Page 62 of House of Pawns
I cross the space and enter the ballroom. Carefully, Raheem hands the sword over.
It’s heavy, heavier than I expected. It’s exceptionally long, so it’s awkward to balance. “Like this,” Raheem says, holding his hands over mine, standing behind me, showing me how to properly hold it. His skin is rough in patches where callouses have worn in and smooth in others. His touch is warm.
He keeps his hands over mine as he slices through the air, hardly even jostling me as he does. “Knees bent,” he says quietly into my ear.
I do as he says and our bodies brush. A spark of electricity ignites in my navel.
He helps me cut through the air once more. “Very good,” he says low.
I glance over my shoulder at him. His dark eyes meet mine and hold. And I’m feeling things. Things that I thought I buried deep.
“How did you find out about me?” I ask, because I cannot handle the intense feelings wrapping around the two of us.
The spell relieved, Raheem moves my hands again in a stabbing motion. “It was an anonymous letter sent,” he says. “They informed the King the moment you arrived.”
So it wasn’t Jasmine. Wasn’t any of her then House members. Someone from town, maybe.
“You’ve watched me this whole time?” I ask as the two of us twirl before slicing in a downward motion. “That picture you left me, it was taken just two weeks after I arrived.”
“Yes,” he answers simply. And there’s so much weight behind it.
I consider what he has seen since he began watching me.
Me being brought back to my Estate after Ian trained me.Me running into the lion’s den when I went to Jasmine’s ball. So many moments of Ian and I being together when we were so afraid of anyone catching us. Me as I desperately clung to a normal life by getting a job and doing what normal people do. And then, me finally offering my life and not succeeding.
“You have done extraordinary things as a human, Alivia Ryan,” Raheem says quietly as his grip on me tightens just slightly. “But just as a caterpillar, you are about to go through a metamorphosis, and turn into something astonishing.”
“Do you really believe that?” I ask, so very desperately wanting someone to believe that of me.
“With every fiber in me.”
THE ARRIVAL OF THE KING makes me nervous, but I can’t say it scares me.
But that sky? The swirling clouds? The thunder that ripples through the sky without a trace of lightning?
Curses. These things that can happen, things that I, and no one as far as I know, can understand?
Curses scare me.
What have I done?
Because from what I understand, the curses are given out as punishment.
King Cyrus was cursed with craving the blood of his own former kind for messing with nature and science. He and his wife were cursed with her repeated death for him forcing vampirism on her. The Hanging Tree was cursed for what the people of Silent Bend did to my uncle over a century ago, as well as his land.
What have I done?
And what is to come?
The fear of the sky is profound throughout my House. Come dark, which comes earlier due to the cloud-swirled skies, when everyone wakes, no one says much of anything. And when they do, it’s in hushed tones. The feeling that we are being watched by a giant eye is wicked and terrifying.
So, everyone works to distract themselves. The staff is gone, so someone has to keep things running.
I cook. My vampires survive off of blood, but they still eat. So I will feed them.
Samuel, Nial, and Cameron work on the pipes, insulating them and thawing areas that have started to freeze. Anna and Markov chop wood and tend to the many fireplaces spread throughout the house, attempting to fight back the cold.
It’s nearly impossible to keep the house warm with the almost negative temperatures and those fierce winds.
