Page 77 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

Iwas barely holding onto my nerves as I dried off. The bath had helped tremendously, cleaning off the remaining dried blood and washing away the worst of the memories from the prince’s study. Now that I had a moment alone to process everything else that happened afterward, I was practically vibrating from my skin.

Tallon was something I’d never anticipated when I entered the gilded walls of Castle Auretras, and yet he’d burrowed under my skin. I knew it would be an exercise in futility to try to excise him now, and I was not sure I even wanted to try in the first place. He said I made him feel alive—the entire reason he’d made the bargain with King Gavriel. It was a heady feeling to know that I was enough for someone like Tallon.

And he made me feel alive, too—that was the problem. I’d entered the gates of Castle Auretras content that I would likely die inside those walls. Emyl and Rhyon had shunned me, and though I had always planned to do whatever it took to get both money and treatment to them if I could, I’d not entered expecting to find a reason of my own to live.

But now, beyond that door, Tallon awaited. And together, we were going to burn Castle Auretras to the ground. We would figure out everything else between us after.

Wrapping the towel around my torso, I took another fortifying breath and stepped back into the bedroom. I was curious what dress he would have for me, and how he had gotten a dress at all in such short notice.

Tallon looked up from where he was bent over the bed, arranging a mass of crimson fabric across his dark sheets. He was dressed already, once again in a black silk shirt and tight-fitting black pants, and while I much preferred the look of his bare skin covered by the swirling Death marks that bound us together, I couldn’t deny how my mouth dried at the sight of him now.

At the sight of me, still damp from the bath, his gray eyes turned molten. “You have no idea how tempting you are, do you?” he asked.

I swallowed hard. “I could say the same to you.”

The smile across his face was so genuine, and it made my heart squeeze. “Better you don’t, or I might keep trying to convince you to forget about all of this and stay here with me forever.”

“You know I cannot do that,” I murmured. Though I had to decline, it did fill me with a warmth that he continued to say that, that he continued to want me like this. Still, I could not bear to bring my gaze to his, to see the want in his eyes and the disappointment at my words. It was tiring, disappointing everyone, in one way or another. I tightened my hold around the towel and fingered the mass of fabric. “Is this for me?”

He cleared his throat. “Yes, yes. Put on the dress itself and I will help you finish.”

“Finish what?”

There was the smirk. “There are multiple parts to the dress beyond just this, Odyssa.”

Before I lost the nerve, I dropped the towel and pulled the mass of crimson and black fabric over my head. Tallon groaned behind me, but he did not move as I settled the dress down around my body.

High-necked, sleeveless, and an entirely open back. It hugged my torso and hips down to mid-thigh before it flared out into a dramatic skirt the darkest shade of black. A slit in the left side revealed my leg nearly all the way up to my hip bone. I felt the back gaping and despite the collared neck, the dress felt entirely too loose.

“It’s…”

“Ah, I told you there’s more.” He lifted a golden expanse of metal and held it out for my inspection. It was fashioned in the shape of a spinal column, with tendrils of gold reaching out from all sides. “This goes on your back.”

Wordlessly, I turned and lifted my hair off my neck for him to attach it. The metal was cold but warmed quickly between my skin and Tallon’s. His fingers lingered along my bare back as he affixed the piece to the sides of the dress, pulling it taut along my back. It fit much nicer now.

He turned me around to face him, running a finger down my cheek. “Gorgeous, my wolf.”

“Why do you call me that?” I murmured, letting myself get lost in his reverent touches.

“The first night you saw me, when you looked at me… I could sense you. All that duty, responsibility you had been burdened with. The fierce loyalty and intelligence behind your eyes. Your curiosity,” he continued. He pressed his lips to mine. “Your bravery.”

Tears pricked my eyes. “You truly believe that?”

“With every fiber of my being, Odyssa.” Another kiss, this one lingering. “You need shoes still.”

Instead of the normal satin slippers we wore with our veils, he set out a pair of sturdy, low-cut boots that looked remarkably like his own, yet were clearly made to go with the dress. Black so deep it absorbed all the light around it, yet lined with crimson gems. “How long have you had this outfit for me?”

He raised an eyebrow. “I don’t believe you are quite ready for that answer, my wolf.”

I narrowed my eyes, hearing the words he would not say, that he’d had this for far longer than he should have.

“You are breathtaking, Odyssa. I wish we had more time, but I promise you, after all this business is handled, I will take great pleasure in removing this dress,” he said. His finger ran down from my neck all the way along my arm, leaving warm sparks in its wake. When he reached my hand, he dropped to his knees, drawing something from behind his back and shifting the slit of the skirt aside to reveal my thigh. “This is a bloodstone dagger,” he explained, pulling the red-bladed knife from the sheath he wore at his back. My eyes widened, remembering when I’d held that very knife to his own neck just days ago. He grinned and reached to strap the sheath around my leg. “It can kill anything, even a Soulshade.” He looked up at me, eyes flashing silver. “Use it.”

I nodded, trying to keep my focus on the knife and not on the sight of Tallon on his knees before me. “What of my magic?”

He rose smoothly, shaking his head with a grimace. “We don’t have the time to teach you enough to be sure you could consistently call upon it. That would take weeks and weeks of training. But if it comes to you tonight, don’t fight it. Use your instincts; they will keep you alive.”

The bells in the castle tower tolled nine times, signaling the start of the ball. My stomach churned as the ringing echoed through the walls. It was time for us to go. I’d said before that the study was my last chance, but truly, this was. If we failed this time, so publicly, I doubted either of us would live long enough to even feel the shame.

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