Page 139 of The Unseen Hour

“Bellamy, you're not listening!”

“Cursed gods! You’re being so difficult! One would think you had run off with some man on purpose!”

I dropped to my knees, and he stumbled, releasing me as I became dead weight. Flustered, he barely managed to right himself.

“I did choose another man on purpose! I will never marry you, Bellamy Bonds! The fact that you decided we were engaged without ever asking me convinced me of that before I even met Orion! But now he is my home, and you will not keep me from him. I’ve been living with him for a year, and you can’t undo that. Your wishes and my brother’s orders will make no difference in the matter.”

I stood and stamped my foot. His face turned red, and he was waving his arms.

“You insolent, crazed harlot! You belong to me! And that is what will not change. The fact that you’ve given yourself over to some other man just shows me that you’re not worthy of the respect of a wedding ceremony before I take what I’m owed.”

Bellamy lunged at me, pinning my arms and shoving me against a crumbling stone wall.

“Let’s see if this changes your mind,” he told me before shoving his lips on mine.

He pushed his body against me, and I was horrified to feel that he was hard, aroused by the assault.

My arms were trapped, but I could still fight. I brought my knee up to his crotch, and he wheezed, dropping my arms and clutching his trousers.

“You wretched cu⁠—”

I slapped the Marquess clean across his face and reached for the knife at my side. I leaned over him, yanking him up by his hair and placing the blade at his throat.

“If you don’t leave these ruins right now, I will leave you bleeding on the church floor,” I threatened.

I threw him aside, running farther into the ruins.

“Orion!”

“Celia!” Bellamy called, voice hoarse.

Then, I heard the clacking of beaks and Bellamy yelling at the birds.

They could handle the Marquess for the moment.

After I clambered over a pile of rotting beams, I stepped onto a square area that looked as though it had been recently swept. It shook beneath me. I screamed, stumbling back.

It was a cellar entrance, built directly into the floor of the church. A muffled voice came from behind it.

“Starlight!”

“Ry!” Relief flooded through me.

He wasn’t in the Ether. I still had him.

I knelt down and spotted the lock that had evidently been slid into place. “I’ll get you out. Wait a moment!”

It was half-rotted and didn’t want to budge, but I managed. I tugged the bolt back, and it slid with a squeal. Several times, I checked behind me, dagger sitting at my side and ready, but Bellamy didn’t reappear. Maybe, between my self-defense and the tree hoppers, he’d given up.

I tugged open the door at the same time Orion pushed. He clambered out from the cellar.

“Starlight!” He embraced me. “Thank all the gods. I knew you’d succeeded. I was waiting here, but then⁠—”

A shot sounded outside, followed by a loud whinny.

“Pellix!”

I charged through the wreckage, Orion on my heels, swearing to bury my ex-fiancé under the church if a single hair on Pellix’s mane was harmed.