Chapter 26 Bellgrave #2
It was almost ironic.
Rion had fled what she thought was worse than death, and now her family were bargaining with their own lives to send her back to that horrible fate. Perhaps they didn’t know … or perhaps they had seen or heard or sensed something that told them this fate would be worse.
King Grigori tilted his head, his narrowed gaze sweeping Rion’s mother with disgust. “I don’t give a flying fuck about the population of the Godsguard. I want a wife for my son.”
“I can’t,” Rion whispered weakly. “Please. I … I just need more time.”
The temperature in the room dropped further. Eiko felt it against her skin beneath the silk—an unnatural chill, sharp and immediate, prickling across the back of her neck.
King Grigori’s expression smoothed, and his smile vanished, and what replaced it was so much worse. Stillness. A complete, absolute absence of humanity.
“You will go through with this wedding,” he said calmly. He removed his gloves, one finger at a time, before pulling them off entirely. His fingers and wrists were covered in thick, black patterns.
Rion released a strangled sob as a dark mass exploded through the room, a hulking shadow so big it filled the space from floor to ceiling, wall to wall, crowding them into the centre like prey, expansive wings folded over the walls to surround them.
Hide, Hymn warned her in a sudden panic. The king’s monster is about to feast.
Eiko grabbed Rion, hauling her up beneath the arms. She tried to pull her back, away from the king, but there was nowhere to go. Behind her, a dark, winged membrane shivered, tipped with obsidian claws, shadow writhing beneath the shape of the limb.
Rion’s sister made a thin, high sound and grabbed for her mother’s sleeve. Mei’s face had drained of all colour.
“What is that?” Mei whispered, horror-struck by the massive thing with a widening maw, stringy shadow-like saliva stretching and snapping between teeth as long as Eiko’s leg. The monster had eyes so dark they were only pools of glittering, ravenous malevolence.
Eiko pulled on the colours of her second sight, desperate for anything to help her, and watched in terror as sanguine, saccharine red curled like smoke through the room, consuming the shivering dove-grey colours of fear that rose from the other bodies.
It devoured them one by one, until it was overwhelming.
Until it was the only colour Eiko could see.
Greed.
“It is my monster,” the king said, with unnatural calm. “His name is Bellgrave.”
Rion’s father stumbled backward, bumping the wall.
Bellgrave shifted, those glittering, bottomless orbs crawling around the room. The air warped around him, bending the atmosphere strangely, swallowing the light inch by inch.
Eiko’s stomach lurched. Hymn recoiled so hard inside her, it felt like he was trying to claw inside her bones.
Eiko, Hymn whispered, tight and terrified. He’s going to feast.
Eiko hauled Rion the last few inches to the wall, jostling her until she stood on her own, her eyes wide and horrified, full of tears as she stared up at the monster. Eiko shoved Rion behind her, holding her steady so that she didn’t back into the creature’s wing.
The king’s gaze hardened, still staring at Rion. “You will walk out of here,” he said, still in that horrible, gentle tone. “You will walk to my son. You will smile. You will repeat your vows. You will do as you are told. And you will not defy me again. Is that understood?”
“It’s understood,” Eiko quickly intercepted, wishing he would stop staring at Rion. “We won’t defy you again,” she said fiercely, hoping it would be enough to assuage him.
“I know you won’t.” He looked at Eiko briefly, like he was seeing her for the very first time, and then he returned his attention to Rion. “Feast,” he commanded calmly.
Eiko immediately turned, clasping Rion against herself desperately, putting her back to the monster.
A terrible growl slid through the room, trembling the solid stone beneath their feet, the shadow of his massive body shifting, contracting, darting—
Rion screamed a horrible, blood-curdling sound, but Eiko felt no pain as she should have, if a monster had torn through her to get to her best friend.
She eased back just enough to see Rion’s face.
Eyes wide. Fixed on the opposite side of the room.
Bruised, cerulean grief washed from her eyes, the darker colour of raven curling from her mouth. Paralysing horror.
But there were no colours of pain.
Mei was also screaming, but the sound was torn apart on a gurgle.
Eiko released Rion and turned slowly, a disbelieving sob tearing out of her throat, her chest heaving with an overwhelming feeling of fear.
Bellgrave had struck so rapidly that only Mei’s legs remained, spat out of his gnashing maws as he turned to the three other bodies huddled in the corner.
He lurched again, and Rion’s little sister was yanked from the floor in a blur of terrifying, powerful motion.
“They’re just children!” Eiko screamed, also lurching forward, her heart cracking through the centre, pounding so rapidly and bleeding so horribly that she thought she might die simply from witnessing the monstrosity before her.
King Grigori turned, meeting her eyes. “Kneel,” he said coldly, “or this lesson continues.”
Eiko fell to her knees. Behind her, Rion collapsed.
“Please,” Eiko sobbed, as the sound of Bellgrave’s messy feasting had her hands twitching with the need to tear her ears from her head. “Please, Your Grace.”
The sound of a second set of remains being spat back onto the floor had her flinching violently, vomit threatening to rise as she kept her eyes on the floor, her position shaking and subservient.
A puddle of red crawled across the stone, congealing in the cracks, drawing nearer to King Grigori’s boots.
Rion was sobbing uncontrollably, repeating plea after plea, promising that she would obey, that she would marry the prince, that she would be perfect, that she would never question him again.
Eiko. Hymn’s despairing voice filled her head, mourning just as she did.
“You offered yourself in exchange for your daughter,” the king said conversationally, stepping around the spreading puddle of blood and moving towards Rion’s two remaining family members: her brother and her father. “Such devotion should be rewarded.”
Rion’s broken plea was swallowed up by the stone, her forehead pressed to the ground in subjugation.
Bellgrave moved. It was too fast to track, only a surge of shadow, a concussive rush of air, another body snapped up in a violent snap that rattled Eiko’s bones, sending a wave of nausea through her, forcing her fingers to curl against the stone.
“Father!” Rion screamed against the ground.
Her brother barely had time to gasp before Bellgrave struck again. A shriek ripped from his throat as he was torn upward and vanished into the monster’s yawning maw. The shadow convulsed once, twice, and then spat fragments back onto the floor with casual cruelty.
He might as well have spat them directly at Eiko for the way she flinched; the sound of body parts hitting the floor struck her like physical blows. Rion made a sound that didn’t belong to a human throat. It tore out of her in pure, animal horror.
“Do you understand now,” King Grigori’s voice was gentle again, “that I do not tolerate disobedience?”
Rion couldn’t speak. She was making sounds like her mouth was opening and closing, but she couldn’t seem to form any noise through the tears pouring down her face.
There was no choice. He could go after Ren next, or Kaito, or Ky. Eiko tore the words from her chest, each word a broken rasp.
“We understand, Your Grace.”
“Good,” he said, as the looming shadow of Bellgrave shrank back, disappearing into the king’s skin with a satisfied hiss. “Then I’d call this a productive talk.” He made a sound like he was smoothing the cuff of his sleeve. Perhaps he had pulled his gloves back on.
She watched as his boots approached her, stopping right before her bent head. “As for you,” he murmured, “I think I underestimated you.”
I underestimated you too.
Eiko’s vision grew blurry with too many tears to blink away, her throat too tight to respond, but it seemed King Grigori was finally done. He turned without waiting for her response, striding for the door. “Captain!” he barked into the hallway, slamming the door behind him as he stepped out.
Outside the room, far away and impossibly near, she could hear the swell of wedding music drifting back to them, the faintest echo of a nightmare they had yet to walk into. She couldn’t lift her head, couldn’t face the sickening viscera she knew littered the other side of the room.
Eiko. Hymn nuzzled against her cheek. You have to stand. You both have to perform. This room is about to fill with guards.
She knew he was right, but she didn’t know how to.
He won’t hesitate to strike again, Hymn warned her quietly. He’ll take Ren next. You know he will.
She dragged herself up with an immense effort and turned to Rion, helping her to her feet.
Rion barely assisted her, but she didn’t collapse once Eiko released her.
She simply stood there, paralysed, tears streaming down her face as she stared blindly at the ground.
Eiko turned her gently to face the window and then quickly fixed her dress and retrieved her veil from the floor, repinning it in place.
“Don’t move,” she muttered, ensuring her friend didn’t turn away from the window as she fixed her own gown, the sound of booted footsteps outside already drawing near.
Her heart hammered painfully, and she grabbed Rion’s shoulders, forcing her friend to face her.
“Listen to me carefully,” she whispered in a rush.
“All you have to do is copy me, okay? You just look at me and do exactly what I do. I need you to hold it together until the end of this ceremony. Just until the end. I need you to do this, Rion. Can you do this for me?”