CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
were replaced by suspended disbelief. Though the Aina Ohtar was created by Castian, millennia past, and the males in the Order served in his name, the God of gods never made direct contact with them. At least in the lifetimes of this generation of warriors.
“And silver hair is the trait following the heir bloodline?” Deaglan asked, escorting Kobi and me down to the dungeons. He stood to the same height and frame as his brother and walked with much the same proud stride. By my estimation, Deaglan would be the brother closest in age to Samuel.
While I tried to recall if Samuel mentioned their birthing order, we strode on through the opulent halls. Despite my aching hip, our feet beat out a rhythmic echo on the stone flooring.
“From what I’m told, yes, though I never questioned Castian directly. My hair color is said to be a parting gift from him to his newborn niece as he sent my race into exile. Only he and the Aina Ohtar knew of Rheagan’s child sired by Aduial, her Highborne guard and longtime lover.”
“Nay, not all the Aina Ohtar knew or Da and the others wouldna be in this mess now.” He a hand over his jaw and blew out a breath. “So, ye are the heir to the throne?”
“Bravo, asshole. Now you’re getting it.” Kobi rolled his eyes, taking my elbow as we followed Samuel’s brother down a set of winding steps. The deeper we descended, the stronger the chill grew, until we stepped into a darkened corridor.
Stone pillars and arches supported the low ceiling.
The odor of the space washed over me and my blood heated.
The rank bitterness of agony and fury burned my nostrils
,
and my blood heated.
. “What kind of Order locks its own warriors in a dungeon to be brutalized?”
A painful pinch twisted Deaglan’s face. “It seems harsh, aye, but ours is not a kind world and Samuel abandoned his calling long ago. You must understand, he knew the penance to be paid if he were ever to return.”
Kobi cast me a solemn glance and shrugged. “I knew nothing about this, I swear.”
“It never crossed my mind.”
He frowned, his piercings glinting in the low, lantern light of the dungeon as he shook his head. Did he expect me to think the worst of him?
Deaglan instructed a guard to unlock the door to one of the iron cell doors and I pushed past. Stripped to the waist and shackled to the stone wall, wrist and ankle, Samuel’s head lifted and lolled. Why was he smiling? Nothing about this held an ounce of humor. The only color in his ashen, battered face was the flush of his sweat dampened cheeks and the bluish hue of swollen eyelids.
“Sweet Shalana, look at you.”
“Pass.” Samuel croaked, his mouth lifting at the corners. “I’d rather look at you. Nice dress.”
He lifted his head, his gaze narrowing on the gash pulsing on my cheek. “What happened to yer face, Luv?”
“My face? You look like a pulped plum and are concerned about one mark on my cheek?”
He stiffened as the guard worked to unlock his shackles. “Aye, I am. What happened?”
I exhaled. “I stumbled into the edge of the dining table. Fash not.”
A garbled curse filled the dingy cell. “Ye stumbled, eh? Ye carry yerself with the grace and balance of a wee hummingbird and ye think me so daft as to believe that?”
As Samuel’s wrists and ankles were freed, Deaglan scrambled to catch his brother’s weight.
I traced the swelling on his chafed and welted wrists. The restraints had dug in, leaving angry raw gashes. “Believe what you wish, I answered truthfully.”
He nodded. “All right,
L
l
uv, who helped ye stumble?”
Kobi chuckled and swept in to support Samuel’s other side. “I wouldn’t worry about the nick on her cheek, Merlin. Castian is upstairs taking it as quite a personal affront to his house. The five families of the sacred order will be lucky to live to see lunch.”
I brushed my thumb over the blood-crusted gash on Samuel’s side. “It seems the morning has been challenging all around. For now, we need to return to our room to clean these wounds.”
“Our room?” Deaglan said, his expression forbidding.
Pressing the back of my hand against the hot sheen of Samuel’s forehead, I sighed. I was far too furious to explain my personal arrangements to people who could do this to one of their own. I lifted my chin and locked gazes with the male. “Yes. Our room.”
“Stupid male,” I said, as Deaglan and Kobi lowered Samuel into the bath. I shut off the flow of water and poured in the
vial of
milky remedy
his youngest brother,
,
brought from the healer to fight infection. I slipped two pain tablets into his mouth. “If you knew they would string you up and beat you, why in the two realms would you bring us here?”
“What were my choices?” He winced as the water licked the wound in his side, glaring out the slit of his swollen eyes. The tub was too short for his long legs and he bent his knees to settle his feet against the bottom. “Haven is the safest alternative and even there Abaddon grabbed ye once and an evil soul tried to take ye over—likely Abaddon’s doing as well. Bastard. Until ye take yer place on the throne, I need ye somewhere safe.”
“Safe? Your sire practically knocked me . . .” I bit my tongue and whirled toward the door.
“What was that ye were about to say?”
Deaglan and Kobi made a hasty retreat. Cowards. When it was just the two of us, I closed us in, pausing with my forehead on the wooden panel of the door. Even with my back to Samuel, I could feel the heat of his stare before I turned.
The made him look severe as he scowled. He lifted a finger and pointed to my cheekbone. “My Da did that? He raised a hand to yer beautiful face?”
Occupying myself behind the linen cabinet door, I gathered clean face cloths and towels. “No. I did stumble and catch my cheek on the table.”
“But ye had help, aye?”
I dropped the larger towels down beside the leg of the bathing basin and brushed a smaller cloth along the bruising scrape on his shoulder. Fathers were tricky characters. They held the power to build their children up to conquer the world or tear them down moment by hurtful moment until they doubted everything about their worth.
Galan protected me from ours the best he could. It grew plainer by the moment Samuel lost that protective barrier when his mother died.
The sleeve of my dress skimmed the water’s surface and I pulled it back. “The past is behind us. Fash not. Focus on what comes next.”
Unfastening my gown, I strode to the dressing stand and slipped it off my shoulders.
A low chuckle rumbled behind me. “And what comes next? I’m afraid I’m not in much of a shape to get naked with ye at the moment but I appreciate the sights.”
I eased the padded hanger under the shoulders of the gown and hung it where I found it earlier. Then I wrapped a towel around myself and shucked off my shoes before returning to kneel beside the tub. “Are you making fun of me?”
“Never. Ye take my breath away.”
I smiled. “It is logical to save my dress from getting wet. As the only clean outfit I possess, I think it best not to douse it while I bathe you.”
His lips twitched up at the sides. “Elven logic at its best.”
Ignoring the flutter in my stomach, I reclaimed the cloth and blotted the bloody trickle running down his chin. The sheer orderliness of each punishing mark made me sick. A split lip, blackened eyes, reddened ribs, bruised arms, and ankles and wrists welted and bloody. “Why did you do it, Samuel?”
He looked up with a curious gaze and the dark stubble of his tickled my palms.
I dipped the pink-stained cloth into the milky water, squeezed it and continued to probe and tend to the injury. “Daft as you are for offering yourself up to be beaten, I realize you did it for me but why would you do it?”
He gave me a one-sided grin. “I’m not so bad off. Sore, but not really damaged. I’ll be all right in a day or two.”
One by one
,
I cleaned and cared for each cut,
one by one
,
gouge, scrape and bruise. I washed his side as carefully as I could. Still, the cloth scraped away at the scabbing of dried blood. Droplets of fresh scarlet welled around the edges of the wound.
I apologized for hurting him, but he never made a move nor a sound if it did.
Leaving the gash to clot, I stroked the cloth across the tight plains of his chest. Only twenty-four hours ago, I touched the hair on his chest for the first time. It was
course
co
a
rse
, yet held a soft sponginess to it at the same time.
Lost in fascination, I circled the cloth around the gathered tip of his nipple.
“No damage there, duck, but I applaud yer thoroughness.” He brushed a knuckle over his smile and chuckled. It was a deep, infectious sound until he winced. I waited for him to settle again and realized he lay there studying me. He touched a fingertip to the flush warming my ears.
When I made to straighten, he caught my wrist. “Don’t stop, please. I was teasing. Yer touch is the only pleasure I’ve had since the start of this chaotic mess almost a year ago.”
“For me too.” I found an unharmed spot on his cheek and gave him a gentle kiss. A year ago—when he lost Jade and his heart was broken.
“Then why do ye look so sad?”
Wringing out the cloth over his chest, I watched the water trickle down the ridges of his abdominals. “It is nothing.”
Samuel’s ebony brow rose. “Lovers tell each other what weighs on them. Please, trust me with yer thoughts.”
Breathing in his rising anxiety I exhaled , not sure how to phrase things without raising his ire.
His jaw clenched as his opal gaze locked on me. “Is it Kobi? Have ye something to tell me about the demon? About him kissing ye last night? He’s held ye in his arms and the boils my blood, but if he’s puttin the moves on ye—”
“Kobi is a friend.” I gripped my fingers into his and held his gaze. “I hold no designs on him and told him so, quite plainly, last night. He saved my life and I healed him in return. Nothing more.” I kissed his scraped, cheek. “Only one male makes moth wings flutter in my chest.”
His eyes danced with mischief. “Anyone I know?”
I kissed him again, this time a gentle touch on his lips, letting more of my affection cross between us. “Mayhap. He is a handsome, brave, heroic wizard. Who, I might add, has saved my life more than once.”
His smirk grew more crooked than usual behind his swollen lip. “Yer tryin to distract me, Luv. What had ye looking so downtrodden a moment ago?”
Swallowing past the lump in my throat, I decided to let the words fly. “I was thinking of Jade . . . moreover, your affections for her. Jade is dynamic and an independent warrior. She is both magical and a teacher like you. You two had so much in common. So many bonds to share.”
“Aye, we got on well on a lot of levels. Why is it a bother to ye now?”
“I am none of those things. While I know you moved past the intensity of your desire for her, I worry I can never fill that place in your heart. I have no right to stake a claim given my situation but wish I could. Or I wish I thought I could. If I could. Does that make any sense?”
Breathless, I squeezed the damp cloth in my hands and waited for his pique to rise.
“Aye, I see.” He shifted in the water, raising his hand to scratch through the hair on his chest. “When we fought yesterday and ye kicked me from yer room, it felt like ye’d stolen my breath. It surprised me how much it hurt, to have caused ye pain and confusion. Then ye tried to end yer life.” He gestured to his injuries, his eyes growing glassy. “These bloody wounds are nothing to the agony of what that did to me, Lia. Not even close.”
The rasp of his words tightened my throat. “Nothing like that shall ever happen again. Our quarrel left me bereft. It stirred up my disappointment with Galan, and Zophia showed me what happened and I realized you were in those caverns and witnessed what was done to me—”
He winced. “I swear I got ye out as soon as possible.”
I shook my head. “I have no doubt. The things you sacrificed to be accepted into Abaddon’s circle. I owe you everything.”
He placed a wet hand over his heart. “So anyway, it ripped my guts out ye felt so alone that ending things seemed a better option than coming to me. Ye see, that’s where ye stole my heart, even before I knew ye’d done it. Do ye see?”
I shook my head.
“Jade never needed me, duck. Aye, we share a lot in common, but I’m a man who needs his woman to need him. I want to protect ye. I want to cuddle
you
y
e
into my lap if tears threaten to take ye. I want to slay yer dragons and keep ye safe so I know I’ve done my job as yer man. I never had that with Jade. That’s how ye healed my heart to whole again, mo chridhe, by being exactly who
you
y
e
are.”
“A rabbit?” I sighed, the sting of frustration brimming in my eyes and warming my cheeks.
“Excuse me?”
“When I was young, Galan and I took long walks in the forest. We explored the canopy for hours and he taught me of the world, numerations, myths, and the laws of the creatures of Shalana. One of the things we discussed often was that in the presence of wolves one is either a fox or a rabbit.”
“Which is he?”
“Oh, he is a fox. Almost effortlessly, he maneuvered within the insults and cruelties of my father, avoiding confrontation most of the time. He has a quick wit, a sly inner strength, and knows when to turn tail and when to bare teeth. I, however, have always been a rabbit.”
“I don’t agree.”
“Oh, but I am. You see, it is the natural order for predators to devour the weak and timid. A rabbit retreats into her burrow to avoid the jaws of the wolf but sooner or later she is caught and preyed upon. It is the law of the natural world. It happened with Abaddon and my entire life before.”
He shook his head
and water droplets sprayed free
from
his shaggy black hair
and water droplets sprayed free
. “The only mistake ye made was imagining your father as the wolf when there are creatures far more dangerous and vile. Brought up
that way, ye had no comprehension of true evil. When it came, ye had no way to protect yourself.”
“Because I am a rabbit.”
Samuel gathered my hands in his. “What happened was not yer fault. I’ll tell ye that until I’m blue in the face if ye need to hear it. No matter how angry ye are at yourself or how ashamed , sometimes evil is too powerful to fight.”
The pain in his gaze made me realize the wounds of Abaddon and the Scourge ran deep for both of us . Releasing his grip on my hand, Samuel caressed my sore cheek.“When ye haven’t the strength to hold yerself up, let me keep watch for the wolves while ye lick yer wounds. And if yer heart shatters, shatter it on me and I’ll help ye pick up the pieces.”
“But that is my point. I wish to slay my own dragons, to stand on my own, and fight my own battles.”
“And ye will. Until then, or even after, I like to think we stand together. I’ll catch ye when ye fall , and when I’m bleedin ' ,” he gestured to me tending to his injuries, “ye’ll maybe take the time to ease my suffering.”
Oh, how I wished a future was a possibility.
When tears threatened, he reached behind my head and pulled my mouth to his. He had the most luscious lips, sweet silk, tugging me closer. I cupped his than the silky swirls on his chest.
He groaned deep in his throat and leaned back against the rim of the basin, pulling me in on top of him. A swell of wet heat saturated the towel wrapped around me as bathwater rose and splashed to the floor. I laughed and he repositioned me, sweeping his tongue against my lips.
Despite kissing Samuel was
Tightening his embrace, he gave and demanded in that meeting of mouths. I ran my hands gently up his battered ribs, feeling all the heavy bones beneath his skin. A stinging pleasure went off deep inside me, hungering for more of him.
We went for a long while, his hands roaming over my towel
-
covered back, smoothing my hair, cupping the curve of my covered backside, neither of us inclined to stop.
Too soon, a shiver wracked its way up my spine.
“Damn, yer frozen. The bath water has gone cold and I never noticed.” Samuel pulled back, his eyes hiding beneath his bruises, his lips pink and swollen, but not from his beating. He rubbed his palms down the goose bumps on my arms and frowned. “All right, up ye get and shed that wet towel. I dinnae save yer life to have ye fall to pneumonia.”
Getting out of the tub without hurting him was considerably more trouble than getting pulled in. After some awkward grappling and giggling on both sides, I was once again standing on the wet bathroom floor. I unwrapped the sopping towel, rang it over the vanity drain and dropped it into the sink with a heavy flop. I snatched several fresh towels from the linen cabinet, wrapped myself in one and shook out the other for Samuel.
“All right, your turn.”
Samuel arched a dark brow, a strange look on his face. “Ye better give me a few minutes to get myself outta this tub on my own. Go on, now. How much do ye wanna bet there’s a lunch tray and clothes set out for us in the bedroom?”
My stomach growled at the thought. With all the excitement, it had been a full twenty-four hours since the last time we ate. “Can I at least help you up?”
He shook his head and his smile grew. “Away ye go. I’m good. Just need a minute of privacy if ye don’t mind.”
“All right.” I set the towel on the edge of the vanity, mussed his damp hair and headed for the door. “Call if you need me.”