16. Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Sixteen:
~Keida~
Drip. Drip. Drip. The venom from the fangs of a serpent rained over me.
I felt the acid burn through my flesh. Drip.
Drip. Drip. I flinched away from each drop but there was no avoiding it as the chains bit down into my flesh.
Opening my eyes was hard, heavy and crusted with blood, the pain almost equal to the acidic venom eating away at my body.
Drip… The venom stopped and I watched Melrose form before my eyes.
Holding a bowl over my head, flower petals spilling from the side, Melrose stopped the venom from touching me.
They pinned me to an altar, the serpent coiled around its base, a face with three red eyes glowing over me.
Open mouthed, the serpent primed to strike but, instead, continues to drop acidic venom over my body.
Drip. A glop of it is pushed out of Melrose’s bowl and fell onto the center of my chest. She screamed at the same time I did, arms coated in tiny burns from where she caught some of the venom splashing.
More petals trickled over my head, and I glanced past the serpent to find Cardinal Janus with a basket of wildflowers.
He looked me in the eyes, crunching up the satiny petals in one hand, then tossed them out over me like snow flurries falling from the sky.
Beware.
Something else dripped over me, a cold dollop smacking the center of my throat. I gasped. My hands raced to my neck, trying to grab at what it was that touched my flesh, only to have my hands smacked away. “Shh, shh, it’s alright. It’s me, Keida.”
I finally got my eyes open to find Melrose looming over me.
She smiled down at me, damp from a bath.
Her skin was freshly scrubbed, and hair piled on top of her head with a comb holding her wet tendrils back.
Yet one still dangled down by her face, and I felt a drop of cooled bath water fall off it and splash against my chest. The weight of my vision against my lungs lightened as she studied my face with warm, honeyed eyes.
“You had another vision.”
“How could you tell?” I rasped, letting her guide me up from the pillows.
“Papa mutters in his sleep when he’s having one too.
I wake up sometimes to hearing him hiss things at the shadows…
sometimes he screams.” Her gaze darted away as she backed away from me.
Hugging her dressing robe to her body, she stiffened a little too much for my liking.
I extended my hands without a second thought and snagged those hands from around her robe.
Her gaze rose to my face. I gingerly led her back in.
“I’m sorry, I wish I knew what to say.” I cupped her hands in one of mine so my other could brush the damp tendril of hair away from her face.
Tucking it safely behind her ear, I memorized every inch of her face once more.
How her skin was slightly red from the hot water, the crispy white outline of the dots on her ears, the curve of her lips, all of it was mine to obsess and love.
I brought her knuckles to my mouth, kissing them tenderly. “Would you like to hear it?”
“Yes,” she nodded before grimacing. “You should bathe while you speak. It’s almost breakfast time and I fear Cardinal Janus is already awake.”
“How?” I blinked rapidly.
“I can hear him humming outside,” she huffed, slipping away from me to prop open her balcony door.
Much to both our dismays, I heard the familiar sounds of my previous mentor singing to the roses and ivy vines while he did his morning stretches.
Janus loved to stand out in the courtyard of the temple and do his daily ritual of stretching loudly while singing hymns slightly off tune.
Once it was a charming quirk of his…however, it felt ominous after my vision.
“Melrose,” I exhaled heavily, suddenly devoid of all air and desperate to suck in enough to fill my husk like lungs.
She twisted back to me, closing the balcony doors behind her.
I stood, taking a part of the sheets with me.
Stumbling forward, I grabbed her by the shoulder and held her fast. “You cannot go with him to the gardens.”
The serpent was likely an allegory for a betrayal or trick, the acidic venom a reference to…I stopped dead, my heart even hesitating to beat for a moment. “You were protecting me from the venom.”
“What?” Melrose scrunched her face.
“It is me that Janus will target,” I confessed with full certainty I didn’t believe I had.
“The vision, you were shielding me from what you could, but it was still harming you, and eventually the venom would spill over and still hit me. Janus intends to go for me, and you will get hurt by trying to protect me.”
“Keida, you’re scaring me,” Melrose whimpered. I straightened, realizing how hunched over my shoulders were when I was forced to correct my spine. “Janus is my godfather. He would never…”
We lingered in that moment, silent and afraid of the truth that lingered between us.
He would and he probably will. Out of everyone, I knew Janus best. He may be her godfather, but that man raised me.
He put robes on my back and taught me to brush out my hair.
Then, as I grew, he taught me to cast, helped shape my letters, and worst of all, he was the one who put me up for the promotion within the Order.
He put me here. Goddess, please, it can’t be him.
But all I could hear was her hissed, ethereal warning. Beware.
I slipped away from Melrose, clearing my throat. “Apologies, Melrose. I did not mean to overstep. I should bathe then prepare the clerics today.”
“Of course…” She nodded, excusing herself to her boudoir to dress.
Like last night was completely forgotten, there was a strange tension between us.
I dipped into the cooling bath water while she pulled on an underdress.
Have I ruined something by accusing her godfather of meaning her harm?
Was it strange to still feel comforted when she didn’t pull on small clothes.
It was ridiculous…and yet, as I scrubbed my arms free of grime and sweat, I studied her.
Wondering if she’d come to her senses and pull them on, I reveled in the fact she didn’t.
I was enrapt with her as she took extra care to brush out her leg fur, shine her hooves, and even add little flower clips to her hair.
She pulled on a mint green dress with long bell sleeves.
It was warmer in nature, and it draped precariously over her breasts.
Then she pulled a wool cloak out and my eyes widened.
“My cloak?” I exclaimed.
She grinned from ear to ear, pivoting back to see me. Pulling it over her shoulder, she clipped the fabric into place with a simple rose brooch. She looked me dead in the eye and pulled the wool up to her nose. My troublemaker took a deep whiff of it. “Mmm, yes, I would agree.”
“You little thief,” I hissed with utter delight.
“Is it stolen if you gave it so willingly?” Melrose twisted, cutely giving me a one shoulder shrug. “I’ll be in need of a new one soon, though. This one hardly carries your scent anymore.”
My body slipped and tumbled about as I tried to climb out of the tub.
Melrose giggled, scurrying from the room with a flirty ‘see you later’ tossed over her shoulder.
I finally clambered out of the wash basin and dried my body hastily with the towel.
Okay, so maybe not ruined, but Janus is a tender spot.
Drying off sharply, I wrung out my hair and was in the middle of shaking out my wings when there was a knock at the door.
I froze behind the privacy curtain. Shit.
Eyes darting left and right, I searched for an escape.
Even if I pulled on my dirty robes, there was no escaping her room without someone seeing me.
“Your Lunarence?”
I lurched, clutching the towel to my body. The door to Melrose’s chambers swung open and Delainey poked her head in. She smiled at me, scurrying in and closing the door in quick succession. Delainey rushed to put robes on the bed, and I stared at them in bewilderment.
“Melrose said you’d come to use her wash basin as yours has a crack.” Delainey straightened, slapping at the pile of fabric on the bed. Then, Delainey winked at me.
I grumbled, rolling my eyes. “Yes well, I’ll have that tub replaced soon.”
“Of course, ma’am. Anything else I can do for you?” Delainey beamed like a cat who was fat from the kitchen’s milk supply. I stomped up to the bed, grabbing the slip for under my robes.
“No, thank you—”
“Your Lunarence, if I may speak freely?” Delainey blurted out, hands folded behind her.
I glared at her but gave her a nod. Great, so now the whole Cathedral is about to know.
There was no keeping a secret, not here.
It was good as well known. By dinner everyone would talk about how I spent the night in Melrose’s chambers.
It’s not like you tried very hard to hide it.
Delainey sucked in a breath, then exhaled it heavily as she spoke in a single breath.
“I am so very glad you two are finally acknowledging your attraction to each other.”
“What?” I barked.
“Well, we all had a running bet on how long it would be till you inevitably gave into each other. And I, for one, am glad you gave in, in a timeframe, that is fortuitous to me.” Delainey beamed, swaying happily from side to side.
Her silver hair swished behind her as she continued, like the tail of a happy puppy been given a bone.
“I mean, I am glad you two are finally together, it’s been what? Six years?”
I was speechless. Gobsmacked. Furious. Bewildered? Befuddled.
“But, Melrose is a delightful girl who has tried year after year to get your attention and I’m glad to see you’re not put off by the rumors about the Hierophant Rex.
I was worried they may drive you away from her, but he assured us that it was meant to keep unworthy suitor’s away until you built up the courage to… why are you looking at me like that?”
I raised a singular finger, turning from Delainey for a moment to pull on the slip, then the first of the two robes that made up my attire.
Once I was cinched in with a sash, I turned back around, tossing the towel viciously onto the bed.
My teeth vibrated from the fury pouring out of me.
“You mean to tell me…that the Hierophant Rex wanted me and Melrose together?”
“I am sorry, I have over-stepped—”
I raised another finger, stopping Delainey short from speaking more. No…no. No, that can’t be right. I curled my finger down into my fist that slightly rattled as I lowered it. “How long has this bet gone on?”
Delainey finally shrunk inwardly, her face twisted up in a grimace. “Five years?”
“How do you know all this? The Hierophant Rex just told you?” I sneered.
“Well…not to be insubordinate, Your Lunarence, but…” she trailed off, eyes darting away before they returned to me. “Why do you think he forces you to go out with her every Wintersdark Festival?”
My face fell. “I am there to make sure she’s safe.”
“Pfft,” Delainey sputtered before rushing to collect herself, hands to her face. “I am so sorry. I did not mean—”
“You mean to tell me that Leonardo St. Augustine has been secretly hoping that his daughter…and I…” I didn’t dare finish the thought.
Delainey laughed sheepishly, “If it helps, I think you two are really sweet together?”
I opened my mouth to maybe berate Delainey for her insolence, or maybe just yell at the top of my lungs.
I hadn’t quite decided. Only to hear voices beyond the balcony door.
I put my finger to my lips instead, shuffling up to the door.
Delainey followed me, curious as a cat as I popped the door open quietly.
We both put our ears out to the balcony.
“Ah! There she is! Bundled up nice and warm, I hope?”
“I’m pretty toasty and ready for a traipse through the garden. How about yourself?”
“Oh! Always ready for a good traipse with my goddaughter. Shall we?”
I closed the door, peeking up at Delainey. She eyed me with worry as I put my finger to my lips. We stepped away from the doors till we were past the other side of the bed. “I want you and Ramone to follow the Cardinal today.”
“What?” Delainey hissed softly.
“Our Lady Avaris bestowed a vision on me, and she warned me of Cardinal Janus. I believe he is here for ulterior motives. I would not ask this if—”
“Is this because Cardinal Janus arrived with Knight Captain Peony Bernstein? Is that why you were distrusting of the knight yesterday?”
My stomach dropped into my feet. I knew it. Fury hot enough to melt metal pumped through me, but there was no time to question Delainey. If she was going to tail Cardinal Janus, and keep Melrose in her sights, they would need to leave now.
“It is. Keep Melrose in your sights at all times,” I pushed open Melrose’s bedroom door and stormed out into the balcony within the Cathedral.
I have a knight captain to go see. “You are granted permission to go above your position as a Cleric of this Order to keep Melrose St. Augustine safe, am I understood?”
“Yes, Your Lunarence,” Delainey bowed deep at the waist, “you have my word.”