Page 16 of His Dark Delights
Lilly
The spring rains brought another bout of cold weather from the snowy peaks of the distant mountains.
Frigid, ghostly claws of fog crept over the field and pasture, leaving my world blanketed in a cloud of desolate cold.
There was nobody to warm my bed, and no passion to ease the persistent ache in my chest. There was nothing for me but endless chilly days and sobbing until I made myself sick.
Since Ren— Soren —rode away, I’d forced myself back into some semblance of normalcy.
It had taken two days for me to force food down, and a week to do more than feed the animals and sleep the hours away.
Admittedly better than when father passed, and I didn’t know how to live on my own, struggling with the darkness for months .
I’d only recently learned how to live again when I found the man in the woods. A man who’d reinvigorated my heart and allowed me to feel things I’d never thought possible. But one who also lied about his identity and damaged me in the process.
Denying my own lies would make me a hypocrite. Although my dishonesty had saved my life in the end whereas Soren’s lies… I saw no reason for them. Perhaps I wasn’t worldly enough to understand his reasoning, but the king’s actions left me abandoned, sickened, and feeling used… spoiled.
It wasn’t my place to question a king. Even one as wicked as the Fairy Butcher.
Regardless of the time that had passed since the king’s departure from my humble farm, memories of his commanding presence lingered.
There was no escaping the absurdity of the situation.
More than once, I found myself staring at the barn, laughing insanely at the thought that a king— a king —had climbed up onto my barn roof and hammered away at all the broken bits.
And in the nights, his memory haunted my bed, like a salacious phantom beckoning me to revel in delicious sin. Regardless of the fact I’d returned to sleeping in the loft. My body burned, and my fingers itched to ease the wanton lust plaguing my insides.
Instead, I cried myself to sleep, dreaming of the faraway fairies in the fae wild as they drank and danced under mystically illuminated glades cut through with sparkling streams. In those dreams, I danced with my brethren, my kin, swaying and drinking and becoming utterly lost in the hedonistic revelry of the fae.
Only they didn’t feel quite like dreams, more like some twisted reality. The echoes of dreams I’d yet to have .
My days on the farm became my dreams, and the nights with the fae were my new reality.
Through the lonesome rainy days, I contemplated abandoning the farm to find the fae wild. For the first time in my life, I truly considered leaving the only home I’d known. Maybe the fae would give me sanctuary, away from the humans—away from the Fairy Butcher, the man who broke my heart.
Questions pervaded my mind in the isolated hours of repetitive chores. Was my nymph mother dancing in a field of wildflowers somewhere? Had she loved my father, truly? Did she know he was dead? Was she thinking of me? Did she ever? Would she welcome me with open arms if I went in search of her?
As days passed, becoming weeks, more questions built up like a sickness within me. Was the king thinking of me? Had he loved me? Did I want him to? Was Soren Carnifex back in the capital, sitting upon his throne with a new woman warming his bed at night?
Why did that last one knot my intestines with green ribbons of envy? I hated that man, that bastard, that murderer…
The rains eased over the land, bringing brighter days and warm sunlight. I told myself each morning that the sun would heal the fractures in my heart and soul. If I stood in the wildflower field long enough, maybe I’d take root in the soil and bloom once again.
I stood in my field, a day over two weeks since I’d fallen into the writhing seas of misery, with my bare feet firmly planted in the earth.
Dirt rolled over my toes, and I raised my arms to the sun, breathing in the breeze and swaying with the renewed, vibrant flowers that had surged taller after the recent rains.
Under streaks of buttery light, I rolled my head back, soaking in the inherent healing magic of nature.
Threads of gold wove through my limbs, curling around my spirit like the delicate caress of a lover. They lifted me higher, allowing me to breathe deeper and shake off last night’s dreams of fairy parties in the woods.
Millie sauntered from the pasture, treading carefully through the flowers on her way to me.
I sensed her hooves plodding through the ground, each step echoed through me as if I had roots and the other plants were communicating her location to me.
She shoved her head against my outstretched hand, and I scratched her favorite spot behind her ear.
“ Moo .”
My eyes snapped open, and I removed my hand from behind her ear. Prying beasts didn’t earn scratches. “I am not thinking about him,” I argued, almost petulant enough to stomp my foot.
Millie swayed her head at me. “ Moo ,” she insisted.
“Really, I wasn’t. I’m over it—over him.” I smoothed my hands over my apron before crossing my arms. “The rest of my days will be lived out here on this farm in quiet solitude.”
“ Moo .” She nudged her head into my shoulder, forcing me back several steps.
I retaliated, shoving uselessly at her hindquarters. “Oh, leave it alone, you big heifer!”
She stomped her front legs in response; a playful action meant to entice me into running through the field with her. I hadn’t done so in weeks, too weighed down by the heavy, leaden state of my heart. Maybe running under the midday light would bring laughter back to my lips—
Shouting from the road and baying horses snatched my attention from Millie. Her massive head veered to the front yard the instant a soldier charged around the house. When he spotted me, he yanked the reins, and his war horse reared up on its hind legs.
On weakening knees, I rocked forward. Mille stepped back in time for me to grab hold of her neck. She was all the support I had as a renewed panic swept through me and stole my senses.
“No, no, no. They’ve come for me. I’m going to die,” I whined into her neck.
I should have run to find the fae as soon as I was alone. Staying here had been a mistake.
The knight pulled his horse to a halt with nothing but my cow between us. He lifted the faceplate of his helmet, revealing shrewd dark eyes and a sun wizened face. “You are Lilliana, are you not?”
No point in lying now. Either a neighbor in the village gave me away or the king had realized the truth I’d kept hidden from him.
I braced my hands on Millie’s spine and stood taller. “I… I am.”
Two more knights rode around the house, trampling through my garden, the field, and the flowers. My jaw clenched, and my brows pinched together.
“We’re here to collect you and bring you to the capital. By order of His Majesty, King Soren Carnifex,” the first knight stated.
Red blazing fury rose within me, like the head of a cobra rising to strike.
How dare that bastard leave me high and dry, weeping in the wake of his lies, his absence, only for him to order strangers to come collect me as if I were a simple possession?
I didn’t belong to the king, and he had no right to send men to fetch me.
Soren Carnifex broke me, and when I finally found the will to rebuild myself, a semblance of him returned to taunt me.
“I will not go,” I retorted, voice firmer than the trembling inside me.
The knight arched a brow, then scoffed. “It is not a request, girl.”
A second knight reached us. The familiarity of his voice reminded me of the day my heart turned to ash. “Watch your tongue, Gerald. The king wants her. She’s important.”
Gerald laughed, a sound that cracked through his lips. Then he smacked Millie on the rump, sending her bellowing and running into the pasture.
A startled yelp vented from me as I stumbled back.
“Aye, she’s as important as any hole is,” he grunted. “Now, let’s grab the mewling quim and get this over with.”
The third knight, a younger man, swung his horse behind me, all three of them now caging me in. “Right. I hate the bleeding countryside.”
Terror surged through me, kicking my limbs into action. “No, I’m not going with you!” At the first available chance, I flung myself between two horses.
“Not so fast!” Gerald’s fist snatched the trailing ends of my hair, causing pain to snap over my scalp. My neck snapped back from the force of the armored hand whipping me around. A scream died on my lips when Gerald brought his arm down on the back of my head, sending me into darkness .
I awoke in darkness, half slumped over on the front of a horse with a knight’s hard armor against my back.
My skull throbbed, and a persistent ache in my chin told me I’d fallen flat on my face after the blow knocked me out.
Lifting my heavy head, I thankfully noted it wasn’t Gerald holding me upright on the dreadfully swaying beast.
The swaying—too much swaying. My brain spun in circles and my stomach churned like a storm on the seas. All the movement threatened to bring up the last meal I ate, and I didn’t even know when that was.
Once the pounding in my head cleared enough for me to take in my surroundings, my heart rate quickened, racing faster by the second.
The mountain range I’d grown up beneath was leagues behind us, hidden by the darkness of an early morning yet to breach the sky.
Ahead, growing ominously larger under the twinkling stars, were the towering spires and arched steeples of the capital city of Elleslan, peeking over the top of an oppressively thick wall of dark stone.