When a Commander was selected, they went through a ritual that tied their life to their Sovereign’s life. If Calum died, my father died. That’s the best way to ensure a Commander was always doing everything they could to keep their Sovereign alive. The only way out of it was if the Sovereign broke the bond that tied them together. Calum’s father knew he was trapped, and there was no way out of the Reacher’s den that day, and he cared for my father so much that he broke the bond. My father felt a lot of guilt from that, and it caused him to be hyper focused on Calum.
Calum came first; I came second. I didn’t mind though. Calum came first for me too.
I woke to a knock on my door. I looked at the clock to see it was ten in the morning. I guess staying up so late lost in my thoughts had its advantage. I would be on the Night Realm’s schedule now, so breakfast wasn’t too far away.
As I started to open the door, my father pushed past me and quickly shut the door behind him. “What are you doing here in the Night Realm? It’s not safe,” he said.
“You said it wasn’t safe to leave my room at home and I did, and I was fine.” I probably should have just said I wasn’t given a choice in coming here, but I’d grown so tired of him always worrying about me.
“You left your room?” he asked as he began looking at me from head to toe, even grabbing my arms and inspecting every inch of them.
“Father, I’m fine,” I said while pulling my arm from him. I looked at him confused. Was he really afraid that I would be physically hurt while he was gone?
“It’s still not safe for you to be here. Nathara knows about you.”
“I know. Calum told me last night. But she doesn’t know it’s me.”
“Calum came here?” he asked with a look of shock on his face. “Does he not realize how dangerous that could be for the both of you?”
“I saw him last night at the party with her. I left upset, and he came after me. He had to explain what was going on.” I knew nothing I said helped to calm him, so I added, “He put a ward on my room, so no one knew he was in here.”
“You need to go home,” he said bluntly.
“Do you think I asked to come here? Celine made me come, and I’m not exactly in a position where I can tell her no,” I said, crossing my arms.
He started to pace the room. He shook his head and stopped back in front of me. “I can’t be in two places at once protecting you both.”
“Father, don’t worry about me,” I said while placing my hand on his arm trying to calm him down. “No one is going to find out about me and Calum. I will do what I do best: stay back and not draw attention to myself. Stay with Calum. It’s your duty.”
“It’s my duty to protect you too.” He had such worry in his eyes as he placed his hand on my cheek.
“I’ll be okay. I promise,” I said, trying to reassure him.
He nodded like he was trying to convince himself to believe me and leaned down and kissed my forehead before walking out of my room.
I got dressed and made my way to the dining room. I wasn’t sure if they had planned for us to have breakfast together again, but I figured I could peek in and figure that out for myself.
As I peeked around the door into the room, I noticed there were several more place settings this time. I guess it was time to put on a show and pretend like I didn’t care about Calum.
“You again.”
I spun around as I heard that voice. I thought I was alone, but he must’ve been lurking in the shadows.
“Sebastian! You startled me,” I said as I tried to compose myself.
As my eyes focused on him, it was like I was seeing him for the first time again. He was dressed more casually today, with a loose-fitted white shirt with the top few buttons unbuttoned and black pants, which made him even more attractive, if that was even possible.
“I didn’t give you a heart attack, did I?” he said in a mocking tone. I just stared at him. Did my heart condition really bother him that much? “Forgive me. I’m just not used to such a delicate flower being around,” he added sarcastically.
He was testing me to see how I would react. I showed so many emotions last night that he probably thought I was completely crazy.
That’s good. Maybe if he thought I was crazy he would leave me alone. The last thing I needed was the Sovereign of the Night Realm watching me while I attempted to hide my feelings for Calum.
With no emotion at all I said, “And yet you have a garden of violets outside.”
“Violet noticed the violets? Strange coincidence maybe. They came to me in a dream,” he said as he smirked at me.
“You dream about flowers? The scary Sovereign of the Night Realm dreams about flowers?” I don’t know what I was doing pushing him like this, but it just came out before I even realized what I had said.
He bit his lip as he looked me up and down. “I sure do.”
Oh fuck . I’d been around Sebastian twice and both times he’d made me feel things I shouldn’t be feeling. I should be terrified of him. He’s a killer. He’s evil. He literally had shadows floating around him. But I was not scared, and I was so enticed by him that I just wanted to know more. I’d never spoken to a male the way I’d spoken to him. I knew the rules were different here—females had more freedom—but I didn’t understand where this confidence was coming from.
The sound of voices coming up the hall broke the trance I was in. Well, one voice in particular snapped me back to reality. Calum’s.
“Will you be joining us for breakfast today?” I asked, trying to keep myself distracted from who would be coming up the hall soon.
“Unfortunately, yes. Being such the ‘good Advisor’ that Bronwen is, she advised me that I should,” he said, even though the tone of his voice made it seem like less of advice and more of a demand.
“Do you not normally have breakfast with your sister and mother?” I asked.
Sebastian’s face went cold and his eyes darkened as he said, “Lilian is not my mother.”
By the look on his face, I knew I’d said the wrong thing. The shadows around him started to grow and radiate from him, making him appear even more like the shadow king I had heard about.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know,” I said.
He looked ahead, avoiding eye contact with me, and started taking deep breaths. It was like he was trying to calm himself down. “Breakfast will be served soon,” he said as he walked past me, and by the time I turned to follow him into the dining room, he was gone.
I heard Calum’s voice and what I assumed to be Nathara’s voice growing louder. I wanted to avoid an awkward moment in the hall with them, so I went into the dining room and quickly found a seat.
A few seconds later, Calum, Nathara, and my father came in and sat at the other end of the table. At least now I could avoid making eye contact with them and hopefully get through this meal as quickly as possible. If it wouldn’t have looked suspicious, I wouldn’t have come to breakfast at all.
“Calum, aren’t you going to introduce me?” Nathara asked. I looked up to see she had wrapped her hand around Calum’s arm and was tracing circles with her thumb.
“Of course, this is Violet, Alastor’s daughter,” he said with giving me nothing more than a quick glance.
Alastor’s daughter. The daughter of the Commander of the Mountain Realm. Nothing else.
“It’s nice to meet you, Nathara,” I said as I forced myself to smile.
Please someone else show up for breakfast.
She looked me up and down and gave me the fakest smile I’d ever seen back.
This was my hell.
Possibly the worst part of it all was Nathara’s beauty. Her hair was long, black, and straight; it had a certain shine to it that I envied. Her skin was pale, like Sebastian’s, but her eyes were black, like a Night Realm fae’s eyes should be. She was tall, slender, and graceful with every move she made. Her lips were painted red, a strong contrast to her pale features, and it took everything in me not to picture her lips on Calum.
It felt like forever before Bronwen and Adar arrived. Their presence eased the tension, and thankfully Bronwen sat next to me. I didn’t know if I could handle watching Adar roll his eyes through this meal.
She looked at the empty seat at the head of the table and let out a loud huff. “I told him to come to breakfast.”
I guess I could be to blame for his lack of attendance.
Celine and a female I’d yet to see arrived last. They were giggling and whispering to each other. The fact that Celine was allowing this lady to be so close to her told me that she must be Lilian, Nathara’s mother—but not Sebastian’s.
Lilian looked exactly like Nathara except for her auburn red hair and dark blue eyes. Her features were a dead giveaway that she was from the Forest Realm.
Breakfast was horrible. Nathara was practically sitting in Calum’s lap the entire meal, and he would nuzzle his nose into her neck while she giggled. I had to pretend like it didn’t bother me even though I was screaming on the inside. I had to find something else to focus on before I exploded and that was Sebastian.
I struck a nerve when I thought Lilian was his mother. How could I have known she wasn’t? Fae stay with their spouses until death, which meant Sebastian’s mother was dead. I wanted to know what happened. Not because I cared, but because I loved knowing everything. Since my entire childhood was focused on schooling, I was always learning something new, and it was a habit that just stuck.
Breakfast went on forever. I had lost my appetite the moment Calum and Nathara walked into the room, but I couldn’t leave. It was rude to leave a meal before your Sovereign. Bronwen began talking about the dinner party she was planning for tonight. I guess Adar wasn’t exaggerating when he said she threw parties all the time.
Bronwen said she was an Advisor, but she seemed more like she ran everything in the castle. She planned parties, she greeted guests, and she was in charge of the servants and made sure they completed their tasks. These were all tasks the lady of the house would do. I would have expected Lilian to manage these since Sebastian wasn’t married. She technically still was the lady of the house. Celine didn’t skip a beat with her duties when her husband died. It made me wonder if Sebastian and Bronwen were together. It would make sense. They were both extraordinarily beautiful.
“What do you think, Violet?” Bronwen snapped me back into reality with her question as she looked at me waiting for my answer. I had no idea what she asked me.
“About what?” I asked.
“I asked if you would like to go into the city with me to pick up a few things for tonight.”
“Oh I . . .” I paused as I glanced at my father. I’d never even left our castle. Now I was in the most dangerous realm, and Bronwen wanted me to leave the protection of the castle. My father had a very concerned look on my face, and I saw out of the corner of my eye that Calum didn’t seem happy about it either.
“I asked you, Violet, not your father. You’re grown, and I’m pretty sure you can make your own decisions,” Bronwen said without even glancing my father’s way.
“She’s a female from the Mountain Realm, she’s not allowed to make her own decisions,” Nathara snarked.
“Nathara, you’re about to be a female in the Mountain Realm. Don’t forget that,” Bronwen quickly shot back. She looked like she took too much pleasure in saying that. Bronwen’s response took the smug look right off of Nathara’s face.
“Anyways, Violet, you’re in the Night Realm, and our rules are different here. It is your decision.” Bronwen stared at me as she waited for an answer.
Nathara’s little remark and the disapproving way Calum was looking at me while he had his arm around Nathara angered me so much that I couldn’t stop myself from saying, “Let’s go.”
Bronwen jumped up and said, “Great, I will have a carriage brought to the front for us.”
“Violet, I don’t—” my father began to speak, but Bronwen cut him off.
“Don’t worry, Daddy . She will be safe with me.” My eyes widened at Bronwen words, while she looked my father slowly up and down before prancing out of the room.
“Come on, Violet!” she yelled from the hall.
I stood up and went after her without making eye contact with my father or Calum. I could deal with them later. I didn’t want to miss the chance of seeing a city before I was stuck in the Mountain Realm’s castle again.
After I made it out of the room, I heard Adar say to my father, “I will go with them. I won’t let anything happen to her.”
It was probably for the sake of my father, a fellow Commander, but that was the first time Adar seemed like he maybe, just maybe, was more than a heartless dick.