He sliced with quick clean efficiency, avoiding the blood stains on the wood easily, she gave him a slight smile, grudgingly grateful as he finished and then held his hand out to see her finger.
Romana reluctantly put her hand in his and watched as he checked it over, watching, seemingly unimpressed as her elven physiology healed the wound before their eyes.
“You were right about it being finished by the time the food’s done, though if you were older it would probably take less time.” He informed her. “And the princeling isn’t the only halfling in the room, grand duchess; I really am part ice-fey. I would still live longer than a human. Just a fact though, it doesn’t mean anything.” He said the last a little too calmly, keeping himself in the competition without pressuring her into anything. Too bad she didn’t date, but knowing Silver, anyone with her after dark would get the shock of their lives.
Since that night so long ago the blocks she’d erected against Silver had become ineffective, after five minutes the crazy woman would find a way past them every time. No, there was no possibility of her developing a relationship in the future.
As Keenan cut vegetables for her and then added them all into the pan, she listened to the others talking; only to hear a strange vibration underneath the surface, she loosened her hold on her elvenhearing, only to find that Marten was…growling?
She looked at him, shocked. Only full blooded male elves were supposed to have the animal traits. Halflings never had them, and if they did it was predicted that their traits would be far stronger because of the primitive mortal blood in their veins was less evolved, allowing them a reduced amount of control than immortals.
She checked his hands, sure she was wrong, only to find the nails lengthened into talons that would rip into flesh. Aww Ancients this was not happening. She had a halfling about to go volatile in her kitchen with a man who was at least part – if not half – ice-fey. The only type of fey who could freeze the blood in a person’s veins, which would cause their victim’s every blood vessel to explode.
“Marten, would you come outside with me for a moment.” She asked, so low that only he, and possibly Keenan would hear. Sure enough, Keenan heard, and like her, his eyes widened at the claws digging into her teak table leg.
“This situation is too dangerous for you.” He muttered, so fast and silent Marten wouldn’t hear. “He could attack you.”
“He’s planning on attacking you if I’m any judge of men.” She replied just as fast and quiet, noting the way the Keenan was side to side with her, a touch that she normally wouldn’t mind, but that was making Marten frenzied.
“Say the word and I’ll be out there in a flash.” He replied, this time audibly, making Marten growl louder and his irises flash bright amber for an instant.
Tommy and Ileana had noticed as well now, although Jerry and Katelyn were still ignorant of the silence shrouding everyone else.
The prince nodded, and rose, following her out to the perfect gardens surrounding her home, hiding his claws in clenched fists.
“Want to tell me what’s going on?” She asked, as they reached an old tree by the edge of the grounds, where Katelyn had a tree house. “Like why you’re the only Halfling ever to have the animal traits?”
“Not the only one.” He gritted out, like it was paining him not to be pulverising Keenan’s head in. “I know of three others.”
She nodded, and leapt up to sit on one of the ladder rungs leading up the tree. “Now explain why you were pulverising my table, and why you look like you want to kill Keenan.”
“If you value my sanity, and his head, you won’t say his name again for the next few days.” He replied, raking his claws down a nearby tree, still in pain. “If you have any idea what it’s costing me not to go back in there and slit his throat for touching you—”
“Okay, at which point in my life did I become your property?” She replied.
“When I decided you were mine.” He replied. “You’re my friend, and he was looking at you like he wanted to eat you up.”
“Maybe I don’t mind being eaten up by gorgeous blonde halflings with eyes like the forest.” She replied “It still isn’t your business.”
“Like it or not, this half of me says it is.”
“Well it’s a good job you don’t usually go around as ‘this half’ of you. Get this into your head, I may be your friend, but. I. Am. Not. Yours.” She punctuated every word so it would get past his thick skull, even as she slipped down the ladder to lean against it.
“You are.” He replied, coming to trap her between the tree and his suddenly mammoth body. “You just don’t know it yet.” His irises turned fully amber contrasting strikingly with his now elliptical pupils. At this point he was mostly animal. Elven men were taught to control this from birth, to maintain their calm in any and every way possible, just how much had Marten learned about controlling his animal, and was it enough?
“You have to pull back or you’ll hurt me.” She replied, knowing that since the decision was made by the animal that a woman – whether she was a friend, lover or even just a relative – was his, the only thought that it would have was to claim the woman by biting her in a display that would inform other elves under whose protection she was. Such a bite released a toxin that prevented healing in the area around it. So that the woman often carried the warning mark for months at a time; right now Marten was eyeing her neck like it was his salvation. “Don’t you dare!” She said, pushing him backward and turning to move away.
But he was faster, anticipating her move and hurling her against him, pulling aside her hair in a move so fast it wasn’t even there, and wrenching her head aside. His fangs were on the delicate place between neck and shoulder. The moment they made contact she wouldn’t be able to fight, she’d be paralysed temporarily by the venom.
She struggled against him futilely. Crying out at feeling the row of daggers that were his teeth jerk into her neck, marking her as his. She nearly growled at him; now every male who saw her would know his animal signature and keep a league away, for fear of some powerful elf hunting them down. Thanks Marten, she thought as she suddenly froze, turning limp where she stood.
The feeling of pain in her neck, and ice against her back took up most of her thoughts for a few moments. Ice, she dimly wondered why Marten would suddenly become cold like that, even as his arms fell limp, allowing her to crash to the ground, released by his fangs at that same instant.
She fell onto her side, able to see the confrontation between Keenan and a clearly disabled Marten through half closed eyelids.
Chapter Thirty-Two
UNMASKED AGGRESSION
“She told you no.” Keenan informed Marten, “I thought that the prince of the human realms had a sense of honour. You don’t hurt women.”
Marten’s arms were hung limp by his sides, clearly put out of action by Keenan’s ice magic, but he still snarled at Keenan.
“Killing you would be treason.” The thief continued, “ So I’m just going to disable you until you come to your senses, and while you do that I’ll take care of her, like you so clearly can’t.”
She watched Marten start forwards, clearly intending to savage Keenan with his teeth. But Keenan just raised a hand, and Marten’s legs were encased with ice.
He growled furiously, but was clearly out of action. Keenan, sensing this was the case, walked over to her, and pulled her up to his chest; gathering her in his arms and walking steadily back to the house.
“The ice will hold him for an hour, and by then you should be up and around to deal with him.” He informed her. “I’ll stay anyway, but for now we need to get you cleaned up.” He glanced at her neck and grimaced. “Not that there’s much you can do about that.”
No there isn’t, she thought angrily, as he carried her up to her rooms, where he ordered a shocked Jasmine and Alice to fetch water and bandages. Which she thought was a little overkill, until the blood had seeped far enough down her clothing to be in her line of sight
.
Being helpless like that was one of the worst things that had ever happened to her, and that included the torture that she dimly remembered Silver doing to herself.
“It’s alright.” Keenan reassured her, and she realised there were tears running down her cheeks. “It should wear off in a bit. Give it a minute.”
He lay her down on her bed, and began to clean the injury, and she felt the sting of water on a wound as he dabbed there gently with a cloth. The pins and needles started moments later, as she regained the movement in first her toes, then her legs, working all the way up to her head. She groaned in pain.
“Has it worn off?” Keenan asked.
“I think so.” Her voice was gravelly, “All that’s left is pins and needles. Thanks.”
“I should have got there sooner, I was serving the others dinner, and I didn’t want to alert them to danger.”
“Ileana and Tommy already guessed.” She replied “I saw the awareness in their eyes while I was in the kitchen. Damn that hurts.” She flinched in pain. “I didn’t think halflings had the animal traits.”
“Stop moving.” He instructed her before replying. “I didn’t think it possible either. But maybe it was just a matter of genes, and mixed blood further back in the human half’s family. It’s not the first time royals have intermarried between the races.”
“And Marten just happened to get that gene. What are the odds?”
“I’d say around a million to one.” He paused, seeming to re-evaluate the wound. “You’re not going to be up and around for a while, and against a halfling who’s running with his wild side I’m not sure how long my ice can hold, what should I tell him?”
“Tell him to go back to the palace. I’ll be travelling with Katelyn to D’Arville in the morning. I’ll make arrangements for one of my kitchen staff to continue to cook for you all.”
“You know we don’t come for the food now.” He told her in that serious and calm façade that had never wavered, until he’d faced off against the prince of the human realms with the aim of protecting her and her honour. “We come to see you.”
“All the same, ouch, I’d rather not come back to see you all wasted away again.”
“You won’t. I’ll help them.”
“Will he come after me, do you think?”
“I think that as the marchioness of your castle, you may order your guards not to allow him inside.”
“I just need time alone for it to heal, and a few turtleneck jumpers until then. How bad is it.”
“It was obviously his first bite, let’s put it that way.” He replied.
“Ancients, I look like half my neck’s been torn away, don’t I?”
“Pretty much.” He replied, bluntly honest.
“At least in the elvenlands he has no authority. Unless he asks Prince Endis which I’ll be sure to do first.” She explained.
“You know you can’t evade him forever don’t you?”
“I remember.” She replied “There was a part about that in the books too ‘and nothing shall come between the animal and its possession, else be shredded by its might’.” She quoted at him, having been fascinated and horrified at the idea at the time. Now she knew that horror had been the sane reaction.
“He’s stronger than elvenkind in that form. If he wants you, he’ll get you.”
“Then I shall be careful. The thieves have people in the palace; surely you could let me know when he comes?” It was a lot to hope. She had no idea how high up the hierarchy he was.
“I’ll order an operative on his tail at all times. How will I reach you?” He asked.
“I have messenger hawks for D’Arville and Elvardis in the small outbuilding by the stables.” She replied. Noticing how he’d said ‘order’, which meant he was very high up. He probably oversaw a group within the guild. “I’m sure someone of your calibre would have no trouble pinching one.”
“No I wouldn’t.” He replied, finishing the cleaning and unravelling a bandage. “Would you like me to get one of your maids to do this, I’m going to have to expose you to do it and I’m not sure if you’re comfortable with me—”
“Just promise me that you respect me enough to focus on what you’re doing and it will be fine.” She replied, she’d never thought of her body in that way anyway. It had always been a tool to her, and so there was nothing embarrassing about it.
“I vow it.” He replied, and ripped the fabric off of her to begin dressing the wound immediately. Once it was done, he covered her with a sheet, and was just about to leave when she heard the footsteps the announced Marten’s presence inside her house.
Moments later he was at her door.
“Let me in, I want to speak to her.” He told Keenan, even as he strained to get past the thief blocking the doorway.
“I don’t want you in here Marten.” She replied, knowing he would hear her. “I’m leaving for D’Arville tomorrow with Katelyn, to recover, okay?” She informed him calmly, moving off the bed and taking the sheet with her so she was out of his line of view.
He fell back as Keenan pushed him from the room, and she heard every word that was uttered in the sitting room.
“You hurt her; it was your first bite, am I correct?”
“Yes. Though, I never wanted to do it to anyone.” Marten replied, sounding far more human than he had when he’d been talking to her out side. “I thought I’d managed to contain it. I can still barely remember most of what happened.”
“You left most of the right side of her neck and part of her shoulder in tatters. And it will stay that way until the toxin finally removes itself from her system.” Keenan informed the prince. “If you had been anyone else, and killing you would not have been treason, I would have frozen your blood in that instant. As it was the death penalty and your alliance with my guild almost didn’t stop me.”
“I deserve it. Damn it! I thought I had it under control; I’ve always been able to control it. Except those two times with her, when she went missing, and the entire week she was gone and then again when her heart stopped.”
“Stressful times.” Keenan replied “Maybe that’s what triggers it?”
“I’ve been at the brink of war and still managed to retain that control.” Marten informed him. “So why one woman who was once a servant would make any difference when the fate of an entire realm didn’t is beyond me.”
“Maybe you should ask Endis for help. But I guarantee you that she will not want to see you again till her wound has healed. Until that time she’ll probably be wearing turtlenecks.”
“I’d by her a whole shop full of them if I thought it would help her forgive me.”
“It probably won’t.”
“I know that.” He replied “But how can I tell her I’m sorry if she won’t let me see her.”
“Good question. One she’d probably prefer you to riddle it out in your castle rather than bothering her.”
“Are you leaving too?” Marten asked, and there was unmasked aggression in his tone. “Hell, I so need to ask Endis about this.”
“Yes, I’m leaving too.” Keenan replied, and she heard the moving of footsteps down her stairs, before she pulled herself over to her dresser to see exactly how bad it was.
The answer: Very bad. She grimaced at the sight of bandages already showing the crimson of blood. Keenan was right; they did cover most of her neck and then went halfway towards her shoulder before stopping. She groaned, and searched the dressers for a turtleneck and some of her more comfortable trousers.
Throwing them on, she called Jasmine and Alice into the room.
“I’m leaving for D’Arville for a while.” She informed them “I’ll need you to pack my comfortable clothes and any elven styles that you can find. Especially turtleneck jumpers and tops.”
“Yes miss.” Jasmine replied, while Alice gave her customary nod. “Will you be taking any of your house staff with you?”
“I can do that?”
“It’s in the rules.” Jasmin
e replied.
“Just you two then.” She decided. “Oh and Bethany-Ann for Katelyn.”
“There will be other carers at your castle at D’Arville.” Jasmine informed her.
“But there won’t be any that I know.” She replied, rubbing her neck at the burning sensation that had just started there. “Ask Katelyn if she’d like to take Beth with her.”
“I will ma’am.”
Romana smiled slightly, for all that she’d asked the twins not to call her that old habits really did seem to die hard for them. She was still addressed by her title every now and again, which she supposed was better than all the time.
“I’m going to go for a run.” She told them, her current excuse for having to go out as Silver. “I’ll be back late, so you shouldn’t wait up.”
“Of course miss.” Jasmine replied, even as Alice nodded again, before they left the room.
She changed at elvenspeed, and was out the window before Jasmine and Alice. She let Silver through as soon as she reached the ground, the change coming so naturally for her that she no longer needed to lay down in order to prevent from falling.
Chapter Thirty-Three
CONFLICTED
Silver remembered clearly Prince Marten’s attack on the girl, and then remembered the time her brother had tried to do it to her. Her brother had lost the hands he’d touched her with, while Marten had gotten away unscathed. That was time to change. The catsuit had a mercifully high collar, but she pulled her cloak over her face anyway, and ran through the forest towards the castle, knife in hand. She had questions to ask, and favours that would ensure she got the truth.
She reached the palace gates almost immediately, launching over them with a fury that gave her the power to land on the roof above his rooms.
Big mistake.
Bells were ringing before she could take another step. Lights shining on her, almost blinding, so naturally she just slipped inside the palace, into a room she’d never seen before. She could hear the commands being yelled at soldiers below even as she made her way into the corridor.
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