The Flame and the Arrow

by Emigh Cannaday

  Chapter 31

  the fall of the kingdom

  When Annika returned to the small kitchen, she was very quiet. She mumbled a hello to everyone as she grabbed a late breakfast of lukewarm oatmeal. She avoided looking in Talvi’s direction, where he’d been showing Dardis and Runa a sheet of parchment. He folded it up quickly and made room for her on the bench he was sitting on, but she walked past them and back to her room. She wrote angrily in her journal as she lay in bed, eating a bite here and there.

  What am I doing? she scrawled. I obviously didn’t realize what I was getting myself into. When I saw him at the bookstore I was intrigued, but then I got to know him and he thought he was so smooth, a gift to all women. If only I had kept my distance, I never would’ve gotten so involved. Last night I was convinced that we had a serious connection, but maybe I was distracted by the awesome sex. I don’t know what I was thinking, but I need to just stop this before I make myself look like any more of a stupid idiot.

  Annika heard footsteps come into the room. She looked up and saw Talvi standing over her. He had an awkward expression on his face as he sat down beside her.

  “I’ve been doing a lot of thinking,” he began. He was acting bashful, something that he never did. “I’ve been working on this for a long time, and I believe I’m done. I don’t have anything else to say without being redundant.” He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket that was folded into a small square and put it in her hand. He waited expectantly for her to open it, but all she did was tuck it into the flap of her journal and close the little book. She didn’t want to read his pathetic apology. She turned the other way, ignoring him. He didn’t like that too much. He wasn’t used to being ignored.

  “I think we both know that this game is pointless, Annika. You can ignore me, but you can’t escape me. You have nowhere to go, and I’m not leaving until you tell me what’s gotten you in such a mood.”

  “You want to know? Do you really want to know?” She whirled around and rose to her feet, then played the feast of flesh over in her mind, flashing a few of the other girls faces she’d remembered from the party. She heard his lies repeated in her head, promising anything just to get what he wanted from these girls. He looked astounded as his chin fell.

  “Do you even bother to change the sheets on your bed in between whores?” she asked, piercing his soul with her glare.

  “How did you…how long have you…?” he tried to ask, but the words stumbled over each other, not able to form a simple question.

  “Was that before or after you met me?” she asked in a hollow voice.

  “Of course it was before I ever met you, Annika. But you know I’ve had many lovers, just as I know you have. It’s too good for us to be amateurs.” He tried desperately to lighten the impact, but she was more livid than ever.

  “I don’t know why I thought you were different. I’ve been wondering all morning how I could’ve been so stupid, to believe that a three-hundred year old womanizer would suddenly change for that one special girl. What a load of crap! Danny didn’t exactly make fireworks go off when we were together, but he wasn’t a lying, pretentious, arrogant prick like you!”

  “Now look here—I’ll admit to being pretentious on occasion and an arrogant prick more often than not, but I have never been dishonest with you.”

  “Yeah you have! You told me you tore your shirt on a rosebush, but you just happened to leave out the part where it was because you were screwing Zenzi underneath it!”

  “That’s not being dishonest; that’s being tactful. And I already told you that she’s nothing to me. We’ve already had this discussion, remember?” he argued.

  “Yeah, I remember,” Annika mocked as she crossed her arms. “I remember that she was all over you at the pub and at your party and that you loved it! I’ll bet that’s why you stole her away from Nikola. That’s the reason why he can’t stand you. I also remember you dancing with all those girls who you call friends in front of me on your birthday. You were parading them around like trophies. ‘Look at me! Here’s the hot blonde I banged last week! And here’s my favorite brunette, she’s really something in bed. But if you’re looking for a total freak, you should try Zenzi!’” she spouted.

  “You’re the one I’m with right now. That’s all that should matter to you, is right now,” he said quietly. “And I can’t change the past no matter how much I’d like to right now.”

  “Oh, then I should be so honored that Prince Talvi wants a redhead human girl right now,” she snapped back caustically. “You know, it’s not that you’ve been with a lot of other girls…I couldn’t care less when it comes to numbers. I really couldn’t.”

  “You certainly have a strange way of showing it,” he cut in, which only made her angrier, and that only made him look like he had a point.

  “It’s true!” she insisted. “The thing I have a problem with is the fact that you keep leading on girls like Zenzi because you have this sick desire…no, more of an addiction to be validated by women wanting you even when you’re hooking up with me—that’s what I have a problem with! It’s not good enough for you to be with just one person. You’ll always need more. How am I supposed to trust you when you do shit like that in front of my face? What else are you doing behind my back?”

  “Oh, Annika,” he said loftily, through piercing narrow eyes. “Perhaps you should be telling me what you’re doing behind mine.”

  She hadn’t been prepared for that comment at all.

  “You should learn to choose your arguments with more wisdom, little girl,” he cautioned as he stood up and put his hands on his hips. He stepped close to her and looked down his nose, doing his best to make her feel small and disadvantaged. “Do you really think you’re the first person who tried to hide their thoughts by looking away from me? You were concerned enough to tell me nothing happened out there that night with Nikola and Vaj, but I know that you wanted him. I know he wants you as well. When Vaj came after you, the moons hadn’t risen yet. There wouldn’t have been enough light for him to see you unless he was looking quite close. And, given the fact that it was your neck that he should have been inspecting…” Talvi shook his head in disgust. “Then I suppose neither of us is in a position to trust one another.” Annika knew he had a right to be angry, but she wasn’t about to let him win their argument.

  “It wasn’t my fault,” she hissed, suddenly afraid that their friends might overhear. “I wasn’t in my right mind that night. The amulet has powers that I still don’t understand.”

  “Oh, right, it was the amulet’s fault,” he said with an ugly look. “Perhaps the amulet is causing you to have double standards, then? Perhaps the amulet is what caused you to seek out Nikola just two hours after being with me? I know you were with him last night; I can smell him all over you. In fact, I can still smell a hint of Vaj coming from the wound on your neck. If I may be frank, you smell a bit like a whore, although for what it’s worth, I’m quite fond of them.” Annika turned her head away so that he couldn’t see her cry.

  “Runa was right about you,” she said through her trembling voice, unconcerned if anyone heard what she was about to say. “She told me that I’d wish I’d never laid eyes on you, and here I am, wishing I never had!” She combated her tears with the anger and revulsion that she felt in her heart.

  “Well now, there’s something we finally have in common, because I find myself wishing the exact same thing about you,” he spat venomously and slammed the door behind him.