by K. Lyn Hill
“Oh, I can most certainly use it.” She had slowly begun to lose her mind being stuck in the house all day. She occasionally went to the store and cooked food but it wasn’t like she was going to go traipsing through town all the time, throwing her face out there for word to get back to the castle. That was the last thing she needed. They had begun to build a life here. It was shaky and the foundation needed some work but it was functioning in their twisted little world.
Even with the threat of being captured looming over them, she couldn’t complain about how life had turned out. Maybe parading around half naked wasn’t always in the cards but she couldn’t help but enjoy her time there.
Kayden made life interesting and always left her with a mystery to solve even if she didn’t get any closer when he did stuff like this. He took them in when they had nothing and hadn’t asked any questions. For that she didn’t know if he was stupid, far too intelligent or just oblivious, but she was thrilled to have a home, even if it was temporary.
She paused to study him. She could tell he had run a hand through his hair, shoving it out of place in every different direction. His suit jacket was unbuttoned at the top and his tie removed.
He almost looked human.
Not the man who paraded her on his arm each night or the man, arrogant and stern. Now he just looked like a normal guy sitting on his couch before work.
“Kayden.” She waited for him to look up, but he simply tilted his head and squinted one eye. He didn’t even react to her half-dressed self. Either she was really losing her appeal or Kayden was gay. Come on, girl drenched in towel! Wasn’t that like every man’s fantasy? Well, better take what she can get. “Thank you.”
They both knew she wasn’t thanking his man for giving her an old bow.
He lifted his right hand and waved her off but not before she caught the hint of a smile on his face. He could pretend all he wanted. There was something good and pure in Kayden, even if he didn’t want people to see it. Which made her wonder about him even more.
What was he doing with them?
∞∞∞
Damien
How could he have been so stupid? He knew what would happen if his father found out about the supplies, but he had done it anyway because he couldn’t handle seeing the villagers emaciated, shivering forms anymore. But what good did it do? All those people were just slaughtered because of him.
He struggled with his breathing as he shook with rage and regret. It was all his fault. He had failed.
Long ago the king’s manner of ‘training’ him had excelled beyond the average princely education. Somewhere along the line, something had changed. His father had begun to rot from the inside out, killing all the good remaining in him. He was sick and needed help but Damien never thought he would stoop so low. There was no logical reason for the king to want Damien’s reputation destroyed except for fear.
The king wanted them all to fear. And fear they shall.
“I’ll kill you.” He whispered to himself. “One day.” He vowed but would he even be able to follow through with it? His father was a monster, but he was his father, nonetheless. Did he have the strength to kill family? But what family was he? One who would murder innocent people as a training exercise.
Apparently, it had gotten worse since the king had been gone. His father at least had a line before that hadn’t been crossed. Now it seems, it was a free for all.
As soon as he had left the throne room, he had found the first empty sitting room and collapsed on the ground once again. Away from prying eyes, he allotted himself a moment of self-pity but now it was time to get up.
He must have stayed there for longer than he thought because his back began to ache, and his knees stung from his position on the floor. As he gingerly picked himself up and shifted his chin up into the air, his eyes caught on a maid that was frozen in the doorway. Her eyes trailed from him back behind her with wide, horrified eyes. Almost as if she thought he would jump out and attack her for opening the random door to preform her duty.
Her mouth was open and poised to scream but no sound came out. With shaking hands, she jerked the door open and practically sprinted out of the room.
His nails dug painfully into the floor as he sucked in a deep breath and then almost gagged on the phantom scent he had left.
All his life he wished for someone to see him. Past the role his father forced him to play.
There was no hope now. Maybe there never had been. They all saw him as a monster. Ruthless, cunning and unstoppable. What happened there that day would only solidify that and Damien was powerless. If he fought it or didn’t play along, more people would die. It may not have been his sword taking the final swipe but he would be responsible for it nonetheless. As much as the thought made him sick with nausea, his father would get what he wanted. Damien had to go about his day like nothing had happened.
If the people didn’t fear Damien before, they most certainly would now.
Chapter Fifty-Three
Aerity
“Don’t worry love, you’re not my type.” He said this as he was casually stretched out on the living room dais, sipping on his brandy. After they finished their game and arrived back to where they were staying, he had poured himself a glass and made her some weird concoction that tasted like juice and embarrassingly she had slurped it down in a matter of minutes. After cocking his eyebrow, he proceeded to make her another one. Although she could have sworn that she saw him fill half of it with water.
Not that she was complaining. Whatever he had put in her glass previously had certainly not been juice. Proof of her revelation began to take effect when her head started spinning.
She rested her hands on the table near the couch to catch her balance. Kayden gave her a questioning look before offering one of his trademark smirks. She smiled back but assumed it looked more like a snarl because Kayden choked on his drink in response.
After he was completely ignorant to a wet girl in a towel, her curiosity was killing her.
Over their time together, they oddly had all grown into a comfortable routine with each other. She and Kayden would do their Jacks Spade games on the weekends and Eli would go out to different taverns and hunt for information. When they arrived at the house, he would pour them each a drink after she anxiously changed out of her slut rags. The in between days, Kayden would mainly disappear, no one knowing where he had gone but when he was there, they would speak almost like friends. Aerity waited for the ball to drop and for Kayden to slip in his activity or give a hint as to why he was doing this for them. She had asked him a few times and each time he had replied. “I need someone to catch cheaters.”
They only had a few other cases of people trying to cheat, which had resulted in what Aerity could only be termed as severe punishment. They tried to muffle the screams but a few times it seeped through the pleasantries at the end of the evening. Other than those few instances, Kayden had won every other game. Part of her had wondered if maybe he was the one cheating and that she was the mere distraction for it, but she found no evidence to confirm or deny.
What they had in life was delicate. Dangling by a string but it was still holding on. She would grip it for dear life until the final threads snapped.
“You like blondes huh?”
Silent laughter made his shoulder shake.
When they were at home, he mainly dropped the tough boy act. It was odd seeing him so charismatic without an agenda. But then again, maybe he had one and she was just the last to know about it. “Sure, let’s go with that.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?!” Her indignant tone made him laugh harder. Only this time, she found it hard not to laugh along with him. She had grown to appreciate his dickhead behavior. It was almost endearing. Almost.
“Believe it or not, I prefer someone who can’t best me in a fight.”
“What fun is that?” Aerity mumbled under her breath. She by no means wanted Kayden to look at her as anything other than a friend but she wa
nted to know what was so wrong with her in his eyes. She was curious just what his type was. Guys like him always turned out to be gay. She didn’t think she could handle it if that was the case. It was always the hot ones.
He must have read something in her expression because the laughter stopped. “I like woman.” He said firmly and it had her outright bursting into laughter.
He scowled. “How is that funny?”
She wheezed as she tried to catch her breath. Putting a finger up in a motion for him to give her a minute, she kept laughing to the point of hunching over, placing her hand on her knees.
“What happened?” Eli entered the room and Aerity laughed even harder. Tears were streaming down her face.
“Apparently she finds it hilarious that I not gay.” Kayden’s voice came out drier than sandpaper. Eli began laughing too and it was all the harder to stop.
“What is so funny?!” Kayden demanded.
“Oh my God, we both totally thought you liked dudes.”
“Why would you think that?”
She finally composed herself enough to stand, wiping the corners of her eyes. “Ya know.” Her hand waved and motioned to his body.
“No, I don’t know. What are you motioning at?” He went from angry to confused as he glanced down to try and see what they were talking about.
“Your all la di da when you dress. No straight guy dresses like that!” She hickuped and burped. Then giggled.
“I’m never giving you alcohol again.” Kayden mumbled.
Eli’s eyes widened. “You didn’t give her tequila, did you?”
The weight in his question made Kayden pause. “So what if I did?”
“No wonder!” He moaned. “Why would you do that?! She’s going to be like this all night now!”
“I didn’t know! She asked for some!”
“Oh course she asked for some! She’s an alcoholic!”
“Am not!” Aerity punched him in the arm but it lacked much impact as she missed, almost crashing into his arms. She erupted in another giggle fit.
“You’re like really pretty!” He tried to pick her up but she shoved his hand away. “No! Like really pretty.” She moved to touch his face. “Almost like a lady!”
Eli snorted and then schooled his face at Kayden’s glare. “Is she always like this?”
He tried to drag her but she felt like dead weight, dragging her feet along the carpet. “Ooooo your carpet feels like tiny little alien arms!”
“Nope. Only when she has tequila.” Eli shot him a hard glare as her body began to slip from their hold.
Eli scooped her up and she flung her legs up and down yelling “WEEEEEEEE!” Eli struggled to get a hold of her as Kayden starred
with his mouth dropped open. Then he composed himself and a vicious look crossed his face. Aerity watched as a blurry Kayden looked over at Eli with a conspiring grin. She grew dizzy trying to look back and forth between them. Then she heard Kayden speak and she desperately tried to jerk out of Eli’s arms but miserably failed.
“What do you say we have a bit of fun?”
She caught the slight nod of his head in her direction and her heart sped up. “Um, I vote no!” She slurred as she looked up at the new glint in Eli’s eyes. Even though she was confident that anything Eli did would be completely innocent and she wouldn’t be hurt, his following words still sent shivers down her back. The same words she used right before she did something really really stupid. Most of the time they were directed at someone else.
Although those words weren’t directed at anyone else.
Eli’s teeth were gleaming and he was looking straight at her even though he was speaking to Kayden.
No, they were directed at her.
“What did you have in mind?”
∞∞∞
Eli
He sat at the kitchen bar with Kayden across from him. It was a lazy morning where they could take their time, drinking coffee and eating breakfast. The silence was welcome because they knew any minute the silence would end and be filled with Aerity screaming and cursing them out.
As he heard shifting in the other room, he glanced up to see the gleam in Kayden’s eyes. They shared a smirk as the first curse word rang out. Since being there, Aerity had learned some new, colorful words. He would have been proud of her extended vocabulary if it hadn’t been used against him currently.
It was silent for the moment as they sipped their coffee and then all hell broke loose, shattering the calm. “Eli, Kayden, if you do not untie me, I will freakin kill you!” They remained still for a minute, hiding their snickers behind their hands. A few seconds passed and she was still screaming in the other room. She was probably going to lose her voice if they didn’t intercept now.
Kayden lazily looked his way before smiling. “Do you think it’s time?”
Eli just grabbed two sugar cubes and dropped them in his drink, slowly stirring them with a spoon. “In a minute.”
Kayden pressed his own cup to his lips as Eli shared his smirk. “How long do you think she will stay mad?” He asked when he set his cup back down on the table.
Eli glanced towards the room and shuttered dramatically. “Hmmmmm for a bit. Most of our pranks were always directed at other people who deserved it. She hasn’t normally gotten the brunt herself. I say it will be a tough pill to swallow.”
“Will she retaliate?” Kayden asked nervously as his eyes shifted to the room where the she-wolf laid, snarling.
“Absolutely.” Eli wasn’t living in a fairy tale. He knew they just declared war. Their life was a pile of crap at the moment. As much as being at Kayden’s was working out, it wasn’t a home and they both knew it. Seeing Aerity leave the house every weekend, wearing practically her smile and not much else, made him want to scream. This beautiful, wonderful person deserved so much more and yet she was doing what she had to do. Sucking at the bottom of the barrel.
He knew her thought process. All of this had to make her feel cheap. He couldn’t change the position they were in. but they could use a distraction. Even if Aerity didn’t identify it as that quite in the beginning. Judging by the screaming in the other room, Eli thought not so much. That didn’t deter him from relishing in the little experiment they had performed.
“Maybe we shouldn’t have messed with her the day of one of our games.” Kayden mumbled. Eli would have felt bad for him if it hadn’t been his idea to mess with her to begin with. It was Eli who came up with the idea, but it was Kayden that helped pull it off. “Not to mention mess with her appearance. She won’t be much eye candy if that stuff won’t wash off.” He complained, dragging his cup to his mouth again.
Eli tried not to snort at the idea of seeing Aerity’s face when she saw herself in the mirror. Then he heard Kayden’s words. “Wait, I thought you said it would wash out immediately?”
Kayden had the decency to look a bit sheepish. “Yeah about that. I’ve never actually tried it before. Sooo…”
“Are you saying it may not wash off?” Eli’s voice sounded more high pitch than normal. Ooooo Aerity was going to pop a cap.
“Wellllllll. It’s supposed to…” Kayden’s voice trailed off.
Not comforting.
All of a sudden the screaming in the other room stopped. A chill went down his spine. When it came to Aerity, silence was never a good thing.
“What do you mean, it’s ‘supposed to wash out’?!” Aerity appeared in the doorway looking about ready to chew them up and spit them out. Kayden whistled while slowly stepping to the other side of the island for a barrier. Unfortunately for Eli, Kayden took the only barricade.
“Hey sugar lips.” Eli tried at a joke but Aerity didn’t look like she was having it. Her glare could have melted glaciers as she prowled closer to him.
“How did you get out of the binds?” Kayden very unwisely asked. Clearly, he didn’t have much experience with these kinds of things.
She shot a glare in Kayden’s direction before ignoring him and turning back towards
Eli again. “What did you do to my hair, Elias?”
Uhoh. She used his full name. She didn’t do that unless she was piping mad. “Soooo Kayden said it would wash out.”
Kayden shot him a dirty look. Yeah, he definitely just threw him under the bus.
Get over it. Shit happens.
Aerity was still fully focused on him. “I didn’t ask about Kayden. I asked about you. What did you put in my hair?!”
He shot a look at Kayden to help him out but he only crossed his arms and shook his head.
Each man for himself, he supposed. “It’s just a temporary dye.”
She kept eye contact with him as she grabbed the pitcher of water and wet a section of her hair. Rubbing both hands over it, she shoved it in front of her so he could clearly see it.
Nothing changed. It hadn’t washed out. Uhoh.
“Maybe you need to use some shampoo?”
Her face grew dark as she spoke through clenched teeth. “I was a red head. Now I’m blonde. It’s not a temporary hair dye! In order to make me blonde, you would have had to strip off my hair color. You didn’t temporarily color my hair, Elias. You freakin bleached my hair platinum blonde! This will not bloody wash out!” A movement in the corner of his eye had him noticing Kayden slinking to the edge of the counter. He must have gathered some courage since her wrath wasn’t directed towards him.
“You kind of look hot blonde.”
Her eyes snapped to him and Eli realized what a mistake Kayden just made. “And you!” Venom dripped from her lips as she stepped closer to Kayden whose easy smirk dropped instantly from his face. “This was all your idea!”
Kayden stepped back behind the protective counter. Like that would stop her if she really wanted to launch.
“We can get you some other dye to make it red again.” Was all he could say. He must have seen the murder in her eyes too and had come to the same conclusion Eli had.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Her eyes narrowed as she glared at them both, her cheeks puffed out and her lips tightened. She really was gorgeous when she was mad. The blonde hair only accentuated the green in her eyes and made her red cheeks even more distinguishable. The urge to kiss her almost overtook him. Then the heated glare in her eyes had him backing up further. “I’m sorry Aer. I didn’t know it was permanent.”
