AllFreeNovel
Share Us
It stung. Even now. The memory of Vesper.
The memory of my stupidity.
But then who had shown up as I was bleeding out? Reliable as always?
That dark, monstrous, dangerous man who was now my mate.
Mate.
No. Not that word. It sounded even more permanent and intense than “husband.” And I was ready for neither.
I cleared my throat. “So I think I know a little something about being left for dead. Though not, admittedly, by a friend who you trusted and who should have known better than to ever take one single step away from your side.”
Lancelet was quiet.
“Draven went back for you,” I said. “He tried. I wasn’t even conscious when it was happening. But after he rescued me, that was the first thing he did. He went back for you. Brought an entire rescue crew to look for you.”
Lancelet’s eyes widened slightly. “He did what?”
“It’s true. He led a group of Siabra to look for you.” I thought back to what he had said. “He thinks he’s the one responsible for your death. I mean, he still thinks you’re dead.”
Lancelet wrinkled her still-perfect nose. I tried not to smile, abruptly close to tears. “What? Why would he think that?”
“He saved Odelna instead of you. He made that choice, and it haunts him. Odelna who wasn’t Odelna at all, it turns out.” I could sense it. She was curious.
Lancelet crossed the room and picked up the dagger from the crumpled pair of trousers.
For a moment, I wondered if she was about to stab me with it. But she simply tossed it onto the wooden chest next to the sword, then turned back to face me.
“That’s stupid. He wasn’t responsible. He tried.” She gave me a significant look that clearly said,“Which was more than you did.”
I nodded. “That’s what I tried to tell him.”
“What do you mean Odelna wasn’t... Odelna?”
“I mean that girl we found in the camp that day had died already.” I savored the shockingness of the words. I had Lancelet’s attention. I wasn’t about to let it go. “She was being...inhabited. By something else. Some sort of spirit or creature. Something powerful.”
To be honest, the entire thing unsettled me. Nor did I particularly like to think about how somethingin a dead child’s body had been the only witness to the messed up rite Draven had performed that had led to us being bound in this fucked up form of marriage.
“And here I thought that monster children eating my face was the worst thing that could happen.” Lancelet sat down on the little bed, looking a little green.
I resisted the urge to sit down beside her, as I would have done in the past.
She hadn’t thrown me out. I had already made progress. But I had to tread carefully.
“I’m serious about the duel,” I said, watching her. “You want to go, I’m ready. Anytime.”
She rolled her eyes.
“I’m serious,” I insisted. “I owe you that. If taking my life will somehow help you to reclaim yours. If it will settle things...”
“Oh, really? And what if you win, Morgan?” she shot back. “Did you think of that? Or what? You’ll just let me win? Let me...what? Murder you for leaving me?”
I shrugged. “If I win, I’ll let you live, obviously.”
“But if I win, I can brutally kill you?” She shook her head. “How gracious of you. But no, thanks. I’m not going to let you assuage your guilt that easily.”
“Easily?” I snapped. “How would... Oh, never mind. That’s not what this is about.”
