Page 90 of Ocean of Silver

He pulled me back down. “Rumor, it’s alright. I’m fine.” He scanned the room. We were both on edge tonight. We didn’t know what the two Kings planned for Sie. They didn’t fill us in beyond making him jealous. With his coronation tomorrow morning, we figured whatever scheme they were planning would happen tonight. And Sie just made things a lot worse by openly dancing with me.

Tezya brushed my hair to the side, tucking a thick strand behind my ear. “Areyouokay?” His hands traveled down my neck, then down my back, until he gripped my hip again. I nodded. “Did he hurt you at all?” I knew Tezya didn’t mean Sie. He meant his father—the King. This past week I’d been shackled to his side, forced to follow him around everywhere he went. He had a custom manacle designed to fit around my neck with a long silver chain that he carried around. It forced me to stay close to him at all times, to be dragged around the castle wherever he went. It wasn’t infused with Alluse, either. There was no point to it other than it being decorative, for me to remember my place.

I hated it. It reminded me of being choked as I was forced to use my enhancement on him every waking second of the day, even when he was alone in his room for no one to witness his power. He claimed that it was training to make sure that I could maintain my enhancement at all times.

The only rest I got was when the King was sleeping. It was the only time I wasn’t actively using my abilities. I felt more drained this past week than I had in my entire life. My reserves were constantly running low, and my body was barely sustaining at its breaking point. By the end of each day, I went to bed shaking and on the verge of passing out. Using my powers to that extent was dizzying. It reminded me of how weak I was when I first came out of the dungeons. Even though I was still holding onto my muscle, my hands would develop a slight tremble by the afternoon. Sweat accumulated behind my neck and armpits, and the pounding headache seemed like it was permanently a part of me now.

The King was draining all my power and taking it for himself. By the end of every day, I felt like an empty husk. Sleep became marvelous. It was weird how it used to be the thing I dreaded, but now, my body craved it.

Using my enhancement on him wasn’t the same as when he took my blood and drank it. That felt like he stole a glimmer of my ability instead of just temporarily depleting it. I quickly realized that he had a power complex, an obsession with it. I wondered if it stemmed from paranoia. If he was worried that someone stronger would try to overthrow him.

Not that anyone could even try. He was too powerful. Even his own guards seemed scared of him. My enhancement couldn’t decipher what his abilities were. Arcane said he possessed everything, but I didn’t know what that meant. Did he have all the elements? He created each one during his fight with Tezya. Or was it something more?

When the King was preoccupied, I tried to cut back on the enhancement I was using on him and direct it towards other Advenians in the room. It didn’t help my low reserves, but I was determined to still train, to master my powers for myself and not just have them be used for someone else.

So I started experimenting, trying to figure out what each power of Lux felt like. I had mastered the elements. Water users were the easiest for me to pick out as my own ability seemed to be drawn to them. Fire also was surprisingly easy because it felt the exact opposite of my own powers. It felt hot and sultry, whereas the aura I picked up from water and air users were cold and biting. Ground users were warm and gentle. But the other abilities of Lux, the more rare ones, were harder to understand, and I still couldn’t grasp what the King possessed. His powers didn’t feel raw but wrong and erratic.

I shook my head again. “I’m fine,” I whispered to Tezya. And despite being completely drained and exhausted, I was. The King never lifted a finger on me. He didn’t need to, not when I did everything he requested. Dangling Peter over my head was worse than the chains he forced me to wear around my neck. I couldn’t help but wonder if this would be my downfall. Would Peter be the reason I turned against Tezya? Was this starting my spiral that Dovelyn claimed I would go down?

I tried not to think about it. I never got the chance to ask Tezya about what I had overheard that night. I hadn’t seen him since we were on the field, and Arcane had dragged me back toward the castle before Tezya could break free of the King’s powers.

Tezya’s hand grazed my arm, and I shuddered as I felt his scar over my skin. It was the only thing that convinced me I hadn’t gone crazy and made everything up. I curled my fingers over my own scar, hiding it from view. I kept telling myself that I dreamt it, that it didn’t really happen. I hadn’t gotten sleep or had anything to eat after his punishment. Maybe I heard things wrong, maybe my mind was playing tricks on me, or maybe the entire conversation was in my head. Dovelyn couldn’t have been the reason I was sent to Tennebris all those years ago, and Tezya couldn’t have known. There was no way. I was delusional after not getting any sleep and watching Tezya for hours and hours. I wasn’t thinking right.

But then I would look down at my new scar, the twin to the one I already had, and I knew it all happened. I planned to confront Tezya about it. I had wanted to ever since I saw him tonight, but I knew it wasn’t a conversation we could have here. Not when everyone was staring at us, not when I was forced to sit on his lap, and we were, yet again, the center of attention.

I scanned the room and noticed I only recognized Dovelyn and Kallon. “Where’s Rainer and Brock?”

Tezya tensed.

I sat up straighter on his lap. “What happened? Are they okay?”

“Rainer stayed behind. He’s still in Lux. None of us have seen Brock since the incident… We’ve been told that he’s recovering and that the healers expect him to regain his sight, but they aren’t positive. We don’t know where the King is keeping him.”

My chest tightened as guilt formed low in my gut and rooted itself there. I still heard Dovelyn’s ear-piercing scream as Brock’s eyes poured blood. I could still see Tezya burning through the roots that kept him grounded in place as they twisted around his injured thigh. I felt responsible for his situation. Even though I wasn’t the one who blinded him, it was still my power that did it, some part of me had caused this. But I thought he had recovered…

I swallowed. Not sure how to process what I was hearing. No one had seen Brock since he was blinded, and what was worse, they weren’t completely positive that he would be able to see again. Fear ran through me as I pictured what would happen to him if he didn’t fully recover.

“So Rainer stayed behind to search the castle for him while we are…” Tezya didn’t finish his thought as Athler stalked closer to us.

I knew I had other things to worry about, that I needed to get through tonight and make sure that Sie and I weren’t set up for some disaster. But I couldn’t stop thinking about the people that were already hurt because of me. Peter was still locked up somewhere in Lux, and now Brock was too. It was leverage, I realized, to make sure we all stayed in line.

Athler slid into the chair beside us, his raspy voice twisting my stomach. “I couldn’t help but notice that there’s a lot oftalkinggoing on here,” he said slowly, that cruel smile peppering his thin lips. “Do you need my assistance again?”

Tezya growled. “No.”

“You have one minute,” he crooned, “of convincing me that you don’t.” I expelled my breath as he rose from the chair, not realizing I was holding it.

Tezya’s fists clenched over my gown. “We don’t have to. I can walk you back to your room right now. Get you out of here.”

“But they’ll punish—”

“I don’t care what they do to me.”

I turned to look at him. I knew Athler was still watching. I knew what they were waiting for, what they expected of us, and there was no way I would let Athler mess with Tezya’s pheromones again. There was an even lesser chance that I would sit back and watch him go through anotherpunishment, not because of me, even though I knew that Tezya would. He wouldn’t force me to do this. He would take whatever consequences they threw at him, no matter how awful.

My hands found their way to his chest, my fingers sliding under his open shirt as I leaned forward and kissed him. He didn’t react at first, too caught off guard, but then he moved. His lips slowly devoured and consumed me whole. With the next stroke, his tongue slid into my mouth, and I willingly opened for him. I moaned, not able to contain it. He felt so right, so perfect. I craved him, needed him. I leaned forward, pressing my body into his so that it was flush against him. I wanted to meld together until we were one.

His thumbs found purchase under my chin as he tipped my head back, giving him better access. I obliged. I felt molten in his arms, not really sure where my body was resting anymore.

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