AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, that’s a comfort.” I turn on my heels and march back toward the window before facing him again.
He doesn’t as much as chuckle at my sarcasm. On the contrary, an echo of the fury from before spreads across his features, and I almost cringe at the power radiating from his body as he stands as if ready for a fight.
“Don’t worry, Wolayna. They won’t dare openly attack you after what happened today. Not if you don’t try to run again, which our bargain demands you don’t.”
“I never agreed on not trying again,” I point out, but all I get is a chuckle.
“You agreed to play the happy bride, and happy brides don’t run.”
Of course, he found a loophole. Apparently, I’m not the only one who’s smart here.
“Happy brides also don’t get drowned by a lake stored in a side room.” Turning back to the window, I try to sound casual as I stroll away. Not one bone or muscle in my body is hurting now, even when I still have blood on my arm and on my face and neck and my clothes are dirty from crawling over the forest ground. A bath would be a great idea, but I’m too terrified I’ll end up in that very room all over again.
Myron doesn’t respond until I turn and face him again. “I already told you that door shouldn’t have opened for you. It shouldn’t open for anyone but the King of Crows. It hasn’t opened in a hundred years.”
The unease in his tone brings the tightness back to my stomach.
“Why did it open for me?”
Gesturing at the shelf behind him, Myron shakes his head. “Perhaps you should do a little reading next time I leave you alone. Find out more about the history of your kingdom, Wolayna.”
My jaw drops as, for the first time, he names what my marriage to him implies.
“You’ll get used to it soon enough. As for now, let’s get you cleaned up and take a stroll through the palace to show everyone you’ve made it back from your little walk safely.”
With a slight bow, he motions for me to enter his bathing room—not the killing sort—and I obey, only because, the sooner we start this, the sooner it will be over. In my mind, I’m already putting together a list of things to ask Royad about next time I see him to get more background information. But for now?—
On my way to the bathing room, I stop a foot from Myron, placing my hand on his feathered biceps and swallowing the sense of fear that still rises whenever I’m reminded what he is. “Thank you for saving me today.”
Gracefully inclining his head, he places his free hand over mine to hold it there. “It’s my honor, my queen.” And in that moment, he is more than the male who I was forced to marry. More than the monster who dragged me down the hallway to his bedroom. He is more than the male who told me he’d never force himself on me and more than the king who is fighting to keep stability in his restricted realm. In this moment, he is humble and gentle and genuine.
As I finally pull my hand away and cross the threshold into the bathing room, my mind isn’t the only part of me that’s confused. Something deep down in my stomach has decided to remain clenched until I can unriddle the male who seems to resent what he has done to me almost as much as what the other Crows were trying to do to me.
Nineteen
After the escape debacle,I’ve spent a week hiding in Myron’s room whenever he is busy or I am not walking the hallways with him to demonstrate I’m still alive and supposedly happy. I don’t know why he cares so much that his people believe I am, but I have been too busy drilling into any book on Crow Fairies and the history of Askarea that I can find. There is little on the Crows in those books, although I have learned that Carius killed an entire dynasty of fire-wielding fairies in order to settle here with his people. That at least explains why the book Myron read that first night keeps referencing Flames.
I also find a brief paragraph about the Ultimate Sacrifice, a ritual performed by thousands of human mages who bled on the borders of the fairylands to seal the wicked immortals in their realm. It’s a comfort to think humans were once able to wield magic, and I wonder what it would be like to have some sort of power to match my enemies’. So far, my wits are the only weapon I have, and I am doing whatever I can to hone that weapon.
Myron no longer tells me to stay in his room when he leaves, and he doesn’t have to. My experience with his people in the forest is enough to make me want to never leave his artful chambers ever again. However, I do whenever Royad drops by to take me for a walk.
We’ve rounded the palace a few times over the past days, but I haven’t seen much of thelimited realmas they call it, and today is no different. Royad and I are strolling through what must have once been the back gardens of the palace where now brambles and rocks have overpowered what must have once been roses and other flowers.
“When you said the Crows were sealed into the Seeing Forest, does that mean by magic?”
The gravel crunches beneath our boots as Royad is struggling for an answer he can get past his lips. I’ve had days to learn when and how both Royad and Myron appear to have trouble responding to my questions, and it seems yes and no questions are the easiest for them. I haven’t pushed for why they can’t say certain things. It’s obvious whatever magic prevents them is eager to make them bleed for every wrong word. Even if I don’t consider myself their friend, it would be wrong to make them suffer for my curiosity.
Then there is Myron’s hint that too much information might accidentally kill me. I try not to dwell on it as I wait for Royad’s reluctant nod. “It’s always magic.” He gestures around the former gardens to the seam of the forest. “The magic that ended the last Crow War is still stored in these very grounds.”
It’s more than what I expected, and it brings up more questions—as these conversations usually do. “Whose magic?”
He cocks his head, eyes on the clouds hanging low on the horizon where they kiss the treetops in a bath of orange sunset light.
“That of the Fairy King’s mate.” He swallows as if readying himself for the punishment his extended responses often get him, and I hate to see him flinch and take a deep breath.
So, I tell him what I’ve read instead, deciding that, if he has something to add, he’ll enlighten me, or if I got something wrong, he’ll point it out.
“The Flames…” I start hesitantly, waiting to see if he wants to fill something in right away before I continue. “They are who built this palace.”
