“Delicious.”
He rises, turning to Dr. Belmont immediately. She slinks to his side, eyes lowered except for a jealous glance toward me.
“Sir?” she asks.
“Ah, Elza, my dove.” He pats her on the head like she’s a well-behaving pet. “Still holding them, are you?”
Dr. Belmont presses a fist to her heart and lowers herself into something resembling a small curtsy. “As you commanded, sir.”
“Good girl. Commander North?”
He nods at Elza, then looks to Xander as he slumps forward…then stiffens and slowly raises his fist to his heart as well.
“Splendid,” the Warden preens. “Commander North, why don’t you carry our little witch back to her quarters? I’m sure she’s tired. She’s had a very busy night.”
Xander moves toward me dutifully and I feel my fight or flight response kick in. I trusted Xander. I put my faith in him. And now he’s saluting the very Warden he was so adamant on protecting me from—following orders like the good soldier I’ve always feared he truly is.
There’s nothing in his eyes for me as he scoops me up into his arms. No affection…no apology…no humanity at all.
Nothing.
And I’m too weak to fight him as he carries me toward the dorms.
“Commander North? One more thing.”
Xander stops at the Warden’s call but doesn’t turn.
“Why don’t you join me for a nightcap once you’ve put our little witch to bed.”
I look up to him, pleading with him to turn the Warden down. To fight back. To do something—anything—to reassure me that he’s still my guardian. That he’s still on my side. That I haven’t trusted him in vain.
Xander doesn’t even meet my eyes. “Yes, sir.”
“Good boy. And Commander North…be sure to lock her in.”
“Yes, sir,” Xander says, and just like that, my fate is sealed.
“The others, sir?” Dr. Belmont asks. “What should we do with Miss Bright’s other…accomplices?”
I hear the Warden laugh. “Let’s leave them here for a while. I want them to have a nice long think about what they’ve done and where their loyalties lie.”
I see the fury in Drew and Ryker’s eyes as Xander carries me past the places where Dr. Belmont holds them, frozen before Aisling’s gates. I see apology in Nico’s seafoam gaze—and, to my surprise, in Killian’s silver eyes as well. But as Xander carries me away, there’s nothing. I might as well be a sack of government goods he’s carrying back into storage—not the woman that he’s kissed. The woman that he’s supposed to protect. The woman that he’s supposed to someday come to love.
I haven’t cried yet tonight. I haven’t cried in a long, long time. But as I’m carried away from my only protectors from the Warden’s sadistic whims—the only men I think I might still be able to trust here—I can’t help it.
When Xander steps over Cassandra’s lifeless body, saline stings in my sinuses and a tiny sob raises up in my throat. I turn away from him, making myself as small as I possibly can in his arms, and I cry for Cassandra. For Ryker and Drew and Nico. I cry for the guard that I killed, even though I know damn well he deserved it. I even cry for Dr. Belmont and Killian—for whatever the Warden did to them to make them obey him like they do.
But I don’t cry for Xander. I have no tears for him.
And even though I want to, I can’t—I won’t.
Even though I want to, I don’t cry for myself.
Epilogue
Xander
“Congratulations are in order, Commander North.” The Warden hands me a glass of scotch that I didn’t ask for as he puffs away at the cigar between his teeth. “Truly, my boy—well done.”
I accept the glass, but don’t drink from it. I have nothing to say in response, so I don’t give him one.
But the Warden won’t let me off that easy.
He never does.
“Ahem.” He clears his throat and levels an iron gaze at me. “Have you forgotten your manners, Commander North?”
“Not at all, sir.”
“Then let’s put a little more effort into it, shall we? Thank you, sir. Happy to be of help, sir.”
He raises his glass in a toast. Gingerly, I clink mine against his.
“Thank you, sir.” I repeat. “Happy to be of service.”
“That’s better. Ah.” He takes a long sip of his scotch, draining half the glass in one fell swoop. I barely let the amber liquid in my own glass wet my lips as he looks to his pet traveler. “Killian? A drink, perhaps?”
Killian Connelly shakes his ruddy head, silver eyes lowered. “Not tonight, sir. Best keep my head about me. But thank you for the offer.”
“Fucking travelers,” the Warden swears, scoffing as he shakes his head. “Are you all such cheerless bastards, or is it just you, Killian?”
Killian’s eyes raise for a second. “Every one of us, I’m afraid. Sir.”
“Never mind then. Elza, my dove? You’ll have a drink with us, won’t you?”
Elza Belmont’s blue eyes stay floorbound as well as she accepts a glass of the Warden’s special stock. Her crimson lips stay shut.
“Then let’s have a toast, shall we?” The Warden raises his glass again. Elza and I are in no position to do anything but comply. “To the Regime—and to Rory Bright!”
The Warden polishes off the rest of his glass. I’m tempted to do the same. If nothing else, a stiff drink might help me forget the sound of Rory’s tears as I laid her in her bed. The way she recoiled at my touch and stayed rolled over, facing the wall, as I turned off the lights.
“Sweet little bitch, our Rory,” the Warden muses. At that, I do have to take a drink—because he’s making it hard to keep biting my tongue. “I knew Johanna Bright’s daughter would be a firecracker, but that face…She takes after her mother, don’t you think?”
The taste of whiskey still burns on my tongue as I answer, “Yes, sir.”
“And she trusts you. That can’t have been easy, being who you are.”
Now the whiskey burns down my throat. “She did, sir. Can’t say she does anymore.”
The Warden dismisses the notion with a wave of his hand. “Nonsense. She’s a silly little girl and you’re her guardian—lucked out there, didn’t we? She’ll have a nice, heavy sleep and be longing for you again by morning, I have no doubt.”
I want to tell him that he doesn’t know Rory like I do—that dismissing her as nothing more than a silly little girl would be a long shot on even her worst days. I have no doubt that Rory hates me now—and maybe she should. I was meant to protect her—and I am. I always will.
But not in any way she’ll be able to understand, and not in a way that she would ever agree with.
The things I do for love.
“These other guardians, though…” The Warden shakes his head, pouring himself another glass from the decanter on his desk. His office is twice the size it should be and littered with items that have no clear purpose in an office space—unless you know the Warden like I do, at any rate. He sets the decanter back down next to a pair of iron manacles and a double-pronged length of metal attached to a leather collar. Both items are still crusted in their last victim’s blood. “Elza, my dove, we could have been slightly more proactive about guiding her away from the riff-raff, don’t you think?”
As Elza lowers her own glass from her lips, I notice the way her hand is shaking.
“It couldn’t be helped,” Elza assures him. “Fate is fate, sir.”
“Fate is fickle,” the Warden corrects. He hardens instantly—any cheer in his voice dissipates in an instant. “Fates can be forced.”
“Of course, sir,” Elza recants. I watch her withdraw, eyes still lowered, hand trembling even more. “I will do my best to rectify it immediately.”
“Damn right you will.” The Warden turns his gaze back to me. “The both of you will.”
“And how do you propose we do that?” I feel flames of anger rise up
in my chest at the mere suggestion that anything between Rory and I is fickle or forced—and they burn hot enough that I almost forget myself before adding, as an afterthought, “Sir.”
The Warden chuckles at that, pouring himself into the high-backed leather chair behind his desk. “Well, first of all—these other men. They’ll need to be disposed of, North. Obviously.” His gaze passes over me, gaging my reaction. A test. “You don’t really want to have to share our girl with animals, roughnecks and half-breeds, do you, Commander?”
“Not at all, sir.” I have to swallow my pride for that one, too. But then it hits me. “Excuse me, sir, but…our girl?”
The Warden’s face lights up in an awful grin. “Well, of course. Five guardians…don’t see why I can’t be one of them.”
“But—” Elza’s gloved fingertips fly to her chest, pressing the space just above her heart. “Sir, I thought I—”
“Never mind what you thought, silly woman. A man like myself can’t be expected to get on with only one witch, can he? And Rory Bright…” The Warden’s tongue slides between his lips. I want nothing more than to rip it out of the bastard’s mouth—but for Rory’s sake, I can’t. “Beautiful, powerful, kissed by fate. I must have her, of course.”
I do my best to be diplomatic over my rage. “Rory might not be, ah…agreeable to that, sir. She’s stubborn. Headstrong.”
“She took you, didn’t she?” The Warden stares me down like he’s daring me to question him again. “No—you needn’t worry, North. Rory Bright will bend to my whims, or she’ll break for them. Regardless…there are ways. Isn’t that right, Killian?”
Killian’s gaze is distant. He stands near the desk like a grim statue, immobile with regret. “Yes, sir. There are ways.”
I swallow the rest of my scotch now. I’m not sure I have a choice. If the Warden is able to force his kiss on Rory and become her guardian, then Rory won’t stand a chance. None of us will. Whatever I feared for her when I learned of the Warden’s return…whatever awful future I knew it would bring…it’s nothing compared to the path that the Warden has laid before us tonight.
And if he’s able to find a way…
“Will that be all, sir?” I place my empty glass down on his desk with finality. As far as I’m concerned, we’re done here.
“Almost, Commander. First…” The Warden swirls the amber scotch in his glass, watching it with his pitch-black eyes. “I want to hear you say it.”
“Sir?”
“I, Commander Xander North of the Night Watch, will eliminate the remainder of Rory Bright’s guardians forthwith.” A delighted giggle escapes from the Warden’s lips. “For the good of the Regime.”
I look to Elza, gnawing gently on her blood-red lower lip, and to Killian, staring expectantly back at me with his judging silver eyes.
“I, Commander Xander North of the Night Watch, will eliminate the remainder of Rory Bright’s guardians forthwith. For the good of the Regime.”
The words taste like blood in my mouth—but they placate the Warden. For tonight.
“Off you go, then. You can start in the morning—unless you’re feeling particularly murderous tonight.” The Warden’s eyes sparkle with glee as he turns his gaze back toward Elza. “Another round, my dove?”
She moves to his side, topping his glass as he stares up at her.
“You are a pretty thing,” he whispers, beckoning her closer. “And now, a kiss.”
For a moment, I’m sure I see a tear in her eye as she lowers her trembling lips to his cheek, pressing the smudge of a crimson lip print onto the warden’s cold skin.
“Best leave us now, boys.” The Warden rises, reaching for his belt. “I’ve been gone for too long, it seems. The good doctor and I are overdue for a long, sleepless night.”
I follow Killian out, only casting a single glance back to Elza as she lowers herself to her knees before the Warden. She meets my gaze, just for a moment.
It’s rare to see it from a woman like Elza, but this time, it’s warranted.
There’s fear in her eyes.
The night feels unnaturally cold when I find it. Like summer is finally coming to an end. I listen to the gravel pathway growl beneath my boots as I leave the Warden and Elza to their evening and turn my thoughts instead to the dark orders I’ve been tasked to follow.
I know exactly where to start.
Sapphire Promises
Sapphire Promises, book two in the Marked Souls series, is now available! Just CLICK HERE to grab your copy and find out what happens next!
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See where it all started! If you haven’t read Shadowed Secrets, the prequel to the Marked Souls series, you can get it for free. Find out how Rory ended up at Eastwatch, and discover the events that led to Xander becoming her guardian. Just click here!
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Also by Sabrina Shelley
The Marked Souls Series:
Shadowed Secrets
Crimson Kisses
Sapphire Promises
Emerald Vows
About the Author
Sabrina Shelley a thirty-something mom who spends her days playing pretend and her nights writing fantasies. She always has a cup of tea on standby, and in the rare event she’s not chasing kids around or grabbing her phone to make a note on the next amazing book idea that popped into her head, she just might find time to watch an episode of Westworld or Black Mirror. You can find Sabrina on Facebook or her website: https://sabrinashelley.com
Crimson Kisses: A Reverse Harem Paranormal Romance (Marked Souls Book 1) Page 18
