25. Consequences #2
Hael looked down at me. “Nollie, King Elion is going to have men waiting at the entrance. He’ll expect us to take them, and if we do, you’re going to be dragged into this.”
“Dragged into what? What’s going to happen?”
“She’s already going to be dragged into it,” Jaxs said, exasperated.
He took a step toward us, getting too close to Hael’s dragon.
The Crepito screeched, standing on its hind legs before he backed up with his arms in the air.
“Okay, okay,” he shushed, then turned to Hael.
“You can’t drop her off in her room. It’s too late for that.
Even if you manage to, Elion’s just going to drag her back.
It won’t matter, so at least be sensible and give yourself a saving grace by doing what he wants now. ”
I looked up at his dragon, then to Hael. He was so daunting, so mesmerizing. He was positioned between two spikes running down the dragon’s spine, as if the dragon had been made for him, like he was an extension of it. Our eyes locked and I swore his looked more brown than golden right now.
“She’s not going to drop you. I promise.”
She—right. I kept forgetting his dragon was female, and that to drakins, they weren’t just another monster. On cue, the Crepito stood, outstretching her claw before gripping me in it.
I braced myself for the grab, but just as before, it was more gentle than I expected.
Jaxs cursed, but I barely heard it over the flap of wings. Then my body was lifted from the ground, wind instantly hitting my face as the cabins grew smaller and smaller the higher we rose.
I was slightly more relaxed this time compared to when I was first flown into Viven. For starters, I wasn’t as terrified of falling to my death—even though I still should be.
Just because I now had a few interactions with Hael, didn’t mean I could start trusting his dragon. They only tolerated the rider bonded to them. That was made evidently clear.
But, at least, I knew she wouldn’t drop me. For whatever reason, whatever his motives, Hael wanted me alive… for now. I just had no idea why.
Maybe he was working for Elion just like I was working for Dahes. Maybe he was trying to get a read on me and they didn’t believe I really escaped Moriann—which would all be valid because I hadn’t.
I had asked him last night if he was, but he could have been lying when he answered no. The Suns only knew I was.
I took in my surroundings as we flew over the Drakin Mountains, and I couldn’t help but gawk at how beautiful they were. Last night, I blacked out. I had no recollection of how I got into MonClem, and I wasn’t going to waste it now.
I took it all in. I saw a glimpse of a cave toward the back of the village and guessed that was the entrance to the tunnel. But we passed it before I could get a better look.
Hael’s dragon landed on the pad between the Dome and Elion’s castle too soon. He jumped down before I could stand up and was already ushering me forward.
“We have to move fast,” he said, taking the stairs two at a time.
I was trying to match his pace, and although I was used to the altitude now, I could barely keep up. “I don’t understand. What’s happening?”
Hael didn’t answer, but he glanced over his shoulder, looking at me, before his gaze drifted toward the Dome.
“Shit,” he cursed, then started making his way back down the stairs to where I was a few steps below.
“Trust me,” he said, and I didn’t have time to think about it before I felt his hand wrap around my bicep, and then I was gone.
Literally.
I couldn’t see my body.
I was invisible. And I didn’t see Hael either. I went to scream, but felt his hand wrap around my mouth before I could.
“Shhh,” he whispered. “Elion’s men are on the stairs.” Then we started walking up together. I only knew I wasn’t going transparent because I could still feel his hand around my arm.
Neither of us talked as we reached the base of the castle and started making our way through it toward my room. It wasn’t until the door closed behind us that he dropped the invisibility.
He immediately retracted his hold on me, and I staggered backward a few steps.
“What was that?” I gasped. “You just made us invisible.”
“I know.”
“You… y-you have a Token?”
He shook his head. “I told you about the Vinculum bonds last night. Aura is an air elemental.”
“Aura?”
“My dragon,” he said, but I must have still looked confused because he added. “That’s her name.”
“So your magic can make things invisible?” He mentioned shields last night and for some reason I thought beyond making the wind stronger, that was all he could do.
“Items are easier than people, but yes, it’s one of the things I can do.”
I scoffed, or laughed, I honestly wasn’t sure.
I’d never been so embarrassed about my own Token until now.
I always thought it would have been more useful to become invisible instead of what I got, and Hael could, not to mention he had a whole ass dragon.
I couldn’t comprehend how strong that made him compared to Wielders, and it was only one of the things he could do…
“Look, Nollie, I have to go. We can talk about this later—”
The door to my bedroom slammed open. We both spun to see King Elion standing in the frame flanked by multiple Wielders. Laxin and Cash were both standing behind him, the latter smirking.
“There won’t be a later,” Elion snapped, and Hael straightened.
“I was just coming to meet you—” Hael started to move, but Elion held up a hand, then turned to Cash.
“Bring the girl.”
Hael straightened, stepping slightly in front of me. “She has nothing to do with this. I took her against her—”
“Keep talking and I’ll gladly let her pay the consequences instead of you,” Elion barked.
Hael went silent.
“You were already seen by half my court, and rumors have spiraled of the two of you spending the night together.” Elion’s eyes were narrowed, and each word was clipped.
“So you will be brought in together. For now, Nollie is a spectator, since she hasn’t formally been accepted into my court.
” His gaze turned toward me, and I couldn’t breathe.
“If I decide to keep you, you will learn and abide by my rules. Is that understood?”
I nodded as I felt his gaze still honed on me.
“Words, Nollie.”
I looked up, meeting his stare. “Yes, King Elion.”
He smiled then, but it was far from warm.
“Bring them both,” he ordered.
I wasn’t sure where we were going, but I wasn’t expecting the throne room, or for it to be filled with an entire crowd.
My gut plummeted when I saw chains suspended from the ceiling.
King Elion’s hand pressed against my back as he murmured in my ear. “You will sit with me and watch.”
I was hardly breathing.
It felt too familiar.
Hael walked over to the chains, taking off his shirt and tossing it to the ground before two Wielders clamped shackles over his wrists.
My eyes roamed over his bare abdomen before landing on a necklace dangling past his chest. I couldn’t make out the engravings, but the entire thing was golden and glinted against his dark complexion.
Murmurs were ringing throughout the crowd, and I felt so many pairs of eyes on me, but I could only look at one. Hael was staring right back, and I had no idea what he was thinking or what I was about to witness.
Elion held his hand up and everyone quieted. “Arrik, care to announce your crimes?”
Hael raised his head, his chains rattling, but he didn’t say anything.
“I didn’t think so,” Elion murmured, then addressed the crowd. “I have gathered you all here this morning because Hael Arrik broke my rules.”
“Rules are meant to be obeyed,” the entire room chanted in unison, and the whole thing was hauntingly practiced, like the hypnotic words were carrying weight, pressing down on the air, and tightening my chest to the point of suffocation.
“Rules broken under the general law, first degree, pay the penalty of ten lashes.” As Elion spoke a door opened at the far end of the room, and a large man wearing a black mask slowly stalked in, dragging a whip with spikes embedded into the end.
Every inch of him was covered, even down to the leather gloves he wore, but I didn’t need to properly see him to know he was drowning in muscles, that his arms could shred bodies.
Hael didn’t react, didn’t even seem surprised, while I felt like the walls were closing in on me.
“Hael Arrik has broken two of my rules. The first, interfering with my orders to train Nollie.” He gestured toward the man in the mask.
Elion barely finished saying my name when the spiked whip raised above his head before it came crashing down against his back.
I staggered backward like I was the one hit as the sound of it whooshed through the air. The next second, bones crunched as splatters of blood shot around Hael, but the whip was stuck, the spikes embedded into his spine.
Another heartbeat and the man jerked the whip, yanking it from Hael’s back as more blood poured onto the ground. Hael cursed, his body bending forward slightly, sagging against the chains.
Each time the whip flayed his back, my own feet staggered backward as if I could feel the bite in my own skin as it carved into his. My stomach heaved, bile threatening to rise, but the crowd didn’t flinch. They drank it in how I imagined they would one of the Vivenian plays.
Entertainment.
It wasn’t until the tenth strike flayed more skin and cracked bones that I thought it was finally over.
King Elion looked back at me, then flicked two fingers as two men pushed at my back, forcing me forward again.
“The second rule broken,” Elion paused, letting a silence fill the room. “Taking a Wielder into MonClem.”
Gasps rang out among the crowd.
The masked-man raised the whip again, and I froze.