Page 53 of The Last Wish of Bristol Keats
Tyghan was frozen in place, his eyes bright and wild. “You were with Kormick?”
“Yes, in town. He found me when I was in a little shop. One minute I was looking at a knife, and the next I was in some kind of cellar with no way out. A nightjump.” She paused, her breath shuddering. “Mick knows that Cael escaped. He’s looking for him. But I turned it back on him, saying I had no idea where he was and accused him of making a stupid mistake, letting Cael get away.”
Bristol heard herself going on and on in a long rattling breath, trying to remember every word that was said—except for the parts when Mick talked about their relationship and what he wanted to do with her in the cellar bed. “I played up my anger, and I think he bought my story. He took me back to the shop and let me go. He’s going to search the wilds for a dead body.”
“What about—”
Cael cut in before Tyghan could finish. “Mick? Kormick has a pet name? And he came to you of all people?” His eyes narrowed as he leaned forward in his chair. “Just how do you knowMick?”
The sickening innuendo in his tone punched the air, and Bristol’s veins went molten. She thought Mick had pushed her to the edge, but Cael shoved her over it. She’d had enough.
She took a step toward him, and Cael saw the threat. He stood to meet her. “In spite of what my brother may have said about me being helpless, I am quite capable, and I should warn you, I have full control of my powers again. I asked a simple question, that’s all, how you are on such friendly terms with a king who is trying to destroy us.”
Tyghan waved his hand. “Cael, stay out of this and sit down.”
But Bristol stepped closer, her hands trembling. “An affair! I had an affair with him. Is that what you want to hear? One that I deeply regret, almost as much as I regret saving your ass.”
Cael’s hands went up in defense. “I meant nothing salacious by it, I promise. I was surprised, that’s all. Please, sit down. Join us. Someone pour her a drink.”
A flurry of words and activity rushed in to fill the awkwardness, but Bristol only heard it as a dull roar. She looked down at her soiled, torn dress.Tonight is formal. Dress in your best. “I need to go change.” A way out. A place to breathe.
“No, no,” Cael said. “Please—”
But Bristol was already bolting for the door, Tyghan on her heels.
“Slow down,” Tyghan said, keeping his voice calm as he trailed behind her. “It’s not a race. You’ve been through a scare. We’ll get you cleaned up, and I’ll have dinner brought to the room.”
Her paced picked up. “No. I just need to get out of these clothes, and then we’ll go back.”
“Bristol.” Tyghan grabbed her arm. “Slow down. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine. A few scrapes. That’s all.” Her steps slowed, and she looked sideways at him. “I overreacted, didn’t I?”
He winced. “Maybe a little. Cael’s been away for months and is hearing all this news for the first time. Remember when you saw Kormick in the Timbercrest ballroom for the first time? How shocked you were? How you felt?”
“You’re right,” she said. “I just—” She finally stopped walking and faced him. “We kissed, Tyghan.”
His jaw clenched. “Kormick? He kissed you?”
She shook her head. “No.Wekissed. I kissed him back.” She reached out, like she was dizzy, and braced herself against the wall. “I understand now what he’s doing to my mother. He did it to me when we were in Bowskeep, and then again, just now in that cellar. I heard the warning in my head, my instincts were there and ready to act, but then a strange warmth flooded into me. It drowned out my fears, my logic. He muffled every worry in my head.”
Tyghan nodded as if he understood what Kormick had done. “He can flood your head with energies from his own body, ones that drown out your own thoughts. The effect is short-lived, but can last long enough to gain favor or information.”
“Like a drug? Is that something only a demigod can do?”
He nodded.
Her eyes drilled into him, her pupils pinpoints. “Can you do that?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never tried. It’s against the statutes of Elphame. The mind and will are sacred.”
She rubbed her temple. “I’m still foggy. Though that might be from the nightjump. I nearly suffocated. It was long, like he was trying to punish me. He took me back to the gift shop and warned me to leave like I promised, or there would be consequences.”
Tyghan’s brow furrowed. “Like you promised?”
She explained about her concocted story of wanting to get out of Elphame but needing to follow one last lead in Bogshollow—an ogre who claimed to know something about her father. “So after five days, I’ll have to lie low too.”
By the time they got to her room, her fogginess was gone, which made her stress ease. While she washed her face, Tyghan pulled a fresh dress from her wardrobe—the aqua dress she was wearing when, in front of everyone at the palace, he had asked her to dance. The dress that had fallen unceremoniously to the floor the first night they had made love.
