Chapter 16
Atlas
––––––––
Cambria starts to shifton top of me, groaning as she begins waking up. To make us all fit, I ended up pulling her to lie on top of me in the middle to make room for Lucien to squish into the bed last night. She didn’t even stir when we were rearranging, she was so knocked out.
“Five more minutes,” she mumbles into my chest, burying her face in the crook of my neck.
“No one is making you get up,” I groggily point out, chuckling. “Go back to sleep.”
I gently rub my hand over her bare back until she starts to doze again, slipping into a state of semi-sleep for another hour before finally getting out of bed for the day. She rolls off of me right onto Lucien who wakes with a grunt before she gets to her feet.
“We need a bigger bed,” he points out on a rumble, groggy from sleep.
Cambria stretches her arms over her head and it’s a view I’ll never stop appreciating. She moves to her basket of laundry to get dressed as the three of us follow suit.
“Too much family bonding?” she teases lightly, but she still seems tired and subdued. Her skin is pale and the light that’s usually in her silver eyes is dull as well as the rest of her coloring, leaving her a muted version of herself.
Lucien puts his hands on each side of her face, kissing her reverently. “Never.”
She smiles softly at him as we head to the kitchen to get something to eat, the silence stretching to the point I can’t stand it anymore. “Refusing to talk about it isn’t doing anyone any good,” I point out.
Cambria exhales harshly, putting her fork down and scrubbing her hand over her face. “What’s there to talk about? My mother may have multiple mates, but she forces my birth father to attend every single thing involving me to torture him just as much. After all, it can’t possibly beherfault she gave birth to a monster.”
Dorian tries to interrupt, but she’s on a roll and building up steam. As much as it pains me to see her upset, it’s lighting a fire in her, one that I’m glad to see. It means despite everything her family has done to her, she still has some fight left. She’ll need that part of her to grow to new heights if she ever wants a chance at being free.
“Piper, my bitch of a cousin, is going to replace me as my mother’s successor. The Queen just gets her sick thrills from toying with me to make me suffer as punishment for what happened to my brother. She couldn’t just kill me and be done with it like everyone wanted. No, she had to make sure I suffered as much as she did when she lost her son.” She fights back a strangled sob. “Like I didn’t lose my brother and have hated myself every day since.
“She plays her twisted games, turning everyone against me until the only place I could possibly have a chance at living a relatively normal life is with the humans she despises. But even that isn’t a refuge, because I can’t stay there more than a couple of days. I’m a scourge of death forced to rely on a world that hates me to stay alive and it’s bullshit!” she exclaims, slamming a hand on the table and losing her fight of holding back her tears.
Dorian is glaring at me while Lucien is sitting there calmly, giving her a chance to vent and mulling something over in his head. I recognize that look and it gives me a small bit of hope for this shitty situation.
“How often does she force you to play in that hall?” he finally asks, tapping a finger on his cheek and resting his chin on his fist.
Cambria takes a minute to rein her emotions back in, waiting until she’s breathing steadier to answer. “Every few months.”
Lucien nods. “She’s siphoning power from you. For what, I’m not sure, but you pointed out maintaining the glamour takes a lot of energy, so maybe it’s something as simple as that. I doubt it, with as conniving as Elorie is though.”
Cambria blanches, but nods. “I know, but there isn’t much I can do about it. If I refuse, she’s just going to kill you guys and force me to anyway.”
I grit my teeth. “This is ridiculous. There has to be a way out of this mess. We can’t spend the rest of our lives living this way.”
Cambria sighs, scrubbing a hand down her exhausted face. “I just don’t see a way out. Not one that has a happy ending, at least.”
Dorian steals her hand and kisses the mark on the back of it. A symbol of twisted knots; perfect depiction of the fae. Twisting you up and ensnaring you until you can’t see a beginning or an end, just a web of imprisonment disguised as something beautiful.
“We’ll figure it out.”
She releases a humorless breath, looking dejected and hopeless, but there’s at least more life in her than there was before. It may not be a perfect solution, but I just can’t imagine a light as strong as Cambria’s being snuffed out from the world. She’s too vibrant, throwing herself all in no matter the situation. How anyone could look at her and see anything beyond the amazing person she is, I just can’t wrap my head around.
“Can we go home now?” she implores, looking directly at Lucien, since she knows he’s always the quickest to agree to leaving this place at any given time.
He frowns. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
