Chapter 30 #2
Tristan’s eyes are on me in an instant. “It’s a long story, but as you can see, not an impossibility. Most Dark Companions can’t do that, but is that something you’d like?”
I exhale, but my lips crook. “Who wouldn’t? Then I really would be like the chosen one.”
I don’t know if Tristan knows this trope, but for just a moment I contemplate having supernatural abilities and turning into the fantastical version of myself I imagined back in childhood.
“Chosen for… what?” he asks with his eyebrows lifted, but we’re already approaching the Lord, and only then I spot another elf next to Lord Kyran’s towering figure because he’s just that tiny despite also wearing heeled riding boots.
His hair is so blond it’s almost white, and he has the face of a porcelain doll, pink lips included. He zeroes in on me with big blue eyes, then his gaze darts behind me. “Oh my. It really is faint,” he says, and I realize he’s talking about my shadow.
“Sylvan,” Tristan says with a deep inhale. “Strange comment from someone who lost their shadow completely.”
He groans and rolls his eyes. “I am only saying what is plain to see. Is it true that you were tortured to help it grow? Did it work?”
I choke, stepping back so fast my heels tangle in the train. The bright interior darkens, music morphs into the loud crashing of waves outside, and I’m falling, falling, falling, straight into the hole in the floor, where the bloodthirsty creatures await their meal.
A strong arm scoops me up, and then I’m partially hidden under Tristan’s cape, his fingers gently combing through my hair, so fragrant with the scent of oiled leather. “He didn’t mean it, my love.”
Love?
Air dances in my throat, and I slide my arms around Tristan’s waist, savoring his warmth, because his presence is so healing I can’t stop the flood of emotion pouring through me.
Tristan kisses the top of my head. “He’s just socially inept.”
“Sylvan, what the actual fuck?” Luke hisses, and it’s such a modern and human way to put it, it grounds me back in reality.
“It is only a question in pursuit of science.” Sylvan spreads his arms. He might look harmless, but I’m wary of anyone I might meet tonight. He’s the master alchemist I exchanged letters with, so who knows what he has up his sleeve.
Lord Kyran smites him with his stormy gaze. “And what would the outcome be if that were to work? Would we torture humans until their shadows blossom? That those who we promise our souls to become our victims?”
Sylvan’s cheeks turn a bright pink, and now he avoids my gaze. “Maybe curiosity got the best of me, My Lord,” he mumbles under his breath.
“It did not ‘work’,” Tristan says through gritted teeth. “But Gloombane is dead now, and the same fate shall befall anyone else who lays their finger on my promised.”
Our small group sinks into complete silence, a dull bubble at the centre of the party, but Luke finally breaks the spell by clearing his throat.
He shakes my hand. “I’m so glad to finally meet you!
Sabine and Tristan have been raving about you.
And I hear you delivered a two-headed cow just recently? ”
Heat climbs up my cheeks, and I shrug. “It’s not a big achievement. I’ve been a vet tech in my former li—”
“You must be joking,” Luke cuts in, clearly a bit drunk on the cherin. “When I first saw the kind of cows they have here, I was ready to sneak back into our own realm!”
“He was safe at my side,” Tristan says, rubbing my shoulder as what he said before replays in my head on loop.
My love. My promised.
I look up at him, unable to hide my adoration. “A bull charged at us. It was probably just protective of the cow giving birth, but the danger was there. Tristan wrestled it into submission. It was… impressive.”
Lord Kyran laughs. “I’m surprised I’ve not heard about such a feat five times over already, Tristan.”
“Well, it wasn’t for show. It was for Nate.”
Warm bubbles of happiness go straight to my head, making the alcohol I’ve drunk already even more potent. “I didn’t know such chivalrous men still existed.”
“They do in the Nightmare Realm,” Luke supplies, and I notice him flashing Tristan a discreet wink.
Sylvan takes the opportunity to excuse himself, and soon enough it’s just the four of us discussing my experience at the Court.
The conversation moves on to Valentine’s Day as a celebration, and a love feast called Ardournalia, which is celebrated by the whole Nightmare Realm, but while I can sense Luke wants to ask me more questions, when Tristan informs me the melody played by the musicians is his favorite, I let him lead me into a dance.
When I’m with him, the nightmare of what I’ve been through fades, and I get to believe that the person I was when this journey started still exists. I can still laugh, dance, and make silly comments to Tristan.
Whenever someone new comes up to talk to us, Tristan is there to mitigate any unpleasantness and guide me. I also get to see a whole new dimension of him around others, and it reminds me of how easily he took up the challenge of beer pong, how he mingled with humans with ease.
He’s just so… fun.
After a while, we drift off to one of the tables with food where he points out which snacks are vegan, but then gets distracted when a friend challenges him to a game of balancing a snowflake made out of sugar on his nose.
They both seem very proficient at it, and I have to laugh, yelling his name in encouragement.
Tristan does win, and when he approaches me, proud as a peacock, I take the snowflake off him with my tongue.
Sweet but tart and crunchy, the thin, breakable candies might just be the nicest thing I’ve ever eaten.
As soon as I voice that opinion Tristan requests that someone delivers a whole jar of them to the Book Mausoleum, buried in powdered sugar, so they’re safe during transport.
He’s thoughtful that way, and each kind gesture he extends to me brings to mind how gently he treated me when I was frantic, scared, about to sink into another flashback of the horrors I suffered at Gloombane’s hands.
And when my heart reacts with a joyful beat that feels almost like a little bell ringing inside my chest, I have to admit to myself that I love him too.
I didn’t want to admit it, even to myself, but the way he makes me feel goes far beyond infatuation.
It’s lust, it’s admiration, it’s care, and softness, all combined with mushy feelings that don’t have a name.
For once in my life, I don’t have to beg for scraps of affection and pretend to myself I’m satisfied with mediocre dates.
And yet here I am, worried that we haven’t discussed what our future holds outside of finding a unicorn so we can break our bond.
What if that affects his feelings for me? What if the thread that ties us involves magic that made him fall for me, and when we—
“So you were a vet?” It takes me a second to register the question and realize it’s Luke.
“Vet tech,” I correct him without thinking, but I can already see his eyes glazing over. What matters to him is that I ‘heal animals’.
“The animals here are often different, like there’s this one type of mouse that feeds on moonlight.
They will come out and sit looking at the moon on bright days.
Anyway, maybe you could have a look at this one bat?
Kyran has presented me with several exotic ones, and we plan to let them out in the future, but one seems…
I don’t know. It doesn’t fly, won’t drink.
I don’t want to let him out into the wild if he’s sick. ”
My stomach sinks already, and I face Luke immediately.
“Of course. I can’t say I’ve often taken care of bats, but I’ll examine it.
” My gaze drifts to Tristan, who’s been discussing some kind of new sword steel for the past five minutes, but Luke is faster than me and calls out to him. “I’ll take him to the bat tent!”
My knight frowns, his gaze seeking mine, but when I offer him a nod, he smiles, returning to the conversation he’s having with his fellow knights. I don’t need to check to know he’ll have one eye on me anyway. I still can’t get over that he lived in my walls just to make sure I was safe.
We pass elves engaging in some love-themed game for which I can’t work out the rules.
Despite it being mixed in terms of gender, I swear I saw some lady bring a man a plate of sweets then pull out the chair for him.
I’m sure there must be a pattern to the courting, but I haven’t cracked it yet, and it doesn’t help that I’ve barely been out of the Book Mausoleum.
“I need advice,” I tell Luke as we leave the tent and head along the path between beautiful ice sculptures glistening in the moonlight. “How does romance work here?”
When he blinks, I clear my throat and continue, “As in, how do the elves establish things like… who lets someone through the door?”
Luke smirks. “Are you trying to find out if Tristan’s a top, or something? I assumed you two were way past that.”
I almost choke on the cherin. “No… I mean… maybe? Is that all it is? I just saw a woman being very chivalrous to a man.”
“Oooh. Okay. I get it.” Luke raises his hands, palms up, and he definitely seems drunk when he stumbles over the threshold to the giant tent with cages where the different bats are held.
“It’s extremely convoluted. After almost two years here, my understanding is that it’s all about power and status.
Much more so than among the servants or elves that live in villages.
It’s considered unseemly for say, a princess to let a more lowly royal court her.
It’s up to her to pursue, since that’s considered a position of power.
And it’s taboo if she doesn’t dominate in the bedroom.
” He leans to me to whisper. “It’s a load of bullshit, if you ask me, but they made these expectations for themselves, so they can live with them.
Are you asking because of something to do with Tristan? ”