The Deviant Curse (The Braykith Series Book 1)

by Jennifer R. Kenny

  Evangeline was honestly surprised by his reaction now. “I thought you already knew. When you never said anything and continued to see her, well I didn’t believe you cared.”

  Glais blinked at her. “Luella is gone.”

  “Glais, what did you do?” Evangeline demanded, her voice rising in her shock.

  It took a moment for Glais to realise what Evangeline was exactly accusing him of. “No, nothing. I swear to you. She lives and breathes. Probably waiting for me right now in my rooms.” He knew he had said the wrong thing instantly but he was quick to cover it up. “What I meant, if she makes you so uncomfortable, if she is threatening you then I will get rid of her. I will send her away from the castle.”

  Evangeline frowned and she looked at Tempest to try and focus her mind instead of getting drawn into her own confusion. “Why would you do that?”

  Glais smiled but didn’t try and touch her like he wanted to. “Because this is your home Evangeline, and you are my wife. While I may not have done my best to make you feel welcome before, I will insist you feel welcome now.”

  Evangeline stared up at him and finally she came to nod and started heading out of the stables.

  “I’m trying Evangeline,” He called after her.

  She paused and turned to face him. “I think it might be too late for that.” The pair stood in the stables, space between them and neither quite sure on how best to handle this moment. Evangeline both hated and feared Glais. He thought what he was doing was sweet, but really all Evangeline could see in his gesture to remove Luella from her castle was how impulsively he rid important people in his life.

  Of course, Glais did not see it this way. Luella was a meal, a woman who had fed him when he needed it, and gave him access to her body whenever he hinted at it. She was just one of many, and although she found her way to him more often than the others it didn’t make her special. Glais did not value her in the same way he did not evaluate the cow before killing it for steaks. Removing Luella would not change his life much, and if it made Evangeline feel better, then he was happy to do it.

  Evangeline turned and walked away, leaving the stables and abandoning her plans for Tempest without looking back.

  Glais punched the gate and turned with a huff away from Tempest before the mare could try and defend her master. The horse seemed to have a sixth sense, a bond with Evangeline that Glais did not understand. There were many things that Evangeline did that Glais struggled with. His parents had been so concerned about him learning how to be King and hide his particular habits that it seemed he lacked the very basic understanding of how to interact with people.

  He envied that trait in his brother. Baxter was much better at being approachable, and maintaining a positive image. He rode into the surrounding village and he became one of them. Glais tried but with his dark features and mysterious aura Glais simply couldn’t do it. He had never been able to keep a single person happy. What hope did he have for his marriage? Too many mistakes haunted him already, and not enough time to fix them doomed him to ruin.

  Inspired to try, Glais took off after Evangeline. She was quick, stomping off back towards the castle even though there was nothing there for her. Except Thomas. Glais stopped himself in mid-step. He knew that she felt like he had forced her into another man’s arms, but he could not see it that way. He never would shoulder all of the blame. Huffing out a breath he watched Evangeline disappear around the corner and from his sight.

  Evangeline knew if she walked fast enough that eventually she would find Thomas. He seemed to be everywhere when she didn’t need him. Of course, the moment she did, it took several sweeps through the ancient stone walls to locate where he was stationed.

  “Thomas, I need to run an errand to the church before the ceremony. Can you accompany me?” Evangeline asked, knowing he would not refuse and that a trip out of the castle would mean she would need to be guarded. He nodded and dutifully fell into step just behind her. Like this, they walked outside the parameters of the castle, beyond the guards at the main gates and into the busy streets of the town. She walked, knowing Thomas was behind her and felt safe even as she veered off the path and took a shortcut through someone’s lawns and into the trees that surrounded the castle.

  The trees here were identical to the trees found within the castle grounds. They stood at attention as they always had, their limbs reaching up for the heavens, but slowly they were changing. Evangeline had only just noticed it this morning, and although the difference was hardly worth observing by anyone, she started to believe that perhaps Braykith was not as cursed as it had once been.

  She walked along the path, Thomas never even questioning why they were not heading towards the church. He had been waiting for this moment actually, sure that she had some words to speak to him. Thomas hoped it was a reconciliation. When Evangeline had mentioned the church he had thought, it was a confession. Now he was confused but continued to follow on behind.

  Evangeline stopped and Thomas stopped as well so there was space between them. “Glais knows about us.”

  Thomas nodded. “I always thought he would work it out. Even if it weren't true, he always would have suspected just because of our friendship.” Evangeline nodded, chewing on the nail of her thumb as Thomas struggled to know how to help her. “He has threatened you?” he asked, seeking the seed of her anxiety.

  She shook her head. “No. In fact, he apparently approves of you.”

  That was uplifting, and it was obvious from the way he held himself that Thomas was shocked to hear it. “I suppose it makes some sense. I am a trusted guard of the family. I know the castle well and have lived to see the end of many battles.” Thomas shrugged. He could only ever guess at what Glais was thinking.

  “I suppose so.” Evangeline sighed.

  “You have more to say.” Thomas tried to prompt her. She had that same stiffness and jumping attention she seemed to have inherited since they were together.

  Evangeline didn’t know how he managed to read her, but she supposed that she never actually tried to hide her feelings from anyone. It was only Thomas who decided that her emotions were worth discussing. “I am simply in awe of how well you can portray your role that nothing happened between us. I cannot figure out how Glais discovered it.”

  Thomas knew that the truth behind her comment was in the first and not the second part of that sentence. “Are you mad at me because I am doing exactly what you told me to do?” He asked her, and Evangeline did her best to ignore the sideways smile that teased his lips, instead crossing her arms and holding herself tighter. “Eva, you declared there was nothing more than a single night between us.”

  “I know,” She muttered.

  “And you are the one who told me that I must never speak of it or give any indication that we are more than friends.” Thomas did his best to repeat her own phrasing back to her. When Evangeline nodded again and sighed, he almost chuckled at her reaction. “Then why are you mad?”

  “Because I never thought you would be so good at it.” The words seemed to burst from within. “I thought there would be something different about you, just as I feel there is something different in me.” Evangeline shook her head and started to move past him back towards the path that would lead back to the castle.

  Thomas caught her and spin her around that they faced each other. “You don’t think you left a mark on me?”

  “I know I didn’t,” she challenged. This challenge felt teasing, so unlike the challenges she gave Glais where she was mean spirited and with intention. This was the opposite like she was playing a game and waiting for Thomas to speak back the next piece so they could continue playing.

  “You did.” Thomas promised and took her hand and after placing a kiss on her palm, he pressed her hand to his chest. “Here. On my heart. I will never forget the night we had Eva. You are a fool to think differently.” Evangeline smiled and rose to kiss him but he pulled back. “I can’t. You are due to marry the future King in less than a day.”<
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  He watched as her emotions changed. Evangeline’s features were such an easy page to read with every emotion on bright display. So animated that it broke his heart to see her looking so rejected. She stepped back and Thomas released her. “I’m sorry,” She whispered.

  “It is what it is Eva. I am a soldier and you are to become the Queen of Braykith. We both knew it was foolish, and you cannot pretend to say you didn’t.” Evangeline closed her mouth, stopping the protest before it began. “We will always have that night.” He tried to brighten her spirits but she was far too gone to be satisfied by anything.

  “Glais will never be able to take that away from me.” Evangeline started to walk back and Thomas followed, this time beside her. “He is forcing Luella to leave.”

  “Now that is interesting.” Thomas did not mean to speak those words out loud, and simply seeing her reaction, he knew that he would be forced to explain them.

  “Why? He will only replace her with the next person.” Evangeline’s lips trembled with a pout. She hated to think who Luella would be replaced with.

  Thomas shook his head. “The Braykith Royals are picky. When they find one they like, they tend to stick with them.”

  “Glais says he doesn’t like any of them. They are just the girls he happens to have.” Walking with her arms crossed was difficult so she was forced to uncross them. Even the sun finding her through the trees did not help her lose that chill. Speaking about Glais in any context seemed to make her feel cold. She needed to hug herself for warmth against the truth.

  “I never desired to understand them before.” Thomas was apologetic about his own short comings, knowing he was not doing or saying the right things to make her feel comforted. He wasn’t sure how to make her happy. His station made it impossible to embrace Evangeline even if she would allow it. “I take my orders, and I take them well.” He gave Evangeline a sly look from under his lashes. He was rewarded with a brief smile.

  “You certainly do that. I can see now why you are a favoured soldier to keep within the castle.” At the mention of the place Evangeline stopped to look up at it. “Will I truly be wed to Glais?” Evangeline didn’t need an answer and Thomas was smart enough not to give one to her. She knew the answers already and there was nothing that Thomas could say that would soothe her.

  “Your parents are due to arrive before dinner. I am sure having them here will make you feel comforted.” He tried but that news was not welcomed either.

  “They traded me for their own protection.” Evangeline attempted to explain why her parents were a complicated issue. “They gave me to a stranger, and will not allow me to leave.” She bitterly recalled the words in her mother’s hand. Words of loyalty, faith and wisdom. She had not been comforted then and she continued not to find comfort in it now.

  “I will no longer be their daughter soon, and I will be forced to obey a man who I have no love for.” She looked at Thomas. While she wasn’t sure if she loved him, Evangeline did know she respected him. She felt safe with Thomas, and that gave her courage to divulge her fears. “And I will bear his children, and that curse that is settled upon his veins will live on through our own and forever taint my heritage.” She started walking again at a stronger pace.

  Thomas followed her. “You won’t leave.” It wasn’t a question and Evangeline noted his tone as well. She was not sure yet about how she felt about it.

  “No, I will not leave,” She admitted. “For one stupid reason Thomas.”

  He didn’t imagine it was his presence that kept her here although it was a very romantic notion. “And what reason can that be?”

  “Because I would have nowhere to go. My family owes their life to Quintus. My best friends are dead, and we are at best complicated. I have no other place to be but here at Braykith, and sadly that is the fate I am assigned to.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

  Evangeline had been sitting in her chambers, and looking to the window as if the glass gave her more than the views of the Braykith lands. She wished to feel more, find something to motivate her but since her friends’ death, she was nothing more than a shell. Wick had given her food and drink but it was seldom she ate it. Her body felt heavy and her mind clouded by reality. She had never understood such emotion before a

  nd Evangeline struggled alone with it.

  A knock came at her door but she ignored it, sighing instead and returning her attention to the small spider that in the corner of the window frame. Leaning forward, she watched as it spun its web in the hopes of finding food. Evangeline wondered if the spider had such a simple life as she imagined or was the small creature anxious as it worked. Did it know that she could end its life if she so desired it? For a moment, Evangeline did desire it but she did not kill the spider. It seemed uselessly cruel.

  Wick answered the knock at the door. It had been their pattern as of late and while Wick did prefer that Evangeline no longer attempted to draw her into the conversation, she did not like seeing Evangeline so lost. Evangeline moved from manic desires to be busy to barely keeping her head up as she stared off into the distance. Whatever she was thinking on, Wick could only guess at. She did know however as soon as she saw Glais standing at the door, that this was not a guest that Evangeline would be pleased to see.

  “Wick.” Glais nodded as he greeted her, doing his best to be welcoming and less dismissive of his former friend now that Evangeline knew of their shared past. Wick was not happy with this new dynamic between them but she would say nothing. Her face a blank reception to his interruption. “Evangeline’s parents are here.”

  Wick blinked, giving away nothing of her thoughts as Glais stayed in the hallway. He cleared his throat, muffling it with his hand. Glais was hoping that Evangeline would appear to save him from this discomfort but it seemed that she would not be coming to his aid. “Can you go and get her?” he asked.

  Wick considered it for a moment and eventually her decision was made because Evangeline would tell Glais to leave with words she would never dare to use herself. She gave the smallest of bows, the only change in her nature that occurred when speaking directly with the royal family of Braykith. She stood in the middle of the sitting room, and Glais took that as a sign to enter the room.

  It had not changed since the last time he was here, and Glais found himself looking around and hoping to spy a clue as to what state Evangeline was in. Her moods were quickly becoming legendary and he was concerned for her. Not only the news of his peculiar condition but the sudden deaths of her two friends had forced Evangeline only further inside her own mind. She shared nothing with no one, and quickly the few people who dared no longer attempted to sooth her. It only seemed to upset her further.

  With Glais preoccupied Wick entered Evangeline’s chambers, finding her unnerving when Wick came upon Evangeline in this still and comatose inspired state. Wick supposed this was how Evangeline felt about her when they first met and so Wick did her best not to address it now. Wick checked that the door was closed and they were indeed alone before gently approaching the bed. “Lady Eva, Prince Glais is in your sitting room.”

  Evangeline’s eyes closed and she shook her head. “I do not wish to see him. I do not want to see anyone.” She thought they had an understanding and yet Wick would not leave. “You are dismissed,” Evangeline said the words and still the woman remained. Wick did not move, and Evangeline was confident she could stay frozen like this until the end of time. It was childlike fears of death that had made her silent for years and those old fears still controlled her now. No one could have the understanding to empathise with Wick’s consciousness. Evangeline did not even try.

  Evangeline struggled to move, her body betraying her. It took far more effort than she wished to admit as Wick began to attend to her dress and make Evangeline more presentable for Glais. “If we both just stay in here, Glais will eventually go away,” Evangeline said. She thought she saw a ghost of a smile appear on Wick’s lips but it was gone so fast that she barely believed it. It
seemed far more likely that it was a trick of the light or even just her hopeful imagination.

  Evangeline emerged, making as little fuss as she could at her entrance. It didn’t seem to matter because Glais was instantly looking at her and just beside him was her father. It had been so long since she had seen Barret that Evangeline had forgotten just how intimidating he was. He wasn’t as tall as Glais, but that wasn’t where he had his power. Barret was a man who looked like he could toss you around if he felt like it and perhaps he did it routinely. Evangeline smoothed down her dress and bowed to the men.

  “I came to tell you that your father had arrived, as you instructed,” Glais said, his voice firm and his statement confusing.

  Evangeline had not asked him for such favours and instantly she went to fight against his claims. The look on his face stilled her and Evangeline had just enough time to realise he was trying to save her from embarrassment with her father. “Thank you Glais.”

  Her voice must have been lacking conviction or perhaps it was truer that her father knew his own daughter better than she gave him credit for because Barret did not believe the pathetic excuse for a moment. “You can leave us now Glais.”

  Glais looked at Evangeline for some kind of hint to what he should do but it was a wasted effort. While she was not entirely sure why her father was here with her, she did not need Glais to witness the inevitable exchange. It was customary for the receiving palace to provide food and drink to the travellers. It was a long way to come and usually, her father would be quick to take on the traditional offerings. However, he still wore his travelling cloak clasped around his neck and that was enough for Evangeline to know he had come straight here. He would not do that unless Barret felt had a good reason to do it.

  She wished her mother was close, Thea was always good at keeping Barret calm. Unfortunately, it appeared her mother was going the most traditional route while her father thought this was far more beneficial. Evangeline just wanted to go back to staring at her spider and contemplating his fate. Evangeline rose her hand and dismissed Glais casually with just a flick of her wrist. He didn’t like the gesture but he did not argue with her.