Page 85 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

“Why would you ever leave here?” I asked. “If it’s so nice, why did you leave?”

“Do you see anyone else here?” He shrugged and looked around at the empty void. “Occasionally, someone would pass through. And of course, I could speak with Kalyx in the palace, but I was lonely, Odyssa. I was a herald of Death— people were not pleased to see me. They ran in terror when they discovered what my presence meant. I wanted to live, wanted to know what it felt like for someone to be happy I was with them for once.”

“And Eadric just made it so everyone still feared you anyways,” I murmured, my heart breaking for him.

He ran his thumb over my lower lip. “Until you.”

“I was afraid of you at first,” I admitted.

His laugh was like silk washing over my body and I couldn’t stop from smiling with him. He moved his hand to cup the back of my head and pulled me ever closer into his body. “No, Odyssa, you were never afraid of me. You were curious, certainly. Suspicious and angry, absolutely, but never afraid.”

“I should have been afraid.”

“Yes, you should have. But I will be forever grateful that you weren’t. You are what I’ve been looking for my entire existence, my wolf, and I will never let you go.”

My heart soared, secretly pleased by the possessiveness in his voice. No one had ever wantedmebefore, only what I could do for them. He was what I’d been looking for, too, and what I’d never allowed myself to have. I would never let him go either; he was mine now. “Kiss me, Tallon.”

His eyes flashed silver, and then he did.

When we returned to Veressia and the ballroom, Camelya had somehow formed the crowd into four long lines in front of the spread of tables across the stage, stretching back to the end of the ballroom. At the head of each line stood Camelya, Zaharya, Maricara, and Elena, each with a map in front of them and a stack of boxes at their elbows filled with tiny glass vials. I watched as each person stepped up to the table and, after a short discussion, was directed to a section on the map and given a vial of crimson from the box.

The lines moved quickly, and before long, the ballroom was only filled with people waiting to be given leave for their work. And just in time, too, as the sky began to slowly lighten. Not quite dawn yet, but near it. I looked up at Tallon, who was staring out over the room, assessing everything.

“Is this the right thing to do?” I asked, suddenly uncertain of what I’d commanded.

His gaze softened when he looked down at me. “Yes, absolutely.”

“We’re ready,” Camelya called, interrupting only more of my hesitancy.

Before I could respond, Tallon nodded at her, and I squeezed his hand to express my gratitude. “Send them off, then. We will be leaving as well. Clear the castle and then lock the gates from the outside.” He paused. “All of the gates, Camelya, even the ones to the tunnels. Once the gates are locked, throw the keys into the river. No one will ever enter this castle again.”

I was practically vibrating by the time everyone had filed out of the ballroom, anxious to get out myself and get to Emyl. Every moment that passed, I felt my muscles grow tighter, coiling like a spring. Finally,finally, the ballroom was empty of those who’d been here as guests. It was solemn now, only us six still remaining.

Despite my anxiety, I wanted to address the others. “You are all free now, and I hope you return home and find what this castle has taken from you.”

“You as well.” Maricara surprised me as the first to respond. “This castle brought out the worst in us all, but it brings me hope to see how you overcame that. I hope we can all do the same.”

“Be safe in your journey,” Tallon rumbled from behind me.

We all said our goodbyes to each other, Tallon reminding Camelya again about his instructions. Another moment, and then Tallon and I were alone in the ballroom at last. I let my mask fall, both the physical one and the emotional one. I was trembling with the need to get out of this castle. “Emyl now, please.”

Tallon nodded, pulling off his own mask as he pulled me to his side. A whirl of his magic surrounded us, and when it fell, we were in the street in front of my house, and the dawn sky was red no longer.

I swallowed back the burning tears in my throat and approached the door. Testing the handle, it gave way, unlocked.

But the smell of death and decay rushed out of the door to meet me, and I fell to my knees, unshed tears burning at the back of my throat.

I was too late. Emyl was dead.

ChapterThirty-Eight

Amid my grief, I felt Tallon move behind me, pulling the door closed, though the stench of death still burned in my nostrils. He did not try to pull me to my feet, instead sinking down beside me and resting his hand at the nape of my neck.

“Stay out here, my wolf. I will go in,” he murmured. I did not have the energy nor the desire to fight him on his proclamation. He pressed a kiss to the side of my head and then the smell wafted out once more before the door clicked shut.

My hands were trembling, my breath shaking, and my entire body seemed to want to implode on itself. All of this for nothing. I had no family left, and nothing to show from the hell I experienced in that castle. Now, I would never be able to prove myself worthy of their love, to convince them to change their minds and see me as a sister rather than a caretaker. I’d lost my only opportunity, carried away on rivers of blood that came from the same magic that Tallon and I had wielded to make our escape.

The door opened again and Tallon exited, pulling it tightly closed. This time, he did pull me to my feet and settle me onto the bench just beside the door, kneeling in front of me on the cold stone. “I am sorry, Odyssa.”

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