17. Thalia

SEVENTEEN

THALIA

T halia was awakened by a sound during the wee hours of the morning. She fluttered between consciousness and sleep, her belly glowing with the memory of the previous night's enjoyment. She heard Drake rise from bed and leave, their voices droning on to a light muffle.

She nearly drifted off again when she heard the grating sound of Pyralis's voice. It jarred her awake for reasons she couldn't completely isolate.

It was her fledgling witch intuition popping up in her mind like a wandering dog. She griped to herself, snuggling against the pillow, then recalled Sorcha's sage words.

"When you feel it, follow it. Even when the thinking mind tries to intrude. Trust yourself."

She groaned but rolled over onto her stomach and slid onto the floor like a child disinterested in attending school. She realized as she emerged from the sheets that she was naked, and quickly tugged at a robe hanging on a nearby hook. She draped it over herself, snorting at the way it swallowed her petite body like a hungry beast.

Thalia then crept over to the door, feeling mildly guilty about eavesdropping. But there was something like an itch just out of reach that was telling her guilt was a useless emotion. It was crucial for her to hear the shifter exchange happening in the castle corridors.

She pressed her ear against the door to hear Pyralis's accusation that Sorcha, the divinely altruistic shifter sorceress, was responsible for an intruder breaking into her room the night before.

Thalia bolted upright, disgruntled. She felt like stomping out there to implore Drake not to listen to the sniveling fool, but then she may appear hysterical. Instead, she wandered into the lounge and planted herself into one of the many batwing chairs.

When he returned, she started gnawing her hands against the armrests. She was unsettled, and that emotion within itself was something to pay attention to.

Drake looked relieved to see her when she stood, fast enough to make her feel a little queasy.

"Sorcha didn't do anything, Drake. Please, you have to believe me!"

The king gave her a menacing scowl. Thalia didn't like it one bit.

"These matters do not pertain to you, dear Thalia," he said with unyielding condescension. "This is for your own protection. It is you who should trust me. After all, I am the king."

She clenched her fists and shouted at him. There was no way she was going to be spoken down to like a common cretin even by a dragon shifter and king.

"You are not at all who I thought you were." She seethed, rounding the chair and moving toward him. "Does my opinion truly not matter to you at all when I am the one who has been working closely with her?"

The king released a harsh sigh, raising a hand to rest upon his cheek, and regarded her like a petulant child.

"She is related to my enemy. Her arrival corresponds with the attempted kidnapping at the inn. And she knows which suite you have been sleeping in."

Thalia threw her hands into the air and scoffed madly.

"Everyone knows where my room is, Drake. It is common knowledge. There are no secrets in this godforsaken castle."

But Drake didn't listen. He merely turned and returned to the bedroom, marching as if approaching battle. Thalia followed.

"It doesn't matter what you think. I am the king, and my decision is final."

He searched through his closet, speaking into the garments with detached contemplation. Thalia was spinning, her voice warped in utter disbelief. She stopped shouting, speaking in an even tone.

She stared at the back of his head, her thoughts going dark.

"Well, I'm glad you revealed yourself to me before I had the chance to fall for you deeply. What a joke you've turned out to be."

Thalia stormed toward the door, and the king bellowed after her. "You are not going anywhere without a guard, my sweetheart. And you are banned from leaving the castle grounds."

She halted and spun on her heel.

"I'm your prisoner now?" she said, simmering.

He still shuffled through his closet, speaking with the blitheness of ordering off a menu.

"I am going to tell you what to do whether you like it or not. This is all for your own good."

A gale of hot rage and cold sorrow wrestled inside Thalia's heart. She was empty of words, so she spun back and stomped out into the corridors.

Thalia saw red, a burning, cryptic scarlet as she found her way back to her chambers, managing to wash herself and eat out of necessity. She had been this angry before, usually in relation to her father's illness or the mistreatment of someone in town. She knew what was veiled behind it. A rain of encroaching grief that would eat her up and spit her out.

She retreated to her father's side to keep her hands busy and her mind from idling. A guard trailed behind her, not so subtly. One of the men who was usually perched outside the king's chambers.

The thought of Drake made her stomach churn.

Evanth was looking healthier each day, now standing by the window with a younger man's need to venture beyond. She asked him if he felt well enough for her to practice another healing.

Evanth's eyes were bright with promise.

"Of course, my darling," he said.

He sat on the bed as he had when Sorcha had guided her through the spell. Thalia placed two hands on her father's head –one along the back, the other on the forehead– then closed her eyes.

She envisioned the manipulation of the matter Sorcha had informed her were called molecules . She saw, in her mind's eye, green balls the color of fresh peas bouncing off one another until they began to suffuse with a pink, gentle light. They switched places merrily, and her father let out a satisfied groan.

"Good?"

"Yes, darling, are you?"

Thinking of Sorcha made Thalia sad, but the matter seemed far too complicated for her father to take on. Especially with the delicacy of having spent the night in the king's bed.

"I am as long as you are," she said, placing a soft kiss on his forehead and releasing her hands. "That is enough for now. I cannot go too far."

Her father was gracious and returned to basking in the morning light, daydreaming of green pastures.

Seeing him blossom eased some of her misery. Then it all came swarming back when she left the room, finding the guard lingering by.

"You don't have to stay so close," she barked at him, then grunted. "Where is the dungeon?"

The guard gave her a look of indignation. She rolled her eyes and sprinted away.

Thalia left the poor man in the dust. The guard yelled after her as she attempted to depart from the private wing.

"I'm afraid you are not permitted, miss."

She tried the door and found it was locked from the outside. She spun around and found the guard standing closer and spat out her demands with venom.

"Let me see her. I want to see Sorcha."

The guard shook his head silently. Thalia felt like bristles were teeming out of her skin.

"Some help you are," she said bitterly, then ducked under his arm.

Thalia had no idea what else to do. She was in shock that it only took one night of pure pleasure for the king to show his true colors. The sadness was starting to show its face, but the Creation Sorceress would not allow it to anchor her down.

She raced toward the library, intent on lambasting Pyralis on where he retrieved his information. But when she arrived, the insect-like bastard had shirked away. She searched each aisle multiple times, her bare feet padding against the cool wood while the guard continued to haunt her with his heavy, webbed-footed lumbering.

Thalia was in the section dedicated to wolf shifters when she reeled around, swiping her hand in the air as if to strike him.

"Please give me some space," she implored. "We are in the library. I need some privacy."

The big-headed man shook his head. The steel of his armor traced the dim light in dancing shapes.

"I am to stay close by at all times. King's orders."

Thalia gnashed her teeth together and tangled her fingers through her hair. She just needed some time to think. She wasn't going to get that with the moron pasted to her like a shadow.

She squeezed her fingers against her skull and strained her eyes closed. She visualized her own secluded haven, void of guards and curmudgeonly kings. All of the muscles in her body went as rigid as stone, and that was when she heard the shelves begin to move.

"What the…"

A torrent of books cascaded to the floor as the heavy bookshelves began to shake, then turned themselves inward toward Thalia. She watched in amazement as they enfolded her like a shrine. They halted their spellbound movements when the guard was successfully jutted out of the way, surrounding the witch like a flock of robins protecting their young.

"Undo this at once!" he demanded.

Thalia let out an incensed snicker, then leaned against the shelf behind her. "Okay, I will do just that," she said, laughing maniacally.

Thalia was starting to calm down when the shelf behind her made a loud fraying sound. She jumped back when the shelf started to move, parting open at a leisurely pace. Her heart was racing when she spotted a bewilderingly bright green door.

Bravely, she stepped toward it as the guard continued his incessant plea.