CHAPTER 38 #2
“Don’t. You. Dare,” she hissed. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and we both ran up the stairs to our separate rooms like punished children.
Kiral, my mother’s lady’s maid, was pacing across my room, holding the bodice of a pale blue and gold bliaut in her hands.
She had me stripped, washed, dressed, and hair plaited in minutes.
The plait was simple and tied with gold ribbon.
I hated it. Somehow, even this was confining next to the options I had in the Riht.
As usual, my place at the table was beside Tam’s, but this time, we sat opposite Naton and Merria, with Naton directly across from me. I had not seen him since he held a blade to my throat. Merria cooed and batted her lashes and bit her lips at him, but I just stared. His grin for me was feral.
We made it to the second course before he finally spoke up.
“I was beginning to think the day would never come when I saw you seated beside Tam. Does this mean you’ve had a return of your senses?”
“Careful, Nate,” Tam growled at my side.
“My throat has healed.” I raised my voice slightly. “Thank you for asking.”
Naton’s eyes narrowed, but his smile didn’t drop.
Bale was two chairs away from Naton, and he leaned forward, keeping his eyes trained on him.
Oblivious to, or more likely enjoying the tension, Naton pressed on. “I wonder, are you happy to be back in Tam’s bed after being sold to those brutes?”
Tam was halfway out of his chair when my hand on his arm stilled him.
“Surely, you don’t mean to insult my faithfulness. That would be quite the slight on the house of Cavendaffe and indeed on the king, since our orders came from him. I must not have heard you right.”
“What’s that, now?” my father boomed from the head of the table.
I turned to him. “The young Lord Ingleton has some interesting questions about my time in the—in Rihtlond,” I corrected myself.
“Does he,” my father said matter-of-factly. “Let’s hear it, boy.”
Naton’s jaw twitched at the word boy. I had to hand it to him, my father knew how to strike at a man’s pride. “I was simply expressing concern that the young lady had been thrust into a situation where she would not be able to fend off unwanted advances.”
Lady Ingleton gasped.
“That’s not a topic for polite conversation,” interjected Lord Fethersen. He turned to Lord Ingleton, seated across from him, and looked at him expectantly.
“See now, the lad means no harm,” Ingleton added. “Do you, son?”
“Of course not. I am merely expressing my good wishes for Serae and Tam’s future. It’s my understanding that ladies who have been through such a trauma are not forthcoming in the marital bed.”
Merria dropped her fork, and it clattered to her plate. Her mouth went slack-jawed as she stared at her betrothed.
My cheeks burned, and beside me, Tam’s hands vibrated with rage beneath the table.
“See here now!” the margrave shouted, and every trace of the kindly father he’d pretended to be over these last weeks was gone.
All three lords jumped to their feet, while Naton reclined with a smirk directed at me.
Lady Fethersen was fanning herself with her napkin while my mother began imploring the two lords near her to take their seats.
I stood, picked up the paring knife before me, and flung it just above Naton’s head into the opposite wall. It embedded into the wood with a loud thunk, and all eyes turned to me in shock. Merria’s shone with outright fear, and my mother turned to me in horror.
“Lord Naton,” I said clearly, “your worries are unwarranted. Not a hand has been laid on me lacking my consent.” Bale’s eyes flashed to me.
“That is to say, nothing ill or untoward has been directed at me while in Rihtlond. There is no need for anyone to speculate about a trauma that has not occurred. Any further conversations regarding the details of my and Tam’s future marriage will be private between us, and certainly not a conversation over dinner. ”
My father thumped down into his chair and banged his fist on the table in support.
“I invite the Lords Ingleton and Fethersen to take their seats,” I continued. “The slight is forgotten. Let us eat in merriment.”
Both Lord and Lady Fethersen, who had been openly gaping, clamped their mouths shut.
Both lords sat, and my father still glared between them.
Lady Ingleton alone had locked her shrewd eyes on me, picking me apart with her glare.
I returned her gaze with my head held high.
Naton, like his mother, glared at me, wary and assessing, but behind it, I saw a glint of something dangerous.
Bale rose to his feet with a glass in hand. “To Serae, a woman of wise words and wiser actions.”
Merria, eyes still round, was the first to lift her glass, followed by Tam a second later. One by one, the glasses and mood lifted. The meal continued in relative peace. At its completion, I excused myself from after-dinner chatter with smiles and well-wishes all around.
Up in my room, I changed into my nightdress, settled myself upright in bed, and reached for Vaya’la. Again, I was met with only silence. It may have been my imagination, but I sensed a hint of her presence. It was an echo of a whisper, but it gave me the smallest flicker of hope.
My sleep was light and restless. I dreamt I was a tree with a bright green trunk, but a dark shadow came and chopped off all my branches. Blood-red sap wept from my wounds, staining my bark and roots.
Sometime well after midnight, my door creaked. A strip of light lanced across the floor and the end of my bed. I was instantly awake, reaching for my second sight on instinct, though it failed.
“Who’s there?” I hissed into the darkness.
“Shhh, it’s me.”
“Tam?”
The door shut, plunging the room back into darkness, and the lock clicked.
“What are you doing here?”
I could just make out his silhouette in the faint moonlight as he crossed the room. Only a sliver of moon hung in the black sky.
“Serae,” he whispered, his voice slurred. He swayed as he walked.
“Are you drunk?”
“Serae,” he repeated. “It’s been months. Why haven’t you asked me to come to you?”
Leveraging my good arm, I pushed myself up to a seated position. “Go back to your room. We can talk about this when you’re sober.”
He sat on my bed, directly on top of my feet, ignoring my squeak of protest and forcing me to shift. “You used to want me. You’re supposed to want me.”
“I can’t even see you. Just wait until tomorrow, we’ll talk then.” I didn’t want to talk at all, but that didn’t seem like an option he’d appreciate. I yanked at the covers, desperate for a modicum of protection in only my nightdress, but they were pinned under his weight.
“You’re supposed to be my wife.” He leaned toward me.
I held out my good arm to stop him. “Have you been listening to Naton?”
“What if I have?” He leaned in as if he might try to climb on top of me.
“There was your first mistake. Get off my bed.” I tried to shift away from him, but I’d let him go too far. His arms came down on either side of me, his body still pinning my legs.
“It’s been months waiting.”
“So you’ve said.” I struggled, freeing a leg from his weight.
“How can you stand it?” He started to crawl toward me.
I kicked a foot up into his chest, halting him.
He chuckled, gripping my ankle through the blanket. “I love it when you’re feisty.”
“I’m injured!” I hissed. “I still can’t move my arm. This is not happening.”
“I lost two fingers for you!” he shouted. All pretense of quiet was gone. “The least you can do is thank me properly.”
“You sound like Naton,” I spat, trying to scoot toward the opposite side of the bed.
He lunged, trapping me fully with his body. “Naton had a point,” he hissed. “I can’t keep waiting. It’s all right. I’ll be gentle.” Blind panic ripped through me. I froze, unable to move, unable to scream. I tried to do something, anything, but I couldn’t get my body to react.
His body pressed down into mine as his lips found my cheek in the darkness. His breath was hot against my skin and smelled sour with drink. His hips began thrusting against my thigh.
“Breathe,” a voice told me.
I sucked in a breath.
Tam took the opportunity to cover my mouth with his. His lips were wet and sloppy against mine, which I’d pressed tightly together.
“Fight.”
I pulled my head back and slammed forward, dipping my chin so my forehead smashed into Tam’s face. He let out a howl of pain and clutched his nose, freeing my arm, but my legs were still trapped beneath him.
“What the fuck, Serae!”
I writhed, trying to wrench myself free. With his injured hand, he pinched the bridge of his nose. His left shot out and caught the wrist of my injured arm.
“That’s the second time you’ve struck me.”
“Let me go!” I tried to scream, but it came out as a strangled whimper.
“This isn’t how you treat your husband.” His voice carried an edge.
“You’re not my husband!” My voice was stronger, but my throat kept constricting, cutting off the volume. It was the panic. I had to get to a place of control.
“I’m as good as. Once we’re married, you’ll have no choice but to obey.”
His words broke a dam within me. Eldreth’s face swam behind my eyelids. “I’ll never marry you!” I shouted, and my volume finally returned.
He shifted, and I worked a leg free. Rather than pull back, I wrapped it around his torso and twisted with my body weight, forcing him beneath me.
“I knew you’d like it rough.” He grinned and gripped my thighs, pushing my hips down toward his. I squeezed, halting his progress, and he ran both hands up my waist. “Let’s get this off you.” He laughed. Clumsy hands tugged at my nightdress.
A fury I’d never known raged through me. I pointed my left palm at his neck, calling on my vines to control him.
My palm glowed.
For one wild second, I saw the whites of his eyes. His grip on me relaxed. Then, the light dimmed, and I heard a light tapping at my door.
Tam flung me off and scrambled over the foot of the bed. “What was that?”
I laughed, pouring every ounce of scathing and malice into my voice. “Do I scare you?”
His body tensed, ready to pounce. His eyes flicked to the empty spot on the bed as someone began calling my name through the closed door.
“Did you come here tonight to force yourself on me?” The flash of power faded, but my voice was steady and strong. “Get. Out.”
“How dare you—”
“NO. How dare you?”
My door burst open. Bale barreled in and ran at Tam, knocking him to the floor. He threw punch after punch at Tam’s face.
“Get the fuck out of my house,” he bellowed as two guards rushed in behind him.
“What’s going on?” Merria’s voice sounded from down the hall.
Bale stood, grabbing Tam by the scruff and throwing him from my room into the arms of the waiting guards.
“Chuck him in the courtyard until his father wakes. Use any means necessary to keep him in line.”
The guards saluted, and the door slammed shut. On the other side, I could hear shuffling and cursing as they hauled Tam off to who knows where.
I was still perched on my bed, my nightdress around my knees. My left arm was extended out, trying to call on vines that wouldn’t come. I dropped it.
A candle, miraculously still in its holder, sat flickering in the middle of the rug. Bale picked it up and ran a hand through his unruly, black hair. “Did he hurt you?”
“Barely,” I said, though my hands shook. “I did worse.”
“Good, budge over.”
“Bale, you don’t have to—”
“I do.” He cast around the room and scooped up a blanket from a nearby chair.
I shuffled back to the right side of the bed and pulled my covers into place. “Thank you,” I whispered.
The door opened again, admitting Merria with a candle of her own. “Are you okay, Serae?”
Bale and I exchanged glances, then I shuffled toward him, clearing a space for her on my other side. She shut the door and tucked herself into the covers beside me.
“Did he do anything to you?” she whispered.
I shook my head. “He tried, but I fought him off until Bale…” I trailed off.
Merria wrapped her arms around me, taking care to avoid my bandaged arm, and squeezed. “I didn’t think he’d do it. Naton was goading him all night. He said the only way to know for sure was to try it and…you know…see if you let him.”
“And you’re going to marry that fucker?” Bale asked.
Merria did not respond.
They slept the entire night beside me, Bale on top of the blanket, Merria tucked in at my side. It took quite some time before any of us fell asleep, but when I finally did, I dreamed.
THE FLIGHT was long, and despite my immenseness, my wings tired.
Landing in the center of the molten lake was the easiest way to beckon him.
If he would come. I stayed in my true form, knowing he preferred scales to skin.
The island of glass and emerald rocked violently under my mass.
The lava creatures, as always, churned about in their fiery home.
I waited. I had time enough to wait for an age if needed.
When the sky shifted to green, I sensed his presence at my back. I did not turn, allowing him to be the first to speak.
“It is long since you visited me, Life Bringer.”
I spun slowly, allowing my tail to curve around my body with the motion.
“It has been longer since you visited me, Fire Starter. When was the last time you made the flight to my realm?”
He huffed out a plume of smoke and sat back on his haunches. The molten lake rocked, casting flickers of light beneath the island of glass. “I know why you’re here.”
“It’s the only way.”
“I disagree.”
“You haven’t seen the world as I have. When was the last time you took on a binding? When have you bothered at all with the lands of Jaeda beyond your volcanoes and magma?”
“I know more of Jaeda than you could ever imagine!”
I reared back, lifting my neck to the sky. “Your temper always did get the better of you.”
He huffed out a cloud of smoke, and within the plume, I saw a human figure. A woman—unusual for him—made of charcoal and ash and wreathed in forgetfulness, except nothing about him, her, was forgettable.
“I have walked the lands while you slept, dear Sister. I have seen the world and its pettiness. And I have seen the corruption firsthand. The Darkness spreads faster than you know. Toy with your little bindings, by all means, but know that it is I who fights this war already. Return to me when you’re ready to take up the mantle and fight at my side. ”
His great wings spread, and he leapt into the sky, sending the glass island rocking again. I watched as he turned west toward his charge. I had underestimated him, true, but he had also underestimated me.
“Remember this, Small One,” I said aloud. “Already, the great players of this realm are in motion. You will not fight alone.”