The Dead and the Dusk (The Nightmare Court Book 2)

by Val Saintcrowe

  “Yes, that’s wise,” said Absalom, glancing casually about to make sure that no one was listening to them. “Shall we go back to talking about why women fall over themselves to be with me?”

  She smirked. “I suppose that’s your favorite subject, yourself.”

  “Actually,” said Absalom, fixing her with a penetrating stare, “I find the answer is the opposite. I ask women about themselves. I listen to them. That is my secret.”

  She was still smiling. “Well, that’s a novel idea, Absalom.”

  “So, about Eithan, though? As long as you can answer without treading into unsafe subjects?”

  He would have to bring that up again, wouldn’t he? She groped for the bottle of wine on the table and refilled her goblet. “Well, as you say, it doesn’t make sense for me to want him.”

  Absalom was quiet.

  She took a drink of wine, looking at him above the goblet as she did.

  He was studying her, a gleam in his eyes. “I see.”

  What did he see? She had said nothing. Not truly.

  “So, neither of you are in control of yourselves,” he mused. “I find I’m not reassured by this knowledge.”

  “I’m in control.” She set down her goblet. “Let’s go back to singing your praises, I think.”

  Absalom laughed. “Well, how can I refuse that? We can start by enumerating my pleasing attributes, starting with how well-shaped my fingernails are.” He spread his hand out on the table for her to look at. “There, you see?”

  She scrutinized them, nodding sagely. “It is amongst your greatest virtues, sir.”

  “And you?”

  “My fingernails?”

  “Your virtues,” said Absalom. “You are very determined, aren’t you? And you are brave. And you don’t allow adversity to discourage you. Also, you seem rather game for anything.”

  She was blushing again. Yes, maybe Absalom was a bit skilled at being charming. She could see more of the appeal now.

  “But we shall grow tired of complimenting each other over and over and we are to spend a great amount of time together. Perhaps we should come up with some other sort of game to play to pass the time. We could make wagers on how often Ciaska will pick up someone with her mist tendrils, for instance.”

  Nicce drew back. “We can’t make light of such things. Ciaska is—”

  “Yes, utterly horrible and terrifying and everything else. But if we don’t make light of things, this place will drive us mad, I think.”

  Nicce considered. She started to answer, but then she noticed that Absalom had stiffened. “What?” He was not looking at her, so she turned to look where he was looking.

  It was Eithan approaching their table, his expression stormy.

  She was supposed to be afraid of Eithan, right? She leapt up out of her chair and scampered over to stand behind Absalom, who got up from his chair and squared his shoulders.

  Eithan came closer. He rested a hand on the table. “Not too obvious, now. If it’s too much, she’s going to suspect.”

  “Is that directed at me?” said Nicce, peering over Absalom’s shoulder.

  “You’re fine. Don’t look at me.” Eithan glared at her.

  She ducked back behind Absalom’s shoulder.

  “Not too obvious? You’re the one who came over here,” said Absalom.

  “People are going to be paying attention,” said Eithan, glancing around. “We’d best watch what we’re saying.”

  Absalom nodded.

  Nicce looked around too. She could see that the others in the court had gone quiet. They weren’t overtly looking at what was happening at this table, but some were casting surreptitious glances their way. People were noticing them.

  Eithan spoke again, not too loudly, his voice light but with a hint of steel beneath it. “Does she know that you’ve lifted the skirts of every woman in this court?”

  Absalom smiled tightly. “Not every woman. And just because women despise you, it’s no reason to take it out on me. You could try smiling more. Maybe then you’d get some interest.”

  Eithan’s smile widened, but now it looked fierce. “Oh, by all means, begin insulting me. You have no idea all the things that I have done for you, Absalom. No idea at all. And this is how you repay me?”

  Absalom seemed thrown by this. His lips parted, but he didn’t say anything.

  “We were friends once,” said Eithan softly.

  Absalom’s nostrils flared. “There’s no reason to be like this about it. Ciaska ordered me to look after Nicce. I have no choice.”

  “You maneuvered yourself into—”

  “Nicce came to me,” said Absalom. “And maybe she appreciates being with someone who can make her laugh occasionally, who doesn’t stare at her like he wants to devour her.”

  Eithan clenched his hands into fists.

  “It has to be her choice,” said Absalom. “You don’t want to force—”

  “Shut up,” said Eithan in a quiet voice, gesturing barely with his head.

  Absalom looked up, and Nicce looked as well.

  It was Ciaska. She was making her way over, moving through the tables, her dark eyes shining.

  Eithan backed away from the table. He smoothed out his tunic and took a few deep breaths. Then he strode over to an empty table where a bottle of wine was sitting. He popped out the cork and poured some into a goblet.

  Ciaska was still coming, heading straight for Absalom and Nicce.

  Nicce glanced at the goddess, then at Eithan, and then she carefully headed back for her chair.

  Ciaska’s mist came first, wrapping around the chairs and the table and skimming against Nicce’s bare arms. Nicce felt her heart pick up speed. The goddess stopped at the table, looking Nicce over. She seemed amused. Then she turned to Absalom. “Problems?”

  “No,” said Absalom, smoothly picking up his goblet.

  “What did Eithan say to you?”

  “Nothing,” said Absalom, looking into his goblet.

  “Absalom.” Ciaska reached out and took the goblet from him. She set it down on the table. “You know better than to try to lie to me. Now, I saw you were talking. What did he say?”

  Absalom’s shoulders sagged.

  “Don’t try to protect him,” said Ciaska.

  “He really left before he could say much,” said Absalom. “He’s not pleased about the fact that Nicce chooses to be around me and not him.”

  Ciaska turned to Nicce. “Yes, why is that? Why wouldn’t you choose Eithan?”

  Nicce felt cold in the goddess’s stare. It was hard to think. “He… he tried to kill me. He chased me halfway across the world and dragged me here when I thought I was finally free of him. It’s his fault that everyone I’ve ever cared about is dead.”

  Ciaska pursed her lips. “Yes, yes. But sometimes when you look at him, it seems as though…”

  Nicce’s heart stopped beating. She couldn’t breathe.

  Ciaska leaned closer, and Nicce could feel the goddess’s icy breath on her cheeks. The goddess searched Nicce’s eyes. Agonizing moments ticked by. And then Ciaska finally pulled away. She shrugged elegantly and turned her back on Nicce and Absalom. She looked around, scanning the crowd, her gaze settling on the table Eithan had walked to.

  But Eithan wasn’t there anymore, and neither was the wine.

  Ciaska narrowed her eyes and stalked toward the door to the throne room.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Eithan sat in a corner in the hallway, clutching the bottle of wine. He’d debated bringing the goblet, and then decided the bottle was better. Truly, he had to admit that watching Absalom and Nicce lean closer and closer at that table—so close that their foreheads had nearly been touching—hadn’t been pleasant. Every time she smiled, every time she laughed at something Absalom said, every time she blushed…

  Gods, why did she keep blushing?

  What was Absalom saying to her? Why did it seem to be working so well? What if after all this, she really was charmed by him?
What if she found she preferred Absalom to him? Absalom wasn’t nearly as weighed down as Eithan was. Eithan had protected the other knights. Eithan had descended into the darkness and done the things he knew that no man would wish to do. And now, he was shattered inside, and what woman wouldn’t prefer a man that was whole?

  So, it wasn’t truly an act.

  He really did want to drink wine directly from the bottle.

  And he was putting too much of it away. When Ciaska caught up with him, he was going to be affected by the drink, and he’d have to be careful. Where was Ciaska?

  What if she didn’t come after him? What if she had done something unpredictable? What if she was hurting Nicce right now?

  Gods take it, if he—

  But no, there the goddess was. Coming for him. Just as he’d expected she would.

  He shut his eyes and leaned his head back into the corner.

  “Eithan, on your feet,” said Ciaska, annoyed.

  He staggered to an upright position, and it wasn’t all fakery either. He was unsteady.

  She snapped her fingers. “With me.”

  He trailed after her as they went up the stairs and wound through the hallways. It took him a little while to realize where they were going, but then he knew it. They were going to the room where she kept Lian, stuck in that crystal.

  He had spoken to her in the room once before. She had sent him off because she said she wanted to be alone with her son, and he had been a bit thrown by that. Maybe there was something inside her, buried deep down, something that did care. It didn’t make him feel anything for her, but it did make him wonder if it was a weakness he could exploit.

  Inside the room, however, she barely glanced at Lian. She pushed him against the wall and began untucking his tunic from his belt.

  He hadn’t been expecting that. Why in this room, with the boy there? He looked up at the child, frozen as if in sleep, hovering in that large crystal. It floated like the glowing lamps did. He must have made a noise, because she was laughing, a knowing chuckle deep in her throat.

  “Exalted One,” he murmured, lifting the wine bottle like a shield.

  She snatched that away and hurled it against the wall.

  It shattered, leaving a dark stain.

  She pulled his tunic over his head and she spread her icy fingers over his chest. “You’ve got to forget about her.”

  He made another noise, shutting his eyes. This was going to happen after all. He’d hoped she might not do it. Vain hope. Why hadn’t he been steeling himself for it instead?

  Her fingers worked at the laces on his breeches.

  “Please,” he whispered. “Not in here.”

  She laughed again. “It bothers you?”

  “It’s like he’s watching.”

  “His eyes are closed. He sees and hears nothing. I assure you.”

  “Why do you come in here and talk to him, then?”

  She untied the laces. “I don’t talk to him.”

  He shuddered as her fingers brushed him below his belly button. “The last time we were in here, you told me to leave.”

  “Not to talk to him.” She loosened the laces of his breeches. “It’s strange, actually. When Sullo and I fought, I think we would have made our peace eventually, but after what I did to his son, he was done with me.” She grimaced, pushing down Eithan’s breeches, baring him.

  His breath got stuck in his throat. He shuddered again. He could feel the air on his thighs, on his… He was going to be ill.

  She surveyed him, hands on her hips. Then she shrugged. “You need some encouragement, I suppose.” Her fingers encircled him. “I couldn’t understand Sullo.” She squeezed him, stroked him. It sent waves of revulsion through him. Something stirred, a kind of shadow arousal, but it was so abhorrent that he felt ill again, and his body didn’t react. “I wanted to know what it was like to feel that for something else. So, I determined that I would try it. I would have my own child. And so I did, but it didn’t work. I didn’t feel whatever it was that Sullo felt. I didn’t feel—” She broke off, fixing him with a glare. “What’s wrong with you?”

  He shut his eyes again, and he sorted through his memories, trying to summon an image of Nicce so that he could make this happen, so that he could perform.

  She slapped his cheek, and the sound echoed. “Open your eyes.”

  He did.

  “Are you thinking of her?”

  “I… no.” He drew in a shaky breath. “Yes. But it doesn’t work now. Now, that’s gone too.”

  Her jaw twitched. “You’re not serious.”

  He just breathed, not knowing how to respond, what to do.

  “You’re telling me she fixed you and then broke you again?”

  He swallowed.

  She leaned close. “Do you know the things that I can do to you? To the others? Shall I bring Philo in here and cut him in front of you?”

  “With respect, Exalted One, I hardly think that will put me in the mood.” Gods, he was too drunk. He shouldn’t have said that.

  She hit him again.

  He grunted.

  She scratched her nails down the side of his face, raking furrows in his skin.

  He gritted his teeth against the pain.

  She stalked out of the room without another word.

  He sagged there for a moment, his chest tight in relief, and then he fumbled with his breeches. He tied the laces tight. He gazed up at Lian.

  “Gods,” he whispered. “Gods.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  When Eithan finally made it back to his room, Absalom was there, sitting on his bed.

  When Absalom saw him, he got to his feet. “Did Ciaska do that?”

  Eithan ignored him. He went across to the sink and looked at himself in the small mirror. He turned on the water and used a towel to dab at the blood on his face. “You shouldn’t be in here. As far as everyone is concerned, I’m angry with you. Make sure no one sees you when you leave.”

  “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine,” Eithan told his reflection. “Nothing happened.”

  Nothing from Absalom for a moment, and then a low chuckle. “Was this your plan all along? What did you tell Ciaska, that seeing me with Nicce had made you impotent again, and that you couldn’t satisfy her? Now, everything’s reset, and she’ll leave you be.”

  Eithan’s grip on the towel tightened. “She never left me be.”

  “You know what I mean.”

  “And it’s not a choice. I meant to go through with it. I couldn’t.” He dropped the towel and turned to look at the other man. “This is none of your business. Go away.”

  “Couldn’t?”

  “I don’t know how you can.” The words came out more forceful than Eithan meant them to.

  Absalom drew back, lips parting. He shook his head, but he didn’t say anything.

  “How can you possibly get hard for that? How do you even—”

  “It just happens, Eithan. Our bodies betray us. It can’t be helped. You’re the one who can control—”

  “No,” said Eithan. “I have no control.”

  Absalom was quiet again.

  Eithan went back to the mirror. His hand was shaking. He tried to dab at the wounds on his face, but he couldn’t keep his hand steady. He threw the towel into the sink and gripped the edge of the counter, bowing his head.

  “I came because we need to move forward,” said Absalom. “The goddess said things to Nicce, things that make me think your ruse is not landing as well as you might like it too. Now, since you haven’t been able to fuck her—”

  “Can you leave me alone, please?”

  “We need to change Nicce’s blood.”

  Eithan groaned. “I don’t know how to do that.”

  “Well, she suggested trying drinking her blood, and since we’ve got no other ideas—”

  “No.”

  “Eithan, we have to try something.”

  “I’ll kill her.” Eithan was horrified to hear his
voice crack. He felt as though there might be a sob trapped somewhere in his chest, and he didn’t know how to push it down and bury it.

  “You didn’t kill her before.”

  “I almost did. And I couldn’t stop drinking. The way she tasted—” Gods, his voice had cracked again. He drew in a breath. “I can’t do this right now. You need to go.”

  “If we can get her blood to change over, then we can fight Ciaska. We can end this. Don’t you want to end this?”

  “As if you have to ask me that question.”

  “You do have control, Eithan. You’re the most controlled person I’ve ever met.”

  Eithan shook his head.

  “Pull yourself together.” Absalom’s voice was hard.

  Eithan turned on him, angry now. “Did I not tell you to go?”

  “Also, about Lian, I had an idea.”

  Eithan’s eyebrows shot up. “Did you?”

  “I thought we should get Ciaska to do it for us. Give her some reason to remove Lian from the crystal. Convince her she wants him out.”

  Eithan considered and then nodded. “Yes. Yes, that’s good. It’s smart. But how would we convince her?”

  “I haven’t gotten that far yet,” said Absalom. “But distracting her from this business with you and Nicce, it can only be a good thing.”

  “True.” Eithan scratched his neck. His fingers came away bloody. “Gods take it,” he muttered and turned back to the mirror. He picked up the wet towel again and began dabbing at his wounds. He was steady again. “Well, we’ll think about that. We’ll find a way to convince her.”

  “And Nicce’s blood?”

  “I can’t be seen with her.”

  “You could be in my room. Nicce would come there, and everyone would think she was coming to see me.”

  Eithan hesitated.

  “You won’t kill her. I know you won’t.”

  Eithan sighed. “Set it up.” Absalom was right. They needed to move forward.

  * * *

  Xenia had tried to be as dull as possible lately. She didn’t want to stand out in any way. Ciaska had not so much as looked at her since she had seen the goddess in the halls, and Xenia wanted it to stay that way. She lost herself amongst crowds, inserted herself into conversations at large tables full of people. She spoke very little but laughed heartily when appropriate. She filled drinks for others and smiled.