54
I finished discussing everything Amlach and I had experienced with my family by dinnertime. Before joining them at the table to answer whatever other questions they might have, I chose to go to my chambers to remove my clothes, still scented with the salt air of the Thalion Sea.
I wore a long-sleeved dress in light blue and blue shades, adorned with gold floral decorations, and fastened some gold hair clips to gather the locks on the sides of my face.
I had just grasped the door handle when I felt a sharp sensation piercing my chest like an arrow.
I froze, holding my breath.
I brought my other hand to my heart.
Amlach.
No, my family would wait. Now I had to go to him. He was the one I needed to bombard with questions. He was the one who had to explain why.
I exited my wing of the palace and stepped into one of its many grassy courtyards. Small fires flickered in tall wrought-iron braziers, casting light on the saplings and stone-and-glass benches, which had white-flowered plants climbing over their backrests.
I approached the sentry in white armor guarding the narrow archway to the palace’s other areas.
The elf, with short, messy raven hair and light irises, tapped her pike’s shaft against her lightweight breastplate. “Your Highness,” she greeted me.
“To what quarters was the King of Men taken?” I asked her without preamble.
The blood drained from her face as her eyes widened slightly.
Initially, I believed she couldn’t respond and felt ashamed for not knowing such crucial information.
But then.
Then I understood the reason for her discomfort.
Amlach was not in the palace.
A burning fury swelled in me, and I pushed the guard aside more roughly than I meant to as I passed under the arch and left the courtyard.
I streaked across the small bridges over streams and through the forest trees, which blended seamlessly with the surrounding buildings. The grass rustled under my low shoes, and the flames of torches or braziers hissed as I moved past.
Located in the lowest section of the palace grounds and carved into the mountain, the prisons had been built by my ancestors when the first humans had arrived in the Lands of the East to imprison the most savage among them and teach them how to live peacefully with our people.
Since then, they had remained unused for thousands and thousands of years.
Until now.
Two soldiers stood at the entrance, their pikes crossed to block the passage.
“Get out of my way,” I roared as I marched in quick time. “Or I’ll do it.”
They uncrossed their spikes just before I reached them.
I descended the uneven steps carved into the ground, my elven eyesight allowing me to see clearly even in complete darkness. I moved down the corridor, where moss grew between the cracks of the rocks so damp that they dripped water.
Amlach was in the last of the five cells to my right, a miserable candle flickering to keep him company along with the insects on the walls. He had already jumped up from the mat on the stone bench leaning against the wall when I stood in front of the cell door.
“Nauriel,” was all he said, firmly yet kindly.
Keeping my eyes on him, I wrapped my hand around one of the bars and tugged with such force that dust and small pieces of stone fell from the ceiling.
“Please, let me explain,” Amlach coaxed.
I glared at him before pulling harder on the bars. The old lock burst open with a sort of explosion. Immediately, I stepped into the cell and slapped Amlach so hard that he teetered and extended his arm just in time to avoid hitting the bars with his face.
He exhaled sharply through his nostrils and shot me an irritated glance behind the hair strands that had fallen over his face. “I told you you wouldn’t look at me the same way again.”
His teasing tone only increased my anger. “You lied to me,” I said in the common tongue.
He ran the back of his fingers across his cheek—his skin was already bright red beneath his beard. “You never asked me who I was. It was you who claimed I was the commander of the men’s army. It didn’t even cross your mind that I could be their king.”
“Because each King of Men I have encountered throughout the ages has always stayed in the back and never fought directly in battle,” I retorted.
“I’m not like my predecessors.”
“No, you’re just a liar.”
Amlach stared at me with such intensity that I felt crushed by the powerful emotions colliding inside me.
Before I knew it, I reached out to uncover his ear. He immediately tried to stop me, but I grabbed his wrist to block him. In response, Amlach gripped mine with his free hand and attempted to force me to lower my arm.
But now I was stronger than him.
I held his gaze harshly until he accepted that and surrendered with an angry sigh. Then, I tucked his hair behind his ear and touched the tip, so similar to mine. My eyes started to burn, and the combination of emotion and pain tightened my throat like a noose.
“Where did you learn Elvish?” I whispered in my language.
He twisted his wrist to break free from my grip and then intertwined his fingers with mine with a movement that was both so natural and deeply significant, causing me to groan in anguish.
“My mother taught me,” he replied in his tongue.
Slowly, I trailed my nails down his jawline. “Do you speak it?”
Amlach squeezed my fingers tighter and put his other hand on my hip, pulling me a bit closer. “Not anymore. But I can still understand it well.”
I placed my hand on his chest. My fingers fisted in his robe. I couldn’t let him touch me like that, as if nothing had happened.
He had deceived me.
For days, and days, and days.
We had shared food, sweat, blood, racing breaths, wounds. We had relied on each other to stay alive. We had slept together, night after night.
And he had continued to keep his true identity from me.
His true nature.
I pushed him away with a pained whimper. “Are you as strong as we are?” I asked, looking downward.
“Just a tad stronger than a human,” he replied stiffly.
I started to step back slowly, my heart in a vice. “Are you as fast as us?”
“No.” Amlach moved forward to prevent me from putting space between us. “I just have great reflexes.”
I winced, unable to meet his gaze. “Can you see as far as we do?”
“No,” he said, getting annoyed. “But I have better vision than a human.”
My back hit the bars. “Can you—”
“ Enough,” he snarled, slamming his hands against the bars on the sides of my head with such force that I felt them tremble behind my shoulder blades. His eyes, filled with anger and torment, locked onto mine. “Enough, Nauriel.”
My face crumpled from the tears I was suppressing, and I turned my head to the side to hide my weakness from Amlach.
He pressed his forehead against my temple, his hot breath puffing against my cheek. “I’m not an elf.”
The cruelty in those words coaxed a wail from me, and I got the impression of hearing the iron of the bars squeak under his grip.
“I’m sorry,” he murmured, kissing my cheekbone. “And I’m sorry I lied to you.”
“You didn’t trust me,” I said, switching to the common tongue. I looked up at him, feeling so embittered as tears escaped my control. “You never truly trusted me.”
Instead, I stupidly had.
Furious with both of us, I pushed Amlach away and started toward the cell door.
“Nauriel, wait,” he exclaimed, seizing my arm.
That’s when I felt it.
A shock so powerful it awakened my spirit. So powerful it radiated my heart with a white light. So powerful it called my soul.
So powerful it made me understand.
I stared at Amlach, overwhelmed. “Did you feel that?”
He kept watching me for what seemed like forever, his eyes suddenly as hard as granite. “Felt what?” he finally replied, almost coldly.
The hope that had risen within me shattered into a million pieces. Why were the Spirits so cruel to me? How could they make me feel that way, only to erase everything?
Destroyed, I wrenched out Amlach’s grasp and tried to leave this damn cell again. But he grabbed the small door and slammed it shut in my face with a loud metallic bang. Trapped between his outstretched arms, I couldn’t find the courage to turn around and face him.
“What happens to me now, huh?” he hissed, his angry breath ruffling my hair. “Did I survive all the fighting they put us through only to die here, a step away from my kingdom? Are you going to execute me in front of my people?”
I spun around, feeling sick just thinking about it. “Of course not!”
“Then what, Nauriel?” He searched my gaze. “What fate does your father have in store for me?”
I didn’t know. However, I wouldn’t let him lay a finger on Amlach. I was sure of that.
“I will talk to him. Now,” I declared. “And I will fix everything. You have my word.”
Amlach exhaled heavily through his nose, briefly closing his eyes, and his expression only slightly softened. He raised one hand from the bars and ran it through my hair, sighing softly as he felt the wavy strands between his fingers.
“In case I never get another chance to touch them,” he explained. His eyes snapped to mine. “Or to touch you.” I looked at him, as if hypnotized, while he cupped my face with his large hands and leaned down to brush the tip of my nose with his. “Would you have chosen me?”
I put my palms on his chest, listening to the strong beat I now knew by heart. “Yes,” I panted, grabbing his robe to urge him to close the distance between our already parted mouths.
Amlach smiled, just an inch from my lips.
I took a shaky breath and rose on my toes to kiss him . . .
“ Nauriel!”
My mouth barely met Amlach’s before I whipped my head toward the stairs. My brother’s violent roar echoed again, now nearer.
Amlach huffed hard through his nostrils. “I’m going to kill him,” he growled, his voice so cavernous and dark that it sounded like it was coming from beyond the grave.
I glared at him out of the corner of my eye, but I still couldn’t hold back a smirk. “Everything will be fine,” I whispered.
But as my hand slid away from his, I felt the terrifying sensation of falling into darkness.