Page 126 of Artemysia
Kye crosses his arms and lets loose a frustrated sigh. “Pfft. He turned out to be a waste of effort.”
I struggle against the drowsiness. I can fucking fight this.Don’t close your eyes. Don’t close…maybe just for one second. It would feel so good to close my eyes. Shit. No! For Delphine.Stay awake.
“Well, let’s kiss him anyway. Just in case,” Sylvi says.
“I don’t want to kiss a normal man. We can have anyone we want downstairs.”
“This is elkshit. I’m not going back to the boring ball.”
Sylvi’s complaints are the last words I hear, her hands still roving over my body, down to my belt buckle. Her fingers work to unhook it, and it’s loosened around my waist.
I’m blindsided.
Every inch of my body wants to fight, but I feel as if I have no bones.
My blood boils over, but I can’t punch, stab, or choke anything. I can’t remember the last time I felt this unnerved.
Panic invades my every thought. I wouldneveradmit this aloud, not even to Delphine, but theotherreason I never had sex before was because sex was something I wanted to share with someone I could fall in love with, someone who would care for me in return.
It always surprised me that I held on to this belief all these years. Why did I? Marije, the woman who took me in—I called her “Ma” for short because her name was difficult to pronounce when I was a small boy—told me that the ravens nesting in the trees by our river cottagemated for life. I always wondered how the birds could tell each other apart, since they all looked exactly alike. The musings of a child…
But the idea that they mated for life clung to my soul like melted honey.
Ever since, it’s as if I dared the universe to prove me right or wrong by holding out on sex.
To test whether or not someone like me deserved love. A self-destructive killer.
And I received an answer in Delphine.
So now, I struggle with all the strength and willpower I can summon to save myself from the twins’ intentions.
I don’t want anyone else touching me.
Fucking hell if they do.Come on, stand up, body. Fight. You love to fight. Fight for Elphie.
But it doesn’t work, and all I can manage is a weak growl as I succumb to the drowsiness.
My head lolls sideways as I slump deeper into the chair, my vision graying until I spiral into darkness.
“Claiming you. You’re mine.” - Riev
I’m up to my neck in soapy water in the prince’s deep, bronze bathtub, quickly scrubbing the blood from my arms. Yeesh. One of the Syf’s fangs got me good. The water washes off in a brownish-red, same color as the tub. I’m dying to find out what else the prince knows. What “proof” he holds about Syf and the rest of the world.
If wearealone, how will we survive?
I stare blankly at the walls, barely noticing that I’m surrounded by a dark, lush print of black leaves and exotic deep orange birds, lit by an amber crystal chandelier. The bar soap has strange purple seeds and bits of plants in it, and the hottest water flows from the faucets, but there’s no time to luxuriate in the oils and potions lining the shelves, though I uncork one and get a whiff of a milky coffee scent.
When I’m done bathing, I disinfect the bite wound on my arm, clenching my teeth as the green antisepticfrom the medicine cabinet rinses over the fang marks. The antibacterial tonic looks and smells and stings like the one we use in South Kingdom. As I tighten thick, gauzy bandages around my forearm, I wonder how both North and South Kingdom have the same powerful medication that’s been around for only the last twenty years. The bright green liquid stains the bandages, but it’s effective in staving off infection.
With a shock, I realize this must be a Syf invention. King Foss said they shared medicine with humans to help keep us alive. Why help us?
The prince’s office door is closed by the time I return to the bedroom.
Wrapped in a towel, I pull open both doors of the armoire and examine my clothing options. It’s such a waste that the beautiful red dress was shredded to bits.
I glance past embellished gowns and a collection of shoes at the bottom. Are these Astrid’s? Or are they for any woman the prince sleeps with here? Toryl is strangely cold at times, and yet there’s more to his actions than what he shows on the surface. It must be partly due to whatever knowledge he holds that affects his worldview. What makes him believe mankind is endangered. I’m drawn to the complexity of the position he’s in, if only because I understand it through the lens of my own life. Strategize to survive. Fight to live.
In the back of the armoire is a soft black dress laced with ribbons at the chest that looks comfortable. I eye a pair of suede ankle boots that look like they’ll fit me. At this point, I’d prefer pants and a shirt, but there’s nothing close to that, so I drop the towel and unlace the top of the dress.
