Chapter 53 #2
“Oh, right.” She scrunched her nose. “It was an off day, but you know I’m usually better. So, can we hang him upside down or not?”
Aella was the kindest person most of the time, but now that she had a chance to take revenge, she didn’t hesitate. I wondered if she’d bottled those feelings up all this time, waiting for an opportunity to unleash them. The betrayal of her friend may have been the last hit she could take.
“Any particular reason for that?” I asked, utterly fascinated by her.
Her cold, furious eyes spun my way. “He did that to me once, then he beat my feet with a hard stick until most of the bones were broken. I couldn’t walk for a week since he wouldn’t let Briauna near me,” she said, referencing the primary healer at Ivory Castle and also my Aunt Durelle’s sister.
“Ulmar laughed as I had to crawl to the food he left me.”
A cloud of darkness fogged my mind. The visual of Aella forced into such circumstances ignited an inner rage I usually kept firmly banked.
It was a side of me that even the God of Wrath found disturbing.
I’d held it back ever since my last visit to Karganoth, but now, I couldn’t stop it.
With our mating bond in full effect, while we still didn’t touch each other at night, I lacked my usual control.
“Dare, what’s wrong with your eyes?” she asked.
Undoubtedly, they were dark, but I didn’t answer her as cold rage took over me.
I turned to face the so-called “Lord of Therress” and gripped him with my power.
I pulled him as far as the chains bolted to the wall and floor would allow, then slammed him backward hard.
Ulmar let out a shout. I repeated the process two more times, enjoying how when I pulled him forward, more blood coated the stones.
Little by little, I was breaking pieces of him.
A gentle hand touched my face. “Dare, stop.”
“He will pay for what he did to you,” I growled, then I slammed him into the wall again.
One moment, I stood there, and the next, a blast of wind hit me so hard I flew down the corridor.
I hit the floor and slid across it until slamming my head and back into the far wall next to the shower room door.
The force of the collision broke my rageful haze.
I found my wife slowly moving toward me, her expression pained yet determined.
“You will not kill Ulmar before I’ve finished with him,” she said, stopping at my feet and wincing as she rubbed the back of her head. “Now, we’ll have to call a healer, because he’s a mess.”
I blinked. “What happened?”
“You tried to kill my cousin.” Aella frowned. “You don’t remember?”
I shook my head and rubbed my face. “It’s been a long time since I felt that level of fury. I’m sorry.”
She knelt in front of me, worry in her gaze. “You blacked out because you were upset about the way he once hurt me?”
“Yes.”
“But it’s in the past,” she argued, clearly confused.
I didn’t know how to explain it to her when I didn’t understand it myself. “As your mate, I hate that I didn’t find you sooner and save you from all that pain.”
“Says the man who gagged me with my hair during our first meeting and slammed me into a wall during our second.” She sighed. “We’re lucky we ever saw each other as more than enemies.”
I gave her a rueful smile. “You fascinated me from the moment I saw you across the battlefield. If you hadn’t attacked me first, I doubt I could have harmed you at all.”
“Really?” she asked.
“We may never know for certain, but that’s the feeling I have about that day now.”
“I wonder…” Aella trailed off before looking away.
Lifting my hand, I took her chin and gently turned her face back toward me. “What?”
“It could be wishful thinking.”
She had unmistakable yearning in her eyes that brought an ache in my chest. “Tell me anyway.”
“Do you know the exact wording of your curse?” she asked.
I shook my head. “There’s only an abbreviated version of it in the records. According to Idwal, the original was lost to time since the fountain has been around for hundreds of thousands of years.”
I’d made a point of asking about it when the librarian last visited us from Alavaar.
“When our mating bond didn’t connect, everyone said I was the problem, not you. Even the gods implied as much.” She cleared her throat. “Is it possible that you can love, but the curse blocks you from feeling it? Maybe it’s there but…buried deeply.”
“You mean I may already love you without feeling it?” I asked.
Aella chewed her lip. “Yes.”
I traced her jaw with my thumb, and she closed her eyes, letting out a soft breath.
Slowly, I leaned closer to her and replaced my hand with my lips.
She trembled as I grazed soft kisses across her smooth skin.
She was like a wounded animal, terrified to let someone close. At any moment, she’d make me stop.
Dear nameless ones, how I didn’t want to stop. I wanted us to drown in each other’s heat and pleasure, forgetting the world. Right here…or anywhere Aella wanted would be fine. As long as she let me do it, I wouldn’t care about anything else.
“I can’t say how this curse works for sure,” I whispered in her ear. “But I know I want you more than I’ve ever wanted anything in my life, Aella.”
I kissed her gently, and she responded just as sweetly.
As our lips glided against each other, we both moaned.
Finally, my wife was letting me show her that I had another side apart from the savagery and darkness.
Maybe I’d barely known I had it before, but I wanted to explore it with her.
I tried to show her all of that as I pulled her closer into my body.
She didn’t fight me and even wrapped her arms around my neck.
The feeling of her pliant form was intoxicating.
At least, it was until I felt the wetness coursing down her cheeks. I pulled away and found tears in her eyes. Swallowing down my desperate need, I carefully wiped them away. Her loving and gentle nature wanted to give in to this, but the trauma she’d suffered meant she was terrified to trust.
“I’m sorry,” I said, pulling her in for a hug. “You’re not ready.”
Aella shook in my arms as the tears continued to fall.
Gretel’s cell was on the side of the dungeon where we were now.
She’d been so silent in the dim corner where her mattress lay that I’d forgotten about her, but the dark elf came to stand at the bars now, sneering at my wife.
In Karganoth, starting at a young age, she’d been taught not to cry where anyone could witness it.
She would see it as a weakness, but she couldn’t understand.
Aella would only grow stronger by facing her pain and trauma.
I wanted to be her safe haven for that, if she’d allow it.
Lifting one hand toward my long-time spy and occasional past lover, I slammed her into the stone wall, knocking her out cleanly. She slumped to the floor. The foolish female elf would learn to look at my wife with respect, or I’d carve her eyes out.
I returned my attention to the woman in my arms, trying to think of the right words to say that wouldn’t scare her off or make matters worse.
If I said she was safe with me, would she believe it?
Would it be true, given how often I made mistakes with her?
If I said she would be alright eventually, would it be true or a lie?
In the end, I settled for something simple.
“I’m here, dear wife.” I wrapped my arms tighter around her as if I could shield her from everything that might harm her. “Someday, we’ll lift this curse, and I have no doubt I’ll love you so much the whole world will feel it.”
Her sobs slowed, and she lifted her head. “That’s hard to imagine.”
I moved her matted hair from her face and gazed deeply into her eyes. “It would be nothing less than what you deserve.”
“Maybe.” Aella pulled away from me, body already stiffening as she rebuilt her familiar wall between us. “But for now, send one of the guards outside to get a healer, and I want to cut pieces off of Elgord.”
“Do I want to know which pieces?” I asked, marveling at her ability to go from crying to maiming people.
She gave me a devious smile. “Probably not since you sleep next to me every night.”
I laughed. “The only reason I can do that since seeing your work is the vow we made during our wedding. Otherwise, I’d have to keep one eye open.”
“I’m glad I can frighten you a little.” Aella rubbed the back of her head. “But please don’t make me throw you across a dungeon again because I felt that.”
My chest tightened. She’d had to hurt herself to knock me out of my rage.
Somehow, I’d have to learn better control, but when it came to hearing how others had hurt my wife in the past, the very thought made me see red. “I’ll try to take care.”
“Good.” Aella rose to her feet. “Now, go see about that healer before my cousin dies. I’ll get started on Elgord.”
She sauntered back down the corridor as I sought out the guards at the entrance.