Raffan’s grin fell away. “A lapse in judgement. But Ellina will be made to see reason.”
“And you’ll be the one to convince her? I’ve heard she has a history of—” Venick looked the elf over, “refusing you.”
Too far, Venick.
Which he realized, too late, when a vein appeared in Raffan’s neck, a crack in the elf’s careful composure. Raffan leaned forward. His voice went black with fury. “Do you know how many humans Ellina has killed? You should ask her. Ask her what we do to humans who cross into our lands. Or perhaps you should ask her about her bonding. Tome. Do you know what it means for Ellina to be my partner? No? Well, let me tell you.”
He did. In sickening detail, Raffan explainedexactlywhat he could do to Ellina.
“Well,” Raffan said softly, “this has been pleasant. I do hope that wound of yours heals quickly.”
He left as quietly as he had come.
Venick stared at the door. And stared, and stared, trying to reign in his anger. It wasn’t working. His rage ballooned, burning red-hot. Scalding.
Unbearable.
He snatched a glass paperweight from the desk and hurled it across the room. It hit the wall with a crash and shattered.
???
Ellina entered Venick’s suite later that evening and saw the shattered glass. He spoke before she could ask. “Raffan came.”
Ellina’s brows went up. “Did he…what did he say?”
But Venick couldn’t tell her. He was horrified.
She came closer. She looked concerned. “Did he threaten you?”
“He threatenedyou.”
Understanding washed over her. “I do not want you worried about Raffan. I know how he works.” But this was too much.
“If he—if he ever—”
“He would never hurt me that way,” Ellina said.
“But hehashurt you.” Venick’s throat closed. He thought of the scars sketched into her back. The ones she had taken for him. How they would not be silvery white yet. Still raw, still new. Raised flesh, knotted and red.
“Many soldiers face the whip,” Ellina replied. Venick darkened. He wouldn’t respond to that.
I will handle Raffanshe had said outside of Kenath. She’d argued with Dourin about letting Venick stay. After: the scream of horses killed for his sake. The quick draw of the bow, the twang of the string. Dourin’s sullen silence, and how Ellina accepted his silence without regret. Her sacrifice. Later: other sacrifices. Lies told to her brethren. A whip across white skin. A southern elf dead. A loyalty that he didn’t ask for, didn’t think he deserved.
And now. Murder rose in him at the thought of Raffan. His cruel eyes. That little clip of a smile. Other, unthinkable things. Things that might have happened. Things that might happen still. Venick couldn’t bear the thought of what Raffan wanted. He couldn’t bear that Ellina might be forced to give it.
She refuses him.Dourin’s words, in his mind.To be with him, to bear his child.
He would never hurt me that way.
But Venick didn’t believe it.
Ellina saw his expression. She read his thoughts. “I understand the consequences of my actions,” she said.
“It is my choice,” she said.
“I have a right to make my own choices,” she said.
But she didn’t have a choice. Her choices were an illusion. Venick had never understood the conviction by which elves held to their laws. It wasn’t right, their blind devotion to something so immoral as forced bondings. Forcedintimacy.
