Page 24 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

Looking down at me with his arm still proffered, he cocked an eyebrow. Against all better judgement screaming at me to do otherwise, I sighed and nodded down the hallway, still clutching my hand. “Lead the way, my lord.”

He snorted but said nothing as he dropped his arm and began our path back into the belly of the castle. Zaharya had been right about that much, at least: the walls were hungry.

FollowingTallon down the halls of the castle was an exercise in self-control. With each step we took, I wanted to both cry out in pain and run as far away as I could. But the memory of the stones ripping open like paper to let the Soulshades out sent a shiver down my spine. If they were afraid of him, or if he could control them in some way… Well, I was safer at his side, at least for the moment.

Perhaps only for the moment.

When our path began taking us up a set of stairs into one of the towers, I finally realized exactlywherehe was taking me. Only residential rooms filled the towers, not medical suites.

“I won’t go to your room,” I said, my voice bouncing off the walls as I drew to a stop, despite my words being barely more than a whisper. “I need to get back to the others and help. Can you please just take me back to them?”

“No.”

“Why—” My words were cut off in a hiss as he picked up my injured hand, poking at the already inflamed skin around the torn flesh.

“That is why.” He dropped my hand and turned, looking back over his shoulder at me. “Do not make me carry you, little wolf. I’m not above it. Put aside the needs of others for a godsdamned moment and let me help you tend to your own wounds.”

I bit down hard on my tongue to keep back the retort. Swallowing the barbed words back, I tried again. “I appreciate it, but I am not comfortable going to your room alone. I don’t know you, and I have work to attend to.”

He turned back around to face me fully and stared, his strong brow furrowed. After a moment, he shrugged. And then I was in his arms, one of his arms behind my back beneath my shoulder blades and the other beneath my knees.

My body hummed, buzzing all the way down to my very bones. I wanted to crawl out of my skin, to get away from his touch. “Put me?—”

The walls spun, like I’d lost my balance and spun around too fast. My stomach crept up into my throat and my ears popped. I fought back the urge to vomit, squeezing my eyes shut. What washappening?Once it felt like the room had stopped spinning, I opened my eyes.

We hadn’t moved—I was certain of that—and I hadn’t felt any movement or heard his footsteps across the stone. Yet here we were, in front of a set of double doors that we had not been anywhere near before. Even the halls here were different than the ones we’d been in before, these stones dark with age and moisture. My head was still swimming, and my eyes had a difficult time focusing on one thing. I shook my head, hoping to clear it, only for Tallon’s fingers to dig into the skin at my side and knee.

This tower hall was empty, and if he was as important as he seemed, no one else would be in these quarters. Anger boiled in my veins, throbbing in my forehead in time with the same throbbing of the pain in my hand. I balled my uninjured hand into a fist and punched at his chest. “Put. Me. Down.”

With a quirk of his brow, he set me down. Rage built and built in the pit of my chest, climbing up my throat and wrapping around the base of my tongue like a serpent.

My fingers twitched, itching to reach out and slap the smirk off his face, but I knew that my indiscretion would not be forgiven twice. I should not have let my tongue out of its cage either, but even my self-control had limits. I stepped up close to him until my injured hand was trapped between us and looked up at him, staring into his stone-gray eyes. “If youevertouch me without my permission again, I swear on everything in this forsaken kingdom that Iwillhurt you. I do not care who you are.”

He stared back, and I searched for any sign of humor in his face. But he took me seriously, and his eyes darkened. “I think I’d like to see that, little wolf.”

My fury faded some, curling back up into the black pit in my center. Now that my anger was dissipating, the throbbing in my hand was taking back my attention. I squeezed my wrist with my other hand, trying to cut off the circulation and counter the pain.

“Shall we?” he asked, turning the handle and pushing the door open for me as he bowed at the waist slightly.

A whoosh of cold air met me, and I was staring through the doorway into my nightmares. Craggy rocks lined ice-cold black stone paths, slick with something that looked suspiciously like blood. In the distance, red-tinged midnight illuminated the terrifying mountain peaks that towered over the land. And then the screams began.

He snapped to attention, pursing his lips as he looked through the door for a moment before pulling it shut. A heavy sigh escaped his lips and he twisted the handle the opposite way as before, pushing the doors open once more. This time, he did not bow as they opened.

Normal, if even more obscenely opulent, rooms awaited this time. Regardless, the quick study was only enough for me to calm my racing heart and speak again.

“What was that?” I breathed, eyes still wide as I stared into his rooms, taking in the plush fabrics and gilded decor framing a large four-poster bed. This was twice now I had seen the fields of my nightmares when around him, and it was twice too many to be a coincidence.

“Can I see your hand?” He reached for my arm and I snatched it back. My body was nearly shaking with equal parts rage and fear, and I would sooner run headfirst into that hellscape than let him touch me without answers. He huffed and rolled his eyes, stepping into his room as he called over his shoulder. Thick, heavy curtains blocked any outside light except what came from the dozens of candelabras scattered about, the miniature gas lamps on his nightstands, and the fireplace. Based on the wealth dripping from the fireplace, I wasn’t sure if it or the bed was supposed to be the focal point. Likely both. “Truly, Odyssa, if I wanted to hurt you, I would have by now. Please cooperate before you drip blood all over my room.”

An icy cold brushed against my leg, and I knew without looking down that the cat was back. It looked up at me, its too-long tail curling around my calf beneath my dress, the touch burning cold like a snake of ice coiled around my skin. Releasing its hold, it sauntered into the room, looking back at me with too-wide eyes. It, too, seemed to prefer coming to me in Tallon’s presence. Or leading me to him.

My hand throbbed, more painful than before, and I let out a gasp before I could catch it, tears burning at the back of my throat. It did need medical attention, and despite the feeling in my bones that something else was going on here, that I had eyes on my back, this was the only way I was going to get it. Tallon had ensured that.

“Do you even know how to clean a wound properly?” I pushed the words through gritted teeth as I joined him in the plush sitting area beside his fireplace. I did not sit.

His laugh was rich and warm yet it still sent shivers down my spine with the power it exuded. It didn’tfit. He didn’t fit, in this room or in this castle. There was something dark lurking beneath his skin, behind the gray of his eyes, and he was doing a poor job of hiding it.

“Who are you?” I murmured. The Soulshades had not reappeared, but something in my soul was reacting. There was no ash on my tongue, no smoke in my throat, but the heaviness wrapped around my ribs and squeezed. “Why are they all so afraid of you?”

---