Page 131 of Haunted

Ahnalyn seethes as Niawen used to. A dangerous simmer of emotions under the surface.

I let out a snide laugh. “You’re heightened emotions will allow her access to your thoughts.” I touch Ahnalyn’s arm. “Poor Ahnalyn, so lost and confused. Have you not heard your dragon guiding you before? She’s had your best interest at heart—whispering to you and sending you visions through her sight.”

Ahnalyn stumbles back, with disappointment. Now she sees a grain of truth. I don’t know what hope she was holding on to that I crushed with my words.

I wait.

Ahnalyn dares to speak after a careful breath. “How do I not know of the emrys? How do you know of them?”

How do I know of the emrys indeed?

From Siana, from a country full of half-emrys in another part of the world, from the empress who haunts me, but I won’t tell Ahnalyn this. “Emrys live in a hidden realm. Nobody knows where it is unless they’ve been there. You have to be an emrys to enter their realm.”

“How do you know so much? Have you seen one?” Ahnalyn asks.

I sigh as I picture Niawen’s face as clear as if she were standing beside Ahnalyn. “It’s been many years since I last saw one. They don’t leave the dragon realm to interfere with the affairs of men. Too bad your mother didn’t see fit to tell you where it was. She did you a great disservice.”

I’m bored with this. I thought… I don’t know what I thought I’d gain by visiting Ahnalyn.

“You mean she did you a great disservice,” Ahnalyn snaps as the energy of our conversation drains out of her. She sits on her bed and turns away from me.

Hint taken. I oblige her by swishing out of the cell. Another day perhaps. I have all the time in the world.

87

I’m restless, my emotions playing off Ahnalyn’s anxiety. I study her with my light. Her flicker of brilliance paces her cell. She’s agitated and annoyed. Too much like her mother. Ahnalyn’s sorrow echoes my own. She feels betrayed by all those she thought had ever loved her. Betrayal is an emotion simple for me to understand, but I have faith that Ahnalyn will move past her confusion. She already possesses a determination to defy me.

Good.

That will make breaking her a pleasure.

I interrupt her seclusion after several weeks and pay her a visit. I can’t stay away. I’m too intrigued by my progeny.

“Have you thought my offer over?” I ask. “It pains me to see you in such dreadful quarters.” I pretend to look sympathetic.

“I doubt that.” Ahnalyn sits on her bed, with a blanket stuffed behind her back.

“Come, Ahnalyn, you don’t know me at all. I care for your welfare.” I prowl closer and watch Ahnalyn bristle.

She lets out a crude and derisive laugh. “Truly, my lord, you surely must.”

“Sarcasm will get you nowhere, child. You must see life as it is. Make the best of your circumstances.”

“Is that what you’re doing, making the best of your circumstances? You make me sick.” Ahnalyn glares at something on the floor, which is viler than I am, yet she can’t look at me. “Neither one of us is going to yield, so why don’t you leave me alone.”

“Ahnalyn, I can be extremely patient. My forbearance has no bounds.” I drift around the cell, trying to rein in my temper. I’ve honed patience for centuries, but Ahnalyn knows just where to press.

“So it seems.”

I wiggle my nose. “I’ll extend this one courtesy so you’ll know of my generous nature.” She looks at me then, curious. My eyes rove over her body; I’m disturbed that I let her go without bathing, concerned that she’s been living in her own filth. “I can’t have you crawling with lice or fleas—”

Ahnalyn smirks. “Really now, this is your concern?”

“If you must be rude… what I’m concerned for is your health and the health of the child. Someone shall come in and give you a bath and sweep your cell.” With this, I turn on my heel, stalk out of the room, and clang the door shut behind myself.

She will learn. She must know that I’m not some unfeeling beast. I order a guard to make the preparations for Ahnalyn’s bath and skulk off to my study.

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