Bride of the Traitor: A Prophecy of Sisters Novel

by Faiman, Hayley

  Her eyes widen and a look of shock crosses her face before she replaces it with a grin. “I couldn’t, Your Highness. I just simply couldn’t,” she says, taking a step back from me.

  Shaking my head, I reach for her hand, taking it in mine. “I’m afraid, I must insist. If you aren’t there this evening, I’ll send Merek around to fetch you, I will be personally offended if you are not there.”

  She flinches, then covers it immediately. “Then I endeavor never to offend, Your Highness, and I will be there.”

  Without another word, I turn my back to her and walk away with my spine straight and my head held high. This dinner is to see just how much they mean to one another. I’ll be damned if I let that man play me. I’ve been played enough by boyfriends, I won’t allow a husband to do that to me, prophecy or not.

  Walking into the castle, I make my way into my room, thankful that the girls are finished packing my trunks. There is one dress hanging in my wardrobe.

  It is dark gold with black suede decorating the wrists and a six-inch border of that same black suede along the hemline. This is thick and sturdy, obviously a traveling dress. It’s gorgeous and I’m excited to wear it.

  Turning from the dress, I walk over to the window and look down. Elias is still in the middle of the courtyard, his men gathered around as they take turns battling one another.

  They’re practicing and a few hours ago, I thought it was the sexiest sight in the world, my heart practically burst from excitement at the sight of him, at the possible love that was growing inside of me.

  Now, my heart aches, but not from love, from pain. Another roll of thunder followed by a crack of lightning flashes in the sky and as my tears begin to spill down my cheeks, the rain also begins to fall from the sky.

  The men pick up their things and make their way inside. I stay staring outside, crying, and feeling extremely sorry for myself. I need to get it all out now, dinner will be soon and I’ll be damned if I give that bitch even an inkling that she’s gotten to me.

  ELIAS

  Something is not right. Not only is the weather completely off, the storm seemingly arriving out of nowhere and then pouring rain down on us, but Sybilla has been overly happy as we wait for dinner to be served. As if she is acting falsely.

  Drinks have been poured and usually she will only drink a glass while we wait for our food, she is on her third and she keeps watching the doorway, as if she is waiting for someone.

  “What did you get up to today, my wife?” I ask, trying to get to the bottom of this.

  Her entire body stiffens and she spins to me. “Just watched the girls finish my trunks, and then I took a stroll around the grounds, soaking up the sunshine,” she says with a shrug.

  Narrowing my eyes, I search hers, she is hiding something. Lifting my hand, I wrap it around the back of her neck, dipping my chin to touch my mouth to the shell of her ear.

  “I will find out what you’re hiding, my queen. You’ve gotten into trouble, you’ll not hide things from me,” I whisper before shifting my head and touching my mouth to her temple.

  “By gods bones,” I hear Merek curse.

  Sybilla gasps at the same time I lift my head to see none other than Duraina standing in my receiving room. My fingers squeeze the back of Sybilla’s neck and I look down into her eyes. They’re wide and she bites the corner of her lip.

  “What have you done?” I ask, keeping my voice menacingly low.

  Her eyes narrow at me, as if she’s angry, with me. As though she has not invited a past, unwanted, lover into my home. A home that Duraina has never once stepped foot inside, let alone dined at my table.

  “I suppose I forgot to mention that I ran into your very good longtime friend, Duraina, on my walk. I’ve invited her to our farewell dinner.”

  My eyes widen, my fingers squeeze her again. “You jest, Sybilla,” I hiss.

  “She’s here, isn’t she?”

  Her voice is a harsh snap and she takes a step away, forcing me to release my grip on the back of her neck. Her eyes are wild, dancing with a fire that I haven’t seen from within her before. She’s gorgeous in her anger. I choose to focus on her uninhibited beauty rather than my own anger toward her at this issue she’s created.

  I know that Duraina told her something, she’s said something to hurt Sybilla, I can see it beneath the surface, festering. Sybilla won’t easily tell me what it is or she would have done that earlier. If it’s a game she wishes to play, then it is a game that she will get and she will not appreciate the outcome, I’m sure of it.

  “Dinner is served, Your Highness,” Jarin announces.

  Grinning, I ignore my wife and begin to walk toward the dining room, knowing that she will follow me. I spend the entire evening, my attention focused on everyone at the table, except for my wife.

  Duraina loves the attention, she takes every chance that she can to touch my hand, my arm, and gain my undivided attention. I can feel Sybilla’s angry gaze on me, her eyes could kill a man with a single look, I’m sure of it.

  “I’m going to retire, I have a headache,” Sybilla suddenly announces before dessert is served.

  Sybilla has no headache, she is angry that Duraina’s presence didn’t affect me the way that she intended, whatever her intentions were, that part I am unsure of.

  Turning to look up at her, I give my wife a smile. “Take your rest, Sybilla. We leave early. I’ll not visit your chamber this evening so that you may rest.”

  Her eyes flash and I know that I’ve made a direct hit when she gasps. I ignore my men’s grumbles around us.

  “Fine,” she grinds out.

  Lifting my lips in a smirk, I turn toward Duraina and begin to talk again. “Elias,” Sybilla calls.

  With a heavy sigh, I turn back to face my wife, my now steaming angry wife. She lifts her hand and I arch a brow. It happens before I can stop her, the wench slaps me across the face.

  “Have fun with your whore,” she grinds out before she spins around and runs away from me.

  “Elias, do not run after her, you need to be calm,” Merek warns.

  Standing from my seat, I look over at my cousin. “Take Duraina home,” I snap before I turn and calmly, walk after my sarding wife.

  There is a loud rumble of thunder and a crack of lightning as I climb the stairs after her. The rain begins to pound outside and I freeze. The weather had completely cleared before dinner. The clouds had blown away and there was not one in sight.

  Sybilla has magical control over the weather.

  The thought slams into me.

  The witches had assured me that she held no powers. I’ll be talking to them, but not before I deal with Sybilla herself. I don’t even attempt to enter her door from the hallway, knowing she’s most likely locked herself inside.

  Instead, I walk into my own space, and make my way through my personal entrance into her chamber.

  She’s sitting on the edge of the bed, her face in her hands as she cries. I should leave her to her tears, but I am not going to allow her to get away with this. She did something that she should not have.

  “Duraina should have never been invited to dine with us, Sybilla.”

  Sybilla lifts her head, her eyes wild with her anguish and anger. “You should not have gone to her before coming home, after being away from me for six weeks. You shouldn’t have acted as though I was doing something wrong with Merek when you went to that bitch before you came home to me. There are so many things that you shouldn’t have done, Elias and yet you did them and obviously with zero remorse.”

  I blink, then my lips twitch. Jealousy is such an ugly thing, usually. However, when Sybilla wears it, she does it beautifully.

  “Do you think I went to her bed before coming to you, sweeting?” I ask. Her eyes narrow and I can’t help but chuckle. “Is that what she made you believe?” She crosses her arms over her chest and turns her head from mine.

  “Look at me,” I demand, my voice harsher than needed. It does the trick, because he
r head whips around and her eyes instantly find mine. “I have not been with another since you appeared in my dungeon, Sybilla. That is no lie. My men thought that I was dying. They saw Duraina and knew that she would care for me. They were afraid that I would not make the rest of the trip home.”

  “Bullshit,” she snaps. “She said she’s known you for years, that you always go to her.”

  “I have known her for years and I did go to her often. I also paid her for my visits. My coin is why she wears nice clothes and lives in a fairly nice home without a husband of her own. My coin and other men’s coin.”

  Sybilla’s eyes widen and her lips part.

  “She takes coin for men’s favor. Is this not a common practice where you’re from?”

  “It’s illegal and icky,” she says.

  Snorting, I sink down in front of her, my hands sliding up the outsides of her thighs. “It is not looked upon as favorable here either. However, Duraina does not have many men for which she provides this service. She is very expensive and she is angry about losing me. She was playing with you, Sybilla.”

  “And I bought it, hook, line, and sinker.”

  Leaning forward, I touch my mouth to hers. “Yes, you did, whatever the rest of that sentence means.”

  “I hit you,” she breathes.

  Grinning, I slide my tongue along her bottom lip to taste her. “You’ll make it up to me, sweeting.”

  “I’m sorry, Elias. I… what she said, it hurt,” she whispers.

  “As I’m sure it would hurt if a former lover appeared in front of me as well, Sybilla. We will speak no more of Duraina or any others. What we share is between us, and I will be honest with you if that no longer works for me.”

  Her body jerks, although not liking my words, she nods and touches her mouth to mine. “It won’t ever come to that, Elias,” she whispers. “I won’t let it.”

  Humming, I wish not to get into the discussion with her again. She may not wish for it to come to that, but I know that eventually, it will. Instead, I wish to allow her to apologize to me with her body and in turn, I will give her whatever she desires from mine.

  Tomorrow we start on a long journey and in just a few weeks, war will begin and I do not wish to go into war with my wife angry at me.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  SYBILLA

  The girls are riding in the carriage that holds all of our trunks, but apparently the Queen will do no such thing, or at least that’s what Elias informed me this morning when I tried to get inside of the carriage with them.

  For now, my horse trots alongside us, rider-less, because Elias doesn’t trust me on her back by myself. He’s behind me, one hand wrapped around my waist, beneath my breasts, the other holds both reins in his grasp, though loosely.

  “This is your kingdom, Sybilla, everything as far as your eye can see,” he whispers against the side of my ear. His breath is warm and sends a chill up my spine.

  Closing my eyes, I lean back against him, forgetting that we are in the presence of a dozen other people. His thumb strokes the side of my breast, his hard length presses against my lower back, and I can’t help but let out a sigh.

  “One day when we are not heading toward war, we will take our time in our travels, I’ll show you all that my world has to offer, sweeting,” he rasps.

  Turning my head, I touch my lips to the underside of his jaw. “I’ve never traveled much,” I admit. “I would love to see anything and everything here.”

  “Your sisters,” he begins. “Did you live near one another?”

  I shake my head, then I tell him about my sisters. It feels like it’s been a lifetime rather than a few months since I’ve seen them. I tell him that Drusilla lives across the country from me on the other coast in Florida and we are the closest with one another. Birdie lives in the desert of Arizona, then there’s Liv who lives in New York which is northeast.

  “So, the four of you live in the four corners of your country?” he asks, almost in disbelief.

  “Well, yeah. We’re all from Portland, where I live. I’m just not as adventurous as they are. I stayed home, too scared to crash and burn,” I admit.

  He snorts. “You are not so scared now, sweeting. Look how adventurous you have been since landing here,” he points out.

  Have I been adventurous though? I don’t think that I have, not really. This is my first time truly leaving the castle or the village around it, and I’m doing it with him and his guard.

  It’s not adventurous, but I want to be. I want to see more, experience more, do more than just hide away, too afraid to fall down, too afraid to fail.

  “It is okay to be adventurous and still yearn for a guide, Sybilla. Let me be that guide for you,” Elias murmurs, obviously reading my mood.

  I haven’t forgotten about Duraina, about the time stamp that he’s put on our growing romance, about our mutual attraction. God, how can a man so infuriating, turn me on the way that he does? I don’t understand it, I’ve never felt this way before.

  My belly clenches just thinking about later tonight, wherever we stop, and making love to him again. That’s what it is for me too.

  I always thought the expression was gross, outdated, and it honestly just sounded weird to say and think. It doesn’t anymore. It’s exactly what I feel when he touches me, when he slides inside of me—making love. I didn’t know the feeling of love was possible the way that it is with him.

  Elias has awoken something inside of me that I didn’t know existed. I’ve fallen in love with him, I know that it’s love, but I can’t tell him. He’s made it very clear that he can’t love me, even though Godiva and Aleida say otherwise.

  Biting my bottom lip, I watch the blue leaves as we pass by all of the trees, the horses knowing the well-worn path as if they’ve made this trek a million times before.

  “We make camp soon, but first let us break for lunch,” Elias calls out, his voice booming above me.

  He pulls his horse off to the side of the roadway and toward a stream. My cheeks heat just thinking about the last time he and I stopped by a stream. Elias chuckles behind me, his lips shifting to my ear.

  “Not today, sweeting, but soon again I will have you in the daylight, then swim nude with you. I am unsure that I will ever get the image of you out of my mind from that day,” he breathes.

  “Elias,” I choke.

  My obvious discomfort only makes Elias laugh behind me as he dismounts. Without a word, he helps me down and steadies me on my feet. “Stay with the women, I’m going to check in with my men,” he murmurs, his steel-blue eyes focused on me.

  Nodding, I take a step back and start to turn from him. He doesn’t let me go right away. He reaches for me, cupping my cheek as his thumb runs along my bottom lip, his eyes never leaving my own.

  “My Queen,” he rasps. “Why do you make me feel this way?”

  “This way?”

  His lips tip up into a smirk. “As if my entire world centers around you. As if I would not be able to continue on in this life without you at my side. I have never felt such a way before, it is unnerving, sweeting.”

  I don’t tell him that it’s love and it’s unnerving as shit. Instead, I give him a small smile of my own. “I feel the same way, Elias,” I breathe. “I feel the exact same way.”

  “Odd sensation,” he points out.

  Swallowing, I nod. “Yes, odd.”

  He drops his hand before he gives me a wink and jerks his chin behind me toward the women. I watch as he turns from me and walks over to his men. I continue to watch as he makes his way over to Godiva and Aleida, then I keep my eyes on them as they huddle together and talk.

  There is something going on, something that he’s hiding from me and as much as I want to demand he tell me, I decide against it.

  Turning my back to him, I make my way over to my girls. They all look in good spirits, until my gaze flicks to Katrina. She is staring beyond us, and I know who she is staring at.

  “What happened?” I ask.
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  Her entire body jerks. “He acts as though I no longer exist,” she snaps.

  “This is bad?” I ask.

  She licks her lips, then shifts her gaze from him to me. “Last night, before he went to take Duraina home, he kissed me. It was lovely, no, it was the best thing I have ever felt in my entire life. Then, he deepened it and cupped my breast,” she whispers, her cheeks turning flaming red.

  I lean in, at the same time Ellyn and Jasmine do the same, all completely engrossed in Katrina’s story.

  “What happened?” I softly demand, not wishing to draw anyone’s attention toward us.

  Katrina’s eyes water as she shakes her head. “I told him that I was pure, that I haven’t done anything with any man before. He stumbled backward as if my body had lit him on fire. He turned from me and practically ran. Then he took Duraina home and he didn’t come back to the castle until this morning.”

  “Maybe he was just late…” I attempt to offer, but Katrina shakes her head wildly.

  Her bottom lip trembles and she attempts to hold her shit together. “I watched all night, waiting so that I could steal a moment and talk to him. I just wanted to tell him that I very much enjoyed his kiss. I wanted to tell him that I knew he could not be more than a bedmate with me, but that I was willing.”

  “Do not,” I snap.

  Her eyes widen. “But that is the only way that I can be with him,” she argues.

  Shaking my head, I reach for her hands. “Save that gift for a man who will appreciate it. A man who can and will love you. A man who will cherish you. Do not give it to a man who is looking for a little fun on the side. I am serious about this, Katrina.”

  Ellyn is chewing on her bottom lip and she wraps her own hands around mine, which are still holding on to Katrina’s.

  “I gave my gift to a man who only wanted a bedmate for the night, Katrina. He did not care, he gave me sweet words and once he had me, he was gone before I could even roll over to my side. I never saw him again,” she admits on a whisper. “Then, I met a man who actually liked me, for me, and it was beautiful with him. So much better.”