It made too much sense and Eiri cursed himself for never having taken the time to think about it all the way through. He was the worst possible candidate to marry Syrus, yet they’d chosen him, anyway. Instead of asking the reason why, he’d let himself wallow in his own self-pity.
“Eiri…”
He paced the length of the room, to the door and back, before stopping in front of Kien. “This marriage was never about peace, was it? The new council had their money and lower trade prices and Queen Delia had her mining rights, but she wanted extra assurance and the council wanted me out of the way. They knew if they sent me as a hostage, I’d find a way to escape, but by forcing me into marriage, my honor requires me to stay. Everyone wins. Everyone except me.” A sudden thought sent ice running through his veins. “Did you even send that letter?”
Kien’s silence was all the answer he needed. His one ally here in Vaetreas was just another one of his jailers, keeping him trapped here, out of everyone’s way.
“Get out of my room, Kien.”
The older man did a better job than Eiri at keeping his emotions hidden, face neutral as he got to his feet. “Believe of me what you will, Eiri, but know that I am here to protect you.You are letting your emotions get the better of you. Once you are thinking clearly again, come find me and we will work this out.”
That was about as likely as Eiri actually learning to love his husband. Fury coursed through him, his whole body trembling with the effort it took to keep it held in.
“I said to get out of my room. Now.”
Kien jerked his head in a rough nod, thankfully silent. He studied Eiri for a long moment, then turned and walked out. He didn’t slam the door behind him, instead closing it with a quiet thump that somehow still echoed in the huge room.
The quiet closed in around him, the early afternoon sunlight through the windows doing nothing to chase away the dark fury rising within him.
How could he have not seen the truth? The council that had come to his defense, the council that included his own mother, had sold him to his sworn enemies. They’d used him for their own gain, then thrown him away when he became an inconvenience, and he’d gone along with it. That was the worst part. Instead of using his common sense and questioning everything, he’d foolishly trusted them to give a damn about him, and it’d landed him in the one place he hated above all others, trapped with a man who embodied everything he stood against.
His magic roiled within him in response to the fury he couldn’t tamp down. It was just as trapped as he was, both him and his magic cut off from the open water that had sustained him all his life. Lodie sat near the coast, the ocean only a few miles away, but to get there, he’d have to find a way out of this fucking prison.
Eiri circled the room again, fighting to hold on to his control. The wards were still in place and active, but whoever had created them hadn’t taken Eiri’s power into account. He’d made damn sure no one knew about his magic unless hecompletely trusted them, and he could count those people on one hand with fingers to spare.
Unfortunately, the wards were in place to protect a member of the royal family and were stronger than most common protection spells. He could break them, given enough time, but doing so would mean revealing one of the few secrets he’d managed to hold on to. If he wanted to escape, though, it would be his only option. He’d yet to find a chink in the armor protecting Syrus. While that been annoying before, it was infuriating now, his anger-fueled magic growing increasingly erratic as he searched in vain for a way to escape his opulent prison.
Another futile search left him right back where he’d started, trapped and stewing in impotent rage. He neededout. If he stayed in this room much longer, he would go crazy. As massive as it was, he could feel the walls closing in around him, trapping him inside, crushing him down to nothing. He had to get out. If it meant showing his magic, so be it.
The ward over the window. It was weaker than the one over the door to the hallway. No one could scale the wall outside and the glass itself was thick, tempered to withstand the worst weather as well as magical attacks. Shattering it from within would be simple.
Eiri fought to get a firm grasp on his power, but his magic was as fierce and tumultuous as the ocean’s waves, slipping out of his grasp every time he tried to grab it. He needed tofocus, to clear his mind and let the power flow through him as it usually did, but the walls were too close, his fury turning to panic as he tried to just breathe.
His heartbeat throbbed in his ears and Eiri almost didn’t hear the door opening over the frantic pulse. Even then, it took a few seconds for the sound to penetrate his panicked mind.
“I told you to go away, Kien,” he hissed. He didn’t look awayfrom the window. If he did, his magic would slip away, and he wasn’t sure he’d be able to call on it again. His breath sawed in and out of his chest, dark spots dancing along the edges of his vision.
“Good thing I’m not Kien, then.”
The last person he’d expected to see this morning was Syrus and the shock of it was enough to knock him out of his panic. He turned, putting his back to the wall before Syrus could put a knife in it.
“What are you doing here? If you’re trying to starve me into breaking, you’ll have to wait a lot longer than half a day.”
Rather than the hateful retort he’d grown accustomed to, Syrus shook his head. “I’m not trying to starve you. Someone was supposed to bring you meal trays.”
“Well, they didn’t, which is hardly surprising,” Eiri narrowed his eyes, his pent-up anger focusing in on this new target. “Pretending to give a damn about me didn’t work before, and it’s not going to work now. I will not give up who I am just to appease your uptight, narrow-minded standards.”
“Eiri, I didn’t come here to fight.”
“Then why are you here? You’ve made it perfectly clear what you expect from me and I’ve told you that I won’t change, so I can’t imagine we’d have anything left to talk about.” The lack of heat from Syrus slipped under his skin, feeding his anger. Syrus may not have come for a fight, but Eiri wanted one. If he didn’t let his temper find a target, he was going to explode.
“I came to get you out of this room for a while.”
Trying to get a handle on his emotions was like trying to rein in a hurricane. The shock at seeing Syrus had been swallowed up by his anger, but it resurfaced now, leaving him floundering in the depths.
“What?” He sounded like an idiot, but Syrus didn’t belittle or mock him for it, surprising him yet again.
“You’ve been stuck in here since you came to Lodie. I just thought you’d like to get out of here for a little while. It’s a nice day. I thought perhaps we could go down to the shore for a bit.”
