Until her…until now.
I take a deep, steadying breath and center the chaotic emotions she’s churned up within me.
She’s just a lost woman.
She’ll be out of my life by tomorrow, I’m sure.
With a flick of my wrist, the shadows recoil finally. They retreat and sink back into the tattoos on my skin. Inked thorns and smoke bloom darker across my arms as if drinking them in, absorbing the writhing mass like it belongs there.
Her lips part as she watches them disappear, and my brow furrows at the emotion in her wide eyes.
Awe?
It can’t be.
I should feel settled to have them under control again, but I don't.
It’s too much to process, so I tuck it away and turn on my heel. Only then, when those haunting, lost eyes stop looking at me do I feel the tightness in my chest loosen.
I don’t have a plan for what I’ll do with her now that she’s here, but I can’t shirk off my duties as king to puzzle it out. Later, after my council meeting, I willfigure it out.
I move forward and immediately the sounds of her soft footsteps follow.
“Why do your shadows keep touching me?” she asks quietly, her voice more curious than accusing. “Are you telling them to?”
The questions land too close to the nerve I’ve been trying to ignore.
My voice is clipped in response, not wanting her to know how egregious of an error it is. “They respond to threats.”
A pause stretches between us.
Just above the hush of our steps she softly murmurs, “Yes, I’ve been quite threatening with my lack of clothing and knowledge, I’m sure.”
It’s said with a quiet flicker of dry wit, the kind that slips out before someone has time to think better of it.
I glance back at her. Not a full turn, but enough to see the way she keeps her chin lifted as she glances around. If she truly doesn’t know who she is, I have no doubt that she’s beginning to find pieces of herself. Small, sharp ones.
She doesn’t even realize the danger of that yet. Maybe I don’t, either.
We cross through the final hall that separates my quarters, the quiet rhythm of our steps the only sound beneath the stone archway. The walls narrow here,drawing toward the council chamber where I know they will be awaiting my arrival.
The voices within are low and clipped as I approach the threshold.
“How soon do you think he will want to launch our attack? We should do it tomorrow and keep the humans on the defensive.”
“We need more bodies to join our combat force.”
“If we’re to fight with the other factions, we need to learn to fight together.”
All things I’ve heard before but that have never been spoken directly to my face. It’s interesting, the bold opinions they have when I’m not there to oppose them with my own line of questioning in response.
They think they have all the answers.
I may be a king, but I will not force anyone to join our combat force if they don’t wish to.
The council wants to make decisions like launching an attack tomorrow,despiteour smaller numbers compared to the other factions,andthey apparently want to learn to fight alongside the other factions before it.
They’re all walking contradictions of each other and it’s tiresome.
