“Why should you be sad? We are not slaves anymore. Garreth treats us very kindly. He loves you a great deal,” Isaelle said.
That got Sarielle’s immediate attention. “Why would you say that?” she asked her.
“Oh, we can see it.”
“Yes, we can see it,” Jona said. “Will you marry him? I should like him for a brother.”
“Yes, I should like him too,” Isaelle said.
“Oh, I don’t think that will happen, my little loves,” she said, new tears burning into her eyes.
“Why not?” they asked in unison.
“It is very complicated,” she said, wiping her eyes.
“You love him, don’t you?” Jona asked.
“Yes. You do,” Isaelle answered for her. “And if you love each other, now that you are no longer a slave, you get married.”
It was as simple as that to the girls. Sarielle did not know how to explain it to them. She barely knew how to explain it to herself.
Just then the door to the nursery opened and a serving girl entered the room. She shyly approached Sarielle with a note in her hands.
“I … I found this on the table in the hall. I thought it might be yours,” she said, holding the note out to her.
Sarielle thanked her and took the note. The girl beat a very hasty retreat. Sarielle read the note.
I want you. I need you. Come to me now.
—Garreth
Sarielle blushed. She wondered if the girl had read the note. Of course she has. Don’t be silly. How else would she have known it was meant for you? But why would Garreth leave such a private note where anyone could find it? How was it the message had not made it directly into her hands?
It didn’t matter. He wanted her to come to him right away and she would obey him.
“I have to go, my little loves,” she said hastily. She gave each a quick kiss and then retreated from the room. She hurried through the hallways, her heart beating hard within her chest. It should not mean so much to her that he wanted her like this, but it did. It meant the world to her that he felt so strongly for her. It was not a declaration of love, it was not a promise that they would be together always, but it was the next best thing.
She entered her rooms and quickly looked in the mirror, tidying a few strands of her hair. She reached for the perfume Davine had talked her into buying—a light, warm scent—and quickly applied it to her skin at her wrists, her neck, and the spot between her breasts that Davine had told her was a must. She straightened her skirts, then laughed at herself. Surely Garreth would not care if her skirts were straight. He usually did not allow them to be on her body for very long once he saw her in private anyway.
She opened the door they shared between their rooms and entered his bedroom, closing the door behind her. As she came farther into the room, she was surprised when she did not see him standing there or sitting waiting for her by the fire, but she did see a body tangled up in the sheets in the bed. At first she was amused that he was already naked and waiting for her.
Until she realized that the person in the bed had deep violet skin and was very much a woman.
Sarielle felt her entire world spin away from her as she realized the reason why the note had not been sent directly into her hands. Because it had not been meant for her.
Davine. It was Davine who was sleeping in Garreth’s bed, looking for all the world as though she had been vigorously tumbled within it. Sarielle should know, for she had often looked exactly like that once Garreth had been through with her.
Sarielle reached out to steady herself with the nearest piece of furniture she could grab. It was a chair sitting in front of the fire. Her brain burned with a flash of memory of Garreth sitting naked within the chair, Sarielle straddling his lap as she rode him to orgasm. He had gripped her body then as if he had never wanted to let her go. He had gasped for breath against her neck, his face buried in her hair. Their skin had been damp with the sweat of their exertions.
But now the chair was empty and Garreth’s bed was filled with the body of another woman. The note had been sent to Davine.
I want you. I need you. Come to me now.
He had written those words to Davine and Davine had left the note behind by accident. Now she lay sleeping in his bed after … after …
Tears were not coming. She needed them to come, to blur her vision so she could not see what she was seeing. She heard Davine too. The deep, lusty breaths of a woman well into sleep. Driven there no doubt by exhaustion.
Numbly, Sarielle turned back toward the door she had come through. She walked toward it with deadened, jarring steps, her hands reaching for one piece of furniture and then another, the only way she could keep herself from falling to the floor in a crumbling heap of bones. She made it to the door somehow and fell against it, her hand gripping the doorknob for all she was worth.
Suddenly Koro’s thoughts flooded into her mind, swamping her with his concern and sharp worry over her distress.
I am fine. Please … please do not worry.
She was begging him. Praying he would believe her.
But he did not.
Sarielle could not bear it. She opened the door and lurched through it. Slamming it shut behind her, she stumbled for the basin beside her dressing table and vomited. She sobbed then, tears finally coming. She crumpled to the floor and began to cry.
But no sooner had her first tears fallen than the door between her room and Garreth’s was opening and Davine, wrapped in a sheet from the bed, was coming toward her. Sarielle wanted to scream at the sight, backing away to try to escape her.
“Sarielle! Oh, Sarielle, I’m so sorry! Please! Please forgive me! I-I had no choice! If I didn’t … I would find myself out on the street with nothing! I-I didn’t want to! You are my friend and … I tried to warn you this might happen. That this is the way men are. Please …” Tears were in her eyes as she dropped to her knees before Sarielle. “Please forgive me. I never meant to hurt you.”
Sarielle couldn’t manage the jumble that was her emotions. And all the while Koro was in her head, demanding she tell him what was wrong.
Frustrated, he told her he was coming for her.
“Please don’t,” she whispered aloud. Whether she was speaking to Koro or Davine, she didn’t know.
“I … I’ll go,” Davine said softly, her gaze turned away. “I’ll go and I won’t come back.”
“No,” Sarielle said numbly. “You can’t. You have nowhere to go. I-I’ll go. I’ll take the twins and … Yes. I’ll go.”
“Where will you go?” Davine asked quietly.
“Anywhere. Anywhere but here.”
“But will you be safe?”
“I have Koro to protect us. Please … if you ever cared for me … help me to go.”
“I do care for you. And I’ll help you. Just let me get dressed.”
The reminder made fresh tears burn into Sarielle’s eyes. She wiped them away fiercely. She nodded to Davine. “Where is he?” she asked, her voice, her entire body, trembling.
“He went to Zandaria.”
“I should … should I tell him?”
“Why? You don’t owe him anything. You need to be as far from him as possible. He is cursed and would bring you down with him.”
“C-cursed?” she stammered.
“Yes. He told me. That’s why he leaves every night at dusk. He is cursed to freeze every night from dusk until juquil’s hour.”
“He … he told you?” The one thing, the one thing he had refused to talk with her about … and he had told her about it. Shared it with Davine, not her.
A curse. She thought of what he had told her, about his immortality. Thought about all those times after juquil’s hour when she had been able to see his breath on the air even when it wasn’t cold … when his body had been so inexplicably cold, how he always warmed himself by the fire before coming to her … and she knew it was the truth.
“Help me,” she said to Davine, meeting her friend’s
troubled blue eyes.
“I will. Wait for me here.”
It was an easy request, for Sarielle did not think she would be able to move.
Davine stood up and hurried into Garreth’s bedroom. She hastily dressed in her clothing, all the while telling herself that this was for the best. For all involved. Sarielle would be safer away from Garreth. She would suffer a broken heart, but she would heal after a while. It would just take a little time. That was all. Davine would earn her comfortable life and Garreth’s brother would be satisfied.
As for Garreth … Well, she didn’t much care about him. He had endangered her friend knowingly. Brought his curse to her doorstep. Sarielle was an innocent just learning how to be free. She didn’t need the weight of Garreth’s burdens.
Davine hurried back to Sarielle’s side.
Sarielle was numb as she went through the process of packing her things. Luckily Davine was there to help her. She wasn’t taking much. Just a change of clothes for herself. She felt Koro coming all the while and knew she needed to meet him on the keep walls or he would tear the place apart looking for her. She sent Davine to fetch the girls as she ran up to the walls and met Koro.
He saw her tears, felt her broken heart. He bristled in frustration to feel her in such pain, knowing she wouldn’t let him help her.
I am going to leave this place for a little while, my love.
He immediately wanted to go with her.
I need to hide, Koro. If you are with me, then I will be found.
A wave of loneliness beat at her. He was afraid to be by himself.
I am always with you and you are always with me. In our minds and in our hearts. We will forever be together. And you can come find me in a little while. Just … remain safe in your cave. Now, come close. I need to take some of the shiny things from your scales.
Koro came closer to her and lowered himself down so she could work some of the precious stones free from his scales. They would help buy her escape. She did not know where she was going, but she knew she had to go as quietly as possible; otherwise, Garreth might come after her. Although she didn’t see why he would. He had clearly moved on. Away from her. Why would he care if she left?
Koro flew away from her after she had what she needed, heading back to his cave as she had requested. He was such an obedient creature and she was very fortunate to have him. She had never taken being a wrena for granted. She knew how blessed she was.
And cursed.
She gathered up the girls, and Davine quickly found them a conveyance. It was a wagon going to the city of Zandaria. Even though it was going toward where Garreth was, there she could switch to another conveyance and slip away unseen and unknown. She would be lost in the sea of Kithians who had been invading Zandaria since its fall. She simply had to avoid Garreth.
To that end, she waited for dusk to leave, knowing that his curse would keep him in a fixed place until juquil’s hour. By then she would have hoped to have left Zandaria, perhaps as part of a trade caravan, and escaped into the darkness of the night. The Zizo had perfect eyesight in the dark, unlike Kithians and, she assumed, Garreth and Dethan. She and her sisters would easily be able to travel throughout the night if she paid a Zizo driver to leave as soon as possible.
With her plans firmly in place in her mind, she left Kith forever.
Davine sought out Dethan as soon as Sarielle had left the city.
“She is gone.”
Dethan looked up from his papers and lifted a brow. “I’m sorry. Who is gone?”
“Sarielle.”
Dethan stilled and eyed her for a long moment. “Are you telling me that Sarielle has left Kith … for good?”
“Yes. I knew you wanted her gone … and now she is. And it is done in such a way that nothing Garreth can say or do will bring her back to him,” she promised Dethan.
“How did you do it?” he asked carefully.
“I made her believe he had bedded me,” she said quietly as she studied her clasped hands. When all of this had begun she had been looking out for herself, had been selfishly motivated. But now … She was not proud of what she had done. She had been seeking comfortable circumstances, but she did not feel comfortable. She did not feel safe and secure. She felt … dirty. Like she had done something her soul might never recover from.
“And that is all? All it took?” he asked her.
“Yes,” she said quietly. “She loves him. The betrayal … It was more than she could stand.”
Dethan frowned. Like Davine had said, he had wanted her gone and therefore should be happy with the results she had wrought, with the success of what she had set out to do, but for some reason he felt uneasy and … unclean. Even though he had not asked Davine to do this, he had made no secret of his desire to drive them apart. Now this was the result of his selfish desires.
He knew Garreth cared for the girl far more than he ought to, that he perhaps even loved her, despite his claims otherwise. Dethan had never seen his brother so devoted to a woman before. Had never seen Garreth behave with such single-minded loyalty with a woman. He would not easily let this go, Dethan realized. He would no doubt try to hunt her down and bring her back.
“How did she leave? Won’t he be able to track her?”
“He won’t be able to. We hired a wagon to take her to Zandaria. Once she makes it there, she will switch to another way of travel and he will never be able to track her.”
“But no doubt he will try,” Dethan said absently.
“I can delay his realization of her escape for a night. If he returns to Kith from Zandaria tonight, I’ll send him a note saying she decided to sleep with the twins tonight and perhaps he will not seek her out.”
“If he tries to and realizes the twins are gone, he will be after her immediately.”
“You must convince him to wait until daylight. That will give her more time.”
If Dethan did that, then he would be taking an active part in this. He would be even more responsible for the entire business than he already was. Troubled, he said, “Thank you, Davine.”
“This … this is what you wanted, is it not?” she asked uneasily. She felt sick in her soul. She needed to know it was the right thing to do. That it had been for a reason.
“Yes,” Dethan said carefully. “Though I did not wish to hurt the girl in the process. She is a good person and did not deserve such pain.”
“It was no more pain than she would have suffered had she stayed,” Davine said with a lift to her chin.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dethan asked sharply.
“Separating them was the right thing to do,” she said, although she sounded as though she was trying to convince herself even as she was saying it to him. “Your brother is cursed. He would have brought that curse down upon my friend.”
“So she is your friend now?”
“Yes,” she admitted quietly. “And because she is my friend, I would have her escape him. I would say unscathed, but she is not. She is deeply wounded by this and I must accept my hand in that. But it was to a better purpose.”
“You are right. My brother is cursed. And this is for the better where all are concerned.”
“I think I will find my bed now. I am very weary,” Davine said, her head down.
“Good night, Davine.”
She left without ever once asking for compensation for her actions. She no longer cared about that. She no longer wanted a reward for causing such pain to another.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
It was long past juquil’s hour when Garreth returned to the keep at Kith. He was drained from all his traveling and he felt as though his time in the orchard had been particularly brutal that night. He was looking forward to his bed and Sarielle’s warm body against his.
When he entered his room and saw she was not in his bed he was surprised. The covers were tossed about, as if someone had been sleeping within them. But he figured she was having one of her restless nights, which she had
been having with increasing frequency these past nights. She would not tell him what was troubling her, and he had not pressed her. After all, if she wanted to keep something from him, he had no right to demand she tell him. Not when he was keeping his own secrets and had been so voluble about holding her at a distance regarding that secret.
There was a note on his pillow.
With a furrowed brow, he read it.
Sleeping with the twins tonight. I will see you in the morning.
—Sarielle
The furrow of his brow deepened. Of course it wasn’t the first time she had decided to sleep with the twins. She had done so before when Jona had had an unexpected nightmare one night. Perhaps that was the case tonight as well. The girls still had some trauma to deal with in the wake of their kidnapping.
Tapping the small note against his fingertips, he moved to stand in front of the fire, trying to chase away the remaining chill his curse had left behind.
Something wasn’t right.
He didn’t know what, and he didn’t know why he was feeling this way, but something wasn’t right and he had always followed his instincts. They had gotten him through more than one tight spot over his lifetime of crusading.
He went into her room and looked around. Nothing seemed out of place at first, until an acrid smell reached his nose. He followed the smell to a basin where someone—he presumed it was Sarielle—had thrown up the contents of their stomach.
Concerned now, he made his way out of the room and headed down the hallway to the twins’ rooms. When he opened the door, the bottom fell out of his world.
The beds were empty.
That could mean any number of things, he tried to tell himself. They could be anywhere in the keep. But something was telling him, warning him, that wasn’t the case. He went into the room adjoining that of the twins. Inside he found Moyra, asleep in her bed.
“Moyra! Where are the twins?” he asked, roughly shaking her awake.
Looking at him through sleepy eyes she said, “Sarielle came and packed them up. She said they were going to be traveling with you. Are they not with you?”