Page 35 of A Bond in Blood (Blood Bound Duet #1)

Chapter 35

I did not allow Ulrich to touch me after my newest torment and he did not ask.

In just a few months we’d gone from regular lust filled nights to returning to our silent sleeping habits. A wall of pillows between us once more and my hands laid across my chest in protection.

The parties had also started again. A maddening thumping each and every night. Weeks of being forced to sit silently on his whore-seat, watching his court fuck their lives away.

My supplies were still gone as well. Nowhere to be seen. No more walks through the palace. No more secluded swims.

I was a prisoner once more.

“It’s been eleven months,” Ulrich whispered beside me.

I startled, pulling my eyes from the dark ceiling.

“Yes, your grace.”

Silence once more.

A tear ran down my face and I turned my body away from him, wrapping myself in the comforters.

Eleven months. I was so close to the end of this all. Freedom from this torture.

His body lifted from the bed and the sound of the bedroom door closing rang across the room. Leaving me alone.

But I did not care. Instead, I welcomed my sleep. Grateful for a night without him beside me.

“Your highness?”

My eyes opened and I looked up to find Frode standing beside the bed. I jolted upward, holding the comforter to my chest.

He sat upon the stool from the bathing room and gave me an odd smile.

“I apologize for disrupting your sleep.” His eyes went distant for a moment. “His grace said I would be better to provide you with this update.”

My stomach sank.

“What, Frode?”

The healer grasped my hand, pulling it from the blanket.

“Hilde.”

I stood, pulling my hand away from him. “What about my grandmother?” I sobbed.

“She is ill, your highness.”

My feet were out of the bedroom door before Frode could finish whatever he had been instructed to tell me.

I passed a troll cleaning the wall.

“Where is he?” I shouted.

The creature dropped its water bucket and pointed down the hall with trembling fingers.

“Courtyard, princess,” it croaked.

I ran down the hall, sure my auburn hair was like a fire blazing from my head. As I passed people of Ulrich’s court, waking for the day, I was met with amused grins.

I was the princess in her nightgown, running through a palace. Ulrich’s whore running to find her master.

Likely a sight they would gossip about for years to come.

I ran down the stairs, my feet moving faster than they had thrown me before. My hands slammed the towering palace doors open, and my feet hit the gravel.

Across the courtyard, too far away was Ulrich, stepping into a carriage I had never seen with only his shadows at the front acting as his stallions or mares to pull him away. I stared at him, unsure of where he was going, why he was leaving.

“Ulrich!” I screamed. “Ulrich!”

I moved across the gravel, desperate to reach him. A rock sliced into my foot, and I cried out, but did not stop running. My blood made it more difficult and painful to move across the uneven surface, but I had to get to him.

“Ulrich!” I cried, watching while he pulled the carriage door closed.

“Ulrich!” My scream ripped from my throat.

These emotions, this fear—I was sure it would infiltrate my lungs and drown me where I was.

I fell, gripping my chest while my sobs tumbled from me. Why was I running to him? What did I need from him? Help? Comfort?

His presence hit me in the chest and my eyes snapped up, watching him slowly climb out of the carriage. His black horned mask tight and terrifying.

His shadows lifted him as the omen of death that he was, sending him across the gravel without his feet touching the ground.

He landed before me, his eyes scanning me from head to toe.

“Frode has told you.”

I sobbed, holding my bleeding foot. “Yes.”

“Go home, Brenna,” Ulrich replied, his eyes blank while he stared into mine. “Go home and never return to this island.”

I stared in shock and my tears fell faster. “What?”

He was sending me... home ? Why? Was this another ploy? Another trick to confuse me?

“Go. Home.” He replied as he turned from me, slowly returning to his carriage.

“Why?” I sobbed, slamming my hands against the gravel. “Why? What about my rules? The deal?”

“A deal once made,” was all he said, leaving me with my wound.

Heavy breaths approached behind me, but I did not pull my eyes from the retreating king. I did not look away when he climbed back into his carriage. I did not blink while that carriage pulled him away and toward the city.

Calloused hands wrapped around my arms, pulling me upward.

“Come, your highness,” Frode whispered. “We must prepare your departure.”

“He’s sending me home,” I cried. “ Home .”

Frode grunted his acknowledgement of my words. He led me away, limping from my wound, but I kept my head turned, watching the king until we were back in the palace and the doors slammed in my face.

Frode’s arms around me grew tight.

“We have to be quick, your highness. Hilde does not have much time.”

I was in a haze while Frode led me through the palace. One I could not pull myself from. One I did not want to allow to lift from my mind.

Even with the pain of my bleeding foot, I could not focus on anything other than Ulrich.

He was sending me home.

Without my request.

Did this mean our deal was done? Was I no longer bound by his ancient oath?

Frode helped me to the bedroom, setting me gently onto the mattress.

“I will return with Adalie,” he said softly.

I nodded—once—as Ulrich would.

A sad smile graced Frode’s expression, and then he left me in the room.

Within minutes claws were clinking across the stone, and I glanced up to find Olen in beast form, staring at me.

“You’re leaving,” he mumbled.

I nodded.

“Your grandmother.”

I nodded.

His body approached mine and I did not refuse him when his beastly head laid in my lap.

“What am I supposed to do without a screeching princess to irritate?” he grumbled.

I could not stop my responding laugh at the jest and his laugh mixed with my own. A sound that had once terrified me, now brought me comfort.

“What is he going to do without you?” This question was quieter, his voice lower.

I shoved the beast away.

“He is the one who is sending me home.”

“Do you want to go?”

I turned my head, staring out at the city. “She is my mother in every sense of the word,” I cried. “She is brash and often cold, but she raised me. She ignited the fire that is in my soul. She took me, a motherless babe, long after her years of infant-raising had ended, and she shaped me.”

My tears fell. “She may not have written to me in all this time. In her own way, I believe it was her attempt of forcing me to grow, but I must go to her, Olen. I must say goodbye. I would never forgive myself if I did not.”

I turned back to the beast, finding his gaze soft. His paw landed on my lap.

“It has been an honor, princess.” To my shock, his voice cracked. “It has been an honor to become your friend and to have been your protector these last several months.”

“Do not make me cry further, you beast,” I sniffled.

“One more hump for goodbye?”

My fist went right into his snout, and he shouted.

“I guess not,” he laughed, shaking his head.

The bedroom door opened, and Adie ran in, her eyes wide with emotions. I limped to her, embracing the young girl in my arms.

“Thank you for your friendship,” I whispered.

“Will I never see you again?” she replied, sniffling.

I pulled from our embrace, grasping her face and smiling at her.

“I’m not sure, Adie. Perhaps I’ll come back some day, with my newfound freedom. Bringing you stories of the other Islands. Trinkets for you to keep. Stories to tell you.”

Adie sniffled again.

“Perhaps I will convince this brute uncle of yours to allow you to travel with me for even just a moment.”

Olen snarled.

“I’m going to miss your birthday,” Adie cried. “I’m going to miss seeing you turn another year older, like the old woman you are.”

I laughed loudly. “I am going to miss your spirit Adie. Gods, will I miss it.”

“And we will miss you,” Olen said solemnly.

Adie pulled away, returning to her tasks as my handmaiden, filling my trunks. I should have helped her, offered an extra hand, but my feet moved me to the window.

I wrapped my arms around my body, scanning the city streets, trying to find the black carriage amongst the buildings. Wondering if the king would send me off himself or if that had been our goodbye.

One of tears, hate, and blood.

Fitting really, when I considered it.