Nevina turns her attention toward me. “Damien, I will forgive your mate’s insolence because she’s not from here and isn’t familiar with our ways, but perhaps it is time we changed the topic of conversation. Even my tolerance has its limits.”
“My apologies. We are both adjusting,” I say through a tight jaw.
Eloise gapes, but I squeeze her leg under the table. Thankfully, the fish course is served along with red wheat rolls that add color to the all-white table. The interruption gives me a chance to whisper in her ear. “Not now, little dragon.”
She pulls away from me and takes a long drink of her wine. She says nothing more. For the rest of the meal, her eyes never leave her plate.
16
Damaged
ELOISE
What has happened to my brave warrior of a mate? As I follow Damien back to the room where we’re staying, it feels as though I don’t know him anymore. There is no candle binding him to Nevina’s will, no vampire queen forcing him to cave to her whims, but he barely rebuked his brother and Nevina for the intolerable conditions they’ve levied on Bolvet. They are demanding the lives of children, for god’s sake. What types of monsters have a lottery to determine which child should devote their life to endless toil so that the rest of the town can be comfortable? Why are we even still within these castle walls?
I wait until we’re behind closed doors, and then I can’t hold back my rage.
“How could you pretend that what they’re doing to Bolvet is okay?” I seethe. “It’s evil! Your brother and his wife are slowly starving those people in the most barbaric way. And what they’re asking for is sickening. Imagine selling out one of your children, damning them to a life of servitude. It’s unjust. I don’t blame Bolvet one second for their act of defiance.”
“I agree,” he whispers through his teeth.
“Then oppose it! Resist it! Don’t apologize for me questioning it.”
He walks to the veranda, rubbing the side of his face as if it aches. As if I’ve struck him. “What would you have me do, Eloise? I have no position here. I am no longer a prince. On what grounds would you have me challenge the law?”
I stomp after him. “How about the grounds of common decency? You don’t need authority to stand up to bullies. Say what they are doing is unfair. Call on your brother to remember the ways of your family, your parents. Demand better for the people of Bolvet!”
He shakes his head. “That would be a dangerous game. We haven’t been here long enough to assume that such a challenge would be accepted positively.”
“So, we should suck up to these overlords so that we might, someday, speak truth to power and expect to be heard?” A pang of disgust moves through me.
“It’s a better plan than to end up working those fields ourselves.” He grits his teeth and points toward the front of the castle. “Or to end up with our heads on their pikes.”
I cringe. Sure, Brahm and Nevina weren’t happy with me challenging them, but never were we threatened with retaliation. In fact, I specifically saw understanding in Brahm’s eyes. “What makes you think they’d do that? Do you think Brahm is capable of killing his own brother over a challenge to a clearly unjust law?”
His silver gaze finds mine, and I flinch at the sadness I see there. “I am no longer a prince here, Eloise,” he says again as if I’m a child and just not getting this. “I do not have the power to change Bolvet’s fate. I’ll be lucky to change our own.”
My head pounds with frustration. “Our own? So, you do think we might be in danger.”
“Of course we are potentially in danger,” he hisses. “My resurrection from the dead represents a complication for this kingdom.”
I suspected as much the moment Nevina arrived at my door our first night here. “Well then, it begs the question: why the fuck are we still here, Damien? Why are you working in their stables? Why am I playacting like this Harvest Festival means anything at all, when it’s clear that shade traditions aren’t respected here?”
He shakes his head. “Where else could we have gone? How else do you believe we will live? We can’t return the way we came. I will get you out of here, Eloise, but we must be smart about it. We can’t provoke their retaliation. They are the ones with the army.”
I draw back, stung by his reference to my lost magic. He’s right. We can’t go back to Earth, and punching up when we have no place to go is a stupid thing to do. But I’m frustrated. Brahm and Nevina are evil. I don’t want to be in this castle another second. I want to do something to help Bolvet. “Surely there are avenues we can work through. Allies. Someone who could help us fight this injustice. Even Night Haven had its dissenters, and I went there with nothing but my wits and my blood to fight for you.”
“And look what that decision cost you.”
I gasp, deeply hurt. “What is that supposed to mean? Is that some kind of dig on my being a vampire? Look what it won me!” I point an upturned hand at him.
He shuts his eyes. “I only mean that it took you months to find a way. We’ve been here barely over a week.” He rubs his head. “I want to leave here as much as you do. I, too, want to help the citizens of Zephrine. I’m only suggesting that we can’t be rash, Eloise. We have to plan a smart escape. Believe me, little dragon, if there is a way to spark change, it is not by enraging the king and queen of this new kingdom over dinner.” His voice is low and gritty, the end of his words coming out as barely a hiss.
He has a point. I had to play the part of a blood whore in order to get close enough to the right people to make it into Valeska’s palace, and even then, much of my success was due to luck.
One big difference between being a vampire and being a human is that emotions are on an entirely different level. My head pounds, fire shoots through my veins, my fangs tingle, urging me to bite and tear and make someone suffer for the feelings happening inside me. Everything Damien says makes sense, but I hate it. I hate that I can do nothing while an entire village starves to death for not handing over their children.
I wrestle my tongue under control, but if I don’t get out of this room, I’m going to lose it. I shake my head and turn to leave.
