Page 139 of Black Sea

I was Mornon’s pet, so they wanted to cage me to keep him from using me. And I had no say in the matter.

Because no one trusted me anymore.

* * *

Alone, I refused to have breakfast.

The sun emerged through the glass roof, initially filling my room with a pale light and then, as hours passed, bringing unbearable heat.

Alone, I refused to have lunch.

Leaning with one shoulder against the jamb of the open glass door, the thin blue curtains fluttering around me in the light breeze, I gazed with a scowl from the white Leukós on the hills of the Kingdom of Men to the peaks of the towering trees in the Forest of Witches.

Fighting against the need to go to him.

Fighting against the instinct to fetch the Crystal and take it back to the Kingdom of the Elves.

Alone, I refused to have dinner.

Leaning over the terrace, I attempted to appreciate the night’s temperature, vainly hoping the cold shivers would overpower the creeping feeling of the evil within me. With my nose up and tears running down my temples, I was watching a bank of clouds glide across the moon in the star-studded sky when I suddenly heard my parents’ and Araton’s voices.

They had done nothing but argue heatedly from the moment I left the throne room, oblivious to being overheard by the servants, who had probably already spread the word of what was happening to me throughout Aegel.

I looked down as my mother crossed the narrow archway of the courtyard in front of the entrance to my wing of the palace, closely followed by my father and my brother.

They discussed my life without bothering to consult me, as if I were no longer capable of understanding and willing. They clashed over what was best for me, according to my mother, and what was imperative to do to save the people of the Lands of the East, according to my father. Araton tried to moderate the situation, but our parents looked like two wolves ready to slaughter each other.

“Nauriel is not able to protect herself, Annael!” the king shouted.

She stopped in the middle of the courtyard, and when she turned to face him, her loose hair and the cape of her white dress swept wide through the air. “Remember who you’re talking about, Erech,” she warned him in a hiss.

“Were you blind in that room?” he continued. “Didn’t you see what our daughter has become? Couldn’t you sense the leash the enemy is holding her to him with? We must try to save her,” he said peremptorily.

“Our daughter is stronger than all of us,” Mother declared fiercely. “And she will be the one to save us.”

“She can’t,” Araton said in a grave tone.

Father let out a helpless sigh. “She’s already surrendering to the darkness. And you know that, Annael.”

“No, Erech,” the queen countered resolutely. “She won’t be the one to give in.”

My brother folded his arms on his chest, frowning. “What are you trying to say, Mother?”

She approached them, placing one hand on my father’s arm and the other on Araton’s. “They are mates,” she said, her voice filled with hope. “ Mates,” she repeated emphatically, giving their biceps a light squeeze. “There is nothing more powerful than their bond,” she stated with unwavering determination. “And their love will overcome the darkness.”

Two tears fell upon my cheeks. “But you don’t love me,” I whispered, my voice cracking with pain.

Behind me, Mornon pressed his body against mine, pinning me against the parapet and gripping it to trap me between his arms. I shivered as his beard brushed my ear, and I instinctively offered him my cheek so he would kiss it. He didn’t. Instead, he lightly rubbed the tip of his nose against my cheekbone.

“If you let him take you to the witches, prepare to see them die one by one,” he told me. “Your father.” He pushed his groin against my buttocks, and I took a sharp breath as an intense rush of pleasure surged through me. “Your brother.” He swayed his hips again, more forcefully, and I couldn’t contain a moan. “I will kill everyone before your eyes.” His hand moved from my belly to my throat, grasping it possessively. “Because of you.” He nibbled my jawline. “For you.”

Annihilated, I watched my mother gently touch Araton’s face and shake my father’s hand as she persisted in convincing them to give me the chance to demonstrate how great the light the Spirits had granted me was.

To place their trust in me.

But that light she believed was so grandiose, so invincible, had almost entirely faded.

Because of my insatiable, sickening appetite.