Page 13 of A Bond in Blood (Blood Bound Duet #1)

Chapter 13

I laid in the dark room, listening to the sound of running water from the bathing chamber. My hand reached for the empty space in the bed beside me.

I still hadn’t gotten used to it, after a month of lying beside his large frame.

So, any moment when I was under those heavy covers alone, was a gift given directly from the Gods.

The water stopped and my hand returned to my chest.

Blinking through the darkness, my breaths grew heavy while the sounds of the king’s footsteps filled the chamber. The bed shifted with his weight, and he let out a content sigh.

“Was the public execution exhausting?” I asked.

The bed shook with his laugh. “My, someone has words tonight.”

“I’ve followed your rules for a month, your grace. Do not forget that. I only asked a question.”

The bed shifted again, and I shuffled to move away from him but his hand gripped my thigh.

My eyes widened and my head snapped in his direction, trying to make out his features in the dark.

“I am exhausted,” he said as his finger circled my skin. “But not enough to not enjoy myself.”

I jumped off the bed, gasping out my disapproval. “ That was not on your list of terms.”

“Get back in bed, Brenna,” he demanded.

“No.”

The air grew heavy with his cold when his chest was suddenly against mine, his hand gripping my wrist.

“There is a deal. You will obey.”

“I will not be your plaything!” I yelled, shoving him away.

He was silent before he let out a chuckle. “Brenna, fall to your knees.”

My eyes grew larger, and I reached around me, searching for anything to throw at him.

“Brenna,” he repeated. “On. Your. Knees.”

“You’re a fucking animal,” I bit back.

His laugh went deeper, like it was coming from his very soul. “Well, this is an interesting twist I was not expecting.”

I backed up, my knees hitting the edge of the table beside the bed. “What were you not expecting?” My hands went behind me, wrapping around one of the solid bronze candlesticks that had been extinguished when he’d entered the room earlier.

“You’re not obeying.” He laughed again.

“I have three rules,” I reminded him. “Sleep beside you. Do not try to escape. Never look upon your face. Being forced to ride your likely boil-covered cock, is not one of them.”

“You watch your—” He started his warning but I cut him off by throwing the candlestick, hoping I had aimed it right at his face.

“Sorry,” I whispered, running in a frenzy toward the hidden door.

“She wants to play,” his voice echoed behind me.

In the month I’d been in his bed, I’d learned how to navigate through the dark and this time I found the hidden exit with zero struggle. I ripped it open, heading for the threshold when cold wrapped around my ankle, pulling me back into the room.

“Olen!” I screamed down the hall.

Ulrich’s shadows dragged me back to him, shackling me while his heavy body pressed me against the floor.

“You like to be chased,” he taunted. “Don’t you?”

My eyes grew wide while his hips dug into mine.

“Get off of me,” I squeaked.

“What was that noise?” he whispered, his mouth brushing against my ear.

I slammed my head against the floor, angry I’d allowed my insane curiosity to slip out.

“Your grace,” I tried to reason with him. “You are not a beast that takes women with no regard to their consent.”

His body went stiff against me, his shadows grew colder. “What did you say?”

“Please, Ulrich.” I held a firm tone. “Do not do anything you would regret later.”

His shadows released me the same time the hidden door creaked open.

Olen’s laugh brought me instant annoyance.

“Oh thank the Gods.” The sound of fabric rustling brought a protesting cry from my lips.

“Don’t you dare!” I cried out.

Olen’s disappointed sigh was almost amusing as a palm wrapped around my own. I stumbled when Ulrich pulled me to my feet, steadying me in the darkness.

“Olen, I will be removing myself for the morning,” he said, clearing his throat.

I was shocked, completely unaware of what had happened. Before I could question anything, Ulrich’s fogging power had lifted from the room and the curtains were thrown open, welcoming the sunlight.

I turned, mouth agape, finding Olen with an identical expression.

“What just happened?” I asked.

Olen blinked, running his hand through his unbraided hair. “I have the same question.”

I sank against the bed, finding the candlestick slick with black blood.

“Was that you?” Olen asked, kicking it away.

“My blood or my attack?” I asked.

“Well, I know your blood isn’t black, princess.” Olen replied.

“I don’t know what came over him,” I sighed. “It was like every night since our deal. Me on my end. Him on his. We talked about the courtyard, then…”

“Stop,” Olen cut in. “You spoke of Sigrun?”

I nodded.

Olen leaned back on his palms, letting out a sigh.

“Talk of Oberon and his court does things to Ulrich. Brings out a side of him few rarely see.”

“That sounds like an excuse.”

“Princess,” Olen turned to meet my gaze. “We may be fucked and make jests we shouldn’t regarding women and their bodies, but not one man in this court would lay his hand on an unwilling bedmate.”

I blinked at him, not believing his words.

“Both you and Ulrich have alluded to bedding me without my permission.”

Olen’s shoulders rose with his shrug. “I said we’re fucked.”

“Good Gods,” I sighed, laying back on the bed.

Olen’s body lifted from the bed and I sat up, watching him head toward the hidden door.

“Got to sleep, princess,” he said.

“I can’t,” I admitted.

His eyes went to the open windows. “Go enjoy the morning sun. You rarely get to see it since you’ve been here.”

He left me alone, giving me permission to leave with no companion.

My heart raced and I jumped to my feet, rushing to the closet. My hands ripped through my trunks for the outfit I was searching for. Finally finding it, I held it before me, my heart swelling with a longing for home.

Once dressed, I ripped the door open and ran down the hall.

After a fast stop at the library, I moved through the palace, finding the towering fortress halls empty. I fisted the scroll in my cloak, almost making it to the front doors when a voice cleared from the shadows.

I turned on my heel, startled to find an Unseelie man smiling at me.

“My, my, my.” He grinned.

I stepped back, glancing around the grand foyer of the palace. The stone stairs leading upward were now like a trap when they’d been my pathway to freedom just moments before.

“Where are you going?” he sneered.

“I don’t know why that’s any of your concern,” I replied.

The man grinned and I bit the inside of my cheek to hold in my gasp at the elongated teeth dragging against his lips.

“I think you’re lying,” he said.

“Bjorn, why are you loitering for unsuspecting victims?”

I turned, finding Frode standing in the shadows, a look of disdain tight across his face.

The fae whose name I’d now learned let out a disturbing laugh. “Frode, you know I must feed. My kind cannot go long without it.”

I stepped back, retreating toward Frode when the man’s hands reached for me, ripping off my cloak.

“My, what an outfit.” His tongue licked his lips. “Who gets to see you like this, princess?”

My hands covered the sealskin suit I’d changed into, grateful for the long trousers I’d slipped over myself. But my bust, there was barely a way to cover the curve of it through the suit.

Frode appeared beside me, wrapping his own cloak over my shoulders.

“The princess is from Nóatún, an island gifted in the sea. An island with a frigid fjord and filled with insane habitants who swim in its waters.”

Bjorn grey eyes peered at me while his fingers pinched my cloak together. He brought it to his nose, inhaling loudly.

“You smell amazing. Can’t I just have a taste?”

“I suggest you stop taunting the king’s guest, fool. Unless you want his wrath to come down upon you,” Frode replied.

Even with my suit covering my arms, and Frode’s cloak wrapped around me, my body grew cold at the hate in the man’s eyes while he stared back at the healer.

“Ulrich is starving himself,” he laughed. “Many of us don’t wish to do so.”

“Leave,” Frode commanded.

My hands gripped Frode’s cloak tighter, trying to conceal more of myself while the man studied me.

We were in a standoff. The monster taunting his prey. Only, I was his believed prey. The predator before me had no sway in my ability to fight for myself.

I stepped forward, ripping my cloak from him. “I’m a princess. You will respect me, or I will use my Gods-given-right to request you be thrown in the dungeon.”

Bjorn laughed, throwing his head back. “You believe yourself to have power in the Unseelie court?”

I mimicked his laugh, allowing my voice to lift in the high squeal that his kind had.

“You fool.” I grinned. “I am half Seelie fae. I am the daughter of a king whose island was granted to his lineage under Oberon’s just hand.”

The man shrank while my words left my lips.

“I am a favored guest of not just Queen Mab, but Queen Titania. Have you heard the wreckage Oberon’s wives lay upon men?”

Bjorn's eyes darted behind me and Frode let out a breath.

“I will call upon them. I will use whatever power I have, and you will leave this island to rot in the dungeon of the Seelie. Did you know they drug you with their wine in those dungeons? Altering your senses, making you believe you are no longer attached to your own body. It drives the mind mad. Until one day—” I snapped my fingers and Bjorn jumped. “That mind collapses.”

The creature lifted his lips, barring his canines at me. “You use words of war , princess. Words I’m sure my king would gladly remove your head for.”

Frode stepped forward. “I’m sure our king would remove your cock and then your head for attempting to make this woman your victim.”

The Unseelie hissed then shrank back into the shadows, not uttering another word as he left.

My shoulders slumped once alone with Frode.

The healer bowed his head, and I pulled his cloak off then returned mine to my shoulders.

“Where are you headed, princess?” he asked.

Nervously, I glanced at the doors. “A swim,” I admitted.

Frode’s lips turned with a smile. “The king’s docks are rather filthy. Where did you intend to swim?”

My hands shook when I pulled the scroll from my cloak pocket, unrolling it and pointing. “I’ve been in the library,” I began. “I love history, especially maps.”

Frode laughed. “You’ve been learning about our island.”

I nodded. “It’s what I do when I’m not following Olen as Ulrich’s Wraith Whore .”

“What have you learned?”

I gulped. “There’s a hidden passage here.” I pointed to a dark spot just beyond the palace gates. “You can access it by a door near the gates. From my understanding, it leads to this hidden cove.”

My finger traced the map and the barely visible markings. I didn’t really need it any longer. Not after weeks of studying and committing it to my memory.

At first I’d thought I was mistaken when I noticed the lines, but the more I studied the map, I’d grown more confident in my observation. Whomever had drawn it had meant to keep the passage and cove hidden, at least to those without a knowing mind for cartography.

“Where did you learn to decipher maps?” Frode asked, looking up from the markings.

I rolled it once more, placing it into the safety of my pocket.

“My tutors. Growing up on that secluded Island, I developed a yearning to see the world. But my father only allowed trips to Aesir once a year during the harvest moon.”

“Your birthday is near the harvest moon,” Frode replied.

I casted my eyes down. “I’m aware. It’s my favorite celebration. The harvest blood moon is a shade of orange-red that I see in my dreams every single night until I can look upon it again.”

Returning my eyes to meet the healer’s, I cocked my head. “How did you know that?”

Frode lifted his shoulders. “I may have already been Ulrich’s healer the day you were born, but we all knew the stories. Anyone from Nóatún mourned the loss of a great queen while we celebrated a new queen born under the strength of such a powerful force of nature.”

I blinked at him, my hands trembling at my sides.

“Did you?” I stopped the question. I never asked about her. I’d learned to keep those questions locked inside of me at a very young age.

Frode’s hands grabbed mine. “Frey was beauty personified, and kindness was the blood that ran through her veins.”

My tears lined my eyes. “Thank you,” I whispered.

Frode grinned. “Enjoy your swim, princess. Just don’t freeze. That cove is frigid.”

He pushed the door open for me, gesturing to the empty courtyard. “Don’t get caught.” He winked.

“I don’t plan to,” I replied, rushing past him and out into the brilliance of a high winter sun.

The sun hit my skin while my feet landed on the gravel of the courtyard. I stopped, for only a minute, admiring the subtle beauty that was Ulrich’s fortress. My eyes went across the yard, finding the gates at the other end.

I could not stop the pace at which I moved. I could not prevent the hope in my heart while I flew through the gates, startling the sleeping guards. I turned, finding the wall covered in the thick green leaves barely depicted in the map in my cloak. My hands ran across the leaves as I pulled it back, revealing the hidden passage.

The tunnel was dark at first, barely lit with the light peeking through the hidden door quickly disappearing the further I walked. I almost turned around when light filled the space. I glanced up, gasping at the clear ceiling above and the moving feet, seemingly unaware of the tunnel below them.

I stared ahead, blinking back my admiration at the beauty of this tunnel. The stone walls and the green leaves lining every surface. With the light above, it was breathtaking, almost to the point of unexplainable emotions.

Why was it hidden?

The tunnel was not long but it was also not as short as I had anticipated. When I was sure my feet were going to grow tired, the smell welcomed me.

Water, home, the sea.

I walked briskly until my feet hit the sand, and I let out a breath. Before me was a secluded beach with high sandy hills blocking it from anyone’s view or access. I walked through the tunnel threshold, turning back to admire the only entrance to this secluded wonderland.

When I had reached the middle of the small oasis, I spun in my spot. In my unintentional prying, I had found a place my soul could breathe in.

A place away from the creatures determined to make me lose my mind. Somewhere I could wash myself with the cold of my beloved water, ignoring all the darkness on this island.

My cloak fell to the ground, crumpling in the sand and I threw myself into the water, letting out a gleeful cry as the liquid enveloped me.

As I moved onto my back, I allowed myself to become weightless while I stared up at the winter sun above. My hands moved slowly and I let out a breath, losing myself in the ecstasy of my first moments of true peace in months.