Page 7 of Antiletum

Yes, Parliament needs their figureheads well and truly shackled. Can’t have “leaders” with too much unchecked power. How cataclysmicthatprospect could be.

And now the two of us are paired together. Against all odds.

Delaney’s grief for her dead sister, still so fresh, eclipses the warmth and light in the sanctuary. My own heartache rears thinking of my father and brother. Llewellyn and Heath ven’Sol respectively. Also cold and dead in the ground, their carbon feeding the earth.

As well as another arguably small handful of people. Delaney’s parents and sister included.

The desire to ask her what Rainah said dies on my tongue with another uncomfortable skip of my heart.

Wetting my lips, my tongue stops between my teeth while I think. “Tabitha!” I call, knowing that she hasn’t gone far and that the run she made was only for show.

As expected, her head pops into view through a window on the other side of thespirlinary. Clearly nervous, she responds, “Yes, my Lord?” Too afraid to not acknowledge a direct calling.

Training my eyes back on Delaney, I wrestle down the urge to stroke my tongue up her tear tracked cheek. Take her sadness within myself. Or over the three diamonds studded in her ear that I placed myself. Instead, I reach for my own lobe, touching the black stones matching Delaney’s, remembering the feel of her soft hands when she gifted me with them.

What an honor.

“Please, ensure that your cousin, yourLady, goes straight to the infirmary. See that Nelda uses a salve of bella herbs,antiletum,and bees wax to halt the progression and help in regaining her skin elasticity.”

“My Lord,” Tabitha begins, blanching at my command as Delaney speaks at the same time, “That’s not necessary. It’s notsafe—”

Their arguments trail off to silence with a simple raise of my hand.

It’s not safe for you to insist on harming yourself rather than take what is right in front of you.I snatch the words I wish to say to the back of my throat, staring deep into my wife’s unique hazel eyes.

Technically, it’s illegal to keep personal stores ofantiletum—capable of reversing the physical damage of one overusing magic, or using it without their bonded spouse. Anyone caught farming the precious herb unregulated faces a death sentence. Most crops are sent to Parliament when harvested, only small batches making it to hospitals withinNoctuaborders.

Seeing as how it’s my responsibility to uphold the law and report infractions now…

Well, I’m not so worried about being punished for keeping a secret stash.

Turning my attention on Tabitha, I now refuse to look at Delaney as she so often does to me. “Just do it,” I spit disdainfully, allowing my hatred for her to distort my features.

“Val.”

Ignoring Delaney when my name rolls from her mouth like that is like trying to deny the sun its trek across the sky; the moon its glow against black midnight. But my resolve holds steady. I willnotlook at her.

The heat of her pulsing indignation wafts towards me.

Fuck, is that satisfying. I suppose it’s time that I try playing her game. See what happens. See how she likes it.

Turning on my heel, purposefully silent, I’m already making plans for my evening while I leave Tabitha gaping through the window at my wife.

2

I’m human and you’re a bird

Delaney

Impossible.

That’s the only word I have to describe how I try to ignore the steadily increasing pain in my hand.

I hurry with Tabitha across the sunny grounds on my way to the infirmary. Honeybees buzz about and laze against colorful petals perfuming the summer air as the looming manor comes into view, its facade hedged with immaculate shrubbery. My tower calls to me. Its flying buttress like an arm that may swing out, beckon me forward.

I long to return to the circular room’s solitude.

Especially after the run in with my husband, causing a rearing heartache to flare back to life. Worse than any other instance since the night we wed. Close. Personal.