Page 129 of Shifter King
"She's biting me." He grimaced, his expression twisting.
"You deserve to be bit a few times after what you did to her. She doesn't like you. And in her defense, you put your hand in her face." Releasing Gabrice's arm, he pinched her nose. "Amelia, darling, let go of the man's hand now. He's going to need it for later. But if he causes you any harm, I promise, you can bite him all you want. Maybe some nice dragons will bite him too if he doesn't remember what he's supposed to do." She let him go, scrunching up her face.
Gabrice rubbed his hand briskly, shock still in his face. "She drew blood!"
WroOth raised an eyebrow at him. "Why do you make it sound like that’s so shocking?"
"Get her sober, skinchanger. There's only so much I can do to help. My mother's a tyrant."
"Of course. I’ll just flip the switch in her brain. That’s all it takes. She’s just been in a drug addled state for days after being physically and psychologically tortured. I’m sure this will take just a minute or so. Hold your breath then. This won’t be long."
Amelia put her hand over his mouth. "I need to find Naatos. If I can find Naatos, it'll be all right. I can't stay here anymore. Please. You have to help me find him." A ragged sob shook her. "They're going to kill all of you."
He pressed his lips in a tight line as he tried to think of the right thing to say. "Dear heart, you're going to be back with him soon, I promise you that. This is almost over. We're just going to go to a wedding."
She frowned, blinking blearily. "Whose wedding?"
"Well, ours," Gabrice said with a clumsy shrug. He still held his bleeding hand. "Horrible day to give up howler ash."
Dread filled Amelia's face, the color fleeing from her cheeks. "No. No," she said firmer, louder. "No, WroOth, I promised him. WroOth, I just promised Naatos I wouldn't. I made a vow. I promised! It's sacred. I promised!" She burst into tears then, hiding her face in her hands.
"We don't do vows in weddings like this," Gabrice said softly. "It's the tattoos that made it binding. This ceremony is just the proclamations of our feelings. Does that help? Technically she and I are already bound to one another."
WroOth shook his head. "Not really. Just go. I'll send someone to get you if we need something."
Gabrice scoffed as if shocked he would speak to him that way, but he did leave. For several moments longer, Amelia wept. Then she went silent again. That part was almost worse than any other. The dead silence and unresponsiveness.
What was he supposed to do?
Servants delivered clothing for both of them, including perfume with a note for Ruth, demanding she wear it at double strength. How tactful. He changed into his bridal attendant garb. The long flowing blue gown came with several beaded panels to bind to the bodice as well as fall over the skirt. His panels were white with red in simple interlocking squares and triangles.
The bridal gown was butter yellow with significantly more elaborate designs in the panels. Hers included whole panels of eagles and hawks in various states of flight and descent. Beautiful work that reminded him of many of the traditional Bealorn designs. Pela had often worn a bodice panel with something similar. She'd sometimes teased him about making sure all his clothing had many different beads and memorizing their order so she could always make sure it was him.
She was right. When it came to perfectly mirroring beadwork, most Vawtrians struggled. Especially the truly intricate work like the kind that went into the bridal gown. He set them all out behind the wooden changing screen and then started shaking her again. "Amelia, come on. I need you to come out of this now. Even if it's not all of you. Enough needs to come out. Otherwise—otherwise, you're going to get me hurt."
Her eyelids fluttered open. "What?"
Bit of a dirty trick, but at this point, her being up mattered more. "You need to get dressed, darling."
She blinked several times more, her expression twisted with confusion. As she sat up, she winced. "I don't…how does that keep you from getting hurt?"
"Don't worry about that. You just go put these on. Then you need to drink some more water, and we need to talk about a few things.
She staggered back behind the carved wood panel. A low murmur of either surprise or confusion suggested she had found the dress.
"You need to put that on, dear heart," he said. "If you need help, you tell me."
She said something incomprehensible, but there was a rustling of fabric to confirm she was doing something with the dress.
"Everything is going to be all right. I promise. You just need to get through this. By this time tomorrow, you’ll be safe in your husband’s arms."
She peeked around the panel and glared at him blearily. "This doesn’t make sense."
"Finish getting dressed, and I’ll make sure it does."
"I will, but when I'm done, we have to make sure we get the people out of the pit, WroOth. We can't leave them in there. It's horrible. They need help."
"Of course they do. We'll help them. We'll help everyone. But you need to get dressed. Quickly."
