Chapter Twenty-Four #2
I schooled my features, mixing some truth to my lie.
“Up north. I was traveling through when I met Dom at a festival.” I turned to him, his amber eyes flared at my lavender gaze.
“Remember that? What an enlightening evening.” In fact, he had taken me home after I poisoned myself with Glint, but that was beside the point.
I bit my lower lip, containing my amusement.
Dom briefly flattened his gaze, appearing like he wanted to give me a good shove. “A night of dancing so memorable, I wonder if we could recreate it.” Challenge accepted.
I lingered in his stare for a heartbeat more, then addressed Oster, returning his original question, “Where are you from?”
He waved his hands in the air. “Oh here and there. Mostly Lyrae, sometimes the Mountains.”
Dom raised his eyebrows, “The Mountains? Not very hospitable.”
“What can I say? I like my space.” He eyed me once more, like I was a lock he was trying to pick.
A prickle of dread cut across my chest. Worry of Oster’s influence in both Yarit and Haluma increased my anxiety.
As a trafficker, he would need people in both realms in his pockets.
If he had Nolan’s ear, my appearance at this dinner would get back to him.
I briefly wondered about sharing my concerns with Dom. This was my mess to fix, though.
I dabbed my mouth with a silk napkin, folding it discretely.
“Pardon me, Your Majesty, but I’m not feeling well.
” She waved me off, apathetic to my plight.
I whispered to Dom, “I’ll be right back; I just need to use the bathroom.
” He eyed me warily, but acquiesced. His stare burned into the back of my neck as I retreated from the table.
A servant led me to a room removed from the festivities.
I closed the door behind me and leaned against it.
My reflection revealed my panic. I adjusted my dress, spruced my hair in the ornate mirror, and thought through my options.
Did Oster recognize me? His eyes weren’t slitted, so he couldn’t have been a dreki. Was he one of Nolan’s spies?
A knock on the door startled me. I yelled to the outside, “I’ll be out—” The door opened. Oster strode in, smugness lining his features. I tried to speak, and he held up his hand, silencing me. “Ah, ah, ah!” he chided. “You’re King Nolan’s lost bird aren’t you? Whoring with the rebellion now?”
I searched for a weapon, cursing my revealing dress and its severe lack of blades. His long fingers gripped my wrists, claws splitting my skin. I fought against his binding arms.
Tendrils of his magic warmed along my throat, encircling my chest. “Hard to scream when you have no voice. I’ll let them know you became too ill and embarrassed to return.
I’ll take you home. Your true home.” He sniffed my neck, his nose grazing a line toward my ear.
Bile rose in my throat. I could not scream even if I wanted to.
He pulled out a vial of Glint. “This should help your transition.”
I bucked against him, his magic having stolen the sound from my mouth. Clenching my eyes, I urged my skin to freeze. He jerked away, giving me just enough time to kick him in his chest and summon ice blades. The wall shook as he slammed against it. The vial clattered to the floor.
He slowly straightened. Brown eyes shifted into pits of inky black. Spikes poked through his clothes. My mouth went dry. What was he?
I propelled an ice dagger toward him. He darted to the side, the blade only nicking him. He maintained his arrogant smile as blood beaded along his jaw. “You can’t kill me. I’m too vital for the queen. You would have to add her to the list of people tracking you down.”
“Perhaps you’re right. For now,” I rasped, voice still compromised. I cuffed his wrists in burning ice. The chains wound downward from his shackles toward the floor, but Oster moved faster than my magicked links could form.
His movements blurred as he lunged at me in a potent rage. He fisted my hair and yanked it backward, forcing me to the floor.
“You should have died for what you did, but Nolan saved you, and this is how you repay him? Did you think we wouldn’t find you? You’re worthless without him.”
The Glint vial popped as he uncorked it, and I bit down a silent scream. I tried to twist out of his grip, but I couldn’t move with my head at his mercy and his spikes oozing poison.
He snarled down at me. “We have eyes and ears everywhere. An enemy to the King is as good as dead, but the Good King has unique plans for you.”
Strands of hair blew into my face as the door swung open. The doorway seemed to shrink in the shadow of Dom’s imposing form. His rings were already flying when I met his wrathful gaze.
They spun toward Oster, impaling him. Around us, copper and iron and gold began vibrating, then melting. The metals pulsed with Dom’s rage, scaling up Oster’s body in a shroud. I spun out of his grip, snagging the vial of Glint from his hand.
Retribution burned through me as I forced it down his throat. He sputtered and cursed, involuntarily swallowing its contents. His magic slipped and I regained my voice. “Let Nolan know I fight back,” I seethed.
Instead of securing his wrists with iced manacles, I cuffed his dick instead. He blanched as I tightened it. The concentration of Glint would likely knock him out, if the burning in his crotch didn’t first. I stood, wiping the wrinkles from my gown.
I turned toward Dom. “We can’t kill him. Let’s notify a guard and they can take care of it.”
Dom stood rigid beside me. I placed my hand on his shoulder feeling the power of his magic still hovering around us. My water affinity caressed ribbons of warm water along his arms.
He slowly blinked, then took hold of my hand. “Let’s go.”
We left Oster on the floor, shutting the door firmly behind us. Dom pulled me to his chest, clutching me as if I’d dissolve in his grip.
“I’m okay.”
His clenched jaw was the only response.
Dom ushered me into the shadow of the hall.
I barely kept up with him. He caged me in his arms with my back pressed against the stone wall.
“You knew. You knew who he was and you didn’t tell me.
He could have killed you.” He grabbed my hand and placed it over his heart, eyes shut in a bid to gather himself.
He flattened my fingers firmly against him as if I had the power to calm.
I could feel the erratic beat hammering in his chest. He took a shuddering breath. I kept my hand pressed against him, our breaths syncing. Slowly, his pulse steadied.
I gazed into gold-flecked eyes, my hand holding firm. His anger should have frightened me. But his eyes were kind. “You came for me,” I whispered.
He exhaled, dropping his forehead to my own. We stood there, sharing breath, a hundred words left unsaid between us.
“I’ll always come for you.” His words were a salve to my tattered edges. I realized then, in the space between breaths, that a part of me was healing. Some long-distant, forgotten piece of me felt a little stronger when I accepted his strength. And maybe my strength fortified him in return.
And that distant piece dared to believe his declaration.
He eased away from me then, raking his hands through his hair. We needed to return to the dinner. He straightened his jacket while I smoothed down my dress.
The sounds of revelry were caustic in the wake of our return.
It was too bright, too loud. The harpist had resumed playing and dessert replaced the meal.
Fluffy clouds of whipped cream dotted small tarts and pink squares of cake.
A piano and stringed instruments emerged, their accompanying musicians appearing behind them.
The music turned lively, the guests swaying in the reverie.
He led me to a small space near the harpist, where other couples already waltzed. “One dance, then we leave.”
I took his hand.
Dom towered over me, my heels adding scant height. He pulled me close; I momentarily tensed as one large hand rested open on my exposed back. The satin ribbons did little to shield me from his touch. His other hand encased one of mine.
This dance was different than the last time. At the festival, we had been strangers to each other. I saw him more clearly now, even if I still wasn’t sure I could trust him. But I was willing to try.
I may as well have floated as he led me around the marble floor.
The chandelier above us shimmered down shards of color as light flowed through the crystal prisms. The lilac gems in my gown glittered out of the corner of my eye with Dom directing my steps.
I was struck by the luminosity of his amber eyes.
He slowed our speed, the hand on my back now toying with strands of my free-flowing hair. He lowered his lips to my ear. “Are you okay?”
I shivered. My dress trailed behind me, gossamer and chiffon ghosting the polished floor. “I’m fine. I thought Oster could be a dreki with his aura. But, he was the other beast, like the ones that attacked us in the fields.”
Dom stilled. A candelabra near us melted.
I tugged on our clasped hands, spurring him back into motion. “Tame your metal, General. Oster is busy hallucinating on the floor of the women’s bathroom. And I might have put a ring of burning ice-fire around his…” I waggled my eyebrows and pointedly glanced in the body part’s direction.
Dom stuttered before throwing his head back in unbridled laughter. His delight at my disclosure coaxed a true smile from my own lips. The sound of his laugh washed over me like the relaxing warmth of the sun. We resumed our fluid steps and I tentatively rested my cheek on his chest.
“I’m sorry, I should have armed you.” The hand at my back tugged me closer. He spoke into my hair, “I’ll kill him.”
“You will not.” I lifted my face to his, my tone firm. “It’s taken care of, but we shouldn’t stay much longer.” He nodded in reluctant agreement, the song nearing its end. His hand gently held my own despite the tension and rage tensing his broad shoulders.
“We can bid our farewells to the Queen and head back.” He lifted our clasped hands, extending me into a twirl one final time. My hair and the layers of my skirts both lifted as a laugh bubbled out of me. Dom drew me against his body as I completed the spin.
My back lay flush against his chest as his fingers trailed down my upraised arm. The deep V-shaped neckline did little to hide my breathlessness, my chest heaving in the confines of the lacy bodice.
I peered up and back, meeting his solemn stare.
The lingering melody of the song curled through the air in lazy tendrils.
The glowing topaz walls became a dreamscape background flaring the same hue as Dom’s eyes.
I could hear the distant roar of the waterfall that emptied over the ridge into the sleeping arms of the city beneath us.
A thrill of danger and a thread of peace wove around me.
The music ended and the thrall of our connection diminished into the hum of surrounding chatter. He kept my arm tucked tightly in his own, and we bowed and curtsied our good-byes, respectfully making our exit from the queen.
The coolness of the night air tamed the heat surging through me. Dom assisted me into the carriage, lifting my gown enough so my shoes didn’t snag.
Alone in the carriage, I released a full breath. Dom’s large body stole the majority of the space, as if he commanded both our transport and the air I breathed. He waited patiently for me to gather my thoughts, studying me.
“I can see there’s more. Tell me.”
“Oster shape-shifted in the bathroom, not completely into one of those creatures, but enough to identify him as one. He planned to take me back to Nolan. In the dining room, I could see everyone’s aura but his. He was able to suppress it somehow. Until I caught him off guard, then it flared.”
“What does that mean?” Dom leaned forward. I could make out the dark fringe of his eyelashes, even in the shadowed confines of our coach.
“It flared black. Just like the drekis. Queen Avery said she didn’t want to align any more with Nolan than she already had.
I wonder why she’s allowing it all.” I turned, locking eyes with Dom; “He must have had an illusion spell or something. It would make sense if he was under one, it’s the only thing that could have also hidden his aura. ”
Dom leaned back, contemplating. He drummed his fingers on his knees. “You’re not safe,” he blurted.
“I’ve never been safe.” The metal vines in the carriage writhed, morphing into jagged edges and menacing points.
“I’ll do whatever it takes to keep you protected. And I’ll keep my end of the bargain and get you out of the realms.” His rings glowed in the darkened carriage, highlighting the strain of his clenched fists.
I didn’t need his protection. But some small part of me lapped up the vision of the towering force in front of me and the threat he posed at the suggestion of my suffering.
Even if I knew deep down it related directly to our agreement and his need of my magic.
We were both using the other. I could stop pretending we weren’t when the night was over.
“You’re just saying that because I’m wearing this amazing gown,” I chirped. My half-hearted smile barely cut through the intensity of his stare.
The scowling face of the formidable general stared back at me. “I am not a man of idle words. I would never speak lightly of your well-being,” he replied.
Our carriage came to a stop. The rebel city of Aphellion appeared in our loosely curtained windows. “Get some rest. We’ll leave for the Nereid Realm tomorrow,” he commanded.
We exited the carriage, a slightly softer air having settled between us.
I watched as he receded into the darkness.