34. Regent
REGENT
He’s lucky I didn’t break his fucking hand for getting so close to her, but the moment she cupped his face, I’ve never known such rage before.
And it didn’t go unnoticed by Sheila, which only infuriates me more.
I don’t have many vulnerabilities. There’s one they already know of, and no matter how much I deny Esther, it’s obvious she’s becoming another weakness.
I drag her through the woodland that decays, steadfast on getting her far away from that fucking bastard. Childhood friend, my ass. The few leaves on the trees crinkle and are ready to fall.
“What’s up your ass this time?” She jerks her hand out of mine.
“You.” I narrow my eyes, spinning her.
She throws her hands up in the air. “What’s fucking new. Are you in a pissy mood because you didn’t get enough beauty sleep or—”
I step into her space, pressing her back against a tree, my arm leaning above her head. “Don’t provoke me, Denva. This does not end well for you.”
“Why, are you going to sell me again?” she snaps with that venomous tongue of hers. I pinch her cheeks, all my frustration flooding to my cock. How the fuck does this woman get under my skin so easily that all I want to do is break her?
Her scent hits my sensitive nose, and I inhale it like my salvation.
This fiery woman, so delicate and innocent for what is soon to come.
And yet I want to protect her from it, because I know it doesn’t suit her in the slightest. She has the heart of a warrior.
She only needs to be trained in preparation instead of coddled.
When I sense two newcomers, I shove off the tree, adjusting my cock and clearing my throat. Two Tahil females step out of the woods, one of them holding a woven basket.
They bow, and I grow uneasy in the way Esther watches not them but me. My cock is still painfully straining because of her.
“The matriarch advised you both need to eat,” they say in unison, placing the basket on a nearby fallen log.
“Thank you. You may leave now,” I say, attempting to soften the bite in my tone. But when I look at Esther again, noticing the hollow of her cheeks, the black bags under her eyes, that frustration saps out of me. She hasn’t been the same since the repers attack, where I failed in protecting her.
What right do I have to ask for her help when I’ve ignored and shoved her away with every fiber of my being? Constantly denying a certain truth between us.
Nothing good comes from sharing secrets.
Secrets start wars.
Even gods fall from the mighty once their secrets are spilled.
She’s a weakness.
I grab the basket, place it on the ground, and sit. When she doesn’t move, I motion for her to join me with a pointed look.
“Would it hurt you to ask instead of demand?” she snips.
“I’m doing this for you. You need to eat to keep up your strength.” She arches her eyebrow, crossing her arms over her chest. My jaw jumps, and I swallow my pride. “Sit with me for breakfast, please.”
The edges of her lips shift into a smile as she finally sits across from me, cross-legged. The way she moves is stiff, and my gaze falls to her side. I understand I shouldn’t push her so soon after a heavy injury, and yet time does not work in favor of those who wait. I, of all people, know that.
“You need to eat,” I say, clearing my throat. “If you so choose.”
Esther laughs, the flutter is as unnerving as it is light, like all the weight on her shoulders lifts. I can’t help but look at her, my stomach sinking with a foreign type of glee.
A shadow forms at her throat, Grimace materializing, then scuttling around her shoulder, inspecting what brought upon her unhinged laughter.
“Well, what do we have then?” She looks through the assortment of cooked eggs, chunks of smoked meat, and fresh bread.
She grabs a piece of the meat and offers it to Grimace, who is quick to snatch it and run off to hide behind a nearby tree. Esther shakes her head after him.
She rips a piece of bread in two and offers half to me. I accept, rolling it over in my hands.
“So, why have you called me out here? I know you’re not one to woo a woman in the woods for a morning picnic.
” She places some meat and egg on the bread and takes a bite, the yolk of the egg oozing over her fingers.
I watch, mesmerized by the way her tongue licks at her fingers.
Everything about this woman fascinates me.
“We need to call a momentary truce.”
“Sounds like the truce is on your terms. I’m still simply a prisoner, am I not?”
“You’re not a prisoner,” I snarl, tearing into the bread with my teeth, not because I’m hungry, but because I have nothing else to take my irritation out on. Unless it’s this woman, and fuck do I want to punish her for that viper tongue.
“Really, so Blaze and I can leave whenever we want?”
My jaw ticks. “Preferably not with him.”
She laughs while shaking her head. “Blaze has protected me ever since I was a child, so you need to drop whatever this alpha shit is you have going on.” She gestures with her hand to all of me.
“However, I never got the chance to say thank you.” She lowers her half-eaten bread.
“Thank you for not hurting him. I know he’s an acquired taste, and for whatever reason, you two don’t get along, but he’s important to me.
So, thank you for bringing him back alive and lifting the enchantment. At the very least, I owe you for that.”
“And he’s just a childhood friend?” She slowly nods as she goes to take another bite. “And me?”
Her mismatched eyes look back up in clear surprise, mid-bite. I suddenly realize what I’ve asked and internally curse the words that fell from my mouth. What the fuck am I asking?
“I don’t know, you tell me what you think we are, if I’m not your prisoner.”
I swallow, uncomfortable by the slightest of walls I’m forced to bring down. I can’t ask for her help if I have nothing to offer in exchange. I know the laws of bartering well. And although I can’t tell her what we are, I can offer something else in exchange, to show… trust.
I fish out the Ariagem from inside my leather coat and hold it out to her.
Every part of my being is wanting to claw it back into my possession, considering how long I’ve hunted it.
I don’t want anyone else touching this. I don’t want anyone else even knowing that I have it, but for her, I am willing to surrender - a little.
“I stole this from Volmere’s private collection. I only had one chance to steal it, and I took it.”
She takes it and rolls it around in her hands, appreciating the stone.
It pulses between us, the dark threads of Felia-blessed magic swirling inside.
I wonder if she can hear the sounds of magic trapped within?
The souls that were taken because they overexerted themselves in using it, until it fell into the hands of its next master.
“What does it do?”
I carefully take it back. Not because I don’t trust her holding it, but I’m too scared that she might try to use it to return home.
I know she comes from the Kingdom of Caldom, and she’s somehow connected to the king’s death.
But she’s right about many things, one of them being I know what she is, not who.
Whatever that pull to her previous life, she might channel it and return, leaving me deserted on this land once again.
I might not be willing to tell her all my secrets, but I am willing to offer her this one.
“It’s a teleportation stone. I need it so I can escape this land that I’m bound to by magic.
I need to practice with it more, to see what its limitations are and what it’ll take from me in exchange if I use it to cross the seas.
There’s a chance that I’ll bounce back to Hemmont, but this is my only option. ”
“What do you mean you’re bound?” she asks, gentler than usual. I look at her food, silently imploring for her to continue eating.
“Fundamentally, I’m cursed and bound to this land. To lift the curse, I need three artifacts, all of which are not on this continent. This potentially is my loophole so that I can search for those items.”
“What’s the curse?” she asks with a soft tone.
I grow quiet, unable to force the truth out.
She sighs heavily and takes another bite.
“But Imogine knows?” she asks, resting her chin in her hand, her magic now pulsing with irritation.
I’ve never been attuned to someone’s emotions through their magic, but things started to change between us after the night at Cadalla Temple.
Now I sense hers as much as I might my own.
“Yes, but more out of necessity.” I pocket the Ariagem.
Grimace creeps behind the basket, not so inconspicuously despite his efforts, as his hand taps back and forth, trying to grab for something inside.
I reach for a piece of meat, throwing it into the air so he can quickly catch it and scuttle away again.
“So, why haven’t you already left?” Esther asks quietly.
Tension runs between us, my body instinctually wanting to pull her in, brand and mark her as mine. However, my hatred from being tricked by another is a reminder of what can happen again if I fall for it.
“To undo the curse, I need a powerful greer, one of each element, or an omni.” I withhold the fact that right now, my magic is naturally depleted three days before and after the full moon.
“Let me guess, it’s easier for you to attempt to befriend one instead of six?”
I laugh, the shift of it in my chest unnatural but liberating. If there’s one thing I can depend on from this denva, it’s her clever tongue.
“Despite my charming personality, I trust no one. I’ve made an enemy of King Saldom, and most are in his back pocket.”
“He doesn’t even rule this land, so how did you piss him off? What did you do, make off with one of his women or something?”
It shifts an ugly truth. “Close.” I take a moment before continuing, “His wife.”
“Oh,” she says, her eyebrows dipping. “Katarina?”