Chapter twenty-two
The Siniyan warrior pulled me through the festival, past the crowds, past the buildings and fires.
We came to the edge of the celebration where Aris whistled at the warrior, who released me without hesitation.
Aris snapped his fingers, signaling him to go back to the celebration.
The warrior obeyed his command with a silent bow and continued his way with the rest of the Siniyan warriors.
Without a captor, I silently but quickly took a few steps away from them in the dark, but Aris was faster on his feet and came forward, grabbing my upper arm firmly.
He pulled me up a grassy hill through the darkness, the only light from the festival becoming smaller and smaller behind us.
What was he going to do to me? Where was he taking me? Was he going to kill me? Was he going to crush my beating heart?
Erus save me.
My heart pounded as I contemplated that this very well might be the last night I had in this world.
I couldn’t let this be my last night.
I had to fight.
My hands went cold and my legs numb.
I couldn’t feel anything past my chest while Aris hauled me with an iron grip up the grassy hill.
This was a far comparison from the last time I saw him, the last time he touched me.
Once we reached the top, nearing the edge of the woods, I attempted to yank my arm free of his icy hold.
Aris’ grip hardened, and his urgency intensified.
I dug my heels into the ground, pulled and yanked—
“Stop it, or you’ll kill yourself,”
Aris growled.
I’d rather be in control of my own destiny than have my life be given to an emperor to do with what he pleased.
My lips thinned, and I continued to fight and loosen his grasp on me.
“Where do you think you’ll go? If you go back, they’ll find you and kill you for what you did to Tobias.
And I won’t let you go alone into the woods where you’ll be hunted.”
Aris turned around to face me.
He took one look at me, and his face dropped to something I hadn’t seen before—understanding.
The column of his throat bobbed.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Solei.”
He remembered my name.
I demanded my tears to stop stinging my eyes.
I swallowed them down, down until I could breathe more clearly.
“Sit with me.”
Aris released his hold, leaving fingerprints on my upper arm.
I rubbed the pain away.
I contemplated running off but knew that would work just as well as it did last time I tried to run from Aris.
After thinking about it for a moment, I realized he had never once tried to physically hurt me.
I remembered the night of the storm as he carried me into shelter. A wave of relief passed through my body and settled in my stomach. He wasn’t going to hurt me.
Aris was right.
I had nowhere to go.
Only death stood in my way of escaping tonight.
He sat alone on the hillside with one leg propped up where he rested his arm.
Hesitantly, I joined a space near him, bringing both of my legs up to my chest.
Up on the grassy hillside, overlooking the festival, it would have been peaceful and quiet if I were alone.
I would have liked it up here.
“What happened?”
I glanced over and met his eyes.
They had grown dark and serious.
I brought my attention back to the festival.
I swallowed hard as my tongue became heavy.
I couldn’t tell him the truth.
He would know Tobias was teaching her a lesson for more information.
He would know Camilla had been deceiving him, though I wasn’t sure the extent of it.
Maybe he would cause harm to Camilla because of me, and all of this would have been for nothing. Aris would never understand what women had to go through, how we had to survive in a predatory world like this. He would punish me for what I did to Tobias, and the commotion I caused between him and Malakar.
When I didn’t answer, Aris rose from his position, walked over to me, and stood with his arms across his chest.
“Don’t make me ask again.”
His voice, low and powerful, rippled over me, and I trembled with fear of the unknown.
“Solei,”
he warned.
I gripped my hands on the rough grass from shaking.
“I-I-”
I breathed quickly.
“Just punish me like you said and let me be.”
Staring back at the festival in front of me, a burning tear rolled down my cheek, not caring if he saw or what he thought of me.
I refused to admit what happened.
It wasn’t my story to tell.
Aris scoffed.
“Your punishment is you’re going to tell me what the fuck happened.”
I threw a scowl at him.
“You can’t make me tell you anything.”
The words slipped from my mouth, and I was more shocked at myself than he was, by the look on his face.
“Yes, I can.”
His eyes grew darker, and my heart fluttered in panic.
Camilla.
Think of her, I reminded myself to stay quiet.
To stay strong.
Aris stepped closer to me.
I crawled backwards to higher ground to gain more distance from him.
He reached me faster than I was able to distance myself, and he now stood right above me.
“O-okay, okay.
I’ll tell you.”
I retreated from his touch.
My arm still felt his phantom hand on my arm.
Aris lowered himself beside me, crouching in case I changed my mind.
His brows lifted.
“I’m waiting.”
Impatient brat.
“Tobias, he—”
I swallowed hard.
“He was hurting someone.”
“What did he do?”
Don’t! my mind screamed in my head.
Aris leaned forward.
“He—he forced himself…”
I couldn’t finish, my breathing turning heavy and more rapid.
I wiped my clammy hands on the cool grass beside me.
He seemed to realize what I meant. “On who?”
“A woman.”
My eyes blurred in the moonlight as I stared at Aris.
“Who?”
Aris demanded, and I flinched.
Don’t tell him.
Don’t tell him.
“Who did he force himself on?”
I squeezed my eyes, afraid of his reaction.
I dragged my fingers through the dirt and grass.
“Camilla.”
There was a moment of silence.
“This is all my fault,”
Aris whispered.
My eyes flung open, and I snapped my head at Aris, who shook his.
“She asked to go to the festival with me, and I refused her,”
he explained with closed eyes.
“Now, I know why.
She was afraid of Tobias.
She must have had a feeling.”
His brows furrowed, and a few moments went by seemingly deep in thought.
“Wait.”
His eyes locked with mine, and my heart stopped.
“He said he was teaching someone—Camilla, a lesson.”
I looked back down at the festival, hoping he wouldn’t ask me.
“What lesson?”
“How would I know?”
“What do you know?”
Aris crawled above me, and my upper body fell to the ground at his sudden movement.
I was trapped under him.
“Tell me what you know.”
“I don’t—”
I shook my head and couldn’t finish my thought.
“You do.”
His face was too close and too powerful.
I closed my eyes to hide the tears that wanted to be released.
Don’t let him see how weak you are.
Tobias wanted information from Camilla, just like how Aris now wanted information from me.
My body trembled under his scrutiny.
“Solei, I’m not going to hurt you.
Just tell me what you know.
I need to know.”
He read my mind.
I opened my wet eyes, looked into his, and took a few more moments to absorb what he said.
“I think Tobias has something on Camilla,”
I admitted.
“What?”
Even though what I saw earlier frightened me to my core, I felt that perhaps Aris didn’t intend anything wrong or bad.
Maybe he wanted to help Camilla, not hurt her.
“I—I’m not sure.
I think he was using her to get to you—maybe for some information,”
I whispered reluctantly.
Aris shook his head in frustration, his body and face still above mine.
“I should have been there.”
“You’re not mad at me for what I did?”
I blurted.
“Why would I be mad at you?”
He lowered his brows.
“I’m frustrated you don’t answer when I ask a question, but I’m not mad at you for what you did.
In fact, I wish you had finished him off.
Tobias has always been a thorn in my side.
But at least I’ll have the satisfaction of ending his life, and for good reason.”
My lips parted.
His hand reached for my face and softly brushed the excess blood that leaked from my cheek with his thumb.
I froze, barely breathing.
His hand was warm and gentle, leaving the rest of my body tingling under his touch.
My chest almost touched his. He could crush me—hurt me if he wanted to, and there wouldn’t be much I could do to stop him.
For some reason, it didn’t quite bother me as much as I thought it should.
“How is your head feeling?”
I had to think for a moment about what he meant.
“I can barely feel anything.”
I wasn’t lying.
I couldn’t concentrate on my pain since I was sorely distracted at the moment.
“I know the feeling.”
His lips curved.
“You’ll heal fast.
Maybe use some of those herbs you sneak into your pockets.”
“I wouldn’t have needed to sneak around if—”
“Don’t even think about saying it.”
His eyes hardened.
“You’ll never understand.”
“Understand what?”
The words barely escaped my mouth.
“Understand what it’s like to be part of the Strokan Empire.
Your lands don’t belong to anything or anyone else besides Stroka.
The sooner you realize that, the better.”
My world stopped spinning.
There was an emptiness in my chest that felt heavy.
I turned my head and stared into the distant hills of dark, shadowed grass.
I thought about the little boy who’d stop me every other morning for his sweet almond and how I’d never see him again.
Where was Fenrah? Where was my brother?
“What’s on your mind right now?”
Something came over me—something I hadn’t felt in my life before.
“Did you always bore Camilla with so many questions?”
My heart pounded out of my chest.
He could kill me right now with this insult.
But instead, his perfect lips curved, and he chuckled softly.
He peered into the window of my soul.
His eyes grew a shade darker as I stared back.
“It wasn’t my questions that bored Camilla.
It was the fact that I ignored her passes, and eventually, she saw past them.
Smart girl.”
“I guess you and I have that in common,”
I whispered.
“What is that?”
“Ignoring passes.”
I was playing his game.
I couldn’t believe myself and how natural it felt to talk to this man.
The way my body and mind wanted to play with him too, in a dangerous way.
I’d just respond without thinking before I said it. That was so unusual for me.
Knowing where this could lead, I wriggled my way out, and Aris rose from his position, letting me go.
We walked down the hill with a comfortable distance between us.
“Why do you have bruised fingers?”
I nearly stumbled in my steps.
I threw a startled glance at him, but his eyes were on the festival ahead of us.
How did he notice that in the dark?
“I—I… Nothing.
It’s nothing.”
What would he do if he knew the truth? The tops of my ears burned, wondering what he would think if he knew I couldn’t stop thinking of that night in his arms, and that distraction caused me bruised fingers.
I hid my fingers by fisting them in my palm.
Aris scoffed, and I clenched my fingers tighter.
“I sincerely doubt that.”
Once we reached the bottom, he ordered a few Siniyan warriors, one of them being Kallen, to bring me to my quarters, most likely still empty from the festivities.
I was relieved and thankful it was Kallen and that he was taking me back to safety.
I wanted to be in my cot, tucked under heavy blankets, and cry.
I was ready for this night to be over.
We walked through the festival on the cobblestone streets, but Tobias caught sight of us and stomped over with a glower.
The small crowd parted for him.
My heart rate soared.
His eyes were hot with rage.
“What is she doing here? She should be dead for what she tried to do to me!”
Tobias snarled, flailing his arms around.
“Is this how you Siniyans handle women?”
Thank the gods Malakar wasn’t in sight.
“She got her punishment.
Drop it, Tobias.
If you have an issue with it, take it up with Malakar.
I don’t have time for this.”
Aris walked away and continued through the festival, Helon now by his side.
Helon’s long coat brushed the cobblestone streets ahead of me.
A Siniyan warrior put his hands on Tobias’ chest to keep him from following us, but as soon as the warrior touched Tobias, he swung his elbow across the warrior’s face.
The warrior went sprawling across the ground.
Kallen’s face paled, but he held my elbow firmly and pushed against the smothering crowd.
The Siniyan warrior shoved against Tobias, and suddenly multiple Siniyan citizens were throwing hands and elbows at the Strokan warriors near Tobias.
Fights broke out in every direction.
“Fuck.
Not again,”
Kallen grunted and hurried our steps.
Aris rushed by the fights and fought the crowd back toward Tobias.
I had seen that look on his face the first day I met him.
Darkness.
Pure, destructive rage.
Our steps stilled.
Kallen held his breath, and I realized I was doing the same.
Tobias took a step back as Aris approached him.
Aris pulled his fist back and landed it directly in Tobias’ face.
He didn’t give Tobias a chance to regain his balance and grabbed the front of his tunic and threw another fist and then an elbow in Tobias’ face.
Tobias lost his footing, stumbled on the ground, and tried to get away, but Aris was on top of him within a second.
Aris’ fist did not cease its impacts on Tobias’ face.
Blood splattered on the cobblestone street, and the fights continued nearby.
I was shoved out of Kallen’s hold for a moment, but he grabbed ahold of me again.
He pushed me out of sight of Tobias' limp body being struck over and over again.
A lightness settled in my chest, watching Tobias get what he deserved.
I just hoped Camilla was safe.
I hoped none of this escalated to something worse between Aris and his father.
I had a feeling nothing was going to be the same again after this.