Three
Rohan
The guards take me through the castle and toward the dining room, a route I’m familiar with.
I knew Halen wouldn’t waste much time until he came for me, and I’m glad he called for me, because that means he’s leaving Alara alone.
But I need to get back to her as quickly as possible, to keep her safe, to explain what happened, to make sure she’s okay. She’s barely moved, not spoken once and she won’t fucking eat.
And it’s all my fault.
I didn’t tell her about the deal I’d made when I should have, but I thought I’d fixed it.
I thought I had time to find another way.
Just another of my wrongdoings against her.
To see her looking at nothing with those broken eyes…
My fists clench as I walk between the guards, wanting to take my aggression out on them, but they have threatened Alara, and I won’t do anything to put her in danger, no more than I already have.
They know she’s my weakness, the one thing that will keep me in line, and Halen knows it too.
I don’t care if he does, as long as she gets out of here safe. I just hope she can forgive me before it all ends.
Hope she looks at me, talks to me, will let me hold her because fuck, how I long to take her in my arms, to have my hand in her hair, to have her breath against my neck as she curls into me for protection, for warmth.
Like I meant something.
Now she lays there, cold, unseeing, and I did that to her.
I growl to myself, and the guards jump, looking back at me with wary eyes, and they should be afraid. I feel like I’m boiling beneath my skin, prickling with heat and destruction. Only one person has been able to calm me, and she currently hates me.
And rightly so.
But I will beg for her forgiveness every day until I’ve earned it, until I’ve healed what I’ve done, until she looks at me again like I mean something to her, until she lets me hold her and keep her close.
“Through here,” a guard says, and double doors open onto a family dining room with a very long table in the center.
Guards line the room, masks in place, Nighturn on their swords.
Halen sits at the head of the table with his brother, Ivor, sitting to his right, his wife next to him. Alexandar, Halen’s eldest child, sits on his left, his other two children seated next to him.
“Ahh,” Halen says, drinking from his goblet as I’m seated at the very end of the table. Far away from them.
The guards stay at my back while I stare straight ahead.
“Any trouble?” Halen asks.
The guards pause, before one of them says, “Nothing we can’t handle, my king.”
He nods. “Well, I suppose you know why you’re here.”
“I’m here every year to play your fucking Game,” I reply, and spot the smirk on Alexandar’s face.
His brother, Nathanial, just a year younger frowns at me, along with their younger sister, Violetta.
“Ah yes, The Games.” He leans back in his chair. “What a spectacular one it will be this year. We have been preparing well.” He takes a drink and eyes me over the rim. “Tell me, boy, did you ever mean to stay loyal to our deal when you made it?”
“Yes.” My fingers are itching to wrap around his neck. To press down, to hear him gasp for breath, to hear him gurgle and plead and turn fucking purple.
I eye the guards around the room. I won’t be able to get to him before they take me down.
Fucking cowards.
Halen tilts his head. “Really? Then tell me why I received a letter stating you no longer have an elf for me, when that wasn’t true, was it?”
My jaw clenches.
“You lied, and therefore, you forfeit the deal we made.” He smiles wide. “Whatever shall we do about that?”
“I’m sure there is no need to add anything more to The Games,” Ivor chimes in.
Halen looks at him sternly before turning back to me.
“The deal was, you give me an elf, and in exchange, I stop The Games.” He chuckles. “And if you don’t provide me an elf, then I get to involve you all.”
My fists clench against my thighs. “I will find another elf—”
“No,” he cuts me off. “I don’t need one now that I have her, and she’ll help bring more to me.”
“She is not yours to have,” I bark out, my temper rising.
“But she is, boy. What are you going to do? Kill more of my guards?” He scoffs. “You will never get her out of here alive. She is the beginning of your end.”
I stand up and slam my hands on the table. “She isn’t yours!”
And she’s the beginning of everything.
Every guard in the room tenses, swords at the ready as Halen smiles at me.
“She is now, barbarian, and she will not only do as I’ve asked, but she will also be a participant in some of The Games. Can you imagine the people’s faces? They’ll love it!”
My pulse speeds up.
We are just animals to him.
“Alexandar, have you sent the letter like I ordered?”
“I hand delivered it,” he replies, eyes on me.
“Good, good, it’s only a matter of time before they arrive then.”
Ivor eyes Halen, opening his mouth to say something but closes it when his wife, Laylah, whispers in his ear.
Violetta scrunches up her nose. “Daddy, can he leave now, he’s… dirty.”
I don’t bother looking at her. She’s young, sixteen.
“Violetta!” Ivor admonishes as the king laughs and stands.
“Yes, yes. Follow me, boy.”
A guard grabs my arm and I turn, hitting him in the face with an elbow.
“Don’t touch me,” I snarl.
A guard has Nighturn aimed at me when Ivor’s voice stops him.
“Leave him, he can walk on his own.”
The guard lowers his sword, eyes hard as he steps back.
I walk past them, following the king through the doors, feeling eyes on my back.
I know where I’m going, and I wonder briefly if they do, too.
When I enter a room off to the side, Halen is already in there with his back to me as another guard yanks me in by my shackled hands then hits the back of my knees.
I go down, landing heavy on them, growling when they point Nighturn at me.
“Now, let’s start your punishment.”
I scoff, looking up at him. “Why don’t you get your kids to do it, they have the power, you do not.”
He backhands me and I laugh, spitting blood onto the floor.
“Did I hit a nerve?” My eyes harden. “You only sit upon your throne because of your last name, but it’s your children that hold magic. You’re empty, a wilted husk holding onto that throne with trembling hands.”
He hits me again, and I laugh harder.
“I may not have magic, but I do have power, and I’m about to have more.” He kicks me in the stomach. “You think you’re in control here? You are under my thumb. My rule!” Another smack. “Because if you make one wrong move, I’ll make you sit there and watch as I mess up your little elf.”
I still, my pulse speeding up.
“You understand now?” he taunts, grabbing my hair and pulling it back.
“I don’t need the magic my children have.
I command them, which means I command it all.
They are my people, my army, my power, my lineage, my city, my kingdom!
” he shouts, backhanding me once more. “And you are nothing but a thorn in my side that will soon be removed.”
He stands, fixing his clothes and panting heavily.
“And we are just beginning. Now, stay still, or it will be that elf in here instead.”
I stare at the floor, fists clenching when I hear the rattle of the chains.
But if this means he’ll leave her alone, so be it.
“Begin.”
Every hit is designed to hurt, and he knows exactly where to do the most damage after putting me in this room every year.
But I smile through it, because it means she’s safe for now, curled up in the cell where no one will get to her because they’re too busy here with me.