Page 34 of Blackwarden

Keres

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She disappeared from her place against the wall.

I’d looked away for only a moment and she was gone.

A ribbon of panic wrapped around my throat, blocking out all other emotions pressing at my mind for attention.

I craned my neck to find her, but as far as I could see, she wasn’t in the harem anymore.

The dress she’d been put in was hard to miss.

Two slits on either side of a full skirt allowed for slices of her legs to peek through.

While the neckline was modest, it showed her perfect abdomen from just under the curve of her breasts to the apex of her hips.

And I couldn’t stop thinking about how her skin tasted.

My breath caught imagining her beneath my hands.

But I wasn’t the only one who had watched her with unrestrained desire.

There were others in the harem who watched her, their eyes seeing everything I could see.

I worried one of her other admirers may have taken her somewhere when I’d been distracted by Bevgyah.

The Hag leaned toward my ear. “Just like you to choose the one you can’t have just yet.”

A strange flutter of excitement mixed with dread writhed through me at the mention of having Rosalin.

I’d hoped my concern for her hadn’t been too obvious, but that was impossible.

I wasn’t exactly hiding the fact I’d been watching her.

And I knew the rules. The magic Bevgyah used to strip away memory needed time to solidify, and she liked her maidens to get acclimated to her frozen castle before they were taken to anyone’s bed.

I could choose any of the maidens for Bevgyah and I to enjoy together, but not the newest addition.

She knew I wouldn’t choose anyone. I had never been the one to choose. She would have to force me and she had no problem doing so.

“There’s something different about her,” Bevgyah said as she leaned into my space, running her fingers down the center of my chest.

I stiffened, unsure what she’d say next because there was something different about Rosalin. There were many things.

“She feels everything so much more intensely,” she said as she pushed the waist of my pants lower with her claw-like fingernails.

I was shocked she’d allowed me to remain fully clothed. Usually at this point in the night, she would have removed my shirt at the very least.

“And I wonder how her emotions must taste to you with your...heightened sensitivities.”

Rosalin’s emotions were torture. Her fear was bitterness on my tongue.

I’d wanted to hold her hand when I stood beside her against the wall, but I wasn’t allowed to touch her.

I thought if I could get her to drink some of the Fae wine she’d relax enough to get through the night, but she’d refused, and now she was somewhere in Bevgyah’s palace without supervision.

I didn’t worry about what she would do, so much as what someone would do to her.

I took a sharp breath, trying to focus on only my own emotions.

“Perhaps, I can let you break this rule just once,” she purred in my ear and goosebumps rippled down my arms.

A flash of hot need sank between my legs. I hated the way my body responded, the hope that I could keep Rosalin from someone else’s ravenous hands even if it meant enduring Bevgyah’s depraved desires. It was hope she would shatter at her earliest convenience.

“Go, find our little pet.”

I glared at her. A cruel smile turned up her lips.

“My kindness had best not go unrewarded, Blackwarden.”

I didn’t wait for her to change her mind.

Things at the revel had begun taking a more intimate turn.

Some of the guests had chosen maidens and were retiring to the small suites off the harem’s hallway, where they could enjoy themselves more privately.

I could feel the desire and sex as if it were my own, and though, I was usually good at pushing it away, tonight it was so much harder.

But I knew, if I wasn’t anywhere near Bevgyah, I wouldn’t be forced to do something I didn’t want.

I went straight for the main hall of the palace to get away from the cacophony of emotions and try and isolate Rosalin’s.

The halls were empty. A few of the guards on duty were standing outside the entrance to the harem, the others had left.

No one wanted to be around the debauchery of the queen’s pleasure party, unless they were taking part.

The silence was soothing. The oppressive moist heat and smell of sweat of the harem replaced with cool air that calmed the frayed edges of my mind. I stood in the center of the hall and waited, closing my eyes in the hopes it would eliminate any distractions but the feel of her fear.

“Are you following me, Blackwarden?”

I turned to find her standing in the middle of the hall, eyes wide with surprise. She wasn’t afraid, she was curious . I’d been looking for the wrong emotion. I should have known she’d find a way back to her questions.

“Her majesty wishes for you to return to the revel.”

She shuddered, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and the need to wrap mine around her was overpowering. “I’d rather not. ”

The slightest smile tugged at my lips. I couldn’t help myself. Her honesty was so pure. The Rosalin I knew. My Rosalin. I held out a hand without thinking. “I promise, you’re far safer there than you are wandering these halls alone.”

She didn’t hesitate. She took my hand. There wasn’t a shred of fear where there had been before, and I shivered at the touch of her skin. I shouldn’t be touching her.

I wasn’t allowed.

“Is that the room where the portal to the human world is?” she asked, pointing toward a door that had been left slightly ajar.

I hesitated. Had someone told her about the portal? Or did she remember?

“It is.”

“And you being the Gatekeeper, are you the one who takes people back and forth?”

“I am.” I was grinning from ear to ear now. I wanted her questions. I wanted all of them.

“Could you take me back through?”

I swallowed, holding her gaze. She truly didn’t remember the reason she was here, why she’d been brought through in the first place.

“I can’t.”

“You can’t? Or you won’t?”

Confounded questions!

“I would happily take you, but my magic is limited by the queen’s desires, and she would never allow it.” I could feel her frustration building as I spoke, but I craved it. I wanted more of her emotions. Ones that weren’t fear, or pain, or loathing.

“I don’t want to be here,” she said as she pulled her hand from mine and hugged herself again. A wave of unease passed between us, and it ripped at the walls I was trying to put up around my heart.

“You’re here as part of a treaty between the Unseelie Court and the leaders of your people. Unfortunately, you have no choice. ”

I hated saying the words. Having your choice stripped from you—your free will taken completely—was perhaps more difficult to cope with than pain.

I knew it well. I’d been enduring it for five hundred years.

She had yet to be compelled by Bevgyah to do things she would have nightmares about for the rest of her precious human life.

I swallowed my anger knowing there was nothing I could do to save her from this.

Much like her, I didn’t want to be here either.

A tear slipped down her cheek. I might have crumbled at the sight of it, but I managed to slam the stoic mask I was so used to wearing over my features as her sorrow swallowed me whole. I took a long breath, trying to settle my own emotions.

“Come.” I reached out my hand again.

She stared at it but didn’t move. A strange almost certainty passed through her and into me.

“I know you,” she said, a monotone quality to her voice. “You’ve guided me before, haven’t you?”

I took a breath to speak, but searing pain lanced through my head. It was the same pain every time the curse kept me from answering. I took a sharp breath across my teeth that didn’t go unnoticed. She watched me, her emotions dipping to concern.

“Her majesty is waiting for us.” I finally managed.

She glared at me, frozen in place, her frustration wicking into my skin.

I knew her feelings would be so much more intense without an imbued portrait to dampen them, but I hadn’t been truly prepared.

I finally took her hand and squeezed it gently before tucking it under my arm and pulling her down the hall.