Chapter Six #4
He swept out the door, slamming it in both our faces.
Aeris smiled at my pinched, wane face. “No matter. Lunch is ready on the terrace, Lady Ana, and you’ll find it a treat. We made all your favorites.”
“How do you know my favorites?” I muttered distractedly. I rubbed my thigh, and the rune hiding beneath the cloth.
“Our spies.”
How casually she spoke of the people who’d be executed the minute King Salman learned of their existence.
“Ooh, how pretty.” Aeris drifted off my face, making me turn my head. “Did our lord give that to you? I worried you both weren’t getting along. Happy I was wrong.”
I didn’t know what she was talking about, until I remembered the starflower. I snatched it, threw it on the floor, and ground it to paste.
“Or not,” she mumbled. “This way, my—”
“What’s the range on these runes?” I burst out. “How far from him can I be before it punishes me?”
“What? Oh, Meya, no.” Taking my hand, she led me out much more gently than Shadowsoul. “It’s not like that. You can’t read runes, but I can. Yours are very clear in that you need to participate in the ruling of the kingdom. Lunch is hardly such.
“You’re free to wander as far from our lord as you wish when—”
I broke free, racing to the doors that let the villagers in. Throwing myself against them, they pushed right back—zinging pain up my shoulder.
Locked.
“My lady? Queen Ana!”
I tore off back the way I came. Aeris made a grab for me, and I whipped off my shawl and tossed it over her head.
“Awk!” she squawked, flailing under the fabric.
Sorry, Aeris. You’re nice, but I did learn from my previous escape attempts. If I can’t climb higher or run faster, I have to be smarter.
I ran into the throne room and out through the other door, taking the steps two at a time. I came out into a gilded hallway. Two bird faeriken with bright blue plumage came down the hall in uniforms and swords on their hips.
Oh, no.
They lit on me.
“Good morning, Lady Ana,” one said. “What are—?”
“Ahh!” I blared. Wildly waving my hands and head, I charged them—screeching my lungs out.
“What the fuck!?”
They sprung apart and out of the way, one of them colliding with the wall.
I hoofed it past them, gaining speed. It wasn’t pretty, but one thing I learned after years of dodging torment was that people ran in the other direction of crazy.
Rounding a corner, I found myself in the grand hall, and oh, Meya, was it.
A grand staircase led to halls and rooms unknown. Torches burned in golden holders, chasing away chill and darkness. Over a dozen stands lined the walls, each weighted down with an expensive bust, painted vase, breathtaking jewelry, and riches I’d only dreamt of.
Directly beside me, smirking down at me even then, was a large, silver statue of Alisdair.
I looked at him, then kept looking—fixed on something just above his shoulder.
A window.
If I could climb up him and get to that window, I’d make it outside, then on to the village. I knew exactly what I needed, and who. I just had to get to them and set my plan into motion before I had six feet worth of fangs and evil chasing me down.
“Okay, okay,” I breathed, rolling my neck.
This was a soft, dewy body that didn’t do much—any—climbing. I was already wheezing harder than I should’ve been after my sprint through the halls. This wouldn’t be as easy as if I was my true self.
If I was my true self, I’d be home with Mama and my faywens. Home, I thought as the pain of missing them settled into my bones. I’m going home.
Backing up, I sent a prayer to Meya, then jumped.
The ever-present sword on his hip was a fixture of his statue too. I grabbed hold of the sheath, vaulted up, slipped, and—
“Ugh.” I crashed flat on my back. “Don’t give up,” I rasped. “You can’t give up.”
I repeated that over and over, eventually getting back on my feet. I jumped and grabbed the scabbard again.
Left, right, left, right. I monkey-climbed up the weapon to his elbow. Reaching for it, my fingers closed on—
“Ahh!” Down I went, landing hard on my ankle. Pain lanced through my leg, ripping a hiss through my teeth.
I forced it down and tried again.
Each try taught me the limits of my new, unwanted body. Scampering up the formed folds in his robe, I slapped my arms around Shadowsoul’s neck, heaving myself up.
My legs took my arms’ place. Hanging on tight, that smart, smirking mouth pressed against my rib cage while I considered my new problem.
I’m sure I can get onto that ledge from his shoulder, but how will I open the window once I do. I chewed my lip, craning to see a latch. Maybe if I—
“Far be it for me to question how my lady and my lord get off—”
I jerked, nearly falling off Shadowsoul to my death.
“—but isn’t it more satisfying when that’s done by the real version?” Bradach blinked at me, his head cocked at an unnatural angle.
“Shh.” I flapped a hand. “Keep your voice down. Someone will hear you.”
“I understand. You want privacy.” He clapped his hands over his face. “I’ll close my eyes.”
“Don’t do that,” I whisper-screamed. “There’s nothing to close your eyes to. What are you even doing here?”
“Many, many people told me our new queen has gone mad.” He arched a brow. “They were right.”
Why in the hell did I ever think I liked this guy?
“I’ve not gone mad. I just—” A thought occurred to me. “Bradach, you and Aeris, has that happened yet?”
His wings flashed out. I couldn’t be sure, but I guessed that was a sign of agitation. “I’m sure I don’t know what you mean, my lady.”
“So that’s a no,” I replied. “How about this? If you can sneak me out of the castle and stall Alisdair to give me an hour, maybe two hours in the village, I’ll name you my personal bodyguard.
Aeris seems to be by my side always, which means if you’re always by my side, you’ll have many chances to sweet-talk her into fertilizing her eggs.
” I smiled down at him. “What do you say?”
“Hmm. You’ll do this, and in return you ask that I help you go into the village?” He blew out a breath. “I don’t know, Lady Ana. You don’t know what you ask of me.”
“I know it’s a huge request. This castle is locked down tighter than the Crystal Palace, but I have to get out.” Pleading bled into my voice. “Help me. I’ll be forever in your debt.”
He tossed his head, his wings doing that nervous flutter even faster and harder. “All right, all right,” he burst out. “I will do this for you, but only because desperation is going to make you break your neck.” Bradach reached for me. “Come down. Carefully.”
“Thank you,” I cried, hope filling my chest to bursting. “Catch me.”
“What?”
I jumped off.
“Wait— No!”
Bradach shot back, leaving nothing between me and the stone.
“Ahhh—!” I hit the floor and bounced, flopping up and down like I was on a gray mattress.
I goggled at him as he closed his lapel, flashing a glance of the coudarian crystal inside. “What was that!”
“Forgive me,” he said, sounding genuinely sorry. “But I can’t touch you, my queen. It’s not worth my life.”
“What the fuck are you talking about!” Fear had a grip on my tongue, and my throat. My breaths tried and failed to leave a constricted airway.
“Surely you’ve noticed the smell.”
“Smell?” I got to my feet. “So it’s true, I do smell. Smell so badly you think you’ll die from getting near me. How is that possible?” I asked myself. “I don’t smell anything. Is it your faeriken senses? Do you smell things others can’t?”
“In this case, yes, if it’s true you can’t smell it too,” he admitted. “But it’s not about being faeriken. It’s because our lord marked you. Very heavily.”
“Excuse me? Marked?”
He pointed. I followed his finger down to my dress, and saw nothing.
“The small cuts on your chest.” Those sly lips found another smirk. “That’s how beings like him inject their pheromones into their mates’ bloodstream, marking them as theirs. Instead of walking around with the scent that is uniquely you, you now smell uniquely him. Even more him than he does.”
My jaw fell further with every word.
“A smell that transfers to anyone you touch, or who touches you,” Bradach went on. “Not an issue for the women, but if our lord discovers your touch on another man, he’ll kill them.” Bradach stated this with no inflection, irony, or grin. He was deadly serious. “Shall we?”
He set off, expecting me to follow. I chased after him, spitting mad.
“That cheating bastard. I can’t believe he’d do something like this without my permission.” I scoffed. “I bet it didn’t occur to him to ask permission. The man truly thinks he was paid for a pet and not a person.”
Bradach turned left, taking me down a hallway that was vaguely familiar.
“Being able to follow my scent everywhere and on everyone is a violation of his promise. I knew I couldn’t trust him,” I whispered. “But it doesn’t matter. If he can lie, deceive, and jump through every loophole, so can I.”
Bradach suddenly pulled up short. Tapping his lips with one finger, he pointed around the corner.
I looked to see and landed on four guards manning the main entrance. Quickly, I ducked back, shaking my head at him hard. We couldn’t do it. It wasn’t possible we’d get past all four of them without Alisdair finding out, and coming after me.
“Trust me,” he whispered. “Watch how I do this.”
“But—but wait,” I cried, reaching to grab him, then remembering and snapping my hand back.
That split-second hesitation and he stepped into their view, ending my chance to stop him.
Bradach was going to hurt them. All to help me, and help himself get closer to Aeris. Not even Meya herself could be more shocked that I cared about the well-being of a couple faeriken, but I did.
Less than a week ago, I was certain being in a faeriken’s presence resulted in death.
Well, I’d been in the presence of many faeriken, and they’d been nothing but kind or deferential to me.
Except for Bradach, but even he dropped everything to help me.
He was even willing to go so far as to knock out his own countrymen.