Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Briar
We only made it ten feet out the door before Devnair turned to Dromon. “I’d like to speak with her alone.”
“That’s not going to happen,” Dromon replied.
“Then can we at least get some distance?”
Dromon’s penetrating brown eyes shifted to me. When he bowed his head, the dark, wavy blond hair flowing around his shoulders fell forward to shield his face a little.
“If you try to run, I’ll stop you,” he told me.
“So will I,” Devnair said.
“Good.”
I glanced back at the closed door of the lodge, but they wouldn’t let me return. I was as trapped out here as I was in there.
“I’m here if you need me,” Gizzi said reassuringly.
“Thank you.”
Devnair and I set off down the walkway toward the road. Dromon trailed about fifty feet behind us; his gaze bored into the back of my head with every step we took.
“It’s very quiet here,” Devnair said as he studied the gray sky.
“That’s because most of the residents are roses.”
Devnair sighed. “Yes, that’s true. What about all the animals? The birds?”
“You don’t see many of them.”
I was sure the shadow dragon had something to do with that, as well as a lack of sunlight and food opportunities, but I kept that to myself.
“It’s good to see you again, Briar,” Devnair said.
His words, spoken in his melodic tone and with the refined accent of the elves, were somehow calming.
“Is it?” I murmured.
“I wish it were under better circumstances, but yes, it is. How have you been treated since we met?”
“I’ve had more freedom here than I did in Nightshade, so that’s nice.”
“Truly?” he asked.
“Not at first, but recently I have.”
“And why is that?”
“I thought Knox was starting to trust me more….” My gaze wandered away from him as my words trailed off. “I guess I was wrong.”
“Have you gone through your Needing?”
His question surprised me. “What does that matter?”
Amusement danced in his onyx eyes. Like the last time I saw him, he wore his long, pale blond hair in a braid that exposed his pointed ears and accentuated his narrow chin, high cheekbones, and handsome features.
“It doesn’t concern me; I’m merely curious,” he replied.
We strolled down the faded red brick road winding through the hushed town. He steered me effortlessly around any rosebushes sprouting from the lane and passed the small cottages set off the roadway.
Wilted and mostly dead plants filled the gardens that once bloomed in abundance. Here and there, a struggling rosebush would peek out amidst the sea of death.
After today, there was a good chance I wouldn’t remain in this kingdom, but I’d like to help with these plants.
“I did go through it,” I said after a while.
“And have you bound yourself to one of your gods?”
“I will never bind myself to one of their gods.”
“Aren’t they your gods too?”
“No. They never were.”
“So where has that left you?”
“Exactly where I’ve always been… different than them.”
He pondered this as he studied the sky. The black gauntlets on his arms had colorful feathers interwoven through the leather laces binding them. The bright colors were a stark contrast to his brown pants and green shirt; the undone top buttons revealed his bare chest.
“Have you always been different, or did you change after you met Knox?” Devnair asked.
I looked up at him. “He was Seth when we met and completely different.”
“We all were, but did meeting him change you?”
I frowned as I pondered this. “I was nine when I met him, only a child.”
“I’m sure you can remember those days.”
A smile tugged at the corners of my mouth before it faded. “I try not to remember them.”
Devnair steered me around another rosebush. “Me too.”
I rested my free hand over our joined arms and squeezed his. He wasn’t talking about the memories from his childhood, but his time in the harem.
He gripped my hand and turned it over to reveal the burn on my wrist. His touch was as tender as Knox’s, but it didn’t make my skin tingle and butterflies erupt in my stomach the same way.
“I remember how much those roses burned,” he murmured.
“I’m sorry for what she did to you.”
The words were wholly inadequate for what those in the harem experienced, but I had to say something. He lifted his eyes to mine as he continued to stroke my unmarred skin.
“I think that’s enough touching,” Dromon said in a low, menacing voice from behind us.
We both glanced back to where he stood twenty feet behind us, his eyes narrowed and his posture defensive. He glared at Devnair before leveling his stare on me. Devnair released my hand but didn’t unlink our arms as we started walking again.
“It’s rare for a mother to hurt their child in such a way,” he said.
“Maybe for most, but not for me. I’ve worn her burns countless times over the years.
For as long as I can remember, my mother hated me, and I was desperate to be free of Nightshade and her.
That was why I first went into No Man’s Land.
I never expected to find Seth there, but it was the best thing that ever happened to me.
He was the first and only one ever to love me. That’s gone now,” I whispered.
“I wouldn’t be so sure of that.”
“He’s going to return me to her.”
“No, he won’t. You bear his mark.”
My hand instinctively flew to the faded scars on my neck from when Seth claimed me. “He told me he’d never claim me again and has rejected me as his mate.”
“Words and actions are two different things. He may say that, but his actions say something different. He didn’t like your mother hurting you or you leaving the lodge with me.”
“He’s probably afraid you’ll let me go.”
“He’s afraid of losing you.”
I blinked away tears as I shoved aside the small hope his words created.
“If it can save his kingdom, he’ll give me back to her, and I understand that.
He blames himself and me for what happened here, but mostly he blames himself.
He doesn’t trust me, and most of the time, I think he hates me. If I go back there, she’ll destroy me.”
Devnair stopped walking, and when I turned to face him, he grasped my chin.
“No touching,” Dromon warned.
Devnair ignored him as he kept hold of my chin.
“I don’t think you’re easily destroyed, Briar.
It’s in your name to be strong; you’re the thorn, not the rose.
Insects don’t devour you, you don’t require careful pruning and care, and you won’t wilt or perish in a storm.
After it finishes blooming, the rose falls away and disappears, but the thorn…
the thorn remains ever present and ruthless. Don’t ever forget that.”
I gazed up at him in disbelief and awe as I tried to process his words. Did he really believe I was so strong?
“Why are you being so kind to me?” I whispered. “My mother did appalling things to you too.”
He released my chin, shot an irritated look at Dromon, and tugged my arm to resume walking. “You are not your mother. Knox knows this too.”
“He thinks I betrayed him by telling my mother about our plan to run away. That’s why he thinks he was captured and taken to the harem. That’s why he believes his entire kingdom was cursed.”
“Did you tell her your plans?”
“No.”
“Then why does he believe that?”
“Because she somehow knew all the intricate details of our plan. I don’t know how she found out so much information, but I never told her, or anyone else, any of it.
While he was in the harem, she told him that I betrayed him and all our plans.
The only way she could have known so much was if I told her.
If our roles were reversed, I wouldn’t trust him either. ”
Devnair’s forehead furrowed. “How do you think she found out about your plan?”
“I’ve spent a lot of time trying to figure that out, but I have no idea.
If she’d somehow discovered I was sneaking into No Man’s Land and cast a spell over me to learn what I was doing, she wouldn’t have taken the memory from me.
She would have ensured I recalled betraying Seth and tormented me with it, but she never did. ”
Devnair pondered this as we descended the hill toward the woods. “That’s an interesting conundrum,” he finally said. “If you ever discover the answer to it, you must let me know.”
“I will.”
“That’s far enough!” Dromon called from behind us. “It’s time to turn back.”
When we stopped, I stared longingly at the woods only a few hundred feet away. If I ran into them, there was a chance something might eat me, but I preferred to take my chances with the unknown monsters to the known ones in that lodge.