“If you could only—” Alixor tries.
The Sar Dyeus doesn’t offer him another glance and raises his hand. “Tomorrow.”
“This is absurd,” Alixor says through his teeth. As the Sar Dyeus leaves, the guests return to their seats, their eyes straying to us as they occupy their mouths with the rest oftheir meals and soft murmurs.
I cast a glance back to Thrace, but he’s gone, already following the Sar Dyeus out the door. Alixor moves to follow them when another elite reaches out a hand to stop him. “Alixor, I wouldn’t.”
Alixor snarls in his face. “I wouldn’t attempt to stop me. First he dismisses my father and now he insults me by not giving his blessing at my own banquet? I won’t stand for it.”
My blood rushes, adrenaline spiking hard in my chest. This is not the calm and poised Alixor I’m accustomed to. This is a child, crying at what he cannot have. While a child may hang upon its mother’s legs in hopes of getting what they want, I can’t understand why Alixor believes he can do so with the Sar Dyeus.
“Alixor, maybe we shouldn’t,” I hedge softly.
“No,” he snaps. “This is an offense that will not stand. I’m done waiting. I will have you tonight.” Snatching me by the arm, he leads us out of the banquet hall to the main corridor we came through, before leading us towards the west wing.
I can either placate him, doing my best to calm him, or let this scene play out. If he confronts the Sar Dyeus, perhaps the king will exert his power and punish Alixor. I can’t know what that would look like, but if there’s a chance he’d revoke Alixor’s privilege of producing offspring, it might free me of this, so I keep my mouth closed.
We don’t get far when Alixor stops at the end of a short hall where we see the Sar Dyeus, Thrace, and another man standing with them. My skin prickles and I grip my skirt in my fist.
I recognize that frame. His wavy, chest-length hair. I know that golden gaze as it looks down the hall at me, and that sharp, crooked grin rising the beauty mark at the top of his cheek by his left eye. That face has seared itself into my memory since the moment I saw it days ago with Ninon. The rogue that does not behave the way a rogue should. My fists are clenched so hard my palms sting with the sharp bite of my nails.
“Who is that?” I ask, the question passing my lips before I have a chance to stop it.
Thrace stiffens as he notices us, but the Sar Dyeus doesn’t even look our way. His intensity is directed at the mysterious stranger.
Alixor curses, but it seems even the presence of this stranger won’t deter him. He releases me and marches towards the three men. He doesn’t make it far. The Sar Dyeus’s hand shoots out, and without even touching him, Alixor stops in his tracks, his body rendered immobile. I see strain and tension in the tendons of Alixor’s hand as he fights against whatever magic the Sar Dyeus has put upon him.
The Sar Dyeus doesn’t looked away from the stranger, but the force of his power keeps Alixor pinned in place. “Leave, Alixor. Before you make me do something you will regret.”
The stranger angles his head, his crooked grin unchanging as he slides his hand into the pocket of his pants. “I wonder, do you have that kind of power?”
My brows furrow. The Sar Dyeus has depthless power granted to him by the gods themselves. So why did this rogue question it? And why was the Sar Dyeus meeting with a rogue at all?
Alixor spits a strangled warning from between his teeth. “You do not want to do this to me.”
That seems to get the Sar Dyeus’s attention and he slowly turns his head to look at Alixor. He inhales. Slowly. Deeply.
My heart aches with how fiercely it pounds, my soul begging him to release me, to tell Alixor that he cannot have me.
The Sar Dyeus doesn’t look my way, almost pointedly ignoring my presence. “Take my blessing and leave.” The words are strained, as if he doesn’t truly wish to say them. He holds Alixor in his thrall for another moment before releasing him.
Alixor opens and closes his hands and straightens his jacket before turning on his heel. It wasn’t a public blessing,nor was it in the proper phrasing, but Alixor accepts it all the same. “Come, Kaisa. It looks as if I’ll bed you tonight after all.”
I close my eyes and allow the sudden hollowness in my chest consume me wholly, and then open them again. The Sar Dyeus, Thrace, and the stranger are all looking at me, and I can’t help but wonder if they care at all what happens to a woman like me.
CHAPTER SEVEN
MY THOUGHTS RUN faster than Aspa across the Sere as Alixor drags me away. “Who was that?” I ask again.
“It’s no concern of yours,” Alixor snaps, leading us back to my room.
I need to let it go. I won’t get anywhere with Alixor. At least not this way. But the taste of freedom was on my tongue when I’d convinced myself that the Sar Dyeus would remove me as Alixor’s carremai and all that’s left is a deep ache in my chest. Kalixta will come here. Ninon is gone. And I don’t know where I belong anymore.
The sun is sinking low now, casting everything in golden yellow that will soon fade to shades of orange and red, before deepening to the shadowy purple and blue of night. I wonder if the rogue will make it back to his Realm in time before he turns. I wonder if Ninon isthere, a monster all the time, or waiting for the night to come so the same thing to happen to her. I wonder, a little, what that would feel like.
In my room, Alixor’s brow is drawn, his mouth pulled down in a frown. It doesn’t matter where I belong, because right now, I’m here. Right now, I have to figure out a way to get Alixor out of my room so I can take a dose of the contraceptive, because whether I want it or not, whether I like it or not, Alixor will have me.
“The Sar Dyeus gave his blessing, yet you’re still upset,” I hedge.
