Chapter 12
The amount of white in this castle was a little bit creepy.
It was beginning to feel like whoever built this place was overcompensating for the darkness outside. I could understand if that was the point, but even with everything being a light color, the darkness still clung to it all like a disease, leaving shadows infesting every surface.
It had been an hour since I’d left the Hall of Feasts, and I was truly surprised that Nico hadn’t come after me, that he’d let me wander around by myself.
I was even more surprised to find that it appeared Rhydian hadn’t been lying. There really was no one else here.
If the silence of this enormous place wasn’t proof enough, I found plenty of rooms and spaces that looked like people once inhabited them, but with the thick layers of dust coating each room I peeked into, it was clear no one had been here in a long, long time.
How could an entire kingdom just leave?
And why were Rhydian and Nico still here?
There had to be answers somewhere. I just needed to find them.
Hallway after hallway, I poked my head around corners and into any doors that were somehow unlocked, searching for…
I wasn’t sure what. Anything that might give me more answers than my kidnapper was currently giving me.
There had to be something, and yet the only things I found were abandoned rooms laden with dust and furniture covers.
The whiteness of the halls was beginning to make me dizzy, and I was about to call it quits when I came across one more hallway I hadn’t yet been down. The strange thing was there was only one door at the very end. The rest of the walls were adorned with portraits, much like the Hall of Feasts.
A lone door in a long hallway? That sounded like a winner to me.
I had barely taken a step when a voice came from behind me.
“Curiosity killed the cat. That’s a phrase in your world, is it not?”
I nearly jumped out of my skin as I spun to find Rhydian hiding in the shadows next to a drape-covered window. His gold-ringed eyes and the vague outline of his body were all I could see.
My heart halted in my chest before doubling in tempo. Where did he even come from?
“You seem to know quite a bit about my world,” I said, trying to keep my voice from shaking.
Rhydian stepped out of the shadows, his brows low. He ignored my statement entirely. “You should be careful about where you go looking for things. You might not like what you find.”
He stepped closer and fear settled in my gut like a heavy weight.
“And what might I find?” I hated that the question came out as a breathy whisper.
Rhydian moved even closer, invading my personal space to the point where I was forced to take a step back until I hit the wall.
He didn’t stop until his boots were touching mine, and those gold-ringed eyes were inches away.
My heart raced in my chest, body preparing to run as if this were my father cornering me and not some Dark Fae.
“I’ll spare you the fear that answer would bring,” he said, low voice rumbling.
The walls closed in on me, and I swallowed hard, fighting the urge to close my eyes. An invisible vise squeezed my chest, and I couldn’t breathe. Arms wrapping around my stomach, I stared at the ground and braced myself, waiting for the feeling of a slap or a punch.
But then something warm touched my chin, tilting my face up. Those strange golden eyes pierced straight through me, a crease forming between Rhydian’s brows.
“I won’t hurt you, Maren,” he said in a soft voice I hadn’t thought him capable of.
At the promise in his words, the gold rings around his irises flared brighter, pulling me back to the present.
The tightness in my chest eased ever so slightly, and I took in a shaky breath.
I expected to smell the familiar scent of stale cigarettes, but instead, I only smelled cold air and pine.
Instead of making me want to retch, I found myself inhaling deeper.
The walls receded around my mind as the pounding in my chest began to slow.
Rhydian watched me carefully for several heartbeats, still holding my chin with a gentleness I never would have expected from someone who could kill with a wave of his hand. The thought was a reminder, and my earlier frustration snapped through my mind like lightning.
“Why won’t you give me any answers?” I croaked out, pushing his hand away from me. “If I’m stuck here anyway, what good does it do to keep me in the dark?”
Rhydian blinked as if surprised I was angry again, but just as quickly as his kindness had surfaced, it disappeared behind a dark glare.
“Do you not care that you took everything from me?” I added. “My family is no longer protected because I’m not there.”
He finally took a step back, giving me space, but said nothing to my accusation.
“I guess a killer would have no remorse about leaving a woman and two young children in the hands of an abusive man, taking away their only means of safety.”
A crack in his tough exterior—the slightest softening of his eyes. But in a single blink it was gone.
“I highly doubt you were much of a protector.” His gaze slowly roved down my body, assessing, his top lip curling in disgust. “I don’t see how you could offer much anyway.”
Fury at his words, at being kidnapped, at being stuck in a world I didn’t belong in with no answers about how to get home, simmered beneath my skin, bringing my blood to a boil.
I wished I could get in his face like he had been in mine, but he was far too tall, too broad for me to even try to be intimidating.
So, instead, I pushed the sleeves of my sweater up and held my arms out, waiting until he looked.
It took a moment before his eyes reluctantly left mine to look down at my arms. Even in the dim light of the hallway, I knew he could see them.
Holding one arm out still, I lifted the side of my shirt to show the lovely bruise on my ribs that matched my arms. They were all purple and yellow now, minus the one fresh dark blue one on the inside of my upper arm.
Would he ask how I got the bruises? Or would he ignore them like everyone else did? Better to ignore them than to ask how they could help, right?
Like I expected, after another moment Rhydian swallowed, his throat bobbing, before he turned away from me. He didn’t ask, didn’t comment on the splotches covering my arms.
He exhaled. “You should go back to your chambers. Stay there.”
“Why?”
“It’s not safe for you to be poking about.”
“I thought you said there wasn’t anyone else here.”
Rhydian’s shoulders tensed, but he kept his back to me as he pulled aside the curtain to look at the lava rivers outside the castle.
“Trust me when I say there doesn’t need to be anyone else. Besides, it’s not anyone you should be worried about.”
“What do you mean?”
Rhydian turned to face me, and for once, he looked like he was actually going to give me a straight answer, but then his eyes shuttered, and his mouth pressed into a thin line before he shook his head.
“Go back to your chambers.”
“And if I say no?”
I swear the gold rings around his eyes dimmed as he glared at me.
“Are you always this insufferable in your world?”
“Are you always this insufferable in yours?” I retorted.
Rhydian’s glare held mine for a few seconds longer. He shifted forward, inhaling quickly, and I flinched away. I waited, wondering if he would reprimand me with his fists for talking back. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, he reared back as if I had hit him.
“Has that man so tainted your opinion of other males that you would think I could do that to you?” he said in a growl. “I won’t hurt you. I am not a coward.”
“What?” Had he somehow interpreted my feelings by my reaction? I decided to focus on the second part of what he said. “If you’re not a coward, why did you kidnap me? Why bring me here and then leave me to die alone? That sounds like what a coward would do to me.”
I swear the color drained from his cheeks before he hid it behind a scoff. He stepped toward me again, his eyes locking on mine, and I automatically pressed my back against the wall. One of his hands landed on the wall next to my head, and he leaned closer.
“Do not presume to know anything about me. I will not tell you again, Maren. Go back to your chambers. Lock yourself in and stay there.”
He could have easily grabbed my arm and dragged me back to my room, or summoned Nico to make sure I went, but he simply stepped away and turned his back to me as he stomped up the hall.
“Why should I?” I dared to call after him.
The pause in his steps only lasted a second. “Because, Maren. There are worse things than me that live in the shadows.”