by Ella Fields
I wondered how much coin she’d take home with her after all this was said and done, or if she’d already received payment. The tapping of those nails said it was the latter as her own impatience sparked, her curiosity with this ordeal waning.
It was no wonder my mother was in a mood. It was already shameful enough that she’d agreed to marry her only child to the male who’d caused us such a great deal of suffering, made worse by the fact she’d had to spend good coin we likely did not have.
At last, Dade turned to me. His assessing gaze cooled marginally when I offered a small, tremulous smile, and he took my hands in his.
“Under the sun that is good and golden, under the watchful eye of the awakening stars, I bear witness and approval of a marital bond between King Daden Volkahn, and Princess Opal Gracewood.” My heart couldn’t keep up with the sudden words, and Dade pulled me a step closer. The sorceress needn’t have bothered glancing around the throne room as she said, “If disapproval of this union exists, it must now make itself known or be swallowed by the tides of fate forevermore.”
Silence, and then, the shifting of my mother’s feet. I didn’t look at her, could not bear to see what was surely horror stamped across her face. I kept my eyes on Dade’s chest, my lip between my teeth, until the sorceress made us repeat after her.
Dade’s voice did not waver, his heartbeat steady and slowing mine with his gentle vow. “For now and forever.” Breath burned inside my throat as I allowed myself to meet his eyes—his damp, glistening eyes. “I pledge myself to thee, Opal Gracewood.”
Everyone waited as I swallowed and found my voice, choked at first but firm in conviction I hadn’t been aware I’d felt until those words passed over my tongue and his eyes held mine. “For now and forever, I pledge myself to thee, Daden Volkahn.”
Dade’s lashes lowered, creating shadows upon his cheeks as his hands trembled in mine.
The sorceress purred, “You may now seal your eternal promise.”
He looked back at me, the water cleared from his eyes, but his delight unmistakable when our bodies closed the gap, joined, and his hands rose to swallow my cheeks.
My eyes slowly closed, anticipation brimming, then flared wide when he whispered over my lips, “I know you think me incapable, but I’m not, and I do.” My fingers clenched the fabric of his vest, my eyes searching his as his mouth glossed over mine, his voice nothing but a barely audible breath. “I do love you, Opal Gracewood.”
I heard every word, tasted their truth when he cupped the back of my head, tilting it for our mouths to join. They pressed, and they did not retreat, parting and gliding as we sealed our fates in earnest. His free hand roamed to my lower back and tucked me close. So close, but I couldn’t get close enough, fisting his clothing and standing upon my toes to sink my fingers into his hair.
It had worked—far better than anything I could have dared hope for.
This king, this savage, wild monster of a king… he loved me. A whispered confession, yes, but it was merely confirmation of a truth I’d already suspected. A truth I’d run to and from for weeks now when I’d seen it growing within his eyes, thickening the air between us, and felt it within every searing touch.
Indeed, it had worked, and now I was thankful for those hands holding me so tight, his mouth bruising on mine, for otherwise, I’d have fallen.
I’d have fallen under the weight of everything I’d done.
I’d created a life with this king of wolves. Tentative, beguiling, aching, and wonderful, but I knew… I couldn’t keep it. That we were playing with borrowed time.
But maybe this could work. Maybe I didn’t need to forgive him the unforgivable in order to give in to all he made me feel. Maybe we could find a way to make this unforeseen piece of real we’d stumbled into a long-term reality.
I pulled back and sucked in a much-needed breath, my fingers running down his cheek and my forehead upon his. “Dade, we—”
Too late, I’d forgotten while lost in him as I had been countless times before, that my mother and the sorceress were still with us, still watching us…
Now separating us.
“No,” I screamed as soldiers poured in through the windows. Soldiers I’d known since before I could utter a word chained my husband in iron before he could drift into smoke and cedar.
The sorceress vanished, leaving my mother standing at the wall with her arms crossed over her chest. “Take it out to the square.”
“Mother,” I growled, hurrying to the soldiers. “Release him right now.”
She ignored me when I repeated myself and ushered them to the doors. Dade laughed low, his head hung at the ground. “Nicely done, Nikaya.”
Her teeth snapped. “I learned from the worst.”
“Release him. You made a promise.” I pushed and shoved at the group of soldiers, but I couldn’t get through, and then strong hands pulled me away.
I kicked behind me, twirling to smack Elhn in the cheek. I didn’t apologize, nor care for his shocked expression as I hissed, “Don’t fucking touch me.”
“You are married, are you not?” Mother drawled, nodding at Elhn. “You know where to take her.”
“Take me?” I whirled toward her, but Elhn stole my arms from behind before I could shake some sense into her. “You’re making a mistake, Mother. A grave mistake.”
She paused at the door, Dade now gone, my heart dragging in his absence as the sound of struggle faded in the halls. He could shift. He could still shift and send them all flying, but…
But he was waiting until he was well away from me.
With her back to me, one golden eye peered at me over her shoulder, then she lifted her chin to the windows, the tapestry hanging high upon the walls between them still swaying. “You’ve accomplished all you set out to do. You saved yourself. You’ve saved your people. Now, you must ignore whatever guilt you might feel.” She waded through the doorway. “Leave the rest to me.”
“No, wait,” I called, tugging to no avail as another soldier walked into the throne room and helped Elhn remove me from it and to the stairs outside.
My dress ripped under their brutal hold, beneath my frantic feet. I hissed and spat, about to shift when Elhn stopped and murmured, “Princess, please. We only wish to escort you upstairs safely while the savage is transported to the square.”
Then they would guard me and ensure I could not escape. I refused, kicking and cursing, making to bite the young soldier’s hand, and then the iron chains came out.
Halfway up the spiraling stairs, Elhn gave me a look that said he would use them if I did not comply. I didn’t care. Let them tie me up and bound me. I would never forgive her if she killed him, and I would kill anyone who aided her with my bare hands.
My skin trembled with fury, with the shift I couldn’t afford to make. Not yet. And if those chains wrapped around me… I wasn’t as powerful as Dade nor was I of crimson blood. Even if I could still shift, I was a swan. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to escape the shackles.
Inhaling deep through my nose, I forced myself to nod. To comply even though I longed to snatch the chains from his hand and swing them at both of their heads.
In my rooms, I told myself. Once I’d been locked within my rooms, I would shift and fly out the window.
Of course, they’d already thought of that, panic freezing every vein and breath as I was hauled higher up the stairs. Higher and higher we climbed until we’d reached the tallest tower in the castle.
My parents’ rooms.
I was thrust inside, the door slamming closed behind me, and I knew it was spelled. I could sense it when I stumbled back into the impenetrable wood, so I didn’t bother trying to open it.
Gulping in lungfuls of air, I scanned the giant room with its gold and cream furnishings, my father’s scent already fading from his side of the bed and the clothes that still hung in the dressing room to my right.
I pushed away the guilt my mother knew I harbored but not for the reasons she assumed and hurried
into the bathing room. The window was sealed, bars of iron burning beneath my fingers when I stepped into the tub and pushed with all my might.
Sinking inside the empty bathing pool, I knew the windows and doorway that led to the small balcony outside would be the same. With my gown clenched in my hands, I blinked at the salts and soaps.
She’d locked me away.
She’d taken the king.
My husband. My mate.
All along, I’d feared she’d have a plan. Weeks ago, I’d have even longed for it. For the female I once knew and admired to return from the grief that tried to drown her and take action so I did not have to.
For I was nothing but a naïve coward. A terrified little fool.
And although she had returned, she was not the same. She would never be the same.
Alarm shot through me as I realized I would never be the same if she went through with this. As I imagined Dade being hurled out onto the city streets to be made a violent example of. A fate handed to the worst of criminals.
He would pay for his crimes with a death slow enough to feel each and every one.
No. “No, no, no,” I whispered, the sound breaking with every fractured breath. “No,” I said louder, my hands slapping over my eyes. “I can’t. He can’t—”
A howl cleaved the air, ear-splitting enough to shake the foundation of the castle—and to shake me out of the suffocating fog of fear I’d let myself stay trapped within.
Look at me, honey bee.
I blinked back tears, my head lifting toward the bedroom.
Out. I needed out. Staring back at those salts, I studied them, the lavender and the citrus and the rose…
Tripping on my skirts, I clambered out of the large tub and hurried into the bedroom. There, under my mother’s pillow where she’d kept it since the attacks began four years ago, was the dagger my father gave to her. A rare steel that came from an island across the Night Sea.
Supposedly enriched by the sweat and labor and resentment of its maker, a goblin slave, it would cut through anything.
But it would not break through iron.
That was fine. It didn’t need to break.
Hurrying to the door, I lowered to the ground some feet away with the blade in my lap and spread my hands upon the stone. I wasn’t sure if it would work, and if it did, how long it would last, but I had to try. I had to keep them from hearing what I was about to attempt.
Shouting and screaming echoed from outside, and I closed my eyes, begging, beseeching, coaxing…
Grow.
Vines snuck through and unfurled from the crevices in the stone, crawling with alarming speed and growing thicker, leafier, as they slithered up the walls and over the door. I blinked, marveling at the dense green wonder that twirled and danced and gathered. In near silence, the scratch of the occasional thorn the only sound, they curled around the cracks of the door and over every inch of the wood until they barely resembled vines at all, but a hedge. A giant, oblong hedge blocking entry.
Racing to the window, I sank below its edge so as not to be seen. I didn’t know how long the barrier would hold if someone entered, perhaps only seconds. I needed longer than seconds, but I grabbed the blade, sawing with both hands and destroying the sharpened edge.
Sweat beaded along my nape, my hairline, and coated my palms, my panic a thrumming hum in my ears. My hand slipped when a crash sounded, loud enough to gather the attention of half the kingdom.
Slowly, I rose, knowing I shouldn’t, that I was wasting precious time. That I would only panic more upon seeing Dade being thrown out of the castle gates and into the awaiting swarm of soldiers and citizens beyond.
He faltered, his clothing torn and blood smattering one side of his face, but he did not fall. He launched himself at the incoming weapons.
I closed my eyes and dropped to the floor. “Shit,” I cried low. “Shit, shit, shit.” My fingers trembled, slid over the leather hilt of the dagger, but I lifted it and kept going.
I couldn’t stop. There was nothing left to do but try. Nothing save for waiting and hoping for a fate I knew wouldn’t come—a fate I’d never dared hope for.
Until now.
Infused with it, those calculated steps he took as he neared me, my every breath measured and timed, the predatory way he’d tilt his head and study my facial expressions, the movement of my mouth. Those eyes of stormy seas and sun-bright skies—a glimpse at two futures should I have the nerve and heart to decide.
I pushed the blade harder, metal shaving and curling beneath it. My arms ached as I pushed my entire body into each glide and foolishly gripped the bar with one hand while sawing with the other to try to weaken it quicker with magic—with warmth.
After mere moments, my fingers began to pucker. Dropping the dagger, I pulled away, blowing on the small red welts that appeared.
And when I looked at the bent metal in the lowest rung of a square by the corner of the window, I smiled and pressed my fingers to it. Gritting my teeth against the immediate exposure to the iron, the cold ache that threatened, I willed my blood, my chaotic emotions, to obey and target.
With one shaken exhale, my power unspooled.
It unspooled and raced through every square, dark silver now a molten gold.
A wet laugh escaped, and I kicked at the corner, watched it crack, and kicked again.
Muffled questions at the door sounded, but I was already gone, pushing and kicking until the bolts in the moonstone came loose, and I could bend the metal open enough to squeeze through. My dress snagged and tore, as did my leg, but I didn’t have time to pay it any notice when the door to my parents’ rooms opened, and Elhn was cursing, slicing his way through the vines.
Behind me at the window within those correctly guessed seconds, he tried to shake the metal loose. He couldn’t fit through the gap, and I couldn’t wait around to see if he’d manage to haul the entire grate away from the window.
Upon the balcony, my blistered hands pressing into the moonstone wall, I tried to find Dade but could no longer see him amongst the herd moving in a slow line toward the market square.
My hair flew around my face, city-dwellers stopping with their daily business and closing up shop or following the commotion.
They’d known we were getting married.
Had they known my mother would try to kill my husband?
I supposed many of them had hoped for something like this, and I couldn’t blame them. I’d once hoped for his demise too.
Dade roared, soldiers flying and landing on rooftops and awnings and the hard ground as the crowd moved back a step.
He was still chained, but the king was no longer there. In his place was a giant, white-winged wolf, horns flicking a sword skyward when a daring soldier leaped forward.
I wasn’t sure what they were trying to do exactly. They were to capture and eventually kill him, I knew that much, but they were stalling, dodging deadly blows of his claws and teeth and those horns.
“Princess.” Elhn grabbed at a piece of my dress, tugging hard back toward the window.
I ignored him while looking him dead in the eye, and then allowed my blood to boil beyond return. Beak first, I plummeted from the wall toward the gardens, the muscle in my still-healing wings stiff and sore as I lifted them and twisted toward the nearest rooftop.
A whistle pierced, followed by, “A black swan!”
I kept low, unsure what I’d do once I’d reached him, and wove between moss-shrouded rooftops, chimneys puffing merrily in many as though there wasn’t a notorious wolf king within our midst.
I’d need to make a stand long enough for him to get away, but already, the eyes of those surrounding him were slowly turning toward the sky. I banked, sank low to fly around a half-emptied cart. A young boy seated upon the back waved a little gold and red flag while his father watched the commotion from the edge of the alleyway.
The male grunted and turned in a swift circle when my wings brushed him, the little boy laughing and pointing as I
flew out into the street, rose over the many heads, and then squeaked as an arrow flew right at my chest.
I dropped, and it skimmed the feathers upon my back, soldiers torn between gazing at a nearing large black swan or the monstrous animal they’d surrounded to prod at like the wild beast he was.
Murmurings of, “Swan,” and “Stars,” and “Should we kill it?” came to me upon the breeze.
Before they could make a decision, the beast whirled, his large eyes pinned on me. A vicious snarl, an unmistakable warning for me to leave, ruptured the air.
He knew I would do no such thing. I flapped my wings, soaring high toward the nearest building where I could wait and scan the ground surrounding my wolf for a place to land while Elhn hurried downhill to inform them not to kill me.
He was fast—I’d give him that much—but not fast enough as carriages ambled out of the chaos-strewn streets, seeking shelter, and people did, too. Dodging and circling and running again, Elhn grew larger the closer he came.
I wondered if he’d had time to inform Mother dearest.
A cry dragged my attention back to Dade, who had a male pinned underneath him. Twenty or more soldiers advanced, swords bared, some slicing. Horror struck me cold when one of them made contact and sank into his hind leg.
Dade whined then roared, spinning and throwing half of the soldiers to the ground with one swipe of his paw. Still, they came, the waiting game apparently over, weapons raised, arrows flying and skidding over his wings and fur when he ducked and lunged sideways.
I rose, wings rustling, spreading open either side of me, and waddled toward the edge of the roof. He wasn’t fighting to kill.
Again and again, blades sliced pieces of fur from his side, sank into his flesh before he knocked them away, and he could have destroyed them. He might have died trying, but he’d kill a great many of our soldiers before that happened.
But it wouldn’t happen. It couldn’t.
It would, a nudge to my gut insisted.
It would because he was refusing to kill any who came at him.
Elhn closed in, hollering between cupped hands, “Princess, you must leave. Now.”
I nearly laughed, but the edged tone of his voice stopped me. I looked at him, noticed his gaze swing from me to the sky, and then I looked down to the square at Dade.