Chapter 21

Chapter Twenty-One

B y the time I had returned to the small solace of my room, my mind was spinning. Prince Eadric's blow had been harsh, and the wounds on both my face and shoulder throbbed with each movement, but I was hardly thinking about it. The treatment—I needed to get it now.

As I wiped the blood from the cuts on my face, I knew I could not hold out hope that Rhyon was still alive, no matter how much I wanted to. Perhaps if I had been there to care for him, he might have made it the full seven days before the blood plague took him, but with Emyl caring for him, I had to believe my youngest brother had already passed.

For a moment, I wanted to give up and surrender, leaving Emyl to whatever fate he had designed for himself. The only thing we'd ever seen eye-to-eye on was Rhyon, and all I could see now was Rhyon's face in my nightmares as he tore into my flesh and his face that day in the kitchen when he'd told me he wished I had died instead.

If Rhyon was dead, there was no use in going on with this plan.

That thought had only lingered for a moment before the voice of my mother had shaken it from my mind. " You will protect your brothers, Odyssa," she'd have said. "Both of them."

And whatever gods had brought down the curse of the blood plague had also made it so my greatest fear was disappointing my mother. It had never been easy to win her approval, and I'd sought it wherever and whenever I could. Now was no different and, even trapped here in this living catacomb, I wanted to please her.

The voice that sounded like my mother reminded me that Rhyon might not be dead yet, as well. Giving up now would certainly ensure he would be, though.

I pushed my fingers through my hair, clasping my hands at the back of my head and letting out a heavy breath. My next step was clear: I needed to get to the prince's quarters and find the treatment. Tonight, while there was still a chance that I could get it to Rhyon in time.

The cat jumped onto the bed and stretched out long, nearly taking up the full expanse of the bed. Those wide yellow eyes peered at me, unblinking and waiting patiently for me.

"I suppose you'll tell me this is foolish," I said, sitting down on the edge of the bedspread. My hand wavered over its head, instinct pushing me to pet the creature. I pulled my hand back to my lap. "I don't suppose asking you to keep from alerting Tallon of this will do me any good, will it?"

It blinked at me.

The soul-deep weariness pulled another sigh from my lips. "As I thought."

I lingered on the bed a moment longer, but I could delay no more. If I wanted to infiltrate the rooms before Prince Eadric retired for the day, I needed to go now. Again, only hope was my companion.

The silver slip of a dress I wore beneath the veil would stand out in the dark stone halls of the castle, but changing into a different dress required far more energy than I could muster. I settled for pulling on a robe of black silk that hung in the closet, a luxury I'd thus far been avoiding. Belting it around my waist, I set out from my room and in the direction I assumed the prince's quarters would be: in the belly of the largest tower.

Music still echoed faintly in the halls as I set out, winding through the passageways with a confidence I could barely summon. I passed no one, all of them likely still in the ballroom and drowning in the fountains of gluttony and greed furnished by Prince Eadric.

Finally, I was at the base of the stairs to the tower, and without a doubt, it would lead to the prince's rooms. The doors in front were the most ornate I'd seen yet, flanked on either side by towering candelabras and fresh flowers that made my nose itch with their heavy perfume. I could think of no one else that would boast such wasteful beauty in front of a stairwell.

My journey saw no Soulshades, no burst of ash across my tongue or ringing in my ears. The cat had accompanied me, a shadow at my side, but nothing else had been amiss. Perhaps that should have been an omen.

I'd only just reached for the door handle when a large hand and arm wrapped around my waist from behind, another settling over my mouth and nose, and then I was being lifted, carried away from the door.

I kicked and thrashed, hands going to claw at those holding me, but it did no good. The grip did not falter. My heart pounded in my ears, faint dizziness following the blood rushing through my body.

"Stop struggling, Odyssa," my captor hissed in my ear. "Or I will throw you over my shoulder."

Tallon.

The threat made me stop thrashing and kicking, but I would never stop struggling. The portrait of calm, I allowed myself to be carried down another hallway. Halfway down it, another alcove shot off to the side, this one with cushioned benches as well as a table. He set me down, keeping his hand over my mouth as he spun me around to face him.

Still in his outfit from the party, still in his mask, he looked every bit Prince Eadric's right hand. Except for his eyes, alight as they were. "If I remove my hand, will you let me speak first?"

I narrowed my eyes and gave no indication of my inclination one way or the other.

"As I thought." His hand remained over my mouth, firmly and yet intentionally careful so as not to press down on the cuts across my face, and his other hand went to my lower back to keep me from backing away, just as I had moved to do exactly that. My skin burned where he touched me, even through both my dress and robe. "Do you truly have a death wish, Odyssa? What are you doing here?"

Though I wanted to kick at him again, I raised an eyebrow as I pointedly looked down at his hand.

I'd expected suspicion to cross over his face, to narrow his eyes and for him to refuse, but what was there in his eyes was something far different. Almost concern, curiosity perhaps. He lowered his hand, though he kept it hovering in the space beneath my chin, ready to move back up in an instant. He raised a brow at me, nodding to prod me to answer his questions.

"Are you asking as Tallon, or as the prince's advisor, my lord?"

The hand that had been lingering beneath my chin moved to rest against my unmarred cheek, and the one on my back pulled me closer until we were flush against each other. My heart sped and I gasped before I could swallow it back. Heat spread up my neck and chest.

His fingers traced over the swell of my cheek before splaying wide, his thumb under my jaw. "Were I asking as the prince's advisor, little wolf, I would not be asking at all."

"And if I do have a death wish?" I asked. My thoughts were a tangle; all I could focus on were the two blazing points of his hands on me and the way our bodies fit together. My mouth was too dry, I was too warm, and yet all I could do was meet his gaze through the skull mask. I wanted to remove it. "What would you do, then?"

"I would advise you it would be far more difficult than you might think, though I suspect you would give it a valiant effort." He leaned down slightly, eyes flicking to my mouth and then lower, where I knew the robe did nothing to conceal the indecent neckline of the dress and the space between my breasts. His words were a whisper across my nose and cheeks, soothing the stinging that still radiated from the cuts on my face. "Now, what were you doing here?"

Leaning up on my toes, our lips were a breath apart and brushed ever so slightly together as I spoke. "No business of yours, my lord."

Gray eyes were nearly consumed by black. "Wrong answer, little wolf."

Hands gripped my waist and then I was upside down, my face level with his lower back and his hands now resting on the backs of my thighs. Outrage rushed through me, blending with the blood pooling in my head to make it throb as I gripped the sides of his waist and pushed myself up, trying to get down. "Put me down. "

The only answer I received was one of his hands moving higher on my thigh, his fingers curling around to my inner thigh and squeezing as he began to walk. Every instinct in my body was coiled to twist out of his grip, even if it meant falling to the ground. The wounds on my face throbbed. Pushing up further, I shifted my hips, ready to throw myself to the side.

His hand tightened even more around my thigh and I barely caught my gasp at the electricity that furled down my spine from his touch. The warmth of his touch, the strength in his grip… I wanted to hate it, but all I could focus on was the heat radiating into my leg. His finger shifted again as he sped up his steps, inching higher again, nearing somewhere far more indecent.

My view of the ground and his back shifted, and the floor beneath his boots transformed to dark dirt and stone. A rush of cold wind speared through me, a counterpoint to the blazing touch on my thigh. A scream echoed and I flinched, closing my eyes. In the next instant, the cold and the scream were gone and I was being set on my feet.

"What—" I looked around, finding myself once again in Tallon's room, the cat now sprawled across his bed rather than mine. His room was not close enough to the prince's quarters that he could have gotten us here in only a few steps. I turned back to face him, trying to quell the anger at yet again being manipulated, and once again being taken into my nightmare world. Stomping up, I poked at his chest. "I believe I told you that if you ever touched me without my permission again, there would be consequences."

Through the skull mask, he smirked at me. "Yes, you did. And there should have been consequences for finding you attempting to enter Prince Eadric's quarters, yet here you are. Unharmed."

"Am I? You said before that no harm would come to me under your watch, and yet…" I motioned toward my face. His arrogance only spurred my frustration, but he was right, and had it been anyone else who'd discovered me, I would have already been dead. "You watched as he did this."

"You are far smarter than that, Odyssa. What did you expect me to do in front of the prince and all those people?" He raised an eyebrow and reached out to trail his fingertips over my arm. "You've only been here a short time, yet I think you'd know better than to lose your focus in that setting. What happened? What distracted you, little wolf?"

Some of the fight bled out from my body. I was not ready to reveal what had distracted me, not to him. Not when I still had yet to truly reconcile with it myself. "What do you want with me, my lord?"

"Firstly, you know my name. Use it." His voice pitched low and his head bent toward me once more. Playfulness tinged his gaze and teased at the corner of his mouth.

I reached to trace my finger along the strap that held the skull mask in place across his face. He still held himself with that regal indifference, the same emotionless statue that stood beside Prince Eadric as he struck me. "When you take off your mask and become Tallon again, my lord, I shall use your name."

His eyes shuttered, the swirling pools of gray growing still and flat as he stepped away and yanked off the mask. He stepped up closer to me, his breath whispering across my nose and cheeks as his eyes dropped to my mouth for the briefest moment. Anticipation burned in my stomach, twisting it into knots, but he did not move except to reach his fingers up to skim over the cuts on my face. "Let me clean these for you, please?"

The sudden shift left me spinning and confused, so I nodded, following him back to the same chair I'd occupied when he'd cleaned my hand. He looked at me for a moment longer before disappearing into the bathroom.

I blew out a heavy breath, running a hand over my hair to smooth both the strands and my nerves. I wasn't imagining this. He'd been about to kiss me—and more, I'd wanted him to.

Guilt clawed at my stomach and my cheeks flushed. Once again, I'd lost myself in him, forgetting about what was important and why I was truly here. He was playing a game, one I did not even know the rules to, and even though he'd removed the mask when we were alone together, he was still the prince's puppet, and I could never forget that.

His return pulled me from my thoughts. "Does it hurt much?"

"No," I replied honestly. They did not hurt now, not physically at least. They enraged me, embarrassed me, but I suspected that was the point, so that I never forgot my place in that ballroom. "I can care for my own wounds, Tallon."

He paused, about to dab at my face with the medicine-soaked cotton. His tongue darted out to wet his lips and I could not help but follow the motion as his throat bobbed on a swallow. "I know you are more than capable, Odyssa, and from what our mutual friend has told me, more than stubborn as well. But I told you last night no harm would come to you under my watch, and as you pointed out, I've failed."

I bit my tongue to keep from comforting him and to keep from asking about what else the cat had revealed.

Wounds deemed clean enough, he began dabbing that same thick cream on them that he'd used on my shoulder, keeping his eyes firmly on my skin while I kept mine on him. "Why were you trying to break in, little wolf?"

A small hiss escaped as he touched a still tender edge. It gave me the moment I needed to collect my thoughts. "I have two younger brothers. Did you know that?"

His hand faltered. "No, I did not."

"Seven days ago, my mother passed from the plague while I held her hand," I said. I waited for a moment, seeing if he would interrupt, but he did not, just continued cleaning the scratches on my cheeks. "With her dead, we would not have had enough money to live on, with just my job and my brothers' inheritances. I asked the oldest to try to find work as well, and he refused. Instead, he gave me a flyer about the castle needing new staff. Five days ago, my youngest brother, only eight years old, started coughing. We didn't know for certain if it was the plague. But it hardly mattered. I volunteered that morning. You know about the letter I received."

Finally, he looked up at me, putting aside the medicine and pulling both of my hands into his own before settling them into my lap. "Why did your brother refuse?"

I shrugged. "I won't pretend to understand his reasons. We are only half-siblings, but I raised them, and I would do anything for them."

"Would they not do anything for you, then, in return?"

My nose itched, tears burning at the back of my eyes. I looked away, fixing my gaze on his boot beside my foot, watching as the end of my dress slipped over it.

"You were after the treatment, then?" Despite the question, I knew he wasn't looking for an answer. He took my chin in his fingers and made me meet his gaze. "He won't give it to you. Not now after what happened tonight. He likely wouldn't have given it to you before either; he has been notoriously stingy with it even amongst his most trusted. And you have no hope of stealing it alone."

"Then what do I do?" I hated the way my voice cracked and the way my lower lip trembled. This was weakness, utter weakness to fall apart in front of him, yet I was powerless to stop it. He traced his thumb over the curve of my jaw, tipping my face up to look at him.

"Sleep for now, little wolf. I will protect you tonight and we will talk in the daylight." He bundled me into his arms before I could protest, carrying me from the chair to his bed and tucking me beneath the blankets. The Soulshade cat eyed us, moving to stretch along my side as soon as the blankets were drawn back up.

I closed my eyes against the burning tears. I should have fought him, should have demanded he return me to my room, but I could not bring myself to turn away the comfort of being cared for. Bundling myself into the blankets that smelled of him, I could already feel myself drifting, the nerves finally wearing off as he'd slowly brought me down from the emotional high. I doubted he was even aware he'd done it, but I would not question it. I'd failed my brothers and had failed at my last hope.

There was nothing left to lose, and if I could gain just an ounce of comfort from Tallon, I would take it greedily.

Lips pressed gently against my forehead, and it was a struggle to keep my eyes closed and not surge up and demand that he press that same kiss to my lips, to my neck and to the rest of my body, to make me forget everything but his touch. His breath was warm against my forehead, fluttering my eyelashes. "Sleep well, little wolf."