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Tessa
Listening to the guard's warning had sent a chill down my spine, one that still hadn't left, even though we were safely ensconced in our rooms once more. There was no food, and after days of not eating, I was feeling a lack of nutrients. My body was more than a little unhappy with me.
"Is there any way we can get some food?" I asked quietly while the guys milled around, stewing in their anger.
"Maybe you should ask your future husband?" Griff snapped before striding off to sulk in the corner.
His words were like a slap across the face, but one I deserved. I should never have agreed to Timmon's demand without talking to them first, but I was worried that if I didn't agree, he'd come up with more terms and conditions for me to follow. Agreeing then and there left me with just the one. I moved to the couch where I'd seen Kai napping the single time I poked my head out of my room.
"I'm sorry," I said as I sat down, exhaustion riding me hard. "I didn't think I had another choice, or at least not a good one anyway. If I can die just from touching the wrong plant, I'd like to get this over and done with as quickly as possible."
"Are you sure? Because it seems to me like you're ready to be done with everything, including us." Finn's words were quiet and just as painful as Griff's angry ones. He folded his arms over his chest and stood off to the other side, him and Griff almost mirroring each other. When I didn't immediately respond, he continued, "You were just going to let yourself die? Where's my siren that fights for what she wants? The woman who never gave up all that time in Atlantis?"
"She's dead! Too many people tried to kill her!" I snapped. "She died back in the dungeons in Hyperborea. When you all got me out of there, I swore we wouldn't be broken up like that again. I promised myself I'd do whatever it took to stay with you, and yet you were the ones who sent me away. You broke us up." I tried my best to push the emotions to the side and think about it logically, but I kept circling back to the fact that I thought they were dead. For days.
"Because we didn't want you to get hurt, ladybird. How do you not see that? If there was a way to have kept you safe and have you stay, we would have done that, but we didn't exactly have many options at the time."
Dresden's words made sense, but I still hurt, and I wasn't used to dealing with that when it came to these men.
"And I didn't have any options standing there in front of Timmon and who knows how many Agarthan people. If there was one thing I'd learned after everything that's happened to me in the realms, it's that I need to stand up for myself. I didn't just promise myself that I wouldn't let us be torn apart again. I also promised myself that I would force people to listen and respect me if I had to. And if they still wouldn't, then I'd find the damn stone without them because I may not have said it aloud, but I know there's no way to fully stabilize the other three realms without Agartha's stone. Don't ask me how I know; I just do. So I needed Timmon on my side, and because of that, I did the best thing I could think of, and I agreed. If I didn't, I am fairly sure we would have made an enemy today, and I don't want to know what Timmon is capable of after what that man in the forest said."
That chilled feeling returned to my skin, and I wanted to say it was because I was starving and malnourished, but I knew it had more to do with Agartha's leader than anything else.
"If what he said is true, then we need to be extra careful of what we agree to with Timmon," Niall's voice was oddly soothing. Any other time, I probably would have taken his words as a reprimand, but now I was just tired, so I let the rolling notes of his voice skate over me and calm the anger burning so brightly within.
Dres moved to sit on the floor by the door since there wasn't enough seating for us all if we wanted to be able to look at one another. "It was true, at least from what I could make out in his thoughts. I could have gone into his memories if we'd had more time, but he was panicking about being caught. He truly was scared."
My heart broke for the guard. He just wanted his family to be safe, and I wanted that too. "I never would have left them all to suffocate," I murmured to myself.
"We know that," Niall said as he came and sat next to me, gently reaching out and touching my back. His hand rubbed up and down in a soothing motion, but I could feel my ribs sticking out, and it made me self-conscious, so I pulled away.
I saw the flash of disappointment on his face.Niall, it's not you. I'm just uncomfortable with everything right now.
He gave me a tight smile but didn't reply, so I wasn't sure if my words got through to him or not.
"Look, I know I didn't go about it in the right way, but I'm doing the best I can, just like you were in El Dorado. You sent me away, and I thought you were all dead for days. I've agreed to marry someone of my choosing from Agartha. It won't change anything with any of you unless you want it to, and that's something that I'll make abundantly clear to whoever gets to be the lucky idiot to marry me."
"What if I'm the lucky idiot?" Kai asked quietly.
I hadn't even noticed that he'd come and sat opposite me in an armchair type thing, though it was much curvier than anything I'd seen outside of furniture stores. It looked either incredibly comfortable or like it was the worst thing ever. I wasn't sure which, though, why I was letting a chair distract me at that moment, I didn't know either. No, that's a lie. I totally knew. I just didn't want to admit it.
"You'd do that?" I asked, my voice hoarse suddenly.
"What, like it would be a hardship?" Kai actually smiled then, and I swear my heart skipped a beat. He was so damn beautiful when he wanted to be. It was like he radiated warmth when he was happy and ice when he was angry, which seemed to be most of the time.
"So you get to marry our girl, huh?" Griff asked, his tone so much lighter than a few moments ago. "About time you admitted you had feelings for her."
"Fuck off," Kai growled.
Griff grinned as he poured himself a glass of water from the pitcher on the side counter. Even now, it looked cool as beads of condensation formed on the outside, which surprised me. "Yeah, yeah, whatever."
Kai's face turned serious once more. "Before you agree to anything, there's something we should discuss."
"Okay..." Nerves fluttered in my belly.
"Can we go somewhere private?"
I nodded. "Of course. Is the bedroom okay, or do you need something more?"
