Then the Prince spoke a single word from the aniel tongue and it sent shivers down me, straight to my curling toes.
“Necko.”
A cry caught in my throat; Ava slapped her hands to her gaping mouth and cringed away from the slaughter that happened right in front of us.
At the sound of that one foreign word, the aniels turned on the mortal guards. The vilas were cut down quickly in a spray of blood.
I was sure I saw a throat fly through the air before I shut my eyes and turned my head away.
The gurgles had stopped when I finally opened my eyes.
Prince Poison stood among the bloody ruins of the massacre with his aniels.
Jasper was coated in blood, and in his fist was a clump of hair and part of a head. It looked as though it had been torn off with his bare hands.
I swallowed back a singe of bile and looked at Ava.
She was on her knees beside my bed, face buried in her hands. Her shoulders shook with silent sobs.
The violence didn’t throw me into a pit of hysterics like it did to Ava, but I wasn’t immune to terror. It flooded me. Especially since the Prince’s quartz eyes had simmered to something calm, like a seashore before a wicked storm strikes again, and found me.
“You will be moved—” His voice was as glacier as his stare. “—and your room will be guarded at all times. The freedom to roam remains, but with escorts. Always.”
He stepped closer to me, slipping around the bed like a predatory snake, and tracked blood and guts all over the floor.
As he drew closer, I realised that he hadn’t let his aniels do all the work for him. He’d gotten his hands dirty too.
“If I find you have gone anywhere without your guards…” he trailed off with a dark gleam in his eye.
Slowly, he turned his gaze on Ava and let his implication hang in the air between us.
Ava cried harder, her face mangled with fear.
The Prince came to my side. No matter how far I shrank back, he followed me, hands pressing into the mattress, body curving over mine.
I didn’t realise I was trembling until his gaze dropped to my shivering lips and hung for a moment. “Xanthe.”
At first, I thought it was another word from the ancient language he spoke to order the guards’ executions. But then, it was obvious that Xanthe was a name, not an ancient word.
The black and white haired aniel swept over to us at the sound of her name. She fell into a deep bow at the Prince’s side, but his focus poured only into me.
The Prince lifted his hand to my aching cheekbone. “Valissa.”
The sudden soft touch of his voice over my name made me stiffen. Every muscle in my body bolted to bone as soon as his blood-stained gloves traced the bruises on my face.
“I find myself at a crossroads,” he told me, gaze searching mine. “Does one hide a jewel to ensure its safety? Wear it proudly for all to see and admire? Or…” he added darkly, and my heart sank to my bum, “does one destroy the jewel to save on later conflicts?”
I knew better than to answer or even utter a word. He could have called me anything, it wouldn’t have mattered. Because even as a jewel in his possession, my destruction was always an option. And one that he was considering so easily after I was attacked.
I licked my lips, then pinned my mouth shut.
The Prince pushed up from the bed. He studied me silently for a moment before he gave a lazy gesture to Xanthe.
The stripy-haired aniel moved around him without the slightest hint of unease on her stunning, sharp-features.
Prince Poison stayed in the room, in the pool of fresh blood. Foolishly, I expected him to leave after his indirect threat.
Want him to leave.
He stayed and watched.
“Do not move.” Xanthe cupped my cheeks with her bare, icy hands.
I shivered instantly, and the disapproving purse of her lips warned me off the slightest twitch again.
I forced my body into a stiff plank.
The aniel’s hands prickled against my cheeks, but even as the icy feeling rose into a cold burn, I didn’t move. Only my toes curled in protest.
Then her hands left my face and she drew back.
My eyes widened as I noticed her arms.
From her blackened palms, bruises blotted all over her skin, and some cuts tore at her flesh.
Startled, I sat up and gawked at her injuries.
They weren’t there before—and with a quick glance down at my own body, I realised she’d taken my wounds away.
The Prince lured in my gaze with a studious one of his own. I could practically feel his thoughts swirling behind those stone-cold eyes of his.
He wasn’t nearly as impressed by the aniel’s power as I was.
Even Ava stared up at Xanthe with wonder in her tears.
Xanthe turned her back on me, then gave a curt bow to the Prince. It wasn’t as low or long as Jasper’s usually were, and she made no formal address of him. No ‘Almighty’ or ‘My Prince’.
She isn’t his.
And with a power so beautiful, I wondered if she was a child of Gaia.
The Prince dismissed her with a flick of the hand, his eyes glued to me.
He stood there, in the middle of what had been a guard-massacre, for a few moments until maids came bustling through the open door. Only then did he tear his unreadable stare away from me and instead, fixed it on Jasper.
If he noticed Jasper’s earlier shield-stance in front of Ava, or that the aniel had stealthily found his way back to my friend, the Prince didn’t comment on it.
“Take care of this.” Prince Poison’s command was shiver-worthy, just for his tone.
Unfazed, Jasper bowed as deeply as I expected. He didn’t rise until after the Prince left without another glance at me.
Relief flooded through me once he was out of the room and I fell back onto the bed.
But my troubles, I soon realised, were only just starting.
16
Adrik was sent to recruit around-the-clock guards for me.
Given Adrik’s unveiled disdain for me, I wasn’t too hopeful about the guards he would choose.
Jasper didn’t seem to doubt him, though.
And in barely an hour, when the last of the maids were filing out of the room, my new guards were stationed in the corridor.
Two aniels.
Ava’s mind ran the same tracks as mine. “What business do aniels have guarding you?”
I managed a shrug before pain nipped at my insides.
Xanthe might have taken my bruises away, but the deep aches were still there, clinging to the bones beneath my flesh.
As Jasper and Adrik colluded near the still-open door, Ava sank onto the bedside and helped me button my stained coat.
I would be moved soon, but Ava didn’t care about how I looked. She was just trying to get closer to me and whisper in my ear.
“No God gives a mortal a new dress every day,” she said. “They don’t train mortals to better their … abilities.”
I grimaced at how she spoke that word with too much caution for her closest friend. Gave me the feeling she wanted to call it something much worse.
“And,” she went on, “they don’t slaughter their mortal guards just to replace them with valuable aniels. What on the isles does he want with you—”
I cut her off with a warning glare, then swatted her hands away from my buttons.
Later, my eyes said.
Her glare settled down to a puckered look.
I just hoped she read my meaning clearly, because Jasper was pulling away from Adrik and advancing on us.
Ava followed my gaze to Jasper. Her back stiffened and she slid off the side of the bed to stand.
My frown swerved between them. Now, they were acting as though he hadn’t thrown himself over my bed a while ago to use himself as a shield between her and Prince Poison.
“Adrik will carry you.”
Jasper’s voice snapped me out of my suspi
cious thoughts and I glared at him.
“You’re in no state to walk,” he added at my outraged grimace. “Xanthe has absorbed the brunt of the pain, but it will take days for you to fully recover, and you will do so in your new chambers.”
My jaw set and I glanced up at Ava.
“No.” Jasper answered my unspoken question before I could properly think it. “Ava is not permitted to move with you. She will remain here.”
“Here?” I spat, and struggled to sit up against the iron headboard. “Where she can be a fucking target for whoever attacked me? That’s a genius idea!”
Ava reached for my shoulder and gave it a gentle squeeze. My shoulder seized up and I sucked in a sharp breath.
Ow.
I turned my simmering glare on her but she hardly noticed.
“It’s all right,” she said softly.
It wasn’t all right. Not at all.
It wasn’t all right that she hurt me and didn’t realise it. But most importantly, it wasn’t all right that she was to be left behind in my place, unprotected.
“What if it happens again?” I barked at Jasper. “What if Ava’s the one attacked next time?”
Jasper’s eyes flashed with something unreadable. “Ava will be perfectly safe, I assure you. Another vilas will be assigned to share this room with her, and—”
“If it will be as safe as you’re saying, then why can’t I stay?”
Patience was cracking on his face, like an old stone statue falling to time and abandonment. His voice took a dark turn; “Should I request Prince Poison to return, and you can argue his decision directly with him?”
That shut me down.
Even just the fresh memory of his blazing eyes and raging presence made my spine tingle. And there was still the whole business of blood and guts staining the carpets.
I dodged the bait and growled at Jasper, in a voice so low and guttural that the aniels by the door couldn’t hear a word I said; “You pretend like you don’t care what happens to her, Jasper. But we both know you want her to be safe too.”
Silence struck the room.
No anger lit up Jasper’s face; he only looked stunned.
Ava pursed her lips and turned her widened eyes down at the old carpet.
Adrik couldn’t have heard what I’d said, but he sensed the shift in the air and took a cautious, curious step towards us.
A dull response came from Jasper, and it was as tedious and impassive as a splinter; “My loyalty is to Prince Poison and what he demands.”
I challenged him with a dark look.
Adrik slowly inched closer to us, and if Jasper didn’t want him to find out what I was implying, he would have to promise some safety for Ava.
“I said nothing about responsibility or loyalty. What you want is completely different. And we want the same thing.” I raised my eyebrows. “So let’s strike a deal.”
Jasper’s glance cut to Adrik, who now stood at the base of my bed, before he gave Ava a once-over.
She wrung her hands together and pretended the carpet was a work of art that had to be admired for too long.
Jasper finally offered me a curt nod. “As you wish.”
His tone was as cutting as his glare, and I realised with an uneasy chill in my tummy, I just blackmailed an aniel.
Maybe I did have a death wish.
But here in this palace, I seemed to have an immunity too.
Suspicion danced in Adrik’s lively eyes.
I ached to rip them out and stuff them in his ridiculous beard. The hairy aniel needed to mind his own damn business.
“Good,” I said before I offered Ava my hand.
With my gaze on Adrik, I added, “Carry me all you like, but Ava is coming with me for now.”
Adrik’s face twisted and he spat; “You don’t make the orders—”
Jasper cut him off lazily. “Valissa will need assistance in bathing and dressing. I have agreed to this temporary arrangement. However,” he added sternly, with a lingering look at me, “Ava will return once another vilas has been assigned to share her dwellings.”
It was the best I would get.
Jasper might have clearly fancied Ava, or had some sort of feeling for her, but at the end of the day he was an aniel. An eternal being who had likely loved, cared for and lost too many vilas to count. After a while, I imagined there was only so much he could possibly care anymore.
Still, I smelled leverage in the air. They used Ava against me, so I would use her against them.
We were playing a dangerous dance, but they might have overlooked just how great a dancer I was.
Our bout of thick, silent tension was suddenly shattered.
A guard leaned around the door and tapped once.
He looked at Adrik as he said, “The room has been prepared. We should move her now before the vilas wake.”
Ava pulled back as Adrik swaggered around the bed. None too kindly, he heaved me up in his arms.
17
“Godly shit!”
Behind us, Jasper choked on a snort.
Adrik’s cradled arms stiffened beneath me.
Guess it wasn’t the best thing to throw around the name of the Gods in vain, but—wow.
I’d never seen anything like it in all my life.
“This is my room?”
“More of a boudoir.” Jasper’s cool voice came from the open double doors that I was certain were made from hard cream. “You will be safe here.”
‘Here’ was a farther wing of the palace, where the walls were smooth marble and crystal statues. It made sense now why Ava wasn’t allowed to stay with me.
Far from the vilas halls, I had an inkling that I’d been moved to the wing of the Gods, or at least their favoured aniels.
A canopy bed was tucked against a curve of panelled windows, hidden by wispy sheer drapes and feathery blankets. Every aching muscle in my body yearned to sink into the plush mattress and become one with it, forever.
But Adrik had other plans.
With his beard tickling my forehead, he carried me over to the armchairs that hugged a fireplace so tall that it almost touched the curved ceiling.
There, Adrik dumped me on an armchair.
I braced myself for impact, for every bone in my body to rattle with aches and burnt nerves, but no jolt of pain struck through me. The armchair hugged me as though it was a cloud drawing me in.
With a grunt, I shifted myself around to study the rest of the room.
The unlit fireplace seized the room with a bone-reaching chill. It didn’t help that the double doors were left wide open for the maids to flurry in and out with my garment boxes, and not one of them bothered to glance at the cold fireplace.
Ava crept around the sudden chaos sweeping through the room, dodging maids and statuesque guards to make her way over to me. She sank into the armchair opposite, her face as pinched as my fingers cutting into the armrests.
Her face said it all.
It said everything she tried to voice back in the old room before I silenced her. But she didn’t have to say it, because I already knew—
This was suspiciously too much for a power-thieving avsky.
It would have made more sense, to me at least, that I was stuffed in an early grave, or even tossed into a damp cell down in the dungeons. And I was certain there were dungeons here in this palace.
Still, I was glad Ava didn’t speak on her thoughts while too many ears were perked all around us.
Besides, it wasn’t long before Jasper drew away from Adrik and advanced on us.
His amber eyes were fierce with flames of outrage, still lingering from earlier.
Blackmailing him would definitely come back to bite my head off. A time would come where I would fall of out the Prince’s favour, and on that day Jasper would be there waiting, blade in hand.
Not if I kill him first…
Jasper looked at me as he said, “I’ll return shortly for Ava. I suggest you take the time your body needs to recover. The
Prince won’t be lenient for long.”
I nodded, distracted.
The sound of water filling the tub snared my attention.
Out the corner of my eye, I watched the mouse-faced maid, Nalla, disappear behind a cloud of steam from the pitcher she emptied into the copper tub.
“Where’s the chamber pot?” I asked, searching for a door near the tub. I’d gotten used to the privy closet.
“Behind the screen.” Jasper gestured to the far corner where a room divider, layered in thick fabrics, was planted.
From the armchair, my view was limited. There didn’t seem to be a hint of a door; no brassy knob or cracks in the wall.
“That’s it?” I couldn’t hide the disappointment that slumped me in my seat. “In the other room, it’s through a door—”
“As is this one.” He cut me off. Jasper’s cheeks kept their beige tone as he added, “Everything you require can be found in your privy closet. Including…”
For a moment, his eyes drifted down to my tattered, blood-stained skirt, and colour began to blot along his cheekbones.
He cleared his throat. “Including materials that female vilas require monthly.”
I hummed and glanced at Ava, whose face was an ugly shade of plum and beetroot.
“Ava will take them,” I said without a hint of shame. I never understood the need to be hush-hush about it. “I don’t bleed.”
A humiliated sigh came from Ava as she rested her head on her hands.
I shrugged and glanced up at Jasper.
His embarrassment was gone, caved under the weight of shock. His sandy-toned face whitened as he stared down at me.
It really wasn’t all that shocking. At least, I didn’t think so anyway. My body simply didn’t do that.
Maybe I was born without the right organs inside of me, maybe I was broken by the strange curse in my bones.
Whatever it was, I was sort of grateful. Monthly bleeds seemed to be a right bother.
All the girls back at the balneum stopped working when they had their bleeds, and Ava was sometimes bed-ridden for a couple of days when the pain was at its worst.
Envy of monthly bleeds was an unfamiliar concept to me, and would stay that way.
But Jasper’s shock took too long to crack and it quickly crept into a weird pause of silence.
Gods and Monsters, Books 1-3: A Dark Gods Bully Romance (Gods and Monsters Box Set) Page 12
