Chapter 51
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
VERA
I’m roused from sleep by distant voices. Slowly, I blink my eyes open.
A large canopy with white linen curtains hangs above me. I’m on top of something soft. A mattress.
I’m in someone’s bed.
It takes a moment for my memories to catch up. I was in the dark cell for gods know long, and the last thing I remember is—
I try to sit up. My forearms burn when I lean on them. I hiss and drop back into bed.
I’m supposed to be dead.
“Miss, please,” an unfamiliar voice says.
I turn my head to find an elderly fae dressed in a sky blue tunic and pants sitting in an armchair next to my bed.
“Your body is weak,” she says. “You need to rest now.”
“Where am I?” I croak.
My throat is dry. The fae hands me a glass of water. I down it in a few gulps and sink back into my pillows.
I’m so tired.
“You’re safe,” the fae says.
I sigh. Keeping my eyes open takes too much energy. I’ll just close them for a second.
Before I know it, sleep claims me.
The sound of rhythmic humming in the distance wakes me. The room is dark, as if it’s late evening or maybe early morning.
Where am I?
A heartbeat later, the memories of the past few weeks, or maybe months, surge to the front of my mind. Slowly, I lift my arms. They’re riddled with scars. The vertical ones going from my wrists to my elbows are most prominent.
How long have I been out?
No way did the wounds heal this quickly. At least not without a mender’s help.
The faintly familiar sound of drumming continues. I frown and slowly push myself to sit up in the lush bed.
Behind the large, high, paneled window on the right wall, grey stretches as far as my eyes can see.
No way.
Swiftly, I toss the heavy blanket off myself and roll out of bed. The hardwood floors are cold under my naked feet as I pad closer to the window.
I can’t believe it. It’s…raining.
It rarely ever rains here in Ekios. I can count on my fingers how many times it happened in my lifetime.
Dread settles over me. It’s a bad sign.
“Oh, good. You’re feeling better.” The voice from behind me makes me jump.
I whirl to find that same elderly fae with golden hair standing in the entryway. She closes the door behind her and goes to sit in the armchair.
I remain by the window. “Who are you?”
“Mathilde,” she says, picking up a ball of yarn and wood needles from the nightstand.
“Where am I?”
She doesn’t even look up from her knitting. “Somewhere safe.”
I swallow.
We’re on a remote estate, not in Jaakii. Last time, I was in Reizei’s torture dungeon. If Nix had found me…she’d be here herself, not some old, strange fae.
“Where’s Reizei?”
Mathilde looks up. “Waiting for you, miss.” My fingers spasm. “You woke up right in time for dinner.”
I pinch my thigh.
I must be dreaming. Why else would Reizei torture me and then bring me here to a golden cage with a personal maid?
Maybe it’s just another form of torture.
Maybe this is another one of his games to break me.
My breathing grows quick and shallow as panic seizes me.
I failed. I should have cut deeper when I had the chance.
When Mathilde stares at me with a raised brow I realize she was speaking to me.
“What?”
“I said your clothes are in the wardrobe. You need assistance bathing?”
I blink at her. She waits for my answer. Slowly, I shake my head
“Good. Dinner’s in thirty minutes, miss.”
She gestures to the door on the left and returns to her knitting.
I force myself to go get washed up. It’s been so long since I had a proper bath.
“Don’t think of any funny business. I’ll know,” Mathilde says lightly.
I close the door behind me and lean my back against it. The copper bathtub is full of steaming water.
As quickly as my fatigued body allows, I strip naked and dive in. The first contact with the water burns, but I welcome it.
The soothing sensation of water enveloping my body makes me want to cry. It’s such a comfort. But even though I stay in the water until it grows cold, the rigid frost that’s settled in my bones doesn’t go away.
I drag myself out of the water and wrap a soft towel around me. It smells of plum blossoms. As I approach the vanity, the reflection of a stranger catches my eye.
A breath hitches in my throat.
It is a stranger looking back at me in the mirror, wearing my skin. Skin on bones. Nothing but sharp edges, and scars. With a trembling hand, I reach for my cheek where a vertical scar rests.
I didn’t even realize Reizei sliced my face.
No noble or Ezkai will want to pay a premium to feel scarred flesh under their fingertips. His words echo in my mind.
He was thorough ensuring that if I ever escaped him alive, I would never get to return to my craft. Reizei takes, and takes. Until there’s truly nothing left.
I can’t stand to look at myself in the mirror, so I turn my back to the stranger and return to the bedroom.
When I open the wardrobe, I find a couple of my suits hanging inside. I pause, frowning. Cut from sturdy cotton, three-piece suits. Just the way I like them.
Am I his personal doll now?
I pull out the black one and get dressed. Once I’m ready, Mathilde rises and goes to open the door. A familiar woman, one of my earlier handlers, the one who gave me the glass shard, enters.
At the sight of her, my muscles tense. I will the panic gripping my chest to go away. Barely.
“Maya will escort you,” Mathilde tells me.
I nod and follow my handler out the door. For a while, we walk in silence as she leads the way through a huge mansion.
“You,” I say, voice hoarse.
The woman glances at me.
“Thank you.”
She says nothing. But I know she understands.
We approach a tall double door.
Unexpectedly, she turns to me. Her voice drops to a whisper. “Just so you know, when I gave you that shard, I hoped it would free you.”
My brow furrows.
Before I can ask her what she means by that, the servants open the double door to reveal an intimate dining room with a fireplace. The dark wood table is set for dinner.
At the head of the table sits Reizei, clad in Ezkai leathers.
“Vera D’Argent, welcome to my estate,” he says without rising.
The woman closes the door behind me.
It’s only Reizei and me.
When I don’t move, he gestures for a seat on his right. “Come on now. Have a seat. You’re my guest of honor.”
What sort of twisted game is he playing here?
Only one way to find out.
So, I force my feet to move forward, even though every cell of my body screams against it. This man is the enemy.
A servant pulls back a chair for me, and the moment I sit, he drops a white cloth napkin in my lap before offering to fill my glass with plum blossom wine. I politely refuse.
Reizei watches me curiously. “Have you gotten enough rest?”
“If you think treating me nicely will change my mind and get me to speak, you’re wrong,” I say, voice low.
Reizei’s hand holding the glass of wine halts midair.
“That’s not why you’re here,” he says. “I know you won’t reveal anything. You’ve proven that.”
I blink at him, mind blank.
“I’m impressed by your resilience. By your determination, and dedication. These are rare qualities,” he says and takes a generous sip of his wine.
I stare at him, speechless.
What sort of twisted form of reverse psychology is this? My mind is running a thousand miles per hour, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t…figure him out.
“Why am I here?” I ask.
A servant brings two plates with appetizers and sets it in front of us.
“You’ve passed the test,” Reizei says and slices his grilled asparagus in half with a sharp knife.
He elegantly puts a piece in his mouth and chews before adding a little more salt to the rest.
My stomach churns. “What test?”
“Eat, Vera,” he says. “You’re malnourished.”
I glance at the table setting in front of me. A shiny fork on one side of the plate. A sharp knife on the other.
Could I kill him?
Slowly, I wrap my hand around the handle of the knife. My fingers spasm as I try to get a better grip on it.
My heart drops. Suddenly, I’m so tired I can barely sit.
“What test?” I ask again, and look up at him.
“Caligos initiation, of course.”
I jolt as if he had slapped me across the face. “What? You can’t force me into becoming a Caligos. I will not!”
Reizei sighs. “Tell me, Vera. Have you ever wondered why other Decarios aren’t able to read your emotions?”
I go utterly still.
“Or why you heal just a tiny bit faster than other fae?” Reizei raises an eyebrow.
How does he know about that?
I swallow the ball lodged in my throat. “I don’t know. I never paid much attention to it.”
“I find it hard to believe a woman like you would never wonder about these things. Would never try to find the answer to them,” he says.
I say nothing to that. He doesn’t deserve to know my reasons for things.
“Would you like to know why that is?”
“One of my sires must have been a Decarios,” I say curtly.
Reizei smirks. “Exactly. Have you ever tried to find your lineage?”
I don’t answer.
Truthfully, I never have. Once I was under Segara’s wing, I assumed a new identity, and forged my own future without looking back at the past.
Why would I look for my sires when they had paid no thought before they threw me into the streets and left me to die?
When Reizei doesn’t say anything, I ask, “Why does it matter? What do you gain from me being forced into being one of the Caligos? I’d rather die than serve you.”
For a heartbeat, Reizei remains silent. When he says the next words, my whole world tilts. “Everything. I gain an heir.”
I stare at him mutely.
No way.
I must—
He must be playing me.
I shake my head. “I am not—I don’t understand. That can’t be.”
“It can be, and it is, Vera D’Argent. Or should I say, Vera Talbot,” he says.
Something inside me recoils.
No.
He doesn’t get to—
He doesn’t get to take that, too.
My fingers curl against the table, useless, trembling.
Reizei continues calmly. “A bastard child was never supposed to become the heir, but because you ensured I lost my full-blooded heir, well…someone has to take his place.” His gaze sharpens on me. “That will be your role to play now.”