Page 51 of Between Fear and Favor

“No,” she said, stepping closer to me.

We stood in silence, staring out at the rocky beach. The water was a steel grey, still like a lake. Above us, the morning sky was nearly solid white, the sun hidden behind the clouds. As far as I could see, there was only stone and water. Interspersed between the sand and rock were tiny shells, smooth as bone. I shivered, thinking of the conversation Em and I had before bed. We hadn’t spoken about it as we drifted to sleep, exhausted enough to truly appreciate the last night of decent rest we’d have in a while.

Staring at the ground, I wondered if I was actually remembering a moment from my past, or if I was losing my mind. When my shoe, which looked remarkably like a child’s shoe in style, scuffed the ground, the sound helped me find clarity.

“I think we’re in Nythyr.”

Em tensed beside me, squeezing my waist tighter.

“You think correctly, Rainier.”

Spinning toward the voice, I instinctively shoved Em behind me.

“What are we doing here, Nereza?” I demanded.

I hadn’t seen her since I was a child, but she looked the same as I remembered her. Her light brown hair was pulled into a long braid down the center of her back. Her skin was pale, and she had delicate features, though it seemed as if she smelled something foul. I supposed, though there was no King Consort of Nythyr, Nereza must have performed the bonding ceremony with someone; she appeared younger than me.

“I am simply paying an old friend a favor,” she said, voice thickly accented and sounding almost inquisitive.

“We have never been friends, have we?” I asked, hand firmly encircling Em’s wrist to keep her behind me. Though we were in a dream, I didn’t know what kind of damage the woman might have been able to do.

“Not you,” she said, somehow managing to look down her nose at me despite her lesser height. As the woman walked closer, I adjusted, keeping Em hidden behind me. “Not her, either. Although, I am intrigued. What a marvelous addition to my family she would have been. How did you follow him?”

“What?” she asked, and despite the situation, Em’s voice didn’t waver. “What do you mean?”

“I only summoned him here,” she said. “That’s the reason for the clothing.”

When I frowned at the woman, she laughed, and the ringing bell of her voice made me grind my teeth. “That was what you wore when you and your mother visited me,” she said. “I still have the shell you gifted me from this very beach.”

I stiffened, not remembering any such thing. For her to speak of collecting and gifting shells seemed to taint what I’d done for Em for so long. The bond felt strange in this dream-state, but I still sensed the repulsion ebbing from my wife.

“I don’t know how I am here, but I would very much like to leave,” Em said.

“My apologies. I heard how you appreciate his little trinkets.”

“What do you want with my husband?”

The Nythyrian queen laughed once more, leaning over to eye the woman I kept behind me. I didn’t want her to know what Em looked like, if I could avoid it. “Possessive, aren’t we? I simply am here to give yourhusbandone final chance. As a favor to an old friend of mine.”

“Chance for what?” I demanded.

“To give us what we asked for? It is not much, I don’t think.”

My heart stopped beating, hoping to the gods she wouldn’t continue speaking after I answered. Harshly, with as much venom as I could muster, I said, “Nereza, I made myself clear. The answer will always be no.”

“Is that her answer or yours?” the woman asked, and she adjusted our surroundings, shifting us so she stood behind Em. My wife whirled to face her, and Nereza stared back. Taking in each detail of the woman I loved, I wondered if I was about to lose her.

“Ours,” I said at the same time that Em asked her what she was talking about.

“I see,” Nereza said. “I don’t blame you for not telling her. I would likely do the same.”

“I told her enough,” I said, lying through my teeth. When Dewalt had met with the Supreme and Nereza, and he’d returned with their demands, I knew Em would give in without hesitation if I told her the truth. So, I’d decided not to.

“You told her we would retreat once we had her blood? And this is the choice she made?”

Em reached behind her, grabbing my hand and squeezing hard.

“The choice we made was for Vesta,” I said, doing my best to not let my voice break under the duress and heartbreak I was feeling from Em. And yet, my dear heart said nothing. “You can’t have her blood.”

---