30. CHAPTER THIRTY
CHAPTER THIRTY
Astaroth
T he door creaked open, and I propelled myself off the wall with my foot where I leaned while Calista dressed. She looked at me for a moment before opening the door entirely. I nearly tripped over my feet as she stepped out, the gown parting and revealing her leg all the way up to… it disappeared when she pulled the fabric from behind her and turned to close the door, her back bared from her neck to her bottom. I wanted to reach out and run my fingers down the length of her spine and along the silken fabric encasing her waist. When she faced me, her chin dropped and so did my gaze. I had to force myself to swallow the knot in my throat. The sheer fabric did little to hide anything, yet it hid everything I wanted to see all at once. I ached to back her against the wall, slide my hand up the slit of that gown and bury my other in the messy twist atop her head. She was ravishing. I wanted her entwined with me like the ivy she resembled.
“Bobbins surprised me,” she said, running her hands over the sheer black fabric on her stomach to the sides of her green silk skirt.
I cleared the lingering knot from my throat. “She excels at that.”
Calista smiled. “Yes, she does. I can’t wait to see what she does with my other designs.”
“Neither can I.”
She glanced up at me. Her cheeks began to flush from my expression. I refused to hide my attraction from her, and hoped by doing so, it would help her feel more comfortable showing hers for me. She thought she was being coy in our room while I dressed, but I felt her gaze on me and could sense her arousal. Our room. My lips curled slightly, and she looked away. Calista would be with me every night here after. Tonight, I would take great pleasure in watching this dress slip to the floor.
The bell tolled, jolting me from my reverie and reminding me of the events in store for us. I held out the bend of my arm. She hesitated before accepting it and began to walk, her leg a pendulum of seduction as she moved. I didn’t know what appealed to my senses more, the clicking of her tall shoes echoing off the stones or the brief flashes of all her flesh. As I opened the portal to the dining hall, I came to the conclusion it was both.
The servants gawked when we entered, entranced by Calista as much as the powerful image we portrayed together. I led her to the center of the table where they set our places side by side. We would face the kitchen tapestry instead of each other so we could view the lineup as we ate. Thadeus stepped up to pull her chair out for her, but I shooed him away. In a show of solidarity, and to keep his ogling gaze from roaming up the slit of her dress, I would seat her. She gracefully sat, and I tucked her under, hiding her skin from view. He pulled my chair out for me, and I joined her.
Calista studied the small gap between us, barely large enough to keep our elbows from bumping. The servants began bringing dishes out and filling our glasses with wine.
“I’ve been meaning to ask,” she said, taking a quick sip from her goblet. “What’s up with the tree?”
I followed her gaze to the tapestry. The tree of Thistlyn. We had never determined if it fed the realm or fed on the realm… and us. It contained the most powerful magic; of that, we were certain. All our weapons and my throne were cut from its boughs.
“That is a story for another day. I would like to take you there so you can experience it firsthand.”
Her face lit up, competing with the soft glow of the candles. “It’s real?”
“Very much so. But I would like to take you somewhere else first.” Her brow furrowed. “Would you do me the honor of accompanying me tomorrow?”
Lips pursed, she turned to me. “You’re giving me the choice?”
“You always have a choice.” I took a drink to hide the thin line forming on mine.
Calista sucked in a breath to argue, but clamped her mouth shut when the servants delivered our dinner. Tiny drumsticks and vegetables filled the plates.
She frowned. “I thought he was making pizza.” I watched her out of the corner of my eye lift one up and sniff it. “Smells like chicken.”
It most definitely was the leg of a toddling ninny biter. Ziggy was determined to make her like it. He had prepared it differently and added it to many meals she had eaten thus far.
She took a nibble. “Oh, this is good!”
I stifled a laugh as she sunk her teeth into it and hummed. “What’s so funny?” she asked, sucking the juice from her fingertips. She stopped and reached for her napkin when she noticed me staring.
“Nothing.” I sipped my wine and focused on my plate. “Let’s enjoy our dinner. The lineup will begin shortly.”
A few minutes later, Mergle stepped inside the south door. Sending him a look, he waved his hand, and three goblins entered. Their wide eyes darted around and landed on us. Their limbs shook with fear when they stopped in front of us. Tall candelabras were set on the floor in front of them to highlight their features and prevent Calista from falsely accusing due to mistaken identity.
The room became deathly quiet. Everyone held their collective breath while they watched Calista. All save the poor souls in front of us. One of them whimpered. Her head leaned to the side in consideration before she shook it. The room came back to life as they rushed out the north door. The second group took their place, and the process began all over again. Then a third. Then a fourth. All with the same outcome.
Calista held a drumstick between her fingers, barely moving it as the groups came and went. Eventually she dropped it on her plate, her food forgotten. I chewed mine, the wonderful flavor diminished by her discomfort. She needed to fuel herself or she would tire long before we were done.
“You need to eat,” I mumbled from behind my goblet.
“I can’t,” she whispered. “I’m trying to focus.”
I held up my hand and Mergle halted the procession. “Eat.”
She lifted the forgotten drumstick and ate it, then raised a brow at me.
“More.”
After she ate another one and some of her vegetables, I nodded at Mergle. The next line entered. One of them kept their head down as the others looked about nervously. He barely raised his chin when he faced us. Calista leaned forward with a squint.
“Him.” She pointed, and the two innocent ones stepped back staring in disbelief at their brother. He didn’t budge, though. His guilt pinned him to the very spot.
Mergle started forward but halted when I pushed the chair back. I walked around the table and stopped in front of him.
“Your High—”
“Do not venerate me when you seek my downfall, Gulian. Our downfall!” My voice boomed, causing the others to scurry away from us. “Did you think taking the one thing I ever desired would get you what you want faster?” He shook as I towered over him. “Answer me!”
Gulian stuttered over his words as he pissed himself.
“You disgust me,” I sneered. “Who else was involved?”
He clamped his lips shut and shook his head.
“I already have Pearce, and you’re going to die regardless. Give up their names or your clan will die with you.”
Gasps filled the room. Some of his clan were in attendance to witness his treason. The others were shocked by my declaration. They would quickly learn the lengths I would go to protect Calista and our future.
With a sob, he dropped to his knees, his ratty cloth breeches soaking up the small puddle of urine beneath him.
“Tell him!” a female goblin shouted from the corner of the room. “I will not be sentenced to death for your crimes!”
Gulian sobbed as he called their names.
One by one, Jessandra tossed their wriggling, fighting bodies into the room. Each one attempted to escape, but both exits were blocked. They dragged themselves to the center of the room and cowered at my feet, glaring at Gulian and cursing his cowardliness as they spat on him.
“Silence!” I turned to Calista’s ashen face as she regarded them with sympathy. They didn’t deserve her compassion. They certainly didn’t deserve my mercy. “Are they all here?”
She gulped, the knot in her throat bobbing and refusing to go down. I approached the table, blocking her view of them. “Calista,” I whispered. “I need your answer.”
“You-you didn’t say you would kill them.” Her voice quivered when she could finally muster up her voice.
“What did you expect to occur?”
“I thought they would go to goblin jail.”
I tucked a tendril of hair behind her ear. She had always been tenderhearted, finding redemption where there was none. May she find a thread in me after this was over. “Your naivety is endearing.”
The traitors trembled as I advanced on them. My blade sung when I pulled it from its sheath. The realm’s magic pulsed in the handle as I gripped it. I tugged at the fingertips of my other glove and slipped it from my hand. Mergle approached when I held it out, and he took it from me. Approval etched the lines of his face before he retreated to his station.
“Death is less than you deserve, but a swift punishment. Tonight, you shall die twice. The first for her, the second for me.”
Calista’s gaze darted around the room at the horrified goblins as she tried to make sense of my words. They clung to one another, some burying their faces against their neighbors, unable to watch.
Gulian squirmed when I picked him up and set him on the table in front of their future queen. He pleaded for mercy when I raised the knife to his throat. I held her gaze. Her face turned as white as her knuckles gripping the arms of the chair. As much as I wanted to drag out his suffering, I couldn’t put her through it. I yanked the blade across his flesh in the same spot Pearce had marked her. Blood spurted from the wound, his tiny hands clutching at his gargling throat. Calista gasped and covered her mouth. An anguished cry tore from her as she watched the life drain from him.
Before he bled out entirely, I wrapped my ungloved hand around the gaping wound and unleashed my magic. Unhindered, it roared to the surface, propelled by the bloodlust pumping through my veins. The glow of the candles on either side of us dimmed when the vine-like shadows slipped from my fingertips.
With my mouth next to his ear, our motto spilled from my lips laced with agonizing fury. “Forever forgotten, but always remembered.”
I spoke my silent goodbyes to him as the shadows wove around his tiny form. They plunged into his chest in search of the borrowed life force they had lent him. Wrinkles formed on his skin, his body withering as my magic leached every last drop. Then the realm greedily fed, devouring Gulian’s essence until all that was left was his shriveled mummified remains.
Calista gaped when I stood the miniature statue in front of her. Its expression frozen with the last one he would make. Like a veil lifting, awareness crashed over her, and she sagged in the chair beneath its weight.
One after the other, I presented them to her, spilled their blood in retribution, and siphoned their hopes and dreams. They would never leave the labyrinth. The one place they desperately tried to escape had become their eternal nightmare. Their essence stitched with the realm as I forced it out of them and would become the fuel that kept it and us alive.
I set the final statue in front of Calista. Lined up before her, her faraway stare barely flicked in its direction. Redemption was nowhere in sight for me. The journey to claim her would be long and arduous, but one I was willing to trek. One I would slick with blood even if it were my own. I rounded the table and dropped to a knee beside her. Her chin trembled when she finally looked down at me. I presented her with my knife covered in the blood of her enemies and tapped into the stone long enough to plant a seed for her to take the gift I offered her. Hand shaking, she picked it up. A mix of terror and disgust washed over her as she held it. She dropped it on the table in front of her and snatched the blood spackled napkin from beside her plate.
Magic crackled over my skin as I stood and drew her up next to me. My arm slipped around her, pulled her flush to my front, and held her steady. Her heart pounded furiously beneath my splayed hand. I stared down my brethren, daring them to be foolish enough to test me. “For any others involved who did not act this time, know this. If even one hair is harmed on Calista’s head, you will incite a destruction upon this realm the likes of which you have only dreamed. I will not hesitate to kill you all.”