Page 91 of Lady of the Drowned Empire
Black spots appeared in my vision. The horror of Rhyan in ropes made me sick. I remembered now our final meeting years before. I’d dropped scrolls before him, and he’d been cold as he’d helped me pick them up. Distancing himself from me, from our kiss at solstice. Had he been bound then? Had he been covered, being tortured by the thing he hated, all so he could protect me? I’d been crushed, heartbroken. I had no idea what he’d been suffering at the time.
“I’m sorry,” I said, my eyes burning. “I’m feeling dizzy.”
I couldn’t catch my breath. Rhyan had been protecting me for years, long before I’d had any idea he’d felt anything for me. He had been sacrificing, submitting to this monster, for so much longer than I’d known.
All for me.
“You look touched by his gesture,” his father said, his hold tightening again. His fingers dug into my waist, and just as I was about to cry out in pain, he shook his head. “Now, now. You slayed an akadim. You need to show me you’re strong. Or else the vultures will descend, and you’ll be married before you know it to someone far worse with much less to offer.”
My entire body was shaking. I wasn’t going to play this game any longer.
“Ah. There she is. The mask comes off at last. Never forget, little slayer. You’re one step above a forsworn. Powerless in more ways than you know right now. Your name no longer protects you with this new line of succession. And your lack of magic, it doesn’t help. But I can make you whole. I can provide power, give you what you seek, if you give me what I want.”
“And what is that?” I asked through gritted teeth.
“You and him. Back under my roof, my rules, my command.”
“You exiled him. He’s not in Glemaria because of you. That’s your fault.”
“He murdered his mother.”
“He did not, and you Godsdamned well know it!”
“I won’t even entertain what I believe you’re suggesting. I am forgiving. I will forgive him for the crimes he committed out of fatherly love. He is strong, he doesn’t know his strength sometimes. Mistakes happen. But this clemency comes under one condition—you come to me willingly, marry whom I choose, and bring him along.”
“I would never do that to him.”
He grinned. “You return his feelings for you. Interesting.”
I snarled.
His head wobbled from side to side as if he was deliberating a decision. With an overly exasperated sigh, he said, “Then my pretty little heirloom remains at my waist. And if Rhyan ever steps foot outside of Bamaria again, I will have him. And this time, there will be no bargain. No negotiating. And even his little…ability to move around will not save him.”
His hand shot to his belt, opening a green velvet pouch at his waist. A hissing sound emerged, one I’d heard before.
My body went cold.
“Go on,” he commanded, squeezing me tighter. I almost bowed over.
“Your h-highness,” I stuttered through the pain.
“Put your hand in my pocket,” he ordered.
He’d danced us into a corner of the room that was dark and secluded. No one could see what he was doing. See that he was hurting me, threatening me.
Morgana wasn’t far. She could come. She could stop it. But she couldn’t hear me. My mind was closed to hers.
I watched Rhyan’s father smile cruelly through his trim beard. “Please,” I begged. “No.”
“I didn’t ask if you wanted to, my lady. I said, do it.”
His hand snapped around my wrist like a viper and shoved my hand inside the pouch.
I clenched my fist, swallowing back a cry as something scaly and hot as fire slid up my palm.
Nahashim.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
