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“I will not.”
I promise.
The lie brushed over my lips, but I licked it away and swallowed it whole. Enosh had already made me a whore, but I wouldn’t allow him make me a liar.
“Then I’ll promise no such thing.”
Chapter10
Ada
“A, n, d.” Letter for letter, I put the sounds together like Enosh had taught me, finger trailing over black ink on yellowed paper. “A, an, and the g, o, d… g, go, god, and the god r… ra— Curses!” With a groan, I let my face sink into the copper pelts of my nest. “It’ll take me hundreds of years to read this damn book.”
Worse yet, I would still be alive, stuttering around stories where one letter looked like the next. If the tail went up from the circle on the left side, it madebuh. From the right side crossing to the left?Duh. If the tail went down, it madepuh, but on which side? Left? Right? What fool came up with the idea of creating a letter and tipping it around in books?
“Patience, my little treasure.” Enosh folded an arm under one side of his head where he rested inches from me in my nest and tugged a strand behind my ear. “You did well.”
I hated when he praised me.
Loathed how something inside me soaked it up like the cracked ground did when rain came after a drought.‘You did well’sounded so much better than‘You failed to conceive yet again.’
My finger went to the gemstone set into my collar, trailing around the smoothed edges that came together in the shape of a teardrop. “What’s this stone?”
“A diamond.”
When I glanced down hard enough, until chin hit chest, I could see it sparkling a deep, vivid blue from the bottom edge of my vision. “Where did you get it?”
“From the royal house of Nazameh. They’re long gone, decimated during one of the many quarrels about lands, wealth… power.”
“Is it precious?”
“To me, it’s something of beauty that matches the color of your eyes—a blue like the sea between the Kilafa mountains before the land split apart and drowned some thousand years ago.” His hand stroked over the sway of my hip and the thousands of black feathers that covered me as he rose. “But yes, mortals consider it precious.”
I’d never worn anything precious. Never held much value to anyone except Pa, even though a widowed daughter made for an expensive burden. Husbands were generous with their seed when it came to making babies, but stingy once the midwife came knocking. That some worried my fruitlessness might be contagious didn’t help matters…
Enosh let a high-collared jacket of black leather form around his torso, the bone buttons carved with skulls. “It’s time.”
My gaze drifted to the cloud of bone dust swirling at the bottom of the dais. It formed the distinct shape of a horse, coming together in sturdy bones as my chain dissolved where it rested on the steps. Hide soon followed, covering the creature in brittle skin before dull hairs arranged in a black coat.
I rose, brushing down the black feathers of my dress. “What’s this?”
“Yarin is waiting for us.”
My stomach bottomed out. “Us?You’re… you’re taking me with you?”
“I’d rather have you by my side where I can see you than return home to find your collar broken and the few corpses I left scattered in pieces across the court.” He walked up to me, his black hair framing his regal features so perfectly, and took me into his embrace before he whispered, “This will only hurt for a moment, my little one.”
My heart stumbled over a beat before it hit the back of my throat. “No, please, Enosh. Don’t do this—”
“Shh…” Warmth swathed me, coaxing my stiff muscles into a false state of ease. “Once we return, I’ll mend your bones.”
Crk-crk-crk.
Bone crackled beneath me.
Pain shot up and down my shins. It seared my flesh, pushing me toward unconsciousness. I heaved, wheezed in air, choking on my own saliva until—
“There, there. I’m already dulling the pain away.” Enosh caught me at my first sway, carried me down the dais, and propped me on the horse’s back.
