AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The shadows moved around me, and I was alone.
CHAPTER12
Honor
Later that night,in the place that scared me most, I looked down at Kessily through the bars. She was sleeping, which was merciful for her; her knees were drawn up to her chest, and when she looked so pitiful, I had to remind myself she’d kill Zehr and me in a heartbeat.
I pressed my hand to the cold stone wall, remembering how I’d shivered against these stones. And sometime—another time—Lynx had been locked away here too. In these cells that were in the tower, high above the bustle of the castle, we were locked away alone in the sky.
My heart beat wildly just being in these rooms again, where I had been so powerless. For the first time, I realized my parents taking these memories had been a gift as well as theft. But they’d only been able to take the memories, not the way that fear carved into my brain and changed who I was.
Afterward, I had fashioned myself into a girl who was fearless to the point of recklessness. That wasn’t a quirk of personality. It was yet another scar.
Once I had leaned my back against that stone wall, my knees drawn up to my chin, and I couldn’t move from that spot. No matter how much I willed it. I’d been terrified all the way down to my very core.
It was easy to imagine myself, the little girl with her red hair falling stringy over her shoulders, her eyes wide in her face, and a sense of loathing washed over me.
“You’re never alone now.”Zehr said to me. For a second, I felt touched, and then he added,“I’ve got nowhere else to go.”
“Stay quiet and stay out of my way.”
I gripped the damned doll that had been used to summon Ebba before.
Then Zehr added, quietly,“Sometimes our scars heal stronger than we were before.”
I shook my head, trying to shake him away.
“Ebba,” I called out to him. “Come to me. I’ll give you this girl… with royal blood… as your vessel.”
Kessily startled awake, staring up at me from her place on the straw. Her furious gaze met mine, although there was no hiding her fear.
“Zehr loves me,” she warned me haughtily. “He’ll be furious if you kill me.”
Zehr’s laugh in my ear was low and cruel.
“You tried to kill him, Kessily.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I never would. I didn’t trustyou.You’ve been controlling him.”
“I wish,” I said drily. “He makes terrible choices.”
“Which choices would those be exactly, wild girl?” Zehr drawled in the back of my mind.
“The ones where you’ve lied to me constantly?”
“What’s a little deception between lovers?”
“I’ve been by his side for thirty years!”
Kessily’s voice broke through my reverie with Zehr. I was oddly glad his presence was here with me.
I wouldn’t have wanted any of my other men to see me murder Kessily.
“You can be yourself with me, little monster.”
“I’m not a monster.”
“You’remymonster. Powerful and beautiful.”
