10. Chapter 10
10
Chapter 10
Violet
Bronwen insisted that I walk to dinner with her. She was so proud of how I was dressed that she wanted to see everyone’s reaction when they saw me. She also made sure we were the last to arrive so that everyone’s eyes were on me. Lucky me.
When we were a few yards from the doors to the dining room, I looked down. It was a habit that I’d always done, but I started to feel very nervous about wearing this dress.
“Violet, keep your head up. If you’re going to wear a Night Realm dress, you need to have Night Realm attitude,” Bronwen said as she looped her arm into mine and pulled me with her to the doors.
As the doors opened, the first person I made eye contact with was Adar. He shook his head and started to rub his fingers on his temples. Calum was talking to Nathara and stopped mid- sentence to stare at me. Nathara and her mother both looked to see what he was staring at, and they began to glare at me. I quickly shifted my eyes away from him. I couldn’t get caught up with him right now. Especially after what happened earlier with Sebastian.
Sebastian. That’s who I saw next. He was sitting at the head of the table leaning back and staring out the window, looking completely uninterested in his guests. The silence that had overtaken the room caught his attention because he turned his head back towards everyone, and he locked eyes with me. His dusty-blue eyes were back with no trace of the darkness I had seen before. He shifted up in his seat and sat a little taller as if he was finally interested in the dinner party.
Bronwen pulled me over to sit next to her and after I sat down, I realized everyone was still looking at me.
“So, I take the silence means everyone is at a loss for words at Violet’s new look?” Bronwen asked while looking around the room proudly as if she was a little girl showing off her new toy. I guess I was a dress-up doll for her. I didn’t care, though. After saving me earlier, she could dress me up all she wanted.
No one spoke. Calum did everything but look at me, but I didn’t know what I expected. He couldn’t show any interest or disinterest because anything would be suspicious. He had to be indifferent. Nathara ignored Bronwen, which seemed like that was normal around here, and Adar was rubbing his head still as if he had a headache. I wasn’t sure if that was because of me or Bronwen or both.
“You look beautiful, Violet.” My father finally broke the silence. Between Calum and Sebastian, I had forgotten my father was even there and that he might have an opinion on how I was dressed. I gave him a small smile before a few servants came in with trays of food, taking the attention off of me.
Everyone slowly picked back up on their conversations that our entrance interrupted and that’s when I looked back at Sebastian, who was still looking at me with no hint of emotion on his face. He was tapping his finger on the table and seemed to be contemplating something. I just hoped he wasn’t still thinking about earlier. I didn’t want to revisit that again.
I honestly didn’t want to have a conversation with him ever again. It was a good thing that I saw who he truly was because the way he acted last night made me feel like he wasn’t evil. That maybe he was just misunderstood. But he proved that to be wrong today. I saw the shadow king.
As much as I loved getting dressed up for Bronwen’s dinner party, I really hoped this wasn’t something that happened every night. Being forced into a room with Calum, Nathara, Celine, and Sebastian may have been my worst nightmare, and I couldn’t put on a fake smile every day. I needed space to breathe and be alone. And sulk in the misery that was my life.
Nathara had too much to drink and was a giggling mess, falling over into Calum’s lap. Calum took her to her chambers, and of course, my father followed them out.
“Well, since the lovebirds are gone, there is no reason for the two of you to still be in my presence.” Sebastian glared at Lilian and Celine and while Celine cowered, Lilian held his glare.
“Celine, why don’t I show you where I plan to have the ceremony?” Without breaking eye contact with Sebastian, Lilian left the dining room with Celine following closely behind her.
There was a deep-rooted hatred between Sebastian and Lilian.
“Bronwen, let’s stop with this charade of the meals. I may go mad if I have to have one more meal with Lilian and Nathara,” Sebastian said.
Bronwen let out an overexaggerated huff. “Fine, but don’t you dare try to cancel any of the parties I have planned,” she replied.
“Oh, I wouldn’t dare,” Sebastian said as he cut his eyes at her and started discussing a “border issue,” as he called it, with Adar, even though Adar never said anything back. Bronwen poured herself another glass of wine. I wanted to leave but I didn’t want to interrupt their conversation, and I felt like I may have missed my chance.
A tingling sensation in the palm of my hand caused me to look down to see a balled-up piece of paper appear under my hand. I carefully opened the paper, trying to not make a sound, to see what it said.
Excuse yourself.
-C
That was enough to make me forget all of my manners, and I jumped up and said, “I’m not feeling well, if you’ll excuse me.”
I didn’t wait for permission as I turned around and made my way to the doors.
“Violet.” My name from Sebastian’s lips made me stop, but I couldn’t turn around. “Can I have a word with you, alone?” he asked. I could feel his eyes boring holes in the back of my head as I kept my attention on the door—to the escape in front of me.
“No,” was all I said before I left the dining room. I couldn’t think too much about telling the Sovereign of the Night Realm no, but I also wasn’t willing to hear what he had to say. I didn’t know if he was going to attempt to apologize for earlier, when he almost killed me, or question me more about what I knew. Either way I didn’t want to ever be put in a position where I was alone with him again.
No matter the way he acted when I first met him, or the way he made me feel, I was afraid of him now. And it was best if it stayed that way. Even if no one can know for now, I was with Calum. Calum was the love of my life, and nothing could ever change that. I knew when I opened the door to my room, Calum would be there, and I knew what to expect with him. He has been the same Calum for the entire time I’ve known him, and Sebastian . . . well, I’d met two different Sebastiansin the past two days. One entrancing and one terrifying. Either way I couldn’t give him any more of my time.
I quickly shut my door after me because Calum was standing in front of my bed waiting for me, and I didn’t want anyone to see from the hall. As soon as the lock on my door clicked, he closed the distance between us and kissed me.
“I love you,” he said while resting his forehead on mine.
“I love you, Calum.”
“I’m sorry for breakfast and dinner today,” he whispered as he gently placed kisses all over my face.
“I know. But you’re protecting me,” I said. I’m not sure if it was more to reassure him or myself.
“I will always protect you.”
I gave him a knowing smile, but I didn’t want to talk about the things we couldn’t change when I knew we didn’t have a lot of time to be together. “What do you think of my dress?” I asked as I spun around to give him a full view of the dress.
“It’s very . . . Night Realm,” he said as his eyes looked down at the dress.
I crossed my arms as I responded to him. “It is a Night Realm dress.”
Calum brought his hand back to my face and cupped my cheek. “You look beautiful in it. You look beautiful in anything you wear, but it’s not you. It’s not my Violet.”
“It is different, but it’s not like I’ve ever been given a choice in what I could wear.”
He looked dissatisfied by my response but quickly shook the look off of his face and asked, “Well besides buying dresses, what else did you do in the city?”
“We went to a cafe, but we mostly just walked around looking at the buildings. Calum, it was so beautiful, and there were so many different faeries and creatures. I can’t believe everything I’ve missed out on.”
“Your father has just worried so much about your heart.”
“Well today proved that I can leave the castle. I mean, I spent the entire day in an unfamiliar place with faeries and creatures I have never seen before. I don’t think anything back home could surprise me now.”
“You’re right. I’ll talk to him once we are home.”
I jumped in his arms and wrapped my arms around his neck. My hug from excitement turned into kissing passionately which then turned into me being on my knees.
Like I said, I knew what to expect with Calum. I knew what he loved and what to do to satisfy him.
I plunged his length deep into my throat while keeping my eyes locked on his.
“Gods, I’ve missed you, Violet,” he said while he grabbed a fist full of my hair and began pumping into me.
Tears began to run down my face and just when I thought I couldn’t take anymore, he picked me up and threw me on the bed. He ripped my dress off and threw it on the floor. It was something he’d done more times than I could count, but this time my heart sank when I saw the beautiful dress I had just gotten in shreds on the floor.
Calum flipped me onto my stomach and inserted himself. He put his hand under me where he could rub me while he began thrusting. He had made everything else disappear from my mind and all I could think about was him.
“Yes, Calum! Yes,” I screamed as I felt my climax coming.
He finished shortly after me and rolled over onto my bed so he could pull me into his arms.
“Do you have to leave now?” I whispered while I lay with my head on his chest.
“Soon,” he mumbled while he ran his fingers through my tangled hair.
My heart sank, but I had to get used to it. This would be the new normal for a while. “Have you found out anything about what is causing Sebastian to weaken?”
His hand stilled, and I felt his chest tighten beneath me. “Sebastian? How do you know his name?”
Fuck. I couldn’t very well tell him the truth. “Bronwen and Adar were talking about him today, and I heard them call him Sebastian,” I said while I traced circles on his stomach.
He relaxed and said, “Oh. No, not really. I’ve been talking with a scholar from back home, and he says there must be an object that is drawing his power from him. Someone within the castle must have introduced the object because it has to be somewhere near Sebastian to be effective. But the object could be virtually anything from a pillow in the sitting room to silverware in the kitchen, so it doesn’t really narrow it down.”
“Oh,” I said quietly.
If Sebastian couldn’t figure it out with his shadows that hear everything, it seemed almost impossible that Calum would be able to figure it out.
He stayed with me until the early hours in the morning. I slept better that night than I had in weeks. I had grown so used to having someone else in the bed with me every night that the time without him made me realize how lonely the nights without him were.
“I need to go now, Violet,” he said, waking me up as he kissed my forehead and got up from the bed. “I’ll see you at breakfast in a few hours.”
“Before I left dinner last night, Sebastian told Bronwen to stop with the ‘family meals,’” I said as I sat up on the bed, pulling the sheet up to my chest.
“Well, then, I’ll be back here as quick as I can,” he said, giving me a soft smile.
“Okay,” I said as I fought back the tears.
We said our goodbyes, and Calum transferred out of my room.