Page 17 of A Bond in Blood (Blood Bound Duet #1)

Chapter 17

F ive Months.

One hundred and forty days.

Nearly two weeks since I’d taken a life on the dock. Even with the days growing away from the moment that had marked my soul for eternity, I continued to scrub my hands raw each morning and night.

I could still see the blood—a damned spot staining my skin.

I sat in the library, staring at those hands in front of me, my chest heaving.

Olen snored on the ground before me, filling the spacious room with echoes of his comfort. All while I sat there, fixated on my palms.

My eyes closed and Harold’s dead eyes stared back at me, the fear on his face marking my memories. The sounds of his mocking laughter and his fear-choked gasps.

The image of the blade shoved down his throat.

I stood, the chair beneath me clattering to the ground.

Then I ran.

Trying to force my mind from its own torment.

Olen let out a bellow of shock but, to my surprise, I was faster than him while he was pulling himself from his state of sleep.

My hands slammed the library open and I ran faster, heading toward the stairs. I didn’t dare to look back. Not when I needed to rid my body of these stains, to wash away this shame I was carrying.

Troll laid themselves against the walls of the palace while I passed, all of them whispering in shock at the feral woman with the hair of fire whipping behind her back.

Somehow, by the grace of the Gods, I made it to the grand foyer without Olen catching me. My hands shoved the doors open, finding more strength than I’d ever believed I had.

My eyes went across the courtyard while my feet continued to propel me forward. Determined to get to one place and one place only.

I raced through the gravel and to the palace gates. I turned, my eyes catching the green leaves barely blocking the dark pathway to the tunnels I’d ventured down before.

I glanced back once, still finding no beast following before I tucked under the thick foliage and back down the tunnel.

It was dark, darker than it had been when I’d first explored it in the daylight. I pulled my eyes to the ceiling watching the barely visible footsteps above while red moonlight filled my hidden walkway.

My hands trembled at my sides, reminding me of why I’d fled, and I ran again. Until my feet hit the crunching sound of sand.

My sobs left my lips when the water came into view. It was peaceful, even with the red of the moon turning it crimson. Like the stains of blood on my hands and heart.

Without a care, I walked forward, right into the water.

The cold grasped my breath from my lungs.

Then I sank. Letting my body go weightless in the cold. Allowing the water I knew was not red to stain my entire being with my sins.

My limbs went numb under the cold, with my hair out behind me, floating on the water.

I kept my eyes closed, holding my breath.

I wasn’t determined to die. No, that hadn’t been my intent. I just needed to feel clean .

My body began to reground itself, to return to normal while my pulse slowed. Until hands were wrapping under my arms, lifting me like a child’s plaything.

“What,” a voice muffled by the water in my ears grunted, “in Fate’s name are you doing?”

My eyes lifted and I tilted my head back, watching while Ulrich dragged me back to shore, depositing me onto the sand like a sailor’s fresh catch.

The air hitting my skin instantly brought my teeth together in uncontrollable chatters.

“Fuck it all,” he groaned while rushing to me, wrapping the cloak he’d ripped from his shoulders around my body.

“I needed to be clean,” I cried.

“From what?” he sighed, lifting me against him. “The ink you leave splattered all over that desk in the library?”

My tears fell, warming then cooling in the wind on my cheeks. “Of course that’s what you think this is.”

I turned my cheek trying to get away but instead it rested against his chest, soaking his shirt.

“Why did you try to drown yourself, Ursa? ” he asked more gently.

I hated the softness of his voice. The care hidden in the question. This feigned desire to soothe my black soul.

“You made me kill him,” I cried.

Ulrich’s body shook beneath me with his laugh. His hand brushed the hair from my face. A strangely affectionate touch.

“I didn’t force you to do anything.”

My mind cleared while my body warmed against him and I stood. “Why?” I cried. “Why?”

I pulled my eyes from the sand, letting out a shout of anger when I found a mask on his face. I ran for him, my hands, determined to rip that stupid fucking mask from him. In his lowered position on the ground, he didn’t have time to clamor away but his hands caught my wrists right as my fingers gripped the edge of the black barrier.

“Brenna,” his voice became a warning.

“What are you so scared of, Ulrich?” I seethed, and my fingers wiggled beneath the ends of the mask.

His grip went firm, attempting to pull my hands off. But I held firm, lowering my body onto his lap, holding him in place. Unintentionally straddling him while I tried to keep control.

“Do not consider it,” he growled.

“Growling like the monster he is,” I replied. “What are you going to do?” I teased, rolling my hips against him. “Kill me?”

My body hit the sand. My gasp was quiet with the shock of the collision, and he pressed his hips back into mine, lifting my hands above my head.

“You think you’ve bested me,” he laughed. “I’m always one step before you, Brenna.”

I could only come up with one response—spitting in his face.

“I’ve warned you enough fucking times,” he grunted.

His hands were replaced with his shadows licking up my body, holding me in place.

“Stop!” I screamed, horrified at the smile across his lips.

He sat up, now straddling me like I had been him.

“No, Brenna,” he said with a laugh, rolling up the sleeves of his shirt and revealing the ink on his forearms. “I am tired of you not listening.”

I struggled against the shadows, flailing my legs under him. I was a fool, Gods I was stupid for thinking he wouldn’t punish me for my fit.

“That’s enough,” he said calmly, and his shadows clamped down on my limbs, covering the rest of my body.

His long hair brushed against my cheeks when he leaned over me again. “Is this what you enjoy? Does this get your blood pumping? Does it warm that body in all the right places?”

His hand grasped my jaw, tightening at the bottom.

I kept my lips tight, my cries of protest muffled in my attempt to fight back. But he was too strong.

“You.” He smiled, the strength of his fingers forced my jaw to open. “Will.” He leaned forward, the amusement in his eyes burning. “Listen.”

Then he spit—right into my mouth.

I was in too much shock to respond. To cry out from the pain of him holding my jaw. To stop my body from swallowing out of reflex.

Disgusting me to my core.

In an instant he released me, standing calmly like nothing had happened. His shadows crawled back to him. Strings returning to their puppet master.

I was silent as I sat up. Rubbing my jaw then spitting into the sand. Repeatedly. Until I was sure his own saliva had left my body. At least that’s what I’d wanted to believe.

“Are you done?” he replied.

My eyes went back to his, watching while he rolled his sleeves back to his wrist. I threw off his cloak, standing quickly.

He turned, directing his body back to the entrance of the tunnel. Only I didn’t follow.

I ran right back to the water.

My feet had almost hit the water’s edge when his hands wrapped around my waist, ripping me back.

“Let go of me!” I screeched, slamming my hands backward. My fists connected with his solid body.

“No!” he yelled back, shoving me to the sand again.

“I hate you!” I cried, burying my face in my knees. “I hate you.”

My words grew quiet as I repeated myself and my tears fell onto my already dripping gown.

“Get up before you freeze out here,” the king ordered.

“I hate you.”

He leaned forward and his hair hung over me, covering my face. “Tell me something new and I might actually tell you why I brought that sniveling coward to my home.”

I stared up at him, silent.

He grinned, before standing again.

“Just like I thought.”

“You’re a coward.”

Somehow the wind caught my words, wrapping them around us.

Ulrich’s shoulders went stiff.

I stood, squaring my shoulders with my determined attack.

“You torment and torture to amuse yourself. To distract yourself from the coward that lives beneath that mask. The man who makes deals , forcing people to bow to him because not one body on this island follows you out of respect.”

His shoulders moved with heavy breaths, and I continued.

“They follow out of fear. What a sad life it must be for a king to lack the respect of his own people. I doubt you could even protect them if the need ever arose.”

The sand beneath my feet began to shake, lifting into the air while an unseen hum surrounded the secluded beach. My eyes snapped to Ulrich, whose shoulders were slumped. His shadows circled his body, creating a cyclone of sand and black around him.

“Gods,” I exclaimed, stepping back.

His head shifted toward me after my proclamation and his eyes—they were pitch black. I stared back, sure a shimmering crown of shadows appeared above his head.

“You know nothing. His voice was low, terrifying, and unrecognizable.

I lifted my hands in defeat, bowing my head, retreating from this battle between us. Allowing the king to be the victor.

But I wasn’t sure the being before me was the king I loathed.

His hands moved like he was painting something in the wind. My eyes went to his limbs, noticing the skin turning grey. Almost translucent with his bones becoming visible beneath.

The red of the moon made him all the more horrible. Layering red over the shadows and his body. Painting the Unseelie King as though he were dripping in blood.

I continued my backward retreat, cursing the high hills blocking this place of solitude from the rest of the city. Trapping me with the monster I’d awoken.

“ Fear ,” Ulrich laughed. “It always smells the best right before death. When the soul is most alive. Fighting to stay attached to the body it lives within.”

My heart dropped.

“Please,” I whispered

His head threw back and I blinked in shock as his mask clattered at his feet. When I brought my gaze up, I found his shadows had replaced it, whipping around his features. A living, dark force blocking everything but his eyes. His laugh was just as low and dangerous as his voice, a warning to run.

But I couldn’t. I was frozen in fear, trembling in the sand with my dress dripping around my feet.

“I rarely hear the begging.” He continued his approach. “Rarely take the moment to allow that fear to build before I consume my victim. A shame when the most fearful are the most delicious.”

His shadows bit at my ankles, dancing around the lower half of my body as he stalked closer.

His hand, greyed and almost decayed in appearance, gripped my face. “You’ve broken your deal, Brenna,” he sneered.

“No!” I protested.

His shadows encompassed his body, turning him to a being of black. Licking up his arms, replacing his limb with the darkness.

“You ran . Attempted escape.”

I shook against his hold, my tears falling onto the shadows. “No, I wasn’t running. I wasn’t.”

“You are not obeying your rules, Ursa . Broken deals must be claimed.”

He leaned forward and my body jolted. Pain swirled in my mind and throughout my entire being.

“I’m obeying!” I protested. “I just needed to be clean!”

He leaned closer and my mouth opened without my control. I couldn’t understand what was happening. Why my body convulsed. Why suddenly, the pain was retreating and something else, something frigid, cold and horrible, was taking over.

“Your soul was marked before you took your first breath, Ursa .”

The words branded me, coiling around me, tightening over my heart. I couldn’t find the strength to refute them. To deny his claim.

Because what if he wasn’t wrong?

Then I was flying into the sand hill behind me, my head hit it with force. My vision blurred and I watched as Olen ran across the sand, and attacked Ulrich, tackling him to the ground.

The king’s shadows wrapped around the two men, blocking me from seeing what occurred. I could hear it, though. The bellows of rage. The shouts.

And, alarmingly, two different animalistic snarls.

“Ulrich!” Olen’s voice shouted. “Ulrich return!”

Ulrich’s shadows climbed higher, a dome of black blocking the fight he was tangled in.

“Don’t allow it to take control!” Olen yelled louder. “Don’t let her win.”

Her?

A rage-filled scream replied, and the earth shook from the force.

“Brenna, get the fuck back to the palace!” Olen ordered.

I nodded, despite the beast not being able to see my silent acknowledgement and I ran. Faster than I had run to the beach, tripping on my dripping gown as I went. Tears heavier than before.

The red moon guided me on my journey, a protection for the woman born under its magic.

When I reached the palace, I stood in the foyer, unsure of where to go. Who to run to.

My mind reeled and my chest burned when I made my decision. Picking up my skirts, I rushed through the palace toward the stairs at the back. Hoping to the Gods I wasn’t a fool for my plan.

My feet slipped on the damp stairs leading to the dungeons and I flew down the hall, startling the guard asleep in his chair.

“What in the Gods?” they groaned.

“He’s coming,” I sobbed.

The guard was on his feet but instead of helping me, he ran back up the stairs. Leaving me in the dark prison.

I scoffed, running to my assigned cell. To my relief it was open when I reached it. To my dismay, I realized I did not have the keys to lock myself in.

The palace shook and the lights went out. Turning the room black instantly.

Then it approached.

His cold.

His power.

So much more terrifying than it had ever been.

“Brenna,” his voice sang in the darkness. “We were not done.”

“Please!” I replied, my voice echoing throughout the dungeons. “Please.”

I pressed my back against the cell wall, jumping at the sound of the metal gate slamming open.

The energy of his might took the air from my lungs, the wall behind me cracked with the force of his shadows pressing against me.

“I will not kill you.” His voice was so close but I could see nothing through the thick fog of darkness. “Not tonight.”

My body dropped and the red moon returned through the window. I sobbed, watching the mass of shadows retreating, leaving me in the cell with the gate now mangled at the side.

The dungeon grew silent around me while my body curled into itself, attempting to warm the freeze taking over.

My eyes closed and my tears fell. I would freeze in that spot, but I didn’t care.

Arms lifted me into the air, pressing me against a broad and warm chest. I leaned into Olen, gripping his shirt. Not having to look up to know it as him with his braids tickling my face.

“Princess,” he muttered. “What happened?”

“I just wanted to be clean,” I muttered. “I just wanted to be clean.”