10. Nahomie
Nahomie
“Let me out!”
This was my third dawn trying to break out of the bedchambers I’d first awoken in. After Tassarion had dragged me back here and dumped me inside, he’d locked me in and didn’t return.
For his faults, the king was a benevolent captor.
Every dawn, I was provided with multiple fresh meals throughout the day.
An ornate cart would surface, covered in all sorts of delicacies and ravishing treats, enough for me to stuff myself and still have leftovers.
In some strange, twisted form of fate, every meal was always one of my favorites from back home in Edenael.
I also found a new set of delightfully lovely clothes within the armoire against the opposing wall every dawn. Gowns of velvet, lace, and silk, colored in ivory, crimson, gold, purple, and obsidian.
Like magic, every time I left the bedcloud, the pillows were fluffed; the sheets were pulled, and the bed was properly made. When it was time to rest, I found a bonnet, twigown, and fuzzy slippers awaiting me.
The window drapes would open and close by themselves.
When I entered the washroom, the pool-sized basin would fill itself with hot, bubbling water.
When I finished bathing, a warm, cozy, obsidian robe awaited me while all of my favorite hair products were laid out on the counter for me to freshen my braids.
It was perfect hospitality.
For a prison.
Though I was fed, dressed, and well-attended to by the manor, I wasn’t satisfied.
I’d been dumped in here against my will.
Each time I tried leaving, I found my doors bolted from the outside.
When I attempted to set the place on fire with blackfire, my powers were of no effect.
Saundeiah and Khaziah never returned. Obsidian hadn’t shown himself once.
And Bones was still nowhere to be found.
A pretty cage was still a cage, and I desperately ached for my freedom.
Dressed in a pretty crimson gown of velvet with beautiful gilded buttons lining the front, I once again gathered my skirts and lunged for the bedchamber doors.
I’d learned my lesson with the windows. I’d tried escaping through them once, only to be grabbed by a handful of the thorns that wrapped the exterior of the manor, and yanked back inside.
I banged into the doors, shoulders first. The doors didn’t budge. Frustrated and in pain, I pulled back, working out the kinks of the joint before I gathered the nerve to try again.
“Determined little creature.”
Tassarion’s smug voice on the other side of the doors made my nerves stand on end.
I wanted to wrap my fingers around his throat and strangle him.
“If you ask nicely, I’ll reconsider your freedom,” he said.
“My liberty isn’t up for negotiation.” I stomped a sandaled foot in frustration. “For rotting sake, let me out.”
“Fine.” A pause. Then, a low chuckle. “Only because you asked so nicely.”
I’d show him nicely, alright.
The doors creaked open, a slight wedge of space revealing the darkness of the hall beyond. Without hesitation, I shot for the gap, plunging into the hall.
Tassarion Everthorn hovered above the carpet on the other side. He was shirtless and barefoot, clothed only in black slacks. At seeing me, a grin cracked his stern, handsome face.
“Wings high, Phanti?—”
I lunged for Tassarion, blasting him head-on with blackfire.
“What in the?—”
He snarled, throwing his hands in the air to block the barrage of blackfire raining down on his head.
Blast after blast, I battered him, allowing the power to burn through his already torn body.
Engulfed in rage, I fyused, becoming the element of blackfire itself.
I lunged for his head, gripped his temples between my hands, and poured a vortex of blackfire into his mind.
Tassarion howled, twitching and thrashing, beneath my grip. I held him with unnatural strength amplified by my ethèr. I squeezed his head, directing the fire to torment his blood. To torment his bones.
“Nahomie, stop.”
Tassarion grabbed my hips, trying to wrench me away.
By sheer determination, I held on.
“That’s enough!”
Tassarion gripped my arms between his muscular hands and wrenched me away from him. He shook his head, his braids swinging left and right. Before I could turn away and fly off, he yanked me to his chest and braced me against his body.
“If I cannot inspire your admiration, Phantimèssa,” he snarled, the sound reverberating in my ears. So shaken I was by the savagery of it, I fyused back into my Seraphim skin. “I will inspire your fear.”
Then Tassarion drowned me in a flurry of souls.
Burning stars, they were everywhere.
They raged and hissed, gnashing their teeth at my temples. My arms. Down the length of my gown. The Nanmiess grabbed hold of my body, biting, scratching, and tearing at me from every side. I was utterly overwhelmed.
“Stop!” I screamed. “Get off me.”
I swung my arms, trying to throw off the souls. But it was useless.
The ephemeral beings were relentless. They held on.
Then firm hands gripped my waist, tossed me over a shoulder, and began flying with me down the hallway.
“Tassarion, release me, or I will drown this manor in fire and darkness.”
I slapped my hands onto his shoulders, trying to wriggle out of his ironclad grip. He laughed darkly, gripping me tighter.
“I don’t regret keeping you, Phantimèssa. Besides,” he spoke on, smug. “Fire and darkness,” he chuckled, flying with me firmly in his grasp. “Been there. Done that. You’re going to have to threaten worse than that if you wish to scare me, Nahomie.”
I bit my cheek to keep from spitting out something disrespectful.
“Don’t say my name like that,” I snapped.
“Like what?”
He trailed my hips with the talons of his wings, igniting a fire in my blood. As badly as I wanted to tear his eyes out, I also wanted to straddle him and see how long it would take to break him.
“I noticed you don’t like Madame.”
Another sensual brush of his talons along my waist.
“You told me to call you Nahomie. So I am.” A beat. “Nahomie.“
“Release me. Now.”
He tsked, kissing his teeth.
“Is that any way to speak to a king?”
“Forgive me, I forgot you were one. Definitely thought I was dealing with an asheating rotpot.”
Tassarion chortled. His body shook with his laughter, causing me to jiggle in his arms.
I noticed the patchwork of stitches I saw a few dawns ago was embedded deep in the folds of his skin.
Like he’d been cut open in innumerable places on his body, stitched back together, then cut open and sewn back up in the same spot.
What kind of cruelty had he been subjected to, to have earned him these kinds of scars?
“It’s rude to stare, Phantom.”
“It’s rude to hold angels hostage, Monstaru.”
The words left my mouth before I could stop them. Stars. One of these dawns I would pay a hefty price for my unbridled tongue. I jerked in his arms, trying to get free. To no avail.
“Honestly, how are you this strong?”
It took me a moment to realize we were no longer flying up in the manor, but down. For a moment, I grew nervous. Was I being taken to the dungeons? Was he going to feed me to some beast?
Was he the beast that would take my blood for drink?
Blackfire surged within me, flooding me with its familiar heat.
“You suffer from catastrophizing, don’t you?”
“You suffer from minding your own business, don’t you?”
Tassarion’s lips curled into a wolfish grin. Stars. The king was a marvel.
“You’re in my manor, pretty phantom. Which means you are my business.” He squeezed my waist. “Besides, you’re the one begging for asylum.”
That stopped me short. I quit fidgeting, using my muscles to lift myself off his shoulder so I could pull back to look him in the face.
“What do you mean I’m begging for asylum?”
He wriggled his eyebrows.
“So it’s not the asylum part you’re pricked about.” His eyes glittered like jewels. “It’s the begging.”
“I don’t beg.”
“Sure you do.” His lips twitched. “Very well, I might add. So well, my Gargorètti convinced me to spare your life andhandle you with...” He looked off in the distance as if in deep thought. “What was it he said? Oh, that’s right. Handle you with care.”
If I could knock his head off his shoulders, I would.
The king gave me a small, teasing squeeze as he continued his flight, descending level after level throughout the manor.
A flutter of whispers whipped around our ears.
His small army of souls had returned. There were everburning Nanmiess everywhere.
How did he live like this? Constantly hearing their endless chatter at all times?
They floated after the king, following him wherever he flew.
In the darkness, their pearly white, fanged teeth gleamed as they thrummed with erratic energy. I sucked in a breath at their sudden disposition. The souls started hissing. Thrashing. Violently stirring through the halls, their anger turning into an eerie howl.
“King Tassarion, I think?—”
The words died on my tongue as an enchanting, melodic hum unfurled in the air, sweeping through the hall as the king continued his uninterrupted flight.
I was mesmerized by the sound, wholly entranced with the swells and falls.
He hummed softly at first, getting louder as the rhythms of the song grew, building to its climax.
I watched in awe as a starry coil of shadow slithered between the souls.
As the shadow passed, the souls were hypnotized, calming instantly.
Tassarion’s humming turned into a song, in a language I didn’t understand.
And the souls. Everyone grew pleasant again.
As if the song had eased away the trigger of their ire.
“What did you just do?” I breathed. “Is this Soul Bending?”
I pulled back to look into the king’s face.
Instead of finding his twinkling, steel-blue gaze, I was met with two glittering black stars.
There was a thin, crimson ring around his irises.
The vibrant mahogany of his skin had dulled.
A bluish-grey hue colored beneath his eyes and his now sunken cheeks.
His grip on my waist tightened. I wheezed, desperate for air.
“Tassarion, please. You’re hurting me.”
He didn’t answer. He kept only flying.
His wings jerked, propelling him faster into the bowels of the manor.
“Please,” I cried. Stars, he was going to leave bruises. “Please let me go. Where are you taking me?”
He didn’t so much as spare me a fleeting glance. I let out a small cry, shoving against him. His strength was unparalleled. Then a deep, cruel voice that couldn’t have belonged to the king spoke.
“If you wish to leave Everthorn Manor, Phantimèssa, you and I need to strike a bargain first.