by Tiya Rayne
The guards fall to the ground gasping for breath.
“They almost allowed you to be taken.” Nevy’s angry glare turns to me. “Or is that what you wanted. Was this your plan all along, Lilly?”
His mixed up eyes squint as his thoughts flood with accusation. He grabs my arm in a deathly tight grip. I whimper at the brutal grip.
“Actually,” The stranger speaks up. “…it is because of her that she is free. She escaped her would-be hero.”
Nevy finally notices the other man for the first time. His eyes widen for a second. He pulls me behind him to shield me from the gorgeous visitor.
“Drago? To what do the Northern Kingdom owe your visit?”
“I was picking up supplies for Phoenix,”
The man that I now know as Drago says as he nods down to the wolf at his side. I notice that Phoenix’s demeanor has changed. No longer is he the playful wolf that licked my face, his ears are up and alert. His tail is down and he looks as if he is ready to attack at any moment.
“I saw the girl falling from the horse and I stopped to help her.”
“You stopped to help someone?” Nevy folds his arms across his chest.
“What can I say, I love a damsel in distress.” Drago gives Nevy a smug smile that reeks of mischievous thoughts.
“I see. Well I thank you for your help, but you are free to go now.”
I don’t understand why Nevy is being so dismissive of this man. He seems nice and he did just save my life.
“It seems to me as if ye’ are in need of my services, Dark King.” The name Dark King is said like an inside joke amongst the two.
“And what services would I need from a drunken outcast loner that refuses to serve his country.”
Drago’s face falls, the playful smirk gone and in its place a deadly glare. Phoenix growls low, a sure warning.
“I would think that if ye’ cared enough about the young lady to come out the safety of yer’ castle, ye’ would have better men protecting her.”
Nevy’s body tenses in front of me at Drago’s bold insult.
“That will be rectified as soon as I escort my queen home. I will find her better guards.”
“Better is a relative term. For the right price, I can take the job.”
“When did you start working as a hired guard?”
“Since yer’ little war has spilled onto my doorstep.” Drago shrugs. “The forbidden lands were attacked the other day.”
“Wasn’t me.” Nevy clarifies.
“No. The Assassin. He’s butt hurt about some missing property, and decided to take it out on innocent lives.” Drago’s eyes cut to me when he says this.
I try to keep the emotion off my face, but I can’t. Would Assassin really hurt innocent people? He wouldn’t.
“Sounds like him.” Nevy says. “However, I still don’t need your help.” Nevy grabs my hand and starts to walk away.
“Are ye’ sure ye’ are willing to leave yer’ lovely lady’s protection to just anyone? What’s to say the assassin will not come and collect her himself next time? Are ye’ willing to risk the other side of yer’ face?”
I’m shocked to learn that Assassin is the cause of Nevy’s scar. It doesn’t change the way I feel about him though.
Drago’s words causes Nevy to stop. His hand tightens around mine.
Nevy turns back to Drago. “How can I assure you are any better? The perpetrator did get away, did he not?”
If Nevy’s words were said as a challenge it did not bother Drago. Drago turns to the spot in the distance where the hero is galloping away. He is so far away by now that he is only a black spot. With a smile Drago takes out something that looks like a boomerang from beneath his long coats.
With a grunt he tosses the boomerang and it sings through the air like a whistle.
If I had not seen it with my own eyes, I would not have believed it, but even from this great distance the weapon hits its target taking off his head. The man’s headless body falls from the horse as the horse continues to keep going. Everyone stands stunned as the boomerang weapon swings around to meet Drago’s outstretched hands.
“Ye’ were saying?”
Nevy grunts. “Be at my castle by nightfall. And if you betray me, Drago, I will kill you.” Nevy pulls me along as he walks off.
“Well hello, Beautiful.” I hear Drago say to Medina.
“Ugh! Not a chance.” She replies before replacing her cloak over her head and following behind me.
****************
It’s my first dinner with Nevy since the night I convinced him to show me the real him. There is no fancy dresses this time. Just my normal Greek style gown in a light blue. This one ties over one shoulder and flows to my ankles without the usual split up my thigh. My hair is back to its usual curls, and there is no makeup. I am giving Nevy the real me. He asked for it, and here it is.
“Wow!” he states as soon as I walk into the room.
He stands from his seat at the much smaller table and comes over to greet me.
“You look stunning.” From the look in his eyes, I could tell that he means it. His sincerity and attention makes me blush. He smiles, and I come to the conclusion that he should do it more often. Nevy is handsome in a hardened way. Rykan has the flawless looks of a male model, he is absolutely perfect. Assassin is gorgeous in an entirely different way. Too hard around the edges to be considered a model, but absolutely handsome. Nevy is handsome only to the trained eye. At first glance you may look away and dismiss him, but if you look deeper, those eyes, that scar, his widened forehead, crooked nose, and hard jaw is attractive.
“Have a seat.” Nevy pulls out my chair and I sit.
He pushes me up to the table before taking a seat himself.
“I thought to do things differently tonight. You introduced me to all your favorite foods that first night we met, I thought to show you some of mine.”
A huge display of food is on the round table. Unlike the large rectangular table from the other night, this smaller table only sits four. A four arm candelabra is the centerpiece of the table, and it emits soft light. A platter of some sort of meat takes up most space on the table. A large bowl of some type of cooked vegetable is next to it. There are fruits, some I know and some I don’t. Breads, cakes, and even a bowl of some type of soup.
Nevy serves me a little of everything. With every food I taste he tells me a story behind the food and why it is his favorite. Most of the stories are about his mother.
I remember Nevy telling me in that first dream that he was his mother’s only child and that his mother was no longer with us. I wasn’t lying or only trying to stall when I told him I wanted to get to know him. I want Nevy to show me his true self. So as soon as there is a break in the conversation I ask a personal question.
“Nevy,” I place the spoon down to the pork soup I had just finished. “Tell me about your mother?”
Nevy pauses, his drink lingers halfway between his lips and the table. He finally reanimates taking a sip from his cup then placing it back down on the table. He sits back in his chair and looks at me hard. His eyes does that consuming thing. This time it isn’t in a sexual way, it’s more like he’s testing me to see if I’m worthy of this conversation. I look away from his scrutiny. Maybe it is too soon for this topic.
“You don’t have to tell me.” I try to give him an out.
“It’s alright.” He finally says.
I look over to him and now his eyes are focused on the fire roaring in the fireplace. He clears his throat before he begins.
“My mother hated flowers.”
I notice the change in his face and the way his body relaxes when he talks about his mother.
“Not many people knew that about her, but she always had. Her family was poor. And I don’t mean your basic strapping to survive poor. I mean no house, no money, and no food poor. Her mother sold flowers in the streets for next to nothing. Her father walked the alley ways picking through trash to feed his family
every day. My mother’s one job, was to search the fields and the woods for the best flowers for her mother to sell at market. I believe that is where her hatred of flowers came. When she was still a child, only fourteen, my father saw her scrounging for flowers. He was immediately taken by her beauty. She was petite, almost elf like in features though she was a non-magical. My father found out who she was and offered her father 50 penses for his daughter. 50 measly penses and he sold his only child to a fucking monster that was half a century older than her,”
From my time here I knew that 50 penses is the equivalent of twenty-five dollars in my realm.
“My mother pleaded with her father to not make the deal, but he never even hesitated. I will spare you the details of all the shit she went through after my father took her from her family. He wanted a child—a son. Her first few pregnancies ended in miscarriages. Most were caused by his abuse, but I am sure the fact that she was too young did not help. Her only other successful birth was a girl before me. My father didn’t want a girl, so he buried her alive right outside my mother’s bedroom window. My mother said that she could hear the baby crying for two days before it finally stopped. The son of a bitch chained my mother to the bed to keep her from rescuing her screaming baby. Before she even had time to heal from my sister, my father was stuffing the red-root flower down her throat again. Six months later I was born and my mother almost died. The midwife that saved her told my father that she would never be able to bare children again. Father didn’t care. He had his son, his prodigy. He was using every dark magic in the book during my term to ensure that I would become the most powerful wizard in the world. He was finally happy. My powers were already showing themselves even at a few minutes old, but then I opened my eyes. Even then my different color eyes were obvious. I had one flaw and my father was disgusted. I don’t know what kept him from burying me in a box beside my sister, but my life was spared. He told my mother that I was an abomination. He cursed me to the high heavens, submerging my powers so far inside of me I still can’t reach all of them. Then he took away my ability to procreate just out of spite. He left my mother and me that night. She was barely alive and he left her with a newborn. I don’t know how she managed, but she survived.” He sighs and rakes a hand down his face.
“I wish I could say that was the end of her struggles. Everyone knew my father. They knew him to be a vile man that tarnishes everything he touched. So when they saw my mother and me, they chalked us up to be just like him. No one would help us. No one offered any aid to my mother. If they saw us walking the street they would move out of her way. They treated her like the lowest of the low. And do you know that bastard still came around. He came back to that cabin in the woods every now and again to toss mother a few measly coins and to fuck her until she couldn’t move the next day. She hated him, but she couldn’t turn him away. How else was she going to take care of her child?
When I was 15, my father came to see my mother for his usual. I decided at that moment that I would no longer stand for this. I refused to listen to my mother’s screams or have to take care of her bruises and aches the next day. So, I confronted my father……. I wasn’t ready. He damn near killed me, beating me within an inch of my life. It took my mother offering the bastard her body in order for him to stop. I was in bed for days unable to take care of my mother like usual after one of father’s visits. A few days after that visit she needed to go into town for food and supplies. She was in no shape to be up, but I was in worse shape than her. She died in the middle of the street and not one person, not one of those fucking people thought to help. They left her there for four days. When I was finally able to get out of the bed and look for her, I found her decaying body near a stack of garbage.”
At this point tears are flowing down my face, and when a single tear falls from Nevy’s eyes a sob rips from my lips.
“My mother was a good woman, Lilly. She did not deserve her lot in life.” Those beautiful eyes cut to me and I don’t see a cruel king or tyrant, I see a man that misses his mother so much that he is lost.
“I’m so sorry, Nevy. I’m sorry that such a wonderful woman suffered at the hands of a cruel man, and I’m sorry she died the way she did. But it does not give you a right to terrorize the Locke. Look what you are doing to your people.”
“My people?” Nevy laughs.
“Yes. Everyone in the Locke are your people.”
“The same people that watched my mother and I go hungry without tossing us a morsel of bread. The same people that knew how cruel my father was, they could hear her screams from that damn cabin and no one offered her refuge. The same fucking people that watched her bleed out in the streets and would rather step over her than to help.”
“You are punishing everyone in the Locke for the behavior of some. What about forgiveness?”
“FUCK FORGIVENESS!” Nevy stands to his feet raking all of the food off the table. His actions scare me and I jump to my feet in fear.
The room is silent. The only sound around us is our rapid breaths and the sound of logs crackling in the fireplace.
“You want me to be something I am not. I can’t forgive, Lilly. Forgiveness will not bring my mother back.”
“Neither will killing everyone.”
Those blue and silver eyes look up at me. The vulnerability I see hidden behind the mismatched irises are waging a war with his rage.
“When I was younger, my mother asked me to promise her that I would do all I could to be great. She never wanted anyone else looking down on me. The day I buried my mother’s body in a shallow unmarked grave, I made a promise to her. I would revenge my mother’s death and become the greatest man this world has ever seen. I promised her I would be a king. I have done both those things in honor of my mother.”
“You think this is what your mother would have wanted?”
“SHE WANTED ME TO BE A KING.” He yells so loud the vein in his neck looks like it will explode.
“She wanted you to be respected, not feared.”
Nevy turns his back to me rubbing his hands over his shaved head.
I try a softer approach. “Nevy, you cannot believe that this is what your mother envisioned for you. You kill ruthlessly. Anyone that does not agree with you is sentenced to death or tortured. You are turning your home against each other by fueling this war. And what about the women?”
Nevy turns to me, his eyes squint in confusion. He didn’t know I knew about the women. The servants here are worse than mama and Aunt Millie after church. They had no problem filling me in on all the gossip when I first got here.
“When I look at you, and I hear that story of your mother, I don’t find the man your mother tried to raise. I see your father.” I knew he would react badly at my statement, but I don’t regret saying it. I don’t run when Nevy steps up to me with dark rage in his eyes. I don’t fight him when he wraps his large hand around my neck and cuts off my air supply.
“You want me to be my father, Lilly? I will show you what my father was like.” He growls down into my face.
Before I know it, my back is against the small table, my dressed hiked up to my hips and Nevy is standing between my legs.
Nevy goes for the fastener of his pants with one hand. My mind is telling me to fight. To claw at his eyes or kick him in the junk. However, when it comes to Nevy, it isn’t strength that will win battles.
Done with his fastener Nevy pushes the fabric of my panties aside and shoves his finger into my channel. I flinch and cry out at the roughness of his finger going inside my dry opening. He lets out a guttural growl.
“Gods, so fucking tight,” He moans. “But not wet.” He pumps his fingers inside me a few times. “But, I am my father, so why do I care.”
My heart is pounding out of my chest, but I remain calm. I see Medina and my new guard Drago and Phoenix standing in the doorway. They are watching me cautiously, neither knowing if they should interfere. I shake my head at them. He will kill them if they helped. I have to think quick as
he goes to remove his penis from his trousers.
“And in this scenario,” I say, fighting for each word that come out. “Will I play your mother?”
My words have the desired effect. Nevy freezes, his eyes misting over. I can imagine that at this moment he is seeing his mother thrown across this table. He removes his hand from around my throat and stumbles away from me. I collapse to the floor coughing, trying hard to get oxygen back into my deprived lungs.
“Take her away.” I hear Nevy say as he turns his back to me.
Medina appears at my side helping me off the floor.
“You are either very brave or very stupid. At the moment I am leaning more towards the latter.” She mumbles into my ear.
As I get to my feet, I notice Drago looking back and forth between Nevy and I like he’s trying to decipher a difficult puzzle.
Medina leads me to the door, but before I walk out I turn back to Nevy one last time.
His back is still to me as he stares silently at the fireplace.
“Any fool can be a king, Nevy, but only a wise man can be a leader. Tell me, who will be left to respect you, when everyone is dead.”
Nevy turns towards me, his eyes staring holes into mine, but he doesn’t speak.
“Let’s go before he decides to kill you after all.” Medina encourages.
I allow Medina and Drago to see me to my room. When the door finally closes on my bedroom, Medina releases me.
“Are you insane?” She shouts poking at the logs in my fireplace.
The fire roars back to life throwing off a warmth in the room.
“I don’t know who is more insane? Me or you.”
Drago walks me to the bed and helps me sit. He turns my head from side to side staring at my neck.
“That’s going to leave a bruise.” He grunts before letting me go.
“You, for goading him,” Medina continues to rant as she finish up her nightly duties of pulling out my nightgown for the night. “Or me, for putting all my eggs in your basket. He’s going to kill you and I will be stuck in this fucking castle for the rest of my life.”
