Briar. If there’s two, there could be more.
My blade evaporates and I run back to the village. I don’t care to stop and warn anyone. Briar’s beautiful face pushes its way to the front of my mind and nothing else matters. When I return, I see Willem sneaking through the halls again, clutching a towel to his hip. But it’s not his own room I see him leaving.
I push down my panic, a strange feel of distrust for Willem that I haven’t felt before. “Two females in less than four hours? That has to be a record. What? Are you and my brother competing for some secret championship?”
If Willem isn’t in a panic, then perhaps Briar is safe.
Willem gives me a droll look as Elluine walks out of the door behind him, looking rather rumpled. I lean against the wall and run a hand through my hair, shielding the wild beating of my heart. “I came to tell you to keep an eye on things. I was out scouting when I was attacked by two mercenaries. They weren’t wearing flags or anything like that. Their faces were covered for the most part. If you find one, capture it. Killing it will cause it to turn to dust. Learned that the hard way. I need to check something out. I’ll be back in a while.”
Elluine grasps my arm as I turn to leave. My eyes shift immediately to hers, my body rising in stature. She drops her hand when I flash my fangs.
“The Drogaem shouldn’t be awakened,” the village leader says. “Please. For all of our sakes.”
I walk away at a normal pace feeling Elluine and Willem’s eyes on my back as I return to my bride. Her dark hair fanning out over the pillows and the steady rise and fall of her chest is the most beautiful thing I’ve seen all day. My hands shake as I climb into bed beside her, pulling her against my chest again and revel in the fact that she’s allowing me to be near her. Briar stretches a little and rolls over. I follow.
She sighs contently as I slot myself against her back and close my eyes. I focus on the thrum of her heartbeat, letting it lull me to sleep. My powers search for Briar in sleep, but I can’t find her. I stand in a dark room. There’s nothing here. I hear the echoes. This place, wherever it is, is like an endless well of darkness. I walk through abyss until I come upon a wall. My hand brushes the brick. Runes appear and I frown in confusion.
Briar doesn’t know these marks. She didn’t recognize them when we were in Zculth. But somehow, she put up a wall in her mind, blocking the soul bond. I retreat from the darkness and open my eyes for a moment. Briar appears peaceful, but now I know there is still something that keeps her from letting me into her heart. Her mother’s death and her suffering has nothing to do with me. Her father’s stupidity is not my concern either.
And yet I feel guilty. I know I have to open up to her if I expect her to do the same.
But I fear that once she learns the truth, there’s nothing I can do to earn her affection back. There are so many lies and secrets that it's hard to see what’s real and what isn’t anymore.
Briar is real. I am real.
I curl up beside her and allow myself these stolen moments of pure bliss. If Willem were to see me this weak, I’d never live it down.
Chapter 11
Briar
A searing pain lances through my head as I clutch the covers to my chest. The sound of screaming echoes in my ears as I shoot up from the pillows. Sweat dampens the sheets beneath me and Kane is gone. Of course he’s gone. I never should expect him to stay with me for more than a few hours through the night. I flop back onto the mattress and stare up at the vaulted ceiling. Wooden beams in a warm shade of brown form an intricate pattern above my head. It’s so different than some of the muraled ceilings at the castle.
My eyes struggle to adjust to the darkness of the room, but I crawl out from under the blanket. By the time I open the window I notice that the sun is rising in the distance. Perhaps the sky is not always in a perpetual sunrise. Perhaps the sun is just always blocked by the dark mountains to the West and filter through the Blood Forest, causing it to appear as though the sun is always stuck halfway between night and day. I press my fingers to my temples and try to push the pain away.
To my surprise, it works.
Though the fading prickles of the headache still tease the edges of my mind, the worst of the pain is gone. I wash up in the basin behind the privacy screen, not wanting to bother with hauling the water for a bath so early in the morning. When I leave my room, I hear the sound of muffled voices drifting through the corridor. Elluine stands less than a foot away from Kane and Willem as she begs them to reconsider our journey.
“No one in Phaendar will give you a boat,” the village leader claims. “I won’t take you there and neither will any of my people. With all due respect, I don’t want your blood on my hands. When the history books write about this day, I don’t want people to associate my name with the day that Death died.”
I approach quietly, not wanting to give away my presence just
