“You have my vow. You will leave this balcony alive, but only when I have fucked you enough times to leave my scent on you for Wrexel to smell forever.”
Amber cried, “He will never know, I will never tell him.”
He laughed. “Oh, he will indeed… I will send him clear footage after I have had my fill. Smile for the security camera, little human.”
The king lowered his head, aiming for her exposed breasts, and Amber seized her chance, hitting out at his throat. The Monarch jerked out of the way but as he did this, his eyes fell on her neck. He roared with fresh anger and grasped the necklace she received from Wrexel.
He held it so tightly that Amber gagged, unable to breathe.
“Little whore!” he spat into her face. “How long has my son been spilling his untethered seed into you, trying to impregnate you and destroy our bloodline? Tell me!” he demanded and backhanded her so hard, Amber was sure he had broken her cheekbone.
Her head spun, and she struggled to remain conscious.
The Monarch released her for a second and captured Banjo, who cowered nearby.
He dragged them both to the balcony edge and held Banjo over the side.
“When did he have it removed? When did you decide to breed? Are you with child now?” He rattled off the questions and shook Banjo, who yelped in pain.
Amber lashed out, delivering a blow to his insole and another blow as Staede had taught her, aimed at his throat. She tried to grab Banjo when she managed to bring Gilroth down onto one knee, but he extended his arm farther over the balcony as he spluttered with pain. “I have greatly underestimated you, little bitch.”
Amber staggered out of his reach.
“Give me my dog.” She reached into her boot and took out her sketh. The brothers could not take his life but she could!
She launched at the Monarch and tried to grab Banjo. As she did, her hand crossed his chest and the sensation the Sanbara promised her rolled over her fingers. The necklace flickered into vague visibility at her touch. This was her only chance. She reached for Banjo and pulled the amulet from his neck at the same time, a task that she only half-accomplished. Amber screamed as she watched her pet plummet to the ground.
“You will die now.” The Monarch was oblivious to what she had taken from him and began choking the life out her as she fought and kicked against him, still clutching the amulet and bulb in her palm.
“You will not live to bring a Thromian half-breed into this world.”
* * *
Amber was suddenly wrenched from the Monarch’s hands as a sketh sliced forward, nicking his cheek.
She struggled to draw air into her lungs.
Dionys stood holding a sketh at Gilroth, his body shaking with anger. Whyle held her to his chest.
“Back down,” he ordered. “Your king’s guard are dead and Dionys has no oath to keep him from killing you.”
The Monarch looked as if he would attack but roared instead, “She wears Wrexel’s Torlutacht about her neck, without ceremony and without royal consent. I will have her life if she is breeding with the royal heir!”
“The Torlutacht is mine,” Whyle claimed as he moved backward to Wrexel’s balcony.
Gilroth stared at him in anger. “I believe you have outlived your usefulness to me, Whyle. With that precious ring around her neck and the footage I have from this encounter, I will have my kingdom back.” He yelled the words as they moved quickly to the center rail that now stood open.
Whyle pushed Amber through the opening in the gate and into Dionys’s arms, then clicked the button for it to close. As it ground into place, she heard Whyle say, “I would rather die than let you take back full reign.”
Amber screamed when she saw Whyle dashing forward, but the glass misted over and transparency was lost.
At that moment, Shihlo ran onto the balcony with his guards. He roared with anger when he saw her half-naked, bleeding, and almost unconscious in Dionys’s arms.
Dionys ripped off his jacket and helped Amber cover herself as she staggered to the couch in Shihlo’s lounge. She slipped the amulet and bulb into her pocket and sank onto the chair, her head spinning from the Monarch’s blows. She gazed up at Shihlo, who begged her for answers, but she faded away and darkness descended upon her like a welcome friend.
When she opened her eyes much later, it was to find Revan looking down at her with concern.
“She is awake,” he said softly to the pacing Shihlo. “The blow to her head and his choking were too much.” He ran his fingers over her throat once again.
Amber sobbed with joy when Leyahanna, a little frail and shaken but nonetheless alive, came to her side. They clung to each other in tears as Amber told her of Banjo.
Minutes later, when her crying subsided under Revan’s peaceful whip, Amber looked up at the quiet and deeply troubled Shihlo.
“Where is Whyle?” she asked, but before he answered, Wrexel tore into the room. He pushed both Leyahanna and the Yimmyrd away and lifted Amber, his eyes ravaged with pain and fear as he clutched her to him.
“Did he rape you?” he asked into her hair, his voice hoarse.
“No,” she replied, her words muffled by his chest.
“Where is Whyle?” Amber asked again, turning her face from Wrexel to Shihlo.
“He will be here shortly. He is safe.” He cut her off from speaking anymore.
“Leyahanna will you take Amber to bathe; I am sure she wishes to rid herself of the memory of Gilroth’s hands.” Shihlo kept his gaze on Wrexel.
Amber left with Leyahanna, her eyes never leaving her husband as she walked away, for he stood with his head lowered, his face awash with confusion.
* * *
Shihlo’s voice was strained as he fought for control of his anger. “Whyle killed all the Monarch’s closest guards and is now outside the Room of Decisions, which Gilroth has completely closed off. He chased him there without catching him and is working furiously to disable all forms of communication out of his Wing and the Room so the diabolical discovery he made does not get out.”
When Wrexel frowned at him in confusion, he exploded with anger. “You put your fucking Torlu around her neck!”
Wrexel flinched and touched his abdomen as the reality of what he had done became clear.
“He knows, Wrexel.” Shihlo sighed raggedly. “He was filming the interaction on the balcony to torture you. He has evidence of what you have done. By tomorrow, you will be tried for treason. I will lose my brother and I will lose Throm.”
Wrexel continued to hold his stomach, but he never uttered a word.
“How could you, Wrexel?”
“I don’t know,” he said eventually. “I lost my mind… I can’t even remember doing it. I can’t remember much of anything after the episode with Staede…”
“Were you drugged?”
Wrexel shook his head but did not look sure.
Shihlo could not continue his questioning, for Whyle entered, looking frazzled and angry.
“Gilroth has holed up in the Room by himself. I’ve surrounded it entirely with a force shield; he cannot leave, but we cannot enter because of the guarding Sanbara.”
Dionys was at his side. “I closed off all the exits and entry points in the catacombs with force fields too, so the Room is on full lockdown. He can’t get out. I don’t believe the Sanbara can either, not that it matters; the Monarch knows that Whyle will kill him with a laser shot if he sticks his head out. Whyle made the oath to the Monarch just before he sealed him within.”
Shihlo looked at Whyle in shock, but his cousin was resolute. “I will not give him Throm; I will die first.”
“What of the footage and the confession regarding the Torlu?” Shihlo was still deathly pale.
“I’ve seized all Comms out of Four Wings,” Whyle said. “The secret is safe for now, but we must come up with a plan. We cannot blow him up, we cannot enter the room, and we cannot… set him free to make this announcement. If I believed I could get to him and kil
l him before the Sanbara got to me, I would do it.”
“You will not,” said both Wrexel and Shihlo. They would not lose one of their own.
“Destroy the footage,” Wrexel suggested.
“I can’t,” Whyle said through gritted teeth. “He has it backed up on his personal server and I can’t destroy it in its entirety because my tower is on lockdown for another seven days. We are lucky I managed to block all outgoing Comms from Four Wings for now. The Monarch must remain locked up until I can try to access his system and destroy the footage. His system is not something that can be hacked from outside.”
“The recording is irrelevant.” Shihlo spoke without hope. “If he submits to serum questioning, Throm will accept his word. Gilroth cannot be set free.”
“Well, we cannot keep him in there. The people of Throm will want to know what is going on. They could call for an inquisition and we would all be thrown out of the Constitution.”
“He must die,” Dionys said bravely. “I will kill him, but extract my brother’s whereabouts from him first.”
“Dionys, while I fully believe you are able to kill the Monarch, you cannot get past the Sanbara. You are also under our directives tonight, which means we will die from the blood oath if you strike.” Whyle calmed the young man.
“I think…” Wrexel began, but Shihlo silenced him.
“You will give no opinion in this, Wrexel. Take Amber and leave Throm. When we have figured this out, we will call you back. If what you have done gets out, they will want your head and hers. It’s better if you are not here to hand it over.”
Shihlo dismissed him and for once Wrexel did not argue.
* * *
When Amber came out of her bedroom, she was given no time to think or speak. She was ushered immediately from Four Wings at an urgent pace, surrounded by guards. She followed Wrexel into the dark night, her mind racing. The escape was a blur as they took off into the darkness of space in silence.
When they were free of the gravity of Throm, she turned to Wrexel. “Where are we going?”
Wrexel ran his hands over the controls and then faced her. “Rheese,” he said, looking at her strangely.
Amber went cold. He was taking her back, giving her the freedom she claimed to want more than anything. “You’re returning me… to Travis?”
He clicked autopilot and faced her. “Isn’t returning to Rheese what you have always wanted?”
Amber stared at him without speaking. Fear and confusion ran rampant across her face.
“I guess not,” he said slowly. “Which can mean only one thing… you wish to stay on Throm… but not with me.”
* * *
Amber could not find her voice; she was tired, overwhelmed, and confused. She wanted to talk about the bewitching she had witnessed, about the Monarch’s amulet and locket that hung around her neck, about his betrayal. But all she thought of was her return to Rheese. She looked at Wrexel, trying to read his expression, struggling to work out what was true feeling and what was magically induced.
Turning to other lovers spoke volumes. It showed that he was bewitched into keeping her with him, but did not love her. Perhaps the bewitching had been slowly fading. Maybe the night he lost his mind had been the apex of the curse and it was now ebbing, allowing him to set her free.
And yet.
He had shown her such care earlier when he returned from space. The way he held her, begged to know if she had been hurt…
“What do you want from me?” she groaned eventually as insecurity and confusion reigned. She always wanted to make her own decisions, not have anybody direct her, yet having all the power to decide was not as liberating as she thought it would be.
Wrexel slowly reached forward and touched her face, a bittersweet look of sadness upon his handsome features. “I want to know if you are in love with my brother,” he whispered.
“Rheese City One in fifteen minutes,” said the Auto Pilot. “Please return to your seats for descent.”
She pulled her chin out of his grasp.
“Does it matter?” she asked bitterly. He had made his decision already.
“No,” he said flatly.
It was Amber’s last memory.
43
Endings and Beginnings
BACK ON RHEESE
Amber woke up on the forest floor upon Rheese, the lifeless body of the creature at her side.
Before her stood Wrexel, staring down at her with an unreadable expression on his face, his arms folded as he watched her wake up.
She sat up slowly, her eyes never leaving his.
“Your memory has returned.”
“Yes.”
She looked at the forest and thought of all that had occurred on Rheese, adding it to all that had happened upon Throm before she left.
Her memory had returned, but she was still confused.
“Wrexel.” She played with the Torlu at her neck. “The night before you left, when you put this on me… only madness… or a bewitching would make you do that.”
Her voice caught in her throat as she prepared herself to tell him the truth of his obsession. “I could feel a curse between us; I could feel magic at work that night.” She fought back the urge to cry.
“You have moments when you are yourself and the bewitching sets you free.” She looked at him with pity.
“You were returning me to Rheese on the night we crashed as if it was no longer controlling you. But in the last days, it seemed to return.”
She watched him stare at her, digesting her words.
“I don’t even know what’s controlling you now, but perhaps knowing the truth… knowing what you feel for me is all manufactured, you will be able to let me go. It’s never been real… from day one… it hasn’t been true.”
He frowned. “No, you’re wrong.”
“I’m not.” Her voice caught. “Wrexel, how can you take another lover and still want to keep me prisoner? It’s not normal.”
He looked at her as if she had lost her mind. “Since the moment I laid eyes on you, Amber, I have been both incapable and unwilling to bed another.”
“You’re lying. What about your little tryst with Baerra?”
Wrexel stared at her in confusion.
“I have never…” He stopped mid-sentence. His mouth fell open. “Oh my God, you thought I had been with Baerra?” He pieced it all together.
Amber continued. “You were with her. Leyahanna said…”
“Leyahanna saw me throwing her out of my room,” he interrupted.
“Baerra swore on her house.” Amber’s voice quivered with indecision.
Wrexel groaned. “Amber, I rolled over in bed, I thought she was you… I began entering her body and when I realized it was her, I threw her out.”
He shuddered. “When you ask a Thromian to swear on their house, especially one as devious as Baerra, you should demand they be specific.”
He looked at her bitterly. “Leyahanna misunderstood. I would never… I have no desire to be with anybody… but you.”
He knelt at her side and stared at her wistfully. “I realize I lost my mind the night I put that on your neck, Amber… you think it was magic controlling me… but it was something even stronger than a curse or a spell.”
His beautiful yellow eyes glowed with sadness and Amber’s throat swelled, for she had never seen him look that way before.
“I thought you were still angry about me taking you from Earth. I brought you here to show you how you could never be with Travis after being with me, that turning to Staede to hurt me for something I had done to you wasn’t worth it… you were fighting me for things you no longer wanted.”
His eyes swirled with turmoil. “I’ve seen you with Travis now; I know you aren’t in love with him anymore.” He took a deep breath. “But I am still unsure about your feelings for Staede.”
He closed his eyes for a moment.
“When I saw you… with him, in our bed, just holding hands that night… and at the full
moon arena when you moved away from me to not hurt him.”
His breath left him in a shudder. “I began to fear that a love had grown between you… love that maybe took even you by surprise, and then… when I saw your kiss…” He looked to the side and she saw his throat move convulsively as he struggled to finish his words.
* * *
There was no magic crackling between them, but Amber wanted to know if Wrexel loved her or was compelled. She needed to know before she gave her heart to him again because if he broke it one more time, it would never be repaired.
“If I told you that I loved him, Wrexel, what would you do?” she whispered.
She didn’t want to hurt him, could see the pain within his gaze, but she wanted Wrexel to love her – to love her enough to let her go.
Let her be Amber.
Amber who chose whom she loved… of her own free will.
Amber who was his equal.
She would never forget the look in his eyes as he locked his gaze on hers and simply said, “No.”
The last time they had been together, his admission of “no” had been dominating; it had echoed off the walls as he strode toward her in possessive anger. “No” had been a denial of what she wanted.
‘No” had been a word he used to assert his control and reject her choice.
This time his “no” was a whisper… a broken regret that left his lips in agony.
His hand shook as he lifted it to her cheek and stroked her face. “If you tell me you love him, Amber...” His voice broke as he finally said, “I will… let you go.”
Amber moaned and reached up to clasp his face with unsteady hands. “I would rather you didn’t,” she whispered against his mouth. “Because I don’t want to be with anybody but you.”
The last word was muffled by his kiss.
Magic crackled around them, and she could smell its presence even as she lost herself in his embrace. However, this time she didn’t fear it, for his heart was truly hers. Whatever compulsion he was under, it didn’t affect his heart.
AMNESIA Page 56