Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen

SIYANA

Sometime throughout the night I’d awoken to only the embers of my dying fire providing a minute amount of light and warmth, compared to the roaring fire that had lulled me to sleep. I hadn’t the desire to go to Theo and ask him for anything, even something as small as more wood for my fire. The shame I’d felt in his denial still burned brightly within me, but the fight I’d usually hold on to was nowhere to be found due to the contents of my father’s letter.

The way he’d offered my throne to Theo. My fucking birthright.

My sleep was far from peaceful as I’d forced myself to try and rest more, but waking fits disrupting me throughout the night. Upon my most recent fit, I noted that even the embers of my fire had died out. The shivers running through me and my chattering teeth must have been what woke me this time.

“Shit,” I breathed out, feeling pain in my lungs from just how damned cold the air had turned. Tossing the heavy covers from my shaking body, I dropped my feet onto the floor and stumbled, finding the surface slick with ice. Throwing my hands out to find my balance, I squinted, trying to see what had happened with the help of the little bit of moonlight streaming in from the glass windows next to my bed. The snowstorm was still raging beyond my window and the wind howled, buffeting against the window and rattling the panes. A shiver ran down the length of my spine–the atmosphere in the dark room was eerie, just off enough to leave me feeling unsettled.

A loud crack sounded through the room and my heart leapt into my throat. My head snapped in the direction of the sound, eyes landing on a dark corner near the fireplace.

“It’s just one of the logs cooling, Sia,” I tried to reason with myself, but I still felt the skin on the back of my neck prickling with some preternatural sense of danger.

Taking tentative, small steps over the icy floor, I drew closer to the fireplace, crossing the small sitting area situated in the middle of the room. I cursed Theo for taking my only weapon from me, suddenly desperate to feel the cool hilt of my dagger pressed against my palm.

Just as I swore, a large figure swam into view from the shadowy darkness, with two glowing, silver eyes snapping open. My breath caught in my throat, the fear piercing my chest leaving me momentarily stunned.

Was this another drackya?

From the slit in their left eye, opposite of Theo, I’d wager that it was.

“Who…” I stammered, taking a step back, “who are you, and what do you want?”

I could barely sort my thoughts as my heart beat frantically in my ears. My chest seized with pain from the arctic temperature in the room and the panic that was quickly overtaking me. I had no means of defense, and if my iced-over floor was any indication, it would seem that this drackya also had an affinity for ice like Theo. Even when I’d had my dagger, it’d done me no good against his magical abilities, rendering me useless back in my castle.

“I’m your future mate, little rabbit, here to pluck you from the clutches of the weak king.”

His words had me tearing down my mental walls and screaming for the one person I needed most in this world right now.

Theo!

A scream ripped from my throat as the drackya lunged toward me, and I tried to run. My feet slipped on the floor, my entire body going down hard as he tackled me, his weight making me incapable of slipping out from under him. I tried to kick him, but being chest down, pressed against the icy floor, left me without the leverage needed to put real strength behind the move.

His musky breath surrounded me as he sniffed my hair and groaned. “Such a delectable little rabbit to feast upon. I was enjoying watching you sleep, completely vulnerable and ripe for taking.”

I threw my head back and relished in the loud crack of his nose crunching with the force of impact.

“You fucking bitch!” the drackya hissed as his hand wrapped into my hair and yanked back. Lancing pain burned across my scalp, pieces of my hair tearing free with the force the drackya used. “I hope Theo didn’t break you in yet, because I want to be the first drackya to make you grovel.”

Theo! Someone is in my ? —

Before I could finish the thought, my door groaned before splitting completely in two. A snarl ripped through the air as the drackya on top of me was suddenly gone, his weight removed from my body, giving me the space to suck in a greedy breath. I scrambled to my hands and knees, crawling toward the bed as furniture crashed to the floor behind me.

I smelled Theo’s scent in the air, and tears welled in my eyes. He was here. He would protect me.

“You picked the wrong fucking woman,” Theo roared before the room went deathly quiet.

Adrenaline coursed through me, but I couldn’t bring myself to turn around and see what happened. If Theo was killed and the other drackya tried to claim me, I’d go down kicking and screaming, but I knew my chances.

Maybe I should have taken Theo more seriously when he offered to train me. It was too late now.

A large hand clamped down on my shoulder and I whirled, letting out a snarl as I swung my fist around. I made contact and felt all the knuckles in my hand crack. Splintering pain wrapped around them and I whimpered.

“Fuck, wench, you pack a punch.”

Theo.

My entire body collapsed with relief as I cradled my hand to my chest. Warm tears poured down my cheeks, the adrenaline still waging war in my mind. I was safe. I was okay. Now if only I could convince my wildly beating heart of that.

A sob broke free despite my best efforts to contain it, and seconds later I was wrapped tightly against his chest. I breathed him in as his arms cradled me and his hand ran through the back of my hair.

“You’re okay, wench. I’ve got you,” he murmured, the deep tones of his voice vibrating through me with how tightly he held me. “He’s dead. He won’t hurt you.”

“I couldn’t do anything,” I admitted through shaky sobs. “I wouldn’t have been able to fight him off. He would have…”

“Shh,” he answered, cutting me off. “You held him off long enough. I’m proud of you.”

I wasn’t sure how long we were on the floor with me practically sitting in his lap, wrapped around him as he rocked us back and forth. Eventually, the tears faded and my adrenaline turned to shock, and I sat completely still and silent.

“I’m going to move us to my chambers, is that okay?”

His question broke through my mind, replaying the scene from earlier on repeat and all I could do was nod against his chest. He gathered me in his arms and pushed to his feet with ease, not jostling me in the slightest. Folding into his warmth, I buried my head against his neck as his steps crossed over broken pieces of the furniture and door, the wood crunching beneath his weight.

Lucius appeared in the doorway and I felt Theo’s chest puff out from beneath me. “Get out of my sight right now if you want to keep your heart in your chest, unlike Olivander.”

He’d…ripped the heart out of that drackya?

“Understood, sir. I’ll clean up the mess.”

I was thankful they didn’t clash and that Lucius stepped to the side quickly. My mind couldn’t handle any more panic and fear, and despite how little I knew of Lucius, I didn’t want to see him harmed, especially not for my sake.

Theo’s long strides had us in his chambers within a minute, and instantly, I felt my muscles loosen at the comfort I felt within the space. I shouldn’t have felt that way, considering how little time I’d spent here and with Theo in general, but he’d just proven that I could trust him. That I could depend on him, even if it was just for my safety.

“Hold on, beauty,” he murmured as he placed me onto the bed gently. I fought my instinct to keep my grip on him, instead loosening my arms as my shoulders curled slightly inward. My eyes locked in on his form as he crossed the room to stoke the low-burning fire in the fireplace, adding fresh wood until it roared to life once more.

Reaching blindly, I grabbed the blankets, pulling them up to my chin before dragging my knees up to my chest and resting my head atop them. When Theo turned back around, my lips parted in surprise at the sight of the massive red mark on his right cheek.

I’d done that. Fuck.

“I’m so sorry,” I began as he grabbed the half-drunk bottle of liquor from earlier and crossed to the bed.

He sat on the edge near me and offered the bottle to me. “Take a drink. If you broke the bones in your hand from that punch, I need to set your bones, and it’s going to hurt.”

I swallowed hard at the thought and brought my mangled hand up, wincing at the sight of it in the light. Punching Theo had been like smashing my fist into the stone wall, and it finally set in just how weak I was against the drackya, despite all of my years of training with Brenson.

“I want you to train me when we have down time,” I whispered, dragging my gaze from my crooked fingers up to his face. “I want to learn to fight against you. If you’re the strongest, I want to face you.”

I swore something akin to a purr rumbled through the room, and his dragon eye sparked. “My beast would love nothing more.”

He held the bottle out once more, but as my fingers wrapped around it, he didn’t let go. “For the record, wench, I’m not sorry you punched me. Your instincts did what was needed, and I won’t ever care if I’m caught in the crosshairs. Always choose yourself.”

The last time I was in this room with Theo, my heart had hardened toward him, icing over like a pond in the peak of winter. This time, something about his words warmed my heart, thawing it in my chest and leaving me with a feeling of gratitude toward the drackya that I hadn’t imagined possible. The letter from my father came to mind as the thoughts took me down a rabbit hole.

“You seem to have my best interest at heart,” I muttered, snagging the bottle and taking a healthy swig. “Even if your way of showing it is demented as fuck at times.”

His chuckling response floated through the air, making my toes curl as I soaked in his grin. Motioning for me to take another sip, he gently took my wounded hand within his large ones and gingerly inspected it.

I winced and downed more of the bourbon, praying to the elementals that it began to at least slightly numb my senses, and quickly.

“I need to set two of them,” he explained and I took a deep breath, nodding in answer.

My entire body seized up in preparation.

“I need you to relax, or this will be a hundred times worse,” he warned, sensing my fear. “Tell me about the loved ones you wanted to say goodbye to. The woman who was fighting the guards to get to you seemed to love you fiercely.”

The thought of Tillie had my body instantly easing and a smile taking up residence on my face. I missed her, despite it only being a couple days since I’d been so unceremoniously ripped away from her and the rest of my life in Andrathya. We’d never gone so long apart from one another.

“She’s my cousin, but truly, I consider her a sister,” I began.

Snap.

It was like a bolt of lightning flashed through my finger before a pulsating pain set in after. My throat constricted, a strangled cry catching in it. My breath froze in my chest as the pain radiated from my finger outward, arching up my arm. If I didn’t already know how it would go, my gut reaction might have been to punch Theo.

“She seemed like she wanted to kill me when I caught her gaze,” he offered, distracting me once more as his fingers moved deftly to the other broken one on my hand.

It was harder to stay relaxed this time, knowing that he would do it unexpectedly and now understanding the severity of the pain following the setting.

I focused back on Tillie, letting my love for her fill my chest. “She isn’t interested in combat like I am, but there’s a tenacity and fire to her that would ensure she found a way to put you in the ground.”

“Then it’s a good thing you’ll be returning to her, for my sake, right?” he joked, but somehow the reminder that I would one day leave here and return to the castle I was raised in made silence settle between us.

“Yeah,” I muttered, raising my brows. “Things will definitely be easier for you when I’m not around.”

Snap.

This time I couldn’t hold back my single shriek of pain. I rocked back and forth on the bed, cradling my hand to my chest now that he was done.

“For the record, wench,” he said, drawing my focus to those haunting eyes that seemed to want to devour me, “easier isn’t always better, I’m coming to find out.”

I wasn’t sure what to say back to that, feeling like every conversation we had gave me severe whiplash. The only thing I knew with certainty after tonight was that I could trust him to protect me until I went home, and maybe that just had to be enough for now.

It seemed he was content to also remain in silence, and eventually we both laid in bed, facing opposite ways. It was insane just how differently I felt laying next to him now. I wasn’t cursing him out in my head, furious for being here at the behest of men who hadn’t considered my wants or needs.

This time, all I felt was gratitude.

As the fireplace crackled and popped, radiating growing heat as it ate away at the wood, I swallowed my pride. “Theo?”

His voice was thick with the haze of sleep, his tone huskier than usual as he asked, “Yes, wench?”

I didn’t hesitate, knowing I owed him so much more than these words. “Thank you for saving me.”

This time his voice was clear and rang through the air with certainty.

“I told you that you’re mine to protect.”

Despite everything in me that should be terrified after being ambushed in my chambers, his words allowed me to close my eyes and not fear for my life, drifting to sleep.