Chapter Fourteen
Korr
Sorina hangs her head and covers the bruise with her hand. She’s kneeling on the floor in front of her dresser, and she won’t look at me. She doesn’t answer my question, and for the first time, my patience is wearing thin. Her shoulders are drawn in, her body folded small, and the shame on her face tells me she thinks it was all her fault.
Rage boils in my chest and quickly spreads into my limbs. My fists clench, and my fingers close all the way. For once, every joint answers when my brain sends the signal. There’s no grinding and no resistance, no dead stone refusing the command.
I cross the room to her, and my legs carry me fast, faster than I’ve moved in months, maybe a full year. My stride is long and certain, and my knees don’t catch. She spent the night in my bed. She lay beside me as she slept, and the stone in my body feels alive and flexible again, as though her closeness fed it through the night and pushed the calcification back. I feel like someone I haven’t been in a long time.
Sorina flinches when I stop in front of her. She looks up at me with her blue eyes full of tears, and I see fear in them. She’s afraid of me. I’m standing over her, too massive for her brain to comprehend. She’s hurt, and I’m too close for comfort. But I can’t make myself move away.
“I won’t hurt you,” I tell her. “I would never hurt you, my bride. You don’t need to be afraid of me.”
She nods. She straightens her back and rises to her feet. I bring a finger under her chin and tip her head so the light catches the bruise. It’s fresh and swollen. The shape tells me she hit something hard and flat. Maybe she just tripped and fell? But then the crying wouldn’t make sense.
A growl rolls out of my chest.
“Who did this to you?” I ask. “Because whoever he is, he needs to be afraid of me.”
Sorina takes a step forward and collapses against me. She barely reaches my chest, and she struggles to wrap her arms around the narrower part of my waist. Her tears soak into my shirt.
“Vicky is my friend,” she says. “Her husband, Noah… He’s hurting her. I went to visit her today, and Noah came home and tried to throw me out. I told him I wasn’t leaving, and he shoved me into their kitchen doorframe. He didn’t really touch me that much, but he shoved me so hard that I lost my balance.”
I wrap one arm around her and hold her to me. She’s small against my body, and I can feel her shoulders shaking with every sob.
“Shh,” I say. “It’s all right now. I’m here.”
She sobs harder, and when she speaks again, her words tumble over each other.
“I’m so worried about Vicky. I know how this goes, Korr. It starts with pushing and slapping, then it gets worse. It always gets worse. Noah will keep going until he’s dangerous enough to put her life at risk, and I can’t sit by and watch that happen. He’s cruel, and he doesn’t deserve her.”
“I agree,” I say.
Sorina pulls back and looks up at me. Her eyes are wide, bright blue and wet, and the shock on her face stops me cold.
“You do?” she asks. “You think what Noah is doing is wrong?”
The question doesn’t make sense. I don’t understand why she’d expect anything else from me.
“It’s more than wrong,” I say. “It’s abominable.”
I run my hand over her long blonde hair, smoothing it down her back. Then I ease her away from me and hold her at arm’s length, looking her in the eyes.
“I’m going to take care of this Noah right now.”
I let go, turn on my heel, and walk out of our chambers. The way my body answers every order I give it makes me feel invincible. I call the lift, and I hear Sorina’s hurried steps behind me. We step on the platform together, and I pull the lever. I can feel her watching me with curious eyes. She’s rubbing her hands together, and the impression she gives me is that she doesn’t quite believe that I’ll truly take care of this problem for her and her friend.
In the Narrowhalls, a few people glance up as we pass. They move out of my way, pressing themselves against the walls because the corridor is not large enough for everyone when a golem comes down here.
“Where does Vicky live?” I ask.
Sorina takes my hand. Her fingers wrap around mine, making me shiver, as she takes the lead. The ceilings are low enough that I have to watch my head in places. We stop at a door that looks the same as every other door on the stretch. Sorina lets go and steps back behind me.
I bang on the door, three hard strikes that rattle the frame. The door swings open and a man fills the gap. He’s of average build, with brown hair and a face twisted with anger.
“What?!” he yells at me.
It takes me aback for a moment, because how crazy does a human man have to be to snap like that at a golem? I grab him by the front of his shirt, haul him out of the house, and slam him into the corridor wall. I lift him off the ground and pin him there. My arm barely registers the effort. His feet dangle above the floor and his hands claw at my wrist, but he can’t break my grip.
