15
Darkness and light speed past me. My stomach flip-flops and I squeeze my eyes closed, until finally the movement stops. I open my eyes to my new surroundings, finding myself inside the most opulent room I’ve ever seen. Multiple plush seats line the edges, along with an ornate desk and a large dining table, each leg carved in intricate designs and polished to gleaming. Every inch of the wall is covered in wallpaper interlaid with gold—actual gold if I’m not wrong—and the silken curtains are interwoven with gold filigree. The House of Glory controls land that is rich in gold and precious jewels so I’m guessing that’s where I’ve arrived. Even the gargoyle palace is no comparison to this place. The decadence makes me feel a little ill because elves in the minor Houses have nothing.
I shove Grayson away from me and he doesn’t seem concerned about letting me go this time, spreading his arms wide. “Welcome to the House of Glory. Makes you sick, doesn’t it?”
I inhale sharply. Is he reading my thoughts? I don’t sense him poking around inside my mind. Either he isn’t listening to my thoughts or he’s very good at masking the mental invasion.
“Baelen will find me! You won’t stand a chance against both of us.”
Grayson remains calm. “Baelen Rath won’t find you here. Nobody will. This entire house and its grounds are cloaked from the outside world. It’s impossible to detect by spellcasting, sorcery, deep magic, whatever you try. All anyone sees is a dense forest at the edge of Glory land.”
He smiles, but there’s no humor in it. An edge of threat bleeds back into the glint of power in his eyes. “This is your golden cage, Marbella.”
I stalk around the room, using my survey of the surroundings to buy time to consider my situation. Grayson Glory is a natural-born sorcerer and that alone makes him a match for my power. But on top of that, he has tethered himself to my House’s heartstone. Elven heartstones aren’t weapons so he can’t use it to hurt me, but so far he has used it in surprising ways—like dragging me around with him. Importantly, he’s using it to create a protective force around himself so that it cancels out my strength. Worse, he’s embedded the pieces of the heartstone into his body, making it nearly impossible to break the tether without cutting the stones out of him.
And if all of that wasn’t bad enough, he’s also tethered himself to the Rath heartstone and embedded that too. The only positive is that Baelen’s storm power isn’t heartstone power so the Rath heartstone shouldn’t be able to counteract it.
But if the Rath stone can’t protect Grayson from the storm, then why has he tethered himself to it? What benefit does the Rath Heartstone give him? Especially since it’s probably the main reason he can’t sleep on his back at night.
Grayson watches my every movement as I pretend to study the furniture. “I had every intention of capturing you in a containment sphere like your gargoyle friends and bringing you straight to the prison.”
My ears perk up at the mention of a prison—the grounds of a cloaked place like this would be ideal for the Elven Command to conceal my Storm Command. I may be desperate to find silver linings about my current situation, but if Elise and Reisha are imprisoned here then I have to find out where and figure out a plan to get us all out.
I fold my arms across my chest and fake a casual tone. “But you brought me to this room instead. What changed your mind?”
He closes the distance at a prowl but takes his time, calculating each move, keeping it slow as he reaches for my hand, his palm closing around mine. I flinch backward, not because the contact hurt, rather because of the sheer fact that it doesn’t. My arm is stiff—I’m deciding whether or not to fight back—but he patiently draws my palm toward his chest at the exact same angle that I shot my power into him earlier.
He explains, “You touched me.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. “To kill you,” I clarify, since he seems to need clarification right now.
His voice lowers to a soft growl. “But you touched me.”
I crack open one eye, then the other, and enunciate each word just in case he didn’t hear me the first time. “To kill you.”
His perfectly sculpted lips draw up into a smile, one corner hitched higher than the other, not quite in a smirk, but definitely in a silent challenge.
I take a deep breath, trying to remain patient. “Okay, then. Why is touching you so special?”
“Because nobody can.”
I eye him with increasing alarm. Fear of the unknown shouldn’t be a thing for me anymore but, well, it is. I purse my lips for a moment, trying to decide which question to ask first. Finally, I settle for the simplest one. “Why not?”
“Because I kill what I touch.”
My focus flies to my palm, which remains resting against his chest. “I’m not dead.”
“You are more powerful than anyone I’ve ever encountered. The fact that you’re alive tells me that.”
I have no idea how I’m supposed to respond to that. I’m still processing his revelation that I should be grateful to be alive. “If you kill everything you touch then how… I never heard of you… Not that I heard much… but nobody mentioned…”
“What you’re trying to ask is why nobody knows about me?” He doesn’t release me. His hand continues to rest over mine, pressing my palm against his skin. His touch softens but not enough that I can easily slide my hand away. “Like I said, this place is a cage. I grew up here. Gideon Glory took it upon himself to become my guardian. He created these grounds for me and kept my power a secret. Not hard because everyone who was at my birth died.”
Grayson exhales a long breath. “He did try to give me a normal life. He used cloaking spells on me so that my touch wasn’t always deadly. That was how I could be fed and cared for as a baby. I can create my own cloaking spells now, so that I can mingle with others, but everything I touch feels…”
“Wooden,” I say for him. I’d lived for seven years not being allowed to touch anything. When I needed to train with my Storm Command in preparation for the marriage trials, Elise used a cloaking spell on me so I wouldn’t hurt my ladies when I fought them. But touching them while I was cloaked was like touching wood. There was no life in that contact, no warmth or softness. I can’t imagine a life of never knowing what another living creature feels like except to watch it die at my touch.
Grayson continues. “When I was older, Gideon sent me to elven academy. I pretended to be normal. But word got out about my mother and the fact that I was part gargoyle so… I didn’t enjoy the academy very much.”
