CHAPTER FOUR #2
As they shuffled out the door, Vesper heavily favoured his left leg. People gawked, whispered, and some darted away like he carried some infectious plague while others marvelled at the Prince of Ellynne, reduced to this. Vesper felt their stares sink into his bones.
“What are you bloody looking at?” he spat at them. The aches, previously numbed by alcohol, returned with vengeance in violent waves. Vesper gritted his teeth against the pain and turned back to Cal. “Some guy made an obscene comment. I had to set him straight.”
“What did he say?”
Cal steered him through the crowded streets as Vesper tripped over his own boots.
Oblivious to Cal’s struggle to get him to the gate, Vesper fingered a substance on his tunic, likely a mix of his own blood and vomit from the colour.
He smeared it between his fingers before he wiped it back on his shirt.
“They were spewing some shit about Emmery. That she’s the beginning of the end. Prophetic garbage.” He snorted. “My fist shut him up pretty quick.”
Even through Cal’s emotionally stunted nature, his icy blue eyes revealed Vesper was in a shitstorm of trouble. “Did you at least use your words before you punched him?” he asked, none too gently.
“I’m not a child, Cal.” Vesper’s grin pulled at his split lip. “And when have you ever known me to talk over using my fists?”
Fuck, the world was twirling like a bloody hurricane. Vesper swallowed his nausea, but it rose again like a riotous tide.
Cal grunted as Vesper wormed like a petulant child. “Would you stop? I’m trying to help you.”
“I didn’t ask for your help,” he slurred. “You came to get me.”
“You didn’t need to ask.” As Cal smoothed his hair, his massive bicep flexed beneath his long-sleeve grey tunic. “You can’t start fights over some girl, Ves.”
He shot Cal a scowl and pulled away. “She’s not just ‘some girl’. She’s supposed to save our sorry asses from this fever, remember?”
As he limped forward on his own, he winced at the sharp pain that shot up his leg. He couldn’t remember exactly how that happened in the fight, but damn, his ankle was screaming. At least he’d gotten the last hit to the fat prick’s jaw and sent him sprawling to the ground.
After they exited through the gates, Vesper sloppily tapped his cuff and Balthasar appeared in a swirl of black mist. The spectral steed neighed and nudged Vesper’s bloodied face with his fuzzy muzzle.
He leaned his brow against Balthasar’s snout and murmured, “Hey buddy.” Then Vesper attempted to climb onto his steed.
The kicking and flailing was obscene, but he was too drunk to care.
At some point in the struggle, Cal seized Vesper’s belt and heaved him onto Balthasar in one abrupt shove.
Once he was secured, Vesper glared over his shoulder at the crowd of people who had stopped to gawk.
They scattered, but he didn’t miss the embarrassment that creased Cal’s mouth.
Cal untied his horse from a post and mounted the buckskin stallion with far more grace than Vesper ever could, at least in his inebriated state. Then the two of them set off for the long ride home.
“You have to let her go,” Cal said softly. “It’s for the best.”
His friend’s voice was gentle but his words pried open something in Vesper’s chest. Something he’d been wrestling with since he first saw Emmery that day across the gate.
“I know you don’t care for her,” he said.
He pushed his sweaty hair back. Balthasar’s jarring gait made his stomach churn.
“As we know, if anyone can hold a grudge, it’s you. ”
A muscle ticked in Cal’s jaw. “You’re not being fair. She destroyed our home. Who’s to say it wasn’t on purpose?”
“I know her. She would never hurt us. Never hurt me.”
“Look, we saw what she did at the Tree of Eternal Blood. The way it spoke to her. There’s more going on than we know. The prophecy says—”
Vesper groaned. “Bloody Hollow, not you too. She’s a good person, Cal.”
A tense silence spread between them, broken only by the clip clop of their horses’ steps, before Cal spoke again. “I didn’t say she wasn’t.”
“It was implied.” Vesper narrowed his eyes at his friend. “You were an asshole. And she saved your fucking life. Show some gratitude.”
His friend sighed. “I’m not a malevolent person. You know that. I was struggling. And it slipped through.”
“It’s still inexcusable.” Vesper battled his rising bile. “I don’t see how my relationship with Emmery, or really any of this, concerns you anyway.”
Callias’s eyes filled with rage. “Are you joking? I had to retrieve you from a bar, facedown in a pool of your own blood and vomit, practically carry you out and you got in a fight, Ves. People saw.”
“The bastard asked for it,” Vesper mumbled into Balthasar’s mane.
“I don’t care! You’ll soon be King of Ellynne. You can’t do that.”
“Well then maybe I’ll let you be king, Cal.” But he knew he didn’t want that. If Cal wanted to rule, he’d only have to return to Delmira with his tail between his legs, and his friend would rather swallow a bucket of hot coals than run back to his parents.
But as the effects of alcohol wore off, sobriety was a bitch and in turn, made Vesper one, too. “You’re so wise and noble. Look at you with all your morals and self-restraint.” He flitted his hand in the air. “If only I could be Prince Callias Linwood, a living saint.”
“Very funny.” Cal’s face didn’t even twitch. “You’re a real comedian.”
“Seriously, Cal. You gave up everything for her. And you must have urges. Don’t you ever just want to fu—”
“Watch it, Ves. I don’t care if you’re injured. I’ll push you off your horse if you don’t stop acting like an overgrown child.”
“You know what I mean. You and—”
Callias’s glare clamped Vesper’s mouth shut. Too far. That was too far.
“Say her name and I swear to the Goddess, I’ll leave you right here without your mount and you’ll walk home.” Cal’s eyes flared. “I’ll take your boots to make it a memorable trek too.”
Vesper held up his hands in surrender. “I get it. B is off limits.”
A muscle popped in Cal’s jaw. “You needn’t concern yourself with my problems. You have an abundance of your own already.”
“Look, I’m doing fine. I didn’t need you to come get me.”
“But I need you to be quiet before I leave you for dead in this forest.”
With a bloody hand, Vesper imitated zipping his mouth closed. At least the nausea ebbed and he was able to shut his eyes. Seek peace for a moment. They rode in silence until they arrived at Castle Dusk.
The setting sun cast shadows over the tall black spires. This place that used to be his safe haven was now a tomb without his family. And yet, it was the only thing that reminded him he wasn’t a total piece of shit. That he was a Merikh deep down in his bones and well, that meant something.
As they approached the courtyard, Vesper recalled the first days of spring many years ago.
He and Izzy had gone riding, the weather too enticing to pass up after the cold bite of winter.
She’d been so excited. Too excited to notice the badger that stalked the forest beyond the gates.
Her horse had planted its feet and launched her into the trees with impressive force.
He’d doubled over laughing until he saw her bloody nose and scraped face, but she only stalked back to the castle to clean the mud off her riding gear, and was out on her horse an hour later.
The memory burned the back of his throat and he swallowed the feeling down. Buried it deep in his gut.
Briar met them at the gate and shot Cal a condemning look. “What happened?”
Cal held up his hands in surrender. “I found him like that. I swear.”
“Again?” Briar exclaimed, eyeing Vesper’s bloody hands. “I just finished picking the fucking glass out.”
Vesper practically fell from Balthasar, or rather, he slid down the horse’s flank in a most unprincely manner. He lazily tapped his cuff and his steed disappeared in a wisp of black shadow.
Briar groaned. “Merciful Deimos, now look at you. Your eye too.”
The swelling had worsened on the ride back, the whole left side of his face now purple. He couldn’t be bothered to care. It would heal.
Cal dismounted his horse and led him to the stable.
“You’re spending too much time with Marlys. You’re even starting to sound like her, Bri,” Vesper said. He brushed them off. “If anyone needs me, I’ll be in my room.”
As he trudged up the steps, he glared at the stone wolves that allegedly guarded the castle.
His father always claimed they would protect him and Izzy from harm with some sort of magic.
What a load of shit that was. All the stories his father told were concocted by a man who hid the ugliness of life.
Vesper dragged his feet through the hall and up the stairs to the bathing room. Cal was right, he smelled of booze, sex, and the metallic tang of blood. Not exactly pleasant.
After he filled the tub and disrobed, he eased himself into the hot water. His wounds burned, but the pain was better than nothing. Better than the numbness.
As he sank into the bath, he fought back the thoughts and memories battling in his head. But as he shut his eyes, he fell back into the time he’d seen Izzy again.
Before Emmery yanked him back to the living world, Vesper teetered on the precipice of death in a strange place between.
And there he found Izzy curled up, weak, and alone.
At first he rubbed his eyes to convince himself it was truly her.
That this wasn’t some fucked up delusion.
But there she was: skin pale as death and her black wavy locks sprawled atop inky water.
Ripples circled her like a dark halo. She hugged her knees to her chest like if she let go she’d shatter.
Vesper called her name in a breathless plea, and only after several attempts did Izzy finally lift her head. When she sat up and turned, her violet eyes brimmed with horrors one could not reduce to words.
Izzy’s matted black curls fell into her face. “Vesper?”