Chapter 7 #2
Someone handed him a metal cup of water. He brought it to me with caution. I drank slowly while locking eyes with him. His attention dropped to the pulse of my throat with each emphatically large gulp. My hooded black cloak left hardly any skin exposed, but he stared anyway.
“Refreshing. Thank you.” With a sweet smile, I handed him the cup. “I pray Commander Winterton is half as generous as you are.”
Scarlet flushed his pale cheeks as if he didn’t realize his eyes had wandered.
Months ago, roving gazes and licentious stares from strangers had made my stomach churn in the most unpleasant way. Months ago, I hadn’t known how to defend myself against predators. Now, I dared them to try me .
Maybe I’d grown arrogant, but there were worse things than being the object of someone’s desire. Like being tortured by shadows so unnatural and evil they offended the gods by simply existing. Like betrayal and heartbreak. Like not knowing who I was.
I retreated to the back of my cell and sat cross-legged. I ate when they fed me and tried to make each set of guards as antsy as possible while Shera kept me company in my head.
Twelve hours later, the moon was a luminescent orb in the pitch-dark sky. They dragged me to the center of the cellblock and shoved me to my knees, then bound my wrists and ankles with rope.
The first male guard I took down on my way in here—one of the Sharpe brothers—held a cup to my parched lips. I vigilantly followed him with my eyes, though with my hands tied behind my back there wasn’t much I could do besides wield power I didn’t want them to see.
When I was finished drinking, I started to thank him, only to have the rest of the water tossed in my face. I blinked the cold droplets out of my eyes to find him staring down at me. His sneer faded when the door to the cellblock opened and the other soldiers parted to make a path.
It didn’t take a scholar to figure out who was about to walk through that door.
Blood rushed into my ears. Fire pooled in my cheeks. If I had never met Gavin Smyth, the sight of Elias Winterton might have been enough to make me forgive Simeon and Elowen for keeping me ignorant and locked up in Warrich.
He was breathtaking, with a clean-shaven jawline that could cut diamonds.
Almost as tall as Gavin and ripped with lean muscle, he was intimidating but unscarred.
Beguiling, but approachable. Gemma had been right.
Running your hands through the sensual waves of that thick bronze hair would be something.
Gods, he really was beautiful.
His fighters bowed their heads respectfully, but I wouldn’t cower. Not to anyone. Especially him.
Entrancing eyes of blue-gray studied me. Alluring, but chilling, like ocean mist.
“So.” Elias stepped closer. His approach made my heart dash and tumble. “You’re the one giving us trouble.” His smooth voice sent a slight shiver rippling through me. “Fera, you said?” He glanced at his captain, who nodded once, then gave me a knee-weakening smirk. “Fiery half-pint, aren’t you?”
I smiled and shrugged. His eyes narrowed.
“I’ve had a very long day, Fera .” The name rolled off his tongue like a curse. He did look worn down and tired. “And I return to hear that three of my fighters have been incapacitated by a pesky little snake.” His amused grin faded. “That was a mistake.”
“They struck first. I was just trying to make it to the front door so I could introduce myself.”
“No.” He shook his finger at me. “ You , a mysterious individual—an Insidion, for all we know—approached a fortress patrolled by guards defending against Molochai’s growing threat.
They apprehended you. Understandable.” He paused.
“But you didn’t kill any of my people, and you apparently could have, so you’re going to tell me why you’re here and who helped you. ”
I returned his smirk. “No one helped me.”
He laughed, the sound loose and silky. “Try again.”
I cocked my head. This man was really starting to piss me off. “I don’t think I will.”
His soldiers shifted where they stood. A few pairs of eyes shot wide. Elias’s smile soured into a derisive sneer. “Quite the nerve you have,” he muttered, voice low. “One word from me, and my soldiers will have your throat slit.”
I rolled my eyes. And one reach inside my wheel of power and I could burn them all alive, but I’d save that lesson for another day.
“I’m sure they will, but let’s not waste our breath on pleasantries.
You asked me why I’m here,” I continued.
He arched his brow, encouraging me to continue.
I couldn’t tell him that I wanted to find out what kind of man he was, and I couldn’t tell him I wanted to win them over as me , without a crown.
Instead, I said, “I want to prove I’m worthy of fighting for us against Molochai.”
Elias stepped forward. “ Us? ”
“Yes.” I lifted my chin. “Those who have lost .”
He bent at the waist, drawing closer, and my instinct begged me to retreat. As he spoke, his alluring voice touched my skin like a blanket I couldn’t decide was soft or prickly. “And what have you lost, Fera from Brinnea?”
Two metal rings bound together by a chain chilled the skin beneath my filthy shirt.
Unattainable memories floated behind the veil that Simeon used to cloud my mind.
A mother and father I’d never remember. A childhood that I would never be able to recall.
I couldn’t see the memories of us in another life, but I could feel them.
I had felt them since Molochai ripped out my battered heart.
I reached for him , for the warmth, the safety, the strength, the promise.
Tears seared the back of my eyelids when all I could find was his face, yearning and scarred. The face I sent away.
Gods, how I wanted to cry.
But Elias Winterton hadn’t earned the right to see my tears.
“I have lost,” I spoke slowly, “more than you can possibly imagine.”
The commander stood tall, brow lifted in quick surprise.
He rubbed his flawlessly crafted jaw and studied me.
“Hmm.” He jerked a nod to his soldiers. “Untie her. We aren’t barbarians.
” They released me with one swift cut through my binds.
Elias’s eyes glinted with curiosity as he watched me rub at my wrists.
“Lock her up until I decide what to do with her.”
No. He wouldn’t decide a damn thing for me.
“Is that what you do with women you wish to control, Commander?” I called out. He stopped in his tracks. “Lock them up until you’re ready for them? Like your queen ?”
He turned, and I saw the regret, exhaustion, and despair in his gray-blue eyes.
I felt sad for him, but more angry . At Simeon.
At Elowen. At him . Though I was grateful it hadn’t been Elias who’d shown up that day, I knew it might have been easier on my heart had I never met Gavin Smyth in this life.
The bliss of ignorance would have been painless compared to how I ached with every thought of him.
I didn’t have much more time to think about it. Elias was so quick that I never saw the blow coming.
The commander’s backhand on my cheek sent me to the ground where gravel sliced my palms and a piercing ring deafened my ears. It took the taste of copper on my tongue and the sharp throb of my cheekbone to overcome the initial shock.
“You know nothing of my queen,” he snarled down at me, his eyes poisoned with hatred and mourning. “Disrespect her again, and your blood will paint the walls of this fortress.”
Vengeful, unyielding rage heated my blood to temperatures so unnatural I had to shove the flames of Helios back into my wheel and deadbolt the temple door.
I smiled up at him through the blood dripping down my chin. Maybe I shouldn’t have talked back to the desperate commander of a queen-less army, but Elias Winterton had just struck his queen, and he didn’t even know it.
I was going to find out exactly who he was when he thought she wasn’t watching.