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At some point my lids fluttered open to find Alisdair draped over me, winding my fiery strands around his finger. He didn’t even seem winded.
“It’s about time,” he remarked, smooth and calm. “You’ll have to be awake for this part, since you’ll be upside down.”
My voice was a thin croak. “Wait, what—?”
The room spun again.
Chapter Nine
The next morning, Alisdair declared we were going out to hold court among the people since they couldn’t come to us. He also claimed it was a great opportunity to let every skeptical and secretly resentful villager see the others paying tribute to me, and know that any more attacks against me would summon the wrath of all of Lumenfell.
His suggestions sounded reasonable and wise, and it would’ve been, if my husband wasn’t an evil bastard.
Alisdair strode alongside my litter proud and puffed up like a peacock faeriken. There were no two ways about it. He fucked me so hard the night before, I groaned myself to a shaky, standing position getting out of bed that morning, then promptly collapsed on my ass. I was sore all over, and I wasn’t walking anywhere. Let alone traipsing from village to village.
Alisdair was only too pleased to present the litter, letting all and sundry witness the mess he made of me.
Despite the humiliation, the litter itself was a throne of beauty and comfort. My platform had small, raised sides to hold the bed of silks, blankets, and pillows. Starflowers and roses painted on the sides, and a small, carved headboard cradled my back. Six men held me up by the handles while Talulla walked on the other side with grapes, apple slices, and a bowl of pranganuts. I’d discovered a taste for the tart little fruits and I couldn’t get enough of them.
Our party made our way out of Lumenfell to another, smaller village two miles away, Dervlen.
“Stop,” Alisdair ordered, making the procession pause at the side of the path.
I peered over the side as he bent down, and gasped. The most beautiful flower peeked out of the snow—its petals light and lovely as angel wings. I thought no other flower could be as pretty as a starflower, but then I’d never seen this flower, a twin of the butterfly—speckled, delicate, and flying with the wind.
Alisdair picked it and presented it to me. “For you, little bird. Delight in how even this flower’s beauty pales in comparison to yours.”
I glared fit to burn him where he stood. “Your pretty words and false gifts do not fool me. You don’t get to behave as a beast at night, and a gentleman in the light.”
The corner of his mouth quirked up. “I resent the accusation that I was anything less than gentlemanly last night. Every time you said harder, faster, and deeper, didn’t I obey?”
My face caught fire amid the guards’ shifting glances and smothered chuckles. “I didn’t know what I was saying,” I cried. “The things you do to me... It’s like I lose my mind.”
“Then you’re halfway to me, my queen.” He tucked the flower behind my ear. “Because I lost my mind and all sense of control the moment I met you.”
If there was something to say in response to that, I didn’t know what it was. It was odd, but I was starting to get the feeling that somewhere along the way, Alisdair had stopped hating the pointless, decorative child of his most hated enemy... and had started respecting me.
That threw me even harder than his threats and cruelty.
Even so, that night, I covered myself in more dura dura fruit and jumped on the back of a shocked and squawking bird faeriken, warning him that if he didn’t want my husband to tear his wings off, he’d better fly fast.
We made it five miles out before a dark, growling figure burst through the trees. The poor servant was so terrified, hedumped his load directly in Alisdair’s hands and took off for the mountains.
Alisdair magicked us out of the Taken’s territory and into the war room, where he proceeded to bend me over the table on a map of Lyrica, then pounded me from behind. He said he wanted me to enjoy a good long look at Lyrica how it was, because the next I returned, it’d be nothing but rubble.
I screamed curses at him even while I screamed for another reason.
The night after that, I ran through the woods behind the castle—covering myself in all the starflowers I came across. My failing was continuing to mask my scent with stronger scents. I needed to be invisible, not a walking stink beacon. I should no more stand out than a blade of grass.
Glowing like an orblight, I found a cave and tucked myself in there for the night—jumping and twitching at every snapped twig or shifting shadow in the distance. It wasn’t Alisdair finding me that frightened me. It was the Taken finding me first.
I sat in the dark in the cave for hours and hours. So long, night began to fall away and I sensed the sunrise coming for me.
Alisdair laughed a second after I shouted with glee. He had found me an hour before, but decided to let me taste victory before he snatched it away.
On it went for a week, and then two. Every night, I stretched the limits of my cleverness to outsmart a beast, and every morning, I woke up sticky and sated beneath his arms.
On the fifteenth morning, I couldn’t recall Savia’s face.
