I hit my own personal Noth mute button. I was still getting the hang of the whole ‘monster talking in your head’ thing and learning how not to broadcast all of my thoughts to him. I didn’t feel bad. He hit my mute button often enough when I tortured him while he did Godds knew what King things and left me alone… again.
I shook my head to clear it of that disappointment, focusing on the sleeping Brad. Was it weird to exercise down here? Probably. I convinced myself that if I regularly checked on our prisoner, all the trials he put us through would gain some meaning. His looks hadn’t improved under Noth’s tender mercy. More than that, the herbs he had been taking must have been doing wondersbecause his skin turned greyer by the day. I dosed Brad with a bit of healing here and there to make sure he didn’t die too fast for Noth’s pleasure.
That’s what mates did for each other, right? They kept each other busy and happy... apart.
Noth and I still had lots of sex. I focused on that as I stretched, lifting my toes to the back of my head, warming up to meet Yaya for training after I tested out a new sigil of rejuvenation. It might be Godd-level sex, but I think we had already covered every available surface in our three rooms with some version of our tangled limbs.
I had a lot to be grateful for and I felt ungrateful for it feeling all wrong. I wasn’t a Queen, even while Noth was a King again. But I elected to stay. The bond was a new and wonderful thing that should have made me and Noth closer than ever, even if it wasn’t complete. Evie said the last step involved biting each other. I don’t think either of us could find time to bring that up with all the tension in the palace and all the work Noth was pulled away to do, let alone seal the deal. And that was hella confusing because I still wanted to strip off every inch of Noth’s royal attire and have him rattle my lungs despite the growing laundry list of how this was not okay.
Brad stirred, his thin blanket slipping off his bony shoulders.
“You again,” he spat.
Somehow I dealt with his direct antagonism moreeasily than the tangle Noth and I found ourselves in once there was no more adventure to be had.
“It’s me,” I chirped in my best imitation of Evie’s positivity. “I’m the problem.”
Brad sat up, eyeing me warily. “I’m not in the mood for you today.”
“That’s too bad. And here you thought I gave a shit.”
Magic automatically swirled beneath my skin as I sketched a sigil large enough to fill the entire room with magic. He wouldn’t escape my healing.
“Put it away, witch.” Brad backed up to the limit of his cell.
I pulled on more power than I usually did, curious if I could cure whatever ailed Brad just through sheer force. Evie dosed him with a fair amount of magical light the last time he tried to take over the Harrowlands and even though he survived her rage, it didn’t seem like all of him had.
The sensation of Noth heading our way crawled up my spine. I turned to watch the darkest corner, where he materialized from the shadows.
“What are you doing to our guest, Pumpkin?”
“Well, I…” I searched Brad’s cell and found it glowing with an eerie scarlet light. “That’s not me,” I said.
Noth put himself between us, Nightmare limbs starting to sprout from his body.
“Help me!” Brad screamed.
Somehow his slow slide into the center of asigil I hadn’t drawn was more terrible than just killing him. The magic glowed with a dark, pulsating red like it slowly chewed Brad into a doorway. We could do nothing but watch in horror until the door closed over his head. The portal spat out his wig in a belch of magic.
A throat cleared behind us. Both of us startled and the monk in a deep scarlet robe ducked just in time so as not to lose his head to Noth’s strike. It was the same one that interrupted my and Dolly’s cleaning adventure.
“Finally. Bradley Morgan has been a tough one to collect. If you could just sign this paperwork, please?”
The monk stood at middling height in a standard-issue blood-red wool robe, but his cincture consisted of nails, digging into his waist. Ouch.
“You again?” Still full of power, I stepped in front of Noth to defend him. His long claws held me back.
The robed figure held out a stone tablet with an ancient dead language on it.
“Don’t look at it, Pumpkin. You might go mad trying.”
The monk shook the tablet. “The transfer will be complete when you sign on the dotted line. This one will never bother you again.”
“He’s our prisoner,” I said. Noth deserved all the retribution he could extract.
“Go ahead. If the Followers of Virtue want him, they are welcome to have him. He won’t last much longer in my care anyway.”
I held out my hand for whatever would write in rock and the Follower cut my finger.
