Chapter 20
Blue
Darkness was sweeping in. I would pass out from the injuries soon.
He nodded, then dropped his hand, and flopped into a seated position. Lifting one leg, he draped his arm over his knee and sighed heavily, before planting his forehead against my aching shoulder.
“You can’t leave me, Blue. I won’t ever allow it. No one can take you from me. You know how much I care for you, don’t you, my daughter? You’re all that I have left.”
Emperor Claude was mad and I knew that same madness had infected my father, I could already see his decline. I’d noticed it in the other time too, but I’d been so stupidly hopeful that my love for him would save him, I now knew there was no redemption waiting for father. He was a monster and there was only one thing you could do with them. Put them down.
“Ssh. Ssh.” I murmured as I ran my fingers through his thick hair. “No one will ever take me from you. I will be with you until the very end. I vow it to the darkness that binds.”
Trembling, he dug his fingers into my arm. I winced, but I did not move. Still, now that father was calm, I had to convince him that this scheme of Prince Mikael’s could work in his favor.
I gripped my stomach as the hot bile worked up the back of my throat.
“Send me to him.”
“What?” he snapped, and a ring of fire rimmed his amethyst eyes. He leaned back, glaring at me.
“Use me,” I said, lightly touching my breast. “Let me turn his greed against himself.”
He growled. “Whore yourself? Just like your filthy mother! Her sweet words of love were nothing but lies in the end.”
My heart clenched, I couldn’t take one more slap from him. I couldn’t bear it. I was barely able to keep upright. My head was spinning so badly that I was about to be sick. I had to get him out of here.
I had no intention of sleeping with Mikael. I’d never been touched intimately by a man, beast, or woman. I had no desire for such things. Not without love, and honestly, what dark fae could ever truly love?
They were incapable of such a human emotion. But I did at least feel confident that Mikael would not abuse me. At least in that, I trusted him.
I shrugged. “Others have used their bodies to gain the trust of kings, the secrets they’ve learned both built and destroyed empires. Let me be good for something. You took me in when no one else would have. You trained and made me strong, Father. I will not forget just how much I owe you.”
Standing swiftly, he looked down at me with arrogance in his heated eyes. Any trace of tenderness was now gone.
“Be my eyes and ears. And when we have learned all we need, I will gut him myself,” he snapped. Then turning on his heel, he roared. “Open the door!”
Immediately the door was opened.
His knights moved in unison behind him as he walked out, no one looked down at me.
Only once they’d gone did I let go. I fell on my face. Hard. The darkness embraced me.
~*~
It took me three weeks to heal from the worst of the damage. I could have healed myself, but father did not like it when I destroyed his handiwork. He was perversely proud of what he’d done to me, I could see it every time he looked at me. But he was also solicitous and more caring than usual. Especially since the emperor’s favor seemed to be shining his way now.
We’d received more invitations to open communications amongst the more powerful lords of Demonia. It was clear that Prince Mikael had kept to his word and was pulling powerful strings behind the scenes to prop up my father’s claim to the throne.
But finally, the day had come to begin my journey to the east. I would be going as father’s emissary, so I could not use magic to transport myself. The journey would be long and grueling.
I hated traveling by normal means.
Dahpne fussed over me, fluffing my hair once more and fiddling with my cape.
I sighed, lightly slapping her hand away. She frowned.
“One must always look their best, madam, especially when on such an important mission.”
I rolled my eyes. “I will be in a carriage for a week, Dahpne, no one who matters will see me.”
She held up a finger. “Ah, but they all matter, madam. You do not know who you might bump into along the way. Why, even the emperor himself could be gallivanting upon the same road.”
No, he wouldn’t. The emperor didn’t make a move that I did not know about, but my silly maid wouldn’t care anyway.
“I hear,” she murmured around a hairpin in her mouth, “that Prince Mikael too will be making his way to the Eastern Empire. Perhaps, he has plans to meet with you in private. He did pay particular attention to you at the ball.”
She waggled her brows suggestively.
Gods, maids, and their gossip. I squeezed my eyes shut. I ignored the suddenly swarming nest of butterflies dancing in my belly and swatted at a lank of hair that’d slipped into my eye. “You should not speak so freely to me, Dahpne, it’s annoying.”
She harrumphed and then jammed the pin that’d been in her mouth sharply onto my head. I growled and she smiled sweetly.
Why had I not fired her already? She really was annoying, and meddlesome, and also seemed to know everything about anyone of importance. She was an asset, whether I liked it or not.
She would also be following me to the east. But she would be in the caravan that followed a few days behind me, she had to pack up father’s gifts to Prince Keelan.
Now that Prince Mikael had diverted attention toward father the past was starting to change and I wasn’t sure how this trip would end this time.
Applying just a hint of rice powder to the tip of my nose, she stepped back. My face was caked in makeup, no doubt to cover the yellowing that still hadn’t completely faded from around my mouth. “There, more beautiful than any pureblood, I know. You truly are a rare beauty.”
She clapped her hands together and beamed proudly down at me. I wasn’t ever sure if Dahpne’s saccharine sweet words came from an honest place, or if she just spouted nonsense, but she’d always been overtly praising toward me. I didn’t like it.
I lifted a sharp brow and turned toward her. “Dahpne, I know you are paid to treat me as though you truly do care for me. So, I will not remind you that to say such insolent words could see you flogged. I am a filthy mutt; you would do well to remember that.”
She blinked, and the smile she always wore faltered. “You…you think I—”
Holding up my hand, anger suddenly piercing my heart, I shook my head. “I have to go.”
Snatching up my reticule, I lifted my skirt and walked toward the waiting carriage.
Father waited just outside, dressed in his royal white suit. A saber at his side. He wore a proud look, and for just a second it almost seemed like he approved of me.
A ridiculous notion.
I could never forget the stab of his steel severing my jugular. The red glow of his dark fae fire stared down at me with madness and regret. A part of him might feel something for me, but not enough to sway him from killing me. If I’d needed a reminder the beating of three weeks ago had been enough to make me remember what my purpose was.
He held his hand out to me. I took it with an easy smile.
“Pink suits you well, Blue.”
I dipped my head. I was in a gown full of frills and lace. I hated it. This wasn’t me. It’d been his choice, no doubt to remind me whose I was.
He led me toward the carriage, helping me up the steps, before giving my hand a squeeze. Just hard enough to sting but not break anything.
“Remember what we spoke of, Blue, and do not even think of double-crossing me.”
The way he leaned in and whispered in my ear, would look to an outsider, like a doting father wishing his daughter well.
I nodded. “I have not forgotten.”
Releasing me, he gave me one precise bow, before sharply turning on his heels and marching regally back up the steps. The maids and valets standing on either side wore large smiles, all of them duped into believing that heartless fae could actually care for a filthy mutt like me.
No doubt the woods surrounding me were full of Father’s spies, sent to report back to him on my every word and deed. I sighed.
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