Chapter 28 The Pet Returns.
Chapter twenty-eight
The Pet Returns.
Percy Flores
Panic filled me. I wasn’t ready. I had spent so long thinking of only how to return to her. And now I prayed to be able to escape that moment, that I had lied, betrayed, and watched too many die to achieve.
The King released my jaw and turned me sharply to face the door.
It opened seemingly by itself, and suddenly she was there.
Long, cool fingers brushed feather-soft across my cheeks and under my eyes.
Full lips moved in the shape of my name.
A hand ran across the top of my head.
I turned and looked up at the King. He smiled pleasantly.
My face was turned away from him, and bright liquid silver captivated me like a star-filled night sky. Like I could be lost adrift forever in them, and it would be okay.
The buzzing in my ears gradually gave way to the sound of my name.
“Percy? Percy, pet. My sweetheart?” Selene called to me.
I was snapped out of the hazy, dream-like state I had been in as liquid silver released me.
“What’s wrong with her?” Selene asked, full of concern.
“She was retrieved unexpectedly, during a punitive strike. General Creel’s men had the good sense to recognise her and pivot to an impromptu rescue mission. Who knows what she endured during her time with The New Foundation?” the King said.
Selene turned her attention back to me.
“Percy, my love, speak to me,” she said softly, her hand moving from my jaw, ghosting down my throat, fingertips hovering above my pulse.
I saw her then, truly. I saw her sunken cheeks, the dark semi-circles that hung beneath her eyes, her dry lips that she wetted.
“Percy?” she begged.
I couldn’t look away from her. All I saw was her pain. The hollowness of my chest began to ache. I imagined it would leave me once I was back with her. But it grew deeper and colder.
So much pain.
“I’m sure she will only require a little time and encouragement,” The King suggested as Selene turned worried eyes to her father.
I drew in a ragged breath, and those eyes returned to me.
“I want to go home,” I said, so low my voice was hardly a whisper.
“We’ll go home,” Selene agreed, her hands at my throat travelling to rub over my shoulders and down my arms, until her fingers laced with mine, and she produced a small, relieved smile.
I stared for such a long moment. She hadn’t understood.
Selene stood tall from her hunched position in front of me.
“Thank you, Father. Thank you so much. I thought you didn’t care,” Selene said, facing the King.
“For you, my only child and future of Borealis, there is nothing I would not do. While I had instructed that all our efforts were to go towards the security of our kingdom, I made the caveat that if by circumstance information concerning your pet came to light or even an opportunity to retrieve her, assuming it would not risk or deplete our resources, such action was permissible,” he told her.
I knew he was lying. He never wanted me to return.
“Thank you,” Selene smiled and turned back to me. “I’ll take you home now,” she said.
I stayed still as she tugged gently on my hand until she turned back to me.
I pulled my hand free from hers, and she let me.
“No,” I cried. “I… I want to go back to my home,” I said and stared at my boots, unable to look at her.
Selene was once again crouched in front of me, lifting my chin, forcing me to look at her.
“Percy, what do you mean?” she asked, so kindly, like she would do anything for me, if she only knew what I was asking.
I closed my eyes so I didn’t have to look at her.
“I want to go home. Back to my village,” I told her.
“Sweetheart, I promise that we will visit your new brother as soon as it is safe to do so,” she promised.
I shook my head and felt hot tears roll down my cheeks.
“I don’t want to visit. I want to go back. Alone,” I explained.
“Percy?” she said, but I didn’t respond.
Her thumbs wiped the tears rolling down my cheeks away.
“Percy, pet, look at me,” she commanded, and I shook my head in refusal. “Percy, do as I say, now,” she instructed, her voice still forgiving, but the softness gone.
I opened my eyes, and she smiled reassuringly.
“I know you are so very scared,” she said, and I noticed her nostrils flare ever so slightly as she scented the air. “I do not know what you have experienced, but you are safe with me, I promise.”
“Like I was safe in Ardens?” I asked, and I wanted to cut out my own tongue for being the cause of the shame that flashed across her face.
“Percy,” she pleaded.
“I want to go home. I don’t want to be here with you anymore,” I said, finding my voice.
I hated myself. I hated everything I was. I was nothing but death and pain. Death magic, death to everyone around me. Even with my birth, I had killed my own mother. I didn’t deserve to be loved or cared for. I didn’t deserve Selene. The King was right; I had taken everything from her.
“You don’t mean that,” Selene said, her tone strong but still forgiving, like she was talking to a toddler during a tantrum.
“I do mean it. I can’t be with you anymore,” I said.
“Enough of that, Percy. You don’t know what you’re saying,” she warned.
“I’m not a child. I can make my own choices. I don’t want to be with you,” I said defiantly. The collar of my top was damp and sticking to my neck, with all my tears, and it felt like I was being strangled, even my clothing disapproving of what I was speaking.
“Percy,” Selene growled, a mixture of frustration and desperation.
“Selene, I know it is hard to hear, but perhaps you should listen to the girl,” the King said.
Selene’s face twisted in anger, and she snapped her head in the direction of her father. He held his hands up, it felt almost mockingly.
“I’m only suggesting that you hear her out, think about what is best for everyone.
What place does she have here amongst us?
What are you risking by insisting upon keeping her, against her will, no less?
Vladimir recently approached me with a marriage offer from House Obscurum: his younger brother, Yaroslav.
Such a union would further cement House Borealis and Obscurum’s ties of friendship and marriage and help to strengthen our position and your image within the northern Houses,” the King suggested.
Selene hissed.
Her lips pulled back over her teeth, fangs descended, and she hissed so fiercely that I was shocked, frozen with fear.
I had never seen Selene behave in such a way before, not even with Rylan when her protective instincts had taken hold after my novel ability had first shown itself.
The King stepped back, and this time his raised hands did not seem mocking.
“Selene, I remind you that I am your father and King,” he said sternly, his voice even.
Selene’s hiss changed to a low, infuriated growl that I could feel in my bones.
“Mine.” She took hold of my wrist and dragged me off balance and into her side. “She stays with me. Always. No one will ever take her again!” She ground out, in a voice that barely sounded like herself, each word growled out instead of spoken.
“I am not trying to take her from you. I was merely suggesting that you consider your options. The girl herself has asked to go home,” he insisted.
Suddenly, I was under the scrutiny of glowing silver, and her hold on my wrist became painfully tight.
“You will stay with me,” she instructed and turned swiftly back to the King.
“I will not marry Yaroslav, regardless of what promises you may have made on my behalf. You would do well in future to find better partners to conspire with than a womanising, pompous, narcissistic fool, such as Vladimir of Obscurum,” she said, her tone derisive and angry, and I knew I was missing some key piece of knowledge with the way the King looked at Selene before his eyes narrowed.
“You will do as I tell you to do. You are not Queen yet. You are my daughter, and you will start acting like it,” he replied, his own anger rumbling in his chest.
Selene pulled me behind her.
“Or what? You’re hardly a king anymore. A frail, weak-minded, na?ve old man, but no king.”
A slap so loud, like gunfire, resonated around the room, and Selene’s head snapped to the side as the King towered over her.
“Speak to me in such a way again, and I will have you defanged,” he warned.
Defanging was a painful and humiliating punishment. Fangs could grow back, but it was also a painful and long process. I couldn’t believe that he had hit Selene, his own daughter. My father had never lifted his hand in violence toward me.
Selene spat blood.
The sight caused my throat to constrict. The way she lifted her gaze to stare at her father frightened me. I knew what he was capable of. He had already struck her violently, and I didn’t doubt he would follow through with his threat. I gripped the back of her shirt in fear.
“Don’t,” I whispered against her back.
Selene straightened and took hold of my wrist again as she walked towards the door.
“You did well to listen to your pet. I hope you continue to do so. I’m getting sick of all the trouble it causes around here,” he said as Selene opened the door to his office.
I turned as she dragged me out of the room to look back at the King. His glowing silver eyes met mine.
“It would do well for everyone to remember that I am a man of my word,” he said, and I knew what he meant; he was reminding me that people would start dying if I didn’t do as he instructed.