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“What are you saying?” he growls.
“You know exactly what I’m saying. I only agreed to go through with the ceremony to save your people.” Under the now voided Proxy Vow, the kingdoms were only allowed to kill for food or to directly defend a life. If you broke the treaty, the No Ones would come for you—a very strong deterrent. So when the Mountain People, who never agreed to the treaty, attacked the wall, the War People were fighting with their hands tied. The Proxy Vow didn’t allow for going on the offense, i.e., sneaking up behind your enemy through secret tunnels built into the wall and attacking.
Cue complicated treaty loophole.
When Alwar married me, it took me off the board as his proxy because husbands are sworn to protect their wives here. It’s a law older than the Proxy Vow. So, with only one other viable proxy left, it voided the Proxy Vow treaty and freed the War People to go on the offense and win the battle. And yes, Alwar was taken hostage during the Mountain People’s retreat, and I went to negotiate with Mato, king of the Mountain People, to get him back. And here we are.
“But you are still my wife,” Alwar argues.
“In name only, just like I told you andyouagreed to on our wedding day.” I made it no secret that I would still decide whom I loved, slept with and shared my life with. I believe my exact words were“this is an arrangement to help you win a war, but my heart and body are off the table. I’ll do what I want with them with whomever I want.”
I think it was a pragmatic approach. I mean, look at us. He’s a fifty-foot-tall warlord, and I am a five-two human—or will be again soon. If size weren’t an issue, he’s not the type of man I’d fall in love with. The man I love will put me first, not put me down. He’ll protect me, not ask me to fight to the death so he can be the ruler. He’ll also treat me as an equal, at least intellectually. Physically, I might be game for a little inequality. Especially in bed. I can’t lie. I like a man who’s big, strong, and hard in all the right places. I like a man who takes charge during sex.
“I have not forgotten,” says Alwar, “but perhaps you do not recall the fact that I swore fidelity to you—even if it meant never bedding another woman again.”
He also said something about winning me over. I still don’t know why. My best guess is that he wants me to think he’s loyal to me. I know he’s not. He’s only loyal to his throne, power, and people.
“Well,” I say, “you made your bed. But that doesn’t exclude Gabrio and Bard from helping or caring about me.”
Alwar laughs into the air. “They are weak and disloyal, just like my mother and sister.”
Ooh. Someone sounds jealous. I stop walking, and Alwar halts, too. “Yet, I wouldn’t be alive if it weren’t for them. Can’t say the same for you. You repeatedly put me in harm’s way.”
Alwar suddenly looks flustered—bunched brows and crinkled lips. “Well-well, that does not change their nature, Lake. Even a fool can prove useful every now and again.”
“So if you don’t trust them, then who? Tiago?” Now it’s my turn to laugh.
Alwar bends down, putting us nose to nose. His nostrils flare, and there’s a stern look in his eyes. I’ve definitely hit a nerve. “I trust no one. Not even you,wife.”
Ouch.The sting is instant. Then again, he’s right. He can’t trust me. “Maybeyoushould’ve thought of that before you forced me to stay here and be the new ruler.”
“Idid think of it, because as king, that is my job. Never forget it, Lake.”
“How could I? Being king is all you talk about. So sad that you’re not even a good one.”
He stands straight up and snarls down at me. A delicious vein pulsing in his temple. He probably wants to thump me over the head with his fist right now. I just want to bite him.
“Oh, did I hurt your feelings?” I say spitefully. “Well, maybe next time,thinkaboutnothanding over an eight-year-old little girl’s parents to die so she has to be raised by her grandma. And when that little girl grows up, having missed her mom and dad every single day of her life,” I raise my voice, “perhaps reconsider taking her from herfuckinghome and using her as afuckingpawn for yourfuckingpolitical gain. And while you’re at all this ‘thinking’ of yours, don’t force her to marry you and then start telling her what to do,” I yell, “after she’s been turned into afucking vampire!”
Alwar looks away, toward the pack of vampires marching far ahead. His chest rises and falls rapidly with agitated breaths. “We should pick up the speed. We are losing time.”
He starts walking.
I’ve hurt his feelings? No, that’s not it. His expression was more stunned or disturbed than anything else.
Is it possible that all this time, he’s never once stopped to consider what he did to me? I’m broken in so many ways, I can’teven begin to count. And every fracture, every scar, every hole in my heart was caused by him.
How could he not know this?
CHAPTER SIX
The Scholar People’s “temple” is not at all what I imagined. For starters, there is no temple, and the entrance is literally a massive hole in the ground, situated on a small mountainside. The terrain around us is covered in round, spiky bushes that remind me of tumbleweed armed with stakes. Very angry-looking bushes.
To our backs is a forest of tall trees that look like willows until you get up close. The drooping branches are more like tentacles, complete with tiny suction cups. Alwar warned me not to get too close.
“Some eat meat; some do not. You can never tell which is which,” he said.
I walk up to the edge of the hole and peek in. It’s a straight drop down, and the opening is barely big enough for someone like Bard to squeeze into.
