Page 52 of Blackwarden
“But they are so much fun,” she said, a seductive lilt to her words. “I had hoped to have another when my Blackwarden returns.”
“He’s left?” I shouldn’t have shown so much interest. I could see the flash of anger in her eyes at how quickly I’d asked about him when it had taken her so long to draw any other words from me.
“I needed him to take one of my dignitaries through the portal,” she said with boredom.
She couldn’t lie.
I swallowed my fear and smiled sweetly, trying to hide any concerns I might have had for him. “Will I ever be able to go back to the human world?” I finally asked, hoping that her frustration with this would overshadow that I’d asked about her Blackwarden.
Bevgyah leaned closer, the weight of her presence made the air suddenly very thin. She tucked a piece of my hair behind my ear, her finger lingering on my cheek as her eyes raked over my face to my chest.
“No, my lovely Tesanna. You are one of my precious pets. A cherished addition to my harem.”
Cherished addition.The words rang through my head, echoing against the walls of my mind. Another half memory I frantically collected to keep until I’d recovered them all. It had been a familiar male’s voice that had said these words before.
She lifted my chin with her index finger before dragging it down my throat and between my breasts to my navel. Heat radiated through me at her touch that I both craved and hated. Something so sexual in the way her eyes devoured me. I didn’t dare move or react for fear she would touch me again.
“I can see the appeal.”
“Appeal, your Majesty?” I asked, trying to ignore the way she looked at me, the way the air seemed to grow colder around me.
She didn’t answer, instead she stood, hovering over me as she ran her fingers through my loose hair. She leaned down, putting her cheek against mine.
“My Blackwarden likes you, little Tesanna,” she whispered in my ear, and instead of leaning away she licked down my neck to the hollow at the base of my throat.
I stiffened, trying not to pull away, trying to slow my heart that seemed to crash into my rib cage. Something told me that she wasn’t the type of person who would accept rejection. That she might make things so much worse for me if I did. I swallowed my fear.
“He wants you and who he wants,I want.”
Chapter 26 ~ Midnight Apple
Keres
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Why was she so different? Rosalin had vague pieces of memory. It had never happened before with any of the other maidens, but I could feel the waves of confusion. She’d asked multiple times if she’d known me or been somewhere in the few stolen moments we’d had together.
“There has to be something I’ve missed,” I said to the Gatehouse, though it wasn’t much help.
I sat on the floor of Rosalin’s suite with her portrait propped beside me and a pile of books in front of me. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t steal glances of her face every few moments. Bevgyah had needed one of her dignitaries brought through the portal, which gave me twenty-four hours in the Gatehouse to myself while my shadow magic recovered. And I planned on using every second to find something that could help me get Rosalin out of the Unseelie Court. After sending the male on his way I went room by room, leaving her suite for last. I wasn’t able to enter when there was a maiden staying with me. The Gatehouse was very particular about this. They had to have a place where they could feel safe. But once I had my home to myself again it didn’t matter.
I glanced up at the black metal statue of a horse in the corner, a strange looking apple tree sculpture beside it.
“Seems she tested you,” I said with a smirk. One of the braziers flared a little brighter. “She definitely tested me.” A flash of heat plummeted into my core with the memory of her lips on my neck, her hair whispering over my bare chest, her skin beneath my fingertips.
What was it about her that turned my blood to liquid fire? I shook my head before my smile fell. Her fear had never been like the other girls. It had always been layered with anger and curiosity, and it wasn’t until she’d told me of her deceased husband that I’d understood why. That couldn't be what made her different though, could it? That she’d loved and lost?
“Whatelseis different?”
Maybe it had to do with her being older and more mature, or because she’d chosen to come in her sister’s place. That was a level of self-sacrifice that none of the others had demonstrated.
I didn’t put much faith in fate, but perhaps it had been preordained for her sister’s name to be drawn after Rosalin had lost her husband. A sinister thought struck me. Who was the Dark Fae who’d killed her husband? I shook my head, something like that couldn’t have been arranged. Not easily. Too many things would have had to fall into place for her sister’s name to have been drawn, for her to have been present for the choosing and willing to go in her sister’s place. These things couldn’t be planned, could they?
I pushed the thoughts away, trying to accept that—for whatever reason—Rosalin had been brought to me. And when she looked at me, she’d seen past her fear and anger, straight to the person buried beneath this face.
I couldn’t help but wonder if the fact that she wasn’t protected by my shadows actually helped her recover some of her memories in the Unseelie Court. What if those memories had something to do with breaking the curse? I shook my head. I hoped that wasn’t the case, because if it was, I’d been making it harder to break thecurse for five hundred years in my attempts to protect the maidens the only way I could. I already felt like a total idiot. I didn’t want to add another reason. But the more I thought about it, the more I focused on Bevgyah’s attention to the memories. They were important enough for her to strip away. She insisted on precautions to ensure the magic had time to solidify and the maidens’ memories were truly gone forever.
I shivered. Even if it was the memories, there had to be more. A catalyst so to speak.
