Chapter 40 - Faolan #2
They both looked at me as if they were fearful of losing me from the decision alone. I had no doubt I was putting myself in the path of danger, but if there was a chance to be near her, I would take it. We were too far gone for my ludicrous notions of freedom to ever work out.
Nyx and Jaxus began discussing plans, and I wanted to throw myself off the tallest tower. The weight of the risk this also posed to Caly began to set in. By staying, I was willingly angering her betrothed, and that might drive him to keep her from me. Would I ever see her again?
An intense need to reach her burned through me like a wildfire, and I allowed myself to finally reach out to her.
“Are you okay?” I asked, hoping our bond would reach across the palace.
“Yes.” Her word was clipped. “Are you?”
“I’m fine. I’m talking to Nyx about how to explain my presence to the King.”
“What?” she asked carefully.
“We didn’t think through explaining you showing up with a dragon. Now I’ve been seen, so I’ll have to stay or risk running forever. But if I stay, at least we’ll be able to see each other sometimes,” I told her tentatively, getting a bad feeling from the caution in her tone.
“You can’t stay,” she snapped. Her words broke something inside me.
Does she want rid of me that badly?
“Why?”
“It’s too dangerous.”
“Nyx said the King may allow you to be my ryder…” I didn’t understand her sudden objection.
“Arkyn will never allow it.” She was curt. Nothing like she’d been with me the last week.
“Did something happen?” I asked.
“Get away from here, Faolan. You have to save yourself,” she pressed, almost pleading.
“Talk to me, Caly.”
“I have to go. It’s being noticed that I’m distracted. Please go. You won’t ever be safe here.”
I was left reeling and useless to the conversation Nyx and Jaxus were still having. Why would she tell me to leave? I thought—I guess I thought we were both realizing we could’t be apart.
I tried to reach out to her every candle mark over the next day and most of the night, but got no reply and finally went to see Kol to see if he could intercede.
“Have you talked to Nova?” I demanded as soon as he let me into his chambers.
“I saw her this morning.” Kol looked withdrawn. More so than he’d been before our escape. He paced and looked like he’d lost more weight.
“And how was she?”
“She seemed okay.” He slid his hands into his pockets.
“Did you see Caly?” I hated that I had to ask or pull it out of him.
He studied me for a long moment, then shook his head. “No.”
“What aren’t you saying?”
“What aren’t you saying?” he returned, then frowned. “I’m surprised you’re still here.”
“How much have you heard?”
He narrowed his eyes. “Are you going to tell me or not?” He stopped near the window watching something in the distance.
“Nyx told me he thinks the King will side with me and allow Caly to be my rider.”
Kol laughed. “Wow.”
“What?” I asked.
“That lying fucking bastard.” Kol shook his head as if in disbelief.
“What did he lie about?” I scowled.
“That he really thinks he can convince the King to muzzle Arkyn,” Kol said plainly.
My brows pulled. “You don’t think the King can control him then? Tell me straight, am I a dead male if I stay?”
He shrugged. “I can’t tell you, but if Arkyn is anything like how he used to be, he won’t share willingly. Is that something you want? To have to fight for her the rest of your days?”
“What if I can’t stay away from her?” I heard my voice tremble, but there was nothing I could do to prevent it.
He turned on me. “I warned you from the start there was no fighting it. You should have never returned with her. You could be out there living your lives together, assumed dead.”
I closed my eyes. “She wouldn’t leave Nova.”
“Fuck,” Kol hissed. “So you are just going to let her marry him?”
“What other choice do I have?”
“And you’ve fucked her?” Kol asked.
“Shhh!” I glanced around, feeling like even in private someone could be listening.
“Goddess protect you,” he muttered, shaking his head.
I exhaled heavily. “I can’t leave.”
“I know.” He rubbed a hand over the back of his head. “Then you have to tell the King that she’s your ryder at least and pray Nyx isn’t an over optimistic liar. But I warn you, this isn’t going to end well.”
“Maybe dying will be better than being without her.”
“I don’t have any advice, but guard yourself.”
“I will.”
I left his chambers to find Nyx to see if he’d told the King, but I didn’t make it far.
At least a dozen guards surrounded me.
“What?” I asked when they didn’t move.
They grabbed me roughly from behind, twisting my arms behind my back.
“What is your purpose?” I demanded as metal cuffs closed around my wrists. I tried to shift to throw them off, but there was nothing there. I’d been cut off from my magic in an instant by whatever the cuffs were made from.
They didn’t answer me, just pushed me forward. I fought and struggled but was out matched without my hands. Fucking cowards, couldn’t even make it a fair fight.
They walked me to a part of the palace I’d never seen before and threw me into a small stone room.
I stumbled, landing hard on my knees, and nearly slammed my face into the wall with my arms still shackled.
I climbed back to my feet slowly and found a heavy door, closed and locked. There were no windows and no furniture.
I carefully lowered myself to a seat to wait. Because I knew exactly what was coming. Or rather, who.
It didn’t take long for the locks to clang and the door to pull back.
As predicted, in stepped the spitting image of Alaric, but he was all wrong. His mouth curled into a sneer, and the lines in his face told me he scowled more than he smiled. Everything about him was harsh. His jaw line, the cut of his clothes, even his stunning eyes.
Where Alaric was handsome, his brother was a force. There was no doubt who was in line to be the King.
“Arkyn.” I got to my feet.
“It’s ‘Your Highness’ to you,” he spat.
I inclined my head in a mock show of respect. “My apologies, Your Highness.”
“You’re the dragon?” he sneered, sizing me up again.
I was a head taller than him and much bigger, but I knew I’d never have a chance at getting to him. He surely had guards waiting behind the door, a call away.
“She is my ryder, yes.” It was possessive and would enrage him, I knew. But she was mine, and I wouldn’t tiptoe around that.
He laughed, leaving me unsure what to do. “Brave of you to return with her.”
“I was doing my duty to my King and future King.” I met his eyes.
He considered my words. “Did you really believe you’d survive after being alone with my future queen for all that time? If I wasn’t being forced to marry her, you’d both be fucking dead.”
My mouth dropped open, and it took my brain a few moments to catch up. “Nothing untoward happened.”
“I don’t believe you.” His gaze flicked from my eyes down to my cock and back up. “But truth aside, her reputation is ruined, and I won’t let anyone disrespect me as such and live.”
“We were ambushed and had to escape. It was necessity, not disrespect.”
He cut me off. “No? She meant no disrespect when she had your cock in her cunt? I’m sure she didn’t.
But it doesn’t matter. She can birth me twins, and then I’ll make her watch as I take them out of her arms and tell her she’ll never see them again.
Because there are fates worse than death, you know. ”
“Please, don’t.” I locked my jaw, barely holding myself back from running at him. I still had teeth and knees.
“Begging for her life instead of your own?”
I ground my teeth, not giving into his toying.
“I have plans for you as well. You’re going to wish you both had died.”
“You won’t be able to keep her from me. We are bonded.” The words were out before I could stop them. “She will know I am here.”
“She won’t. She’s going to think you abandoned her like a coward.
My father, in his infinite wisdom, just approved of her becoming your ryder, but that won't happen while I draw breath. They will all think you just ran away when they can’t locate you to tell you the good news.
” He smiled, and maybe I should have kept my mouth shut.
I didn’t need to taunt a monster into killing me.
“But don’t worry about her finding you. We’ve learned a great deal from Kol being captured.
How they held him. What methods they used to block his magic and his dragon from him.
We have you shackled with magic blocking chains, and that’s just the beginning. ”
“What does that even mean?!”
“It means…” He smirked, brushing a little invisible dirt from his tunic in disinterest before fixing me with his deadly gaze. “A little Dragon's Bane won’t kill you.”