Harlot
Chapter 18
“Are you sure this was the best option, Harlot? What if that witch hurts him?” My mother says.
I huff. “Honestly, Mother, if she does, I can’t even blame her, the way he has behaved toward her, it’s vile.”
“Harlot! You know that wasn’t Fynn’s fault, none of this was… All of this is due to me; it is I who is to blame, not your brother… He was corrupted, slowly consumed by that awful curse.”
I watch as new tears begin to form in my mother’s eyes, yet no feeling reaches me, as if I’m untethered from myself. Too much has happened between Fynn and me, the fractures in our sibling bond too far into ruin. Even the thought of hisdeath does not stir any emotions within me; my senses lie dormant, sealed away in silence. My mother can’t comprehend any of it; how I am so unmoved, while her maternal instinct overrides everything with my brother. The uncertainty whether the witches will truly save him drives her to a brink I’m not sure she’s able to come down from. The hollow ache she suffers from after killing Jodelle is something she chooses to ignore willingly. I don’t know how she will face Fynn after what she did, or how he will respond to her.
Betrayal was etched into his features the moment he witnessed my mother slicing Jodelle’s throat. His lingering cry echoed against the sky as he cradled her deceased body. The scene was one of heartbreak, but even then, it all felt distant, out of reach. All I wanted was to get away. To leave him behind with his ruined mind and the destruction that would soon set in. If it weren’t for Caria asking me how I survived my ordeal, and her willingness to take him with her, to be by his side, and give him a chance to live, I would have let him rot.
Thinking that my mother would be unprotected, Emrys brought her to his fortress at my request. It also meant he and I had to confide in her about our bonding, although we suspected she already knew. My mother was anything but pleased with my decision, and it caused an irreparable rift between us. I feel it grow with each passing day, with each new whine about Fynn, and her sneering at Emrys.
When the pieces of Aurum presented themselves, I felt relief, as it meant my mother could leave us and be on her own, but she stayed. Each day grows longer as she complains and asks about my despicable brother.
“I don’t wish to entertain this conversation any longer, Mother. I’ll leave you to yourself.”
“Going to that monstrosity of yours?”
I bite on my tongue to keep the lashing that wants to evaporate from my lips inside. I don’t turn around, refusing to even glance in her direction. I stay silent and continue to stride out of the room, leaving her behind. I hear her yell, but the words are a blur, a false symphony I am deaf to.
Outside the room, Emrys’s fingers wrap around my upper arm, and he pulls me into his chest. He always waits for me in the shadows to comfort and soothe me.
“Tempest,” he whispers in my hair.
“I despise her, Emrys,” I murmur.
He kisses the top of my head.
“I know,Lucem Mei, it won’t be long; more than two weeks have passed. If the youngling witch put on her best performance, your brother should be filled with joy and air in his lungs.”
“I hope so. And I hope he’ll forgive Mother; perhaps they can travel together, far away from here. Settle in one of the human towns, share their Aurum.”
“I promise you they won’t stay here. I can feel how the trees and even plants are antsy. They don’t like it that she’s here, and neither do I.”
I glance up and stare into his tumultuous eyes, our souls combined. His patience is running thin, and so is mine.
“I don’t want to wait any longer, Emrys. She’ll never approve, and I don’t care about how she’ll take it anymore.”
Emrys pushes a loose strand of my raven-colored hair behind my ear. His gaze meets mine, my rock, the one who never wavers when it comes to me and my well-being.
“Are you certain, my love? I need to be if we are going to do this.”
“Oh, Emrys. My soul has never held a certainty as stark and undeniable as this. It has rooted itself in me like an ancient oath. It’s a truth that has burned itself into my flesh,” I tell him.
The words almost sound like a desperate plea, and in a way, they are. The shadowy markings have spread since our altercation with Fynn, and a humming ache has pulsed through my body ever since. I think my human body isn't strong enough to contain the power that's embedded within me. I feel it echoing through every part of me. It hums, but it wants to sing, to consume me and let me intertwine with Emrys—a symbiosis of flesh and power.
“Please.” I glance up at him.
He kisses my forehead. “Let’s complete the union of our souls and flesh tonight, my tempest.”
My heart flutters in my chest. I long to be whole, for our blood to be one, a woven togetherness.
“Tonight,” I whisper.
I avoid my mother the rest of the day by staying in Emrys’s presence, and for the first time since she arrived here, I do not seek her out in the evening. Nor do I share dinner with her. I know she’ll disapprove of my choice, she has already made that evident. Tonight, my focus will be on our sacred binding, the joining of flesh and fate.
