Chapter 48 Ariana
ARIANA
Iwas suspended in a strange state of alarm, waiting to feel something foreign, but it did not come. Instead, Clause tortured me with the unknown while he lazily examined my hand.
His touch was deliberate, flipping my palm up, as if memorizing every curve and line. His thumb traced my wrist once more. While I wore gloves, his touch seemed cold, though now, it was as if it burned, heat seeping into me.
Edda breathed out heavily beside me. She stared at Clause with dark, dangerous eyes.
She looked at him as if that moment was personal to her, like she knew the Sidhe King before me.
Had she wanted me to be in such a predicament?
Had she foreseen everything and guided me down that path in an attempt to eliminate me for the treacherous act against the Leader Superior I had committed?
Landin shifted his weight in his seat, and it creaked with the movement.
He had drawn his sword moments ago and nearly ended the agreement which kept us safe while we were in the Sidhe lands.
Was he in on it with Edda? The both of them did not see me as being fit for leading the Bavadrin people for what I had done to my father.
Father. I never called Fraser by that name. Not in a long time.
I looked back at my hand and the Sidhe holding it. He wanted to kill me. I knew it in my blood to have been true.
No.
The thoughts and feelings racing around my mind were not my own, at least not exactly. Clause was drawing them out, maturing small insecurities into something significant.
A smile grew on his handsome face while a frown solidified on mine.
“Please stop. I can make my own decisions without your input.” My words were spoken through clenched teeth.
Clause withdrew his hand and with it the amplified thoughts.
I failed to suppress the shudder moving through me.
Nausea brought the taste of acid to my mouth.
It was extraordinary, the impact of his touch.
Had he been able to read my thoughts? Forcing a steady breath, I tried to keep the panic from taking over.
“Very interesting,” he commented while I shook with the feeling left behind. His power had slithered around me. It glided over my skin, tightening and releasing. The sensation was revolting.
“What is?” Edda asked, sounding curious. This was the first time she spoke to the Sidhe King.
Though Clause replied to her, he kept his eyes fixed on me. “Everyone always accepts my influence as their own, for it stems from your own insecurities. No one has ever recognized it as foreign the way you just did.”
I had no response, for I still did not quite understand what had occurred. It was seamless, his influence. There was no odd feeling, nothing that let me know he was doing anything until he finally withdrew.
“She knows who she is,” Edda stated.
“Indeed, she does,” he agreed.
“What exactly did you do?” I asked when the repulsion within finally subsided enough that I did not fear hurling when my mouth opened.
Clause reached for the wine before him without looking at it. “What do you know of what I can do?” The wine swirled in the glass before he took a sip.
I glanced at Edda, unsure how best to answer, so she answered for me. “She knows you can affect others with conjuring abilities, lessening them or igniting them.”
“That doesn’t explain what just happened,” I stated, slowly regaining control of my racing heart.
“Does it not?” His gray eyes sparkled. “Is conjuring just a skill you turn on and off, or is it always there?” His smile widened when I did not answer.
“Conjurors have an attachment to the Spirit realm, drawing power from it. Once that door opens for someone, then it is forever opened. The gifts of conjuring enter, seeping through a being. It intertwines itself in your thoughts, breath, and even the beating of your heart. And I can influence another’s conjuring. ”
He watched closely for my reaction to what he shared, but didn’t receive one. I simply stared right back at him while the magnitude of the power I now sat before threatened to change the world I had come to know.
“Can you read people’s thoughts?” I asked.
He laughed, the sound echoing through the room. “Now that would be an ability to treasure, but no. I can feel calming thoughts, negative ones, passion and so on, and I can bring them forward, amplifying them. However, I do not have a way of knowing exactly what they are.”
We endured the rest of the meal with meaningless small talk. There was no substance to any of it. It was as if Clause used the first half to get all the answers he craved from me, and the rest was just to pass the time. When it was all over, I could not get away fast enough.
Unfortunately, we were forced to endure his presence longer.
Walking from his castle with us, Clause had someone fetch our horses. My muscles had grown stiff from sitting after the days of riding. I didn’t mind stretching my legs before beginning the ride home, though I could have survived without the company of the Sidhe King.
He lead us only a short distance, though our path was lined with others who appeared to have been of the Dunes Clan.
Scars intricately etched into their skin.
At least a hundred of them lined the way, with Soren at our backs.
There was no need for such a display in his own lands.
The three of us did not pose any threat. The guards were completely unnecessary.
“It’s beautiful up here, is it not?” Clause asked casually.
“The air is a bit thin,” I stated flatly.
He chuckled dryly.
“Why are those of the Dunes Clan here?” I asked as my gaze drifted to them. They stared straight ahead, ignoring us. Their bodies were marked like Soren’s.
“They wish to live here and serve me.” He walked with his hands in his pockets, utterly unconcerned by my question.
“And what if they chose not to serve you?” My feet stilled, and Clause pivoted to view me. I was not stupid. I knew some choices were not a choice at all, not if one wished to keep living.
“Why do you seem to assume it is only under malicious circumstances that they would decide to serve me?” In the darkness of the night, he appeared even more dangerous. His bone-white hair glowed with the light of the moon, and the features of his handsome face were sharper, crueler.
“I doubt that it is your winning personality that has them following your rule,” I stated, and he smiled, taking absolutely no offense to my words.
“It was clear the Lysian tonight cared very much of your opinion of her, yet you care nothing for her feelings. You do not come off as someone who cares anything for anyone but yourself. There is no reason all of these people would want to follow someone like that.”
Edda’s stiff fingers wrapped around my wrist, a silent command for me to shut my mouth.
“It is not so bad to follow someone powerful, capable of offering protection.” His gaze narrowed.
It was clear I was tiptoeing close to a sharp edge where he was concerned.
Perhaps I should have heeded Edda’s silent warning to stop, but I could not find the strength to pull in my disgust and anger any longer.
He admitted to having the Lysian princess somewhere in his lands.
He had the Dunes Clan under his command.
There were likely many others under his control, and I doubted they had much of a choice in the matter.
And the way he behaved that night, the arrogance in how he viewed the world, was repulsive, as if everything in it was his for the taking.
I forced my spine to straighten, head held high as I replied, “Fraser ruled through fear and a false sense of overwhelming power. He was a monster, and now he is dead, and the world is a better place for it.”
The surrounding air went electric with my words. Edda’s hand fell from my wrist, probably shocked by my bold statement.
Clause did not respond right away, though it was evident that I hit a nerve by the apparent frown on his face.
“Do not pretend to know me. I am not your worthless father.” His voice was even, and though he did not step towards me, the darkness in his gaze felt as though we stood toe to toe.
His power slithered around me once more, even though he had not touched me.
It glided over my skin, tightening its hold.
His cold eyes shifted to something in the distance. “Your horses have finally come.”
Turning, I saw them approaching. A child strode towards us, the reins in her hands. I got a closer look at her. Her skin was darker than a Sidhe’s, her ears slightly pointed. It was not the typical sharp Sidhe point. She was mixed blood.
My body turned cold.
“Do you have Bavadrins as slaves?” I asked, looking from the child to Clause’s unreadable face. He didn’t deny it, though he did not respond. “Are they here against their will?” I tried to keep myself from lashing out.
His lips twitched. “I don’t care to know such things, against their will or not. They work here. That is all.”
“Is there any way you would free them?” I asked, realizing I was not yet in any position to demand anything from him, but I could not simply leave without knowing what his price would have been, if he had one.
“Ariana.” Edda spoke my name in warning.
“Perhaps, I may agree to release them if you agree to something yourself.” When I did not respond, he continued, “Come stay here with me for a little while. Let me show you what it’s truly like in my lands. You may learn that it is not as terrible as you assume.”
“Like hell she will,” Landin bit out, unable to keep silent any longer.