I had to leave…
It was all forhim. I could do this again to savehim. If I didn’t, Dahes would kill Masin, and he’d make sure to tell me every painstaking detail—how long he screamed, how much pain he suffered. I couldn’t go through that again. It would destroy me more than being his slave.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
Keep walking. You can do this, Magnolia.
The stench of rot hit me before I saw it. The thatcher’s bone-crunching wings echoed around me a second before I was violently thrust into the air.
Blank. Blank. Blank. Blank.
Don’t think anymore.
You are nothing. Mindless.
Breathe. One. Two. Three. Four. Exhale.
Fog covered my view the moment we entered Moriann, dousing the kingdom in darkness. I didn’t see Dahes. I half assumed he’d be waiting for me as the thatcher dropped me onto the outside rotunda before the throne room, but I should have known better. He waited for no one.
“Bathe. You reek of Viven. I expect you to be ready to dine with me in an hour.”
I sucked in air. For a split second my thoughts lingered. Could he smell me? Would he be able to know what I did last night?
Don’t think. Don’t think. Don’t think.
I followed the ghost-laden halls, keeping my head down and avoiding everything I passed as I made the trek back to my room at a relentless pace. I had shoes on so I couldn’t feel the coldness seep into the soles of my feet, but it didn’t matter. It was all around me, wrapping me in numbing ice, making it harder and harder to breathe.
I kept moving, kept walking.
I forgot how fast I walked here. How fast I did everything.
As soon as I made it to my room, I scrubbed my body nearly the entire hour in fear that Dahes would know, hating how the smell of jasmine was slowly overpowering the smell of leather, vetiver, and salty brine. When I ran out of time, I dressed in the sheer slip that was neatly folded and waiting for me on my bed.
Suns, I wanted to cry.
Everything was exactly as I left it. My bed was made to perfection, not a corner out of place with only a thin sheet tucked into the mattress. None of the mountainous thick, fluffy comforters that spread across the beds in Viven, and not the hand-sewn quilt that was on Hael’s bed in the cabin. I didn’t even get the chance to ask him who made it…
Stop thinking about it, Magnolia.
It took me ten cycles of breathing before I found the courage to walk the halls again to meet Dahes in the dining room.
He was already there, sitting at the table and drumming his fingers while he waited for me.
The contrast between the meals with King Elion to King Dahes was jarring. Elion’s meals were lively, with different people dining withhim as frequently as the waves shifted in the Adrian. But with Dahes, it was only ever me. No one else joined us. Ever.
He didn’t say anything to me. Didn’t even stand or shift in his chair. The only acknowledgment I got was his gaze raking down my body. It was the longest I’d been apart from him in the past seven years, and the shock of seeing him now was paralyzing.
I hated that he was attractive, that his outward appearance didn’t match the inside. That his features were defined, his body lean.He was a monster.A pale devil with a pretty face. The white eyes with the blue rim to match mine. His bone-white hair, his even paler skin—everything so devoid of life.
Death. He looked like death wrapped in a forbidden color like the berries by the river, luring starving souls in only to poison them before they realized it was too late. His glamour faded and the realization that it was lethal—thathewas lethal—couldn’t be taken back.
“Sit.”He commanded in my mind, his eyes the only indication that he was happy to see me. He didn’t stop staring, didn’t stop raking my body from the moment I walked through the door.
There was a plate in front of my seat. My stomach revolted as I looked down at the textured meat. No fruits. No bread. No nuts. No desserts or pastries. No wine or mead—only the goblet filled with red liquid that Dahes had placed in front of him.
I sank into the chair, slowly picking up the fork and knife set on either side. Dinner with him was the only time I moved slowly.
The meat was tough, or maybe I was just too used to soft cheeses and pastries. I forced myself to chew, forced myself to not look up at him, even as I felt his gaze lingering.
