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“Well,” she called to me while tucking the parietal skull bone into her accompanied sack, then placed her hands on her illustrious hips. “Not bad for a night’s work. Two nights. But this one was far easier than last night. Company’s much better, too.”
I couldn’t fight the smile behind my mask. I turned my full body toward her and kept my responses brief. “Oh?”
“Far more clothed, too,” she hinted with a conniving smile. It was the first time the blood rushed to my cheeks. My knees weakened since I didn’t have much blood anyway. Her scent overwhelming the room didn’t help. “But I wouldn’t mind a little peek under all that if you know what I mean. After all, I’m leaving Talahn-Feyal far behind by dawn. And if tonight is all we have...” she eluded.
Now, my chuckle was unrestrained to overlap Kryach’s deep and annoyed groan in my mind. His shades curved from my body, but I managed to harness them until my thick robes concealed them.
Go on, Allysteir. Show her what she longs to see,taunted Kryach.
Hmm...I paused, musing because this little Finn the Thief was right about one thing: tonight was all we had.
I removed my mask. Slowly.
Each muscle around her eyes widened those orbs. Her brows tethered to my creeping gesture. When I dropped it on the bony ground, she did not flinch. I studied the scarlet walker girl. At first, she parted her lips, blowing wind through her nose until she wildly shook her head.
It’s no trick,I almost said but didn’t bother. She was keen. A raw cunning bred within her on account of her...controversial trade.
It wasn’t long before Finleigh leaned away, her eyes never straying. They marked me as much as mine marked her. She bit her lower lip, chewed on the inside of her cheek, processing the brief time we’d shared.
When she peered at the parietal skull bone edging from her sack, I recognized the expression in her eyes when she snapped them back to me. Cornered prey prepared to do battle, perhaps prepared to conjure some magic with the skull bone. Magic I knew was too strong, too powerful, it would destroy her.
As she tensed, I raised my hand. Glanced at the glove, I huffed before ripping it away with my teeth to betray my exposed phalanges. “Please...take it. It will be a treat to watch the elders’ reactions once they learn it’s missing. And pilfered by a scarlet walker girl! After dawn, of course...when you’ve left Talahn-Feyal far behind,” I added and swept my hand to the exit.
First, Finleigh didn’t hesitate. I winced from the rush of warm hair, laced with heavy masculine odors but with an undercurrent of fresh herbs, mint the most prominent. I smiled, shoulders heaving, relieved she didn’t use the skull bone’s magic. But as I cringed while bending to pick up my mask, her fingers collided with my bones. Stunned, I flinched, nearly jerked away. But she beat me to it. Except when I peered up at her face, her eyes held no great fear. Nor did they narrow in disgust.
Instead, she glanced at the mask in her hand before creeping her arm to me to return it. I nodded and replaced it.
Once I’d firmly fixed it to my face, Finleigh’s lips parted. Those knowing wintry blue eyes, cold and cunning, yet capable of cracking and thawing within instants, greeted mine. “Why?”
I could fill in a thousand follow-up questions. Why didn’t I stop her the moment she landed on the dais? I could have propelled Kryach’s shades to knock her into the River Cryth. Why didn’t I alert her to my identity when we met behind the curtain? Or call the guards? Why did I allow her to drag me throughout the citadel as if we were mischievous children hiding from servants and guards? Why didn’t I stop her from entering the Unseen section? Why did I allow her to take the skull bone instead of commanding a host of guards to cart her off to the prison? Or summon Kryach to reap her soul for her audacity?
If it’s your desire, Allysteir, I would be more than happy to reap this pesky harpy’s soul,Kryach opted, but I responded with stony silence.
For Finleigh, however...”If you so choose, my lady, I will not bat an eye. You may take my ancestor’s parietal skull bone of the primary Corpse King. Pay off your debt to your Scarlet District. Or...”
“Or?” Finleigh did narrow her eyes. Her fingers curved, poised upon her sack.
I sighed and dropped my hands to my sides. “Or you could have more than a skull bone tonight. You could have a...a King.”
I slammed my eyes shut because her expression would be far worse than her words. Those words didn’t come. So, I dared to open one eye to glimpse her beyond my mask cavities, those soulless depths, to witness her pause and purse her lips until hope swelled my chest. An emotion predating Kryach. A tidal wave launched my heart into my throat. I nearly choked, awaiting her response.
“All the Corpse Kings’ brides die.” A natural response. A shrewd one. Inoffensive. She didn’t echo any dreadful ditties conjured by minstrels of old, ones sealed into the ears of every Talahn-Feyal infant at birth. No, her words were factual. Well, almost factual.
I shook my head. “Not my mother.” I hoped my cringe would not betray me. After all, Mathyr’s soul was scarred. But if Kryach believed Finleigh’s was already scarred, if he viewed her as only damaged goods?
I do?
?then, perhaps he would let her go.Please let her go. Please let it be her...my first bride.Oh, could I ever hope for such a boon from the God of Death when this was never meant to be my burden, when I volunteered for this, when I sacrificed myself for my brother?
Finleigh sighed, chewing on her lower lip before she reached into the sack and clutched the parietal skull bone. “I never believed all those silly songs the madams would sing to us when we were wee bayrnies in the District. Well, I did until your reign was announced, my Corpse King.”
“Ally please,” I offered, preferring the nickname Aydon called me when we were little. It would sound lovelier upon Finn’s lips.
“You were never supposed to be King. Everyone knew it was meant for Prince Aydon. It could mean only one thing: you sacrificed yourself. And well, I-I’ve never heard of such sacrifice. Not even my mother...well, she?” her voice cracked, her eyes misted, but it wasn’t long before her ice returned, where the thaw hardened again, “?she pushed me out, paid off her debt, and left me to the District. So, imagine my shock when I learned the one who holds the God of Death, the Corpse King himself, who steals bones to make his brew and prefers hearts to taste in stew, would sacrifice so much...for ascarletgirl he’d met an hour prior. A scarlet girl who dared to steal from Death.”
I closed the distance between us but kept my mask on as her fresh mist of tears returned, as she lowered her chin. My whole being softened, chest threatening to cave in until I was nothing more than a bag of bones and rotted flesh at her feet. Instead, I dared to stroke my fingers across her cheek and breathed slowly and steadily to fill my chest. I marveled at her smoothness, at the angular cheekbones marked by brown sugar crystal constellations and her strong jaw betraying the sign of far too many nights clenching from...pain. Pain I would spare her if I could because ever since I’d accepted Kryach, my being was nothing but pain.
“It’s Ally, not Death. And if it is your wish, you will be a scarlet girl no longer tonight. You will be a bride-to-be of the Corpse King. My lady consort until the day of our wedding. And on our wedding night?”
