Chapter Five (Part 1)

***

It’s for your own good.

I had never liked when Idris said those words.

That’s what he’d said when he insisted I stay in his palace with him after Calix started wreaking havoc. That’s what he said when he tried to get me to eat nasty healthy food. That’s what he said when he stopped letting me climb up to the roof of his palace because it was ‘dangerous.’

And objectively, yes, I could admit that maybe, sometimes, he had a point. Not that I would ever tell him that.

But when I woke up gods know how much later, groggy and with my mouth so dry that I had to work for several minutes to part my lips, I knew immediately that something was wrong with this picture.

It wasn’t that I had been sleeping for what felt like days. Maybe I had been, but that wouldn’t be particularly unusual given the severity of my wound. Often, when I had been injured within the venomous forest, I would go unconscious for days at a time as my body poured all its energy into keeping me alive.

So I could rationalize that despite the fact that my wound was not the worst I’d ever experienced, and despite the fact that Ameen had patched me up pretty well, maybe my body had reverted to old habits and knocked me out for a while so I could recover.

It would be a little odd, but not impossible. And besides, it’s not like I had a calendar on hand to verify how long I had been asleep, so maybe it only felt like I’d been asleep for days. Thus, that didn’t really ring any warning bells for me.

What did set them off, however, was the bright blue glow over the door.

I squinted at it for a moment, propping myself up on an elbow, but ignored it as I looked around for something to drink. Thankfully, there was a glass of water on the nightstand, and I chugged that shit so fast it actually made me a little nauseous.

Once my thirst had been sated, I felt a little more awake, and sat up fully in bed, turning my attention to the door.

The blue glow was in the shape of an odd symbol, kind of like an X but with little curlicues jutting off all four ends and two dots on either side. Clearly, it was some kind of magic, and from the vibration it was giving off, it was something Idris had set.

My first thought was that it was some sort of protection spell. Back when we were worried about Calix breaking into his palace to snatch me, Idris had used similar protection spells on the doors and windows, but usually those spells only left a blue glow around the edges of the window. I didn’t remember seeing a symbol before, and definitely not one that was so strange looking.

The second odd thing I noticed was that there was an extra door in the room. Typically, Idris’s bedroom had the main door that led out into the hall and the closet doors, but now there was another door on the right, and I scowled, because just beyond that wall was the bathroom.

I got up on slightly wobbly legs to investigate, pulling the door open to see that it, indeed, led to the bathroom.

…Why the sudden renovations? What, Idris was suddenly too lazy to take the extra few steps from the main door to the bathroom?

However, as I stepped fully into the bathroom, I noticed, to my growing unease, that that same weird symbol was over the original bathroom door.

I stepped back out, closed the door quietly, and assessed my situation.

Idris had put in a new door so that the bathroom could be accessed from the bedroom. The main door to the bedroom and the main door to the bathroom were both set with some sort of spell.

I turned to look at the large window over the bed and cursed, because guess what?

Same fucking symbol.

Of course, I didn’t know exactly what the symbol meant, and I wouldn’t until I tried to touch it. But based on how he had ensured I could access the bathroom, my guess was that the spell was designed to lock me in.

That asshole.

Pissed, I stormed over to the bedroom door and touched the glowing symbol, only to hiss as it stung me. It left a slight red mark on my fingers, and had shocked me more than it actually hurt, but still.

I was going to kick his ass.

Enraged now, I kicked the bottom of the door and raised my voice. “Idris, what the fuck is this?”

Silence followed for an eerie few seconds, and I wondered if he had perhaps soundproofed the room as well, but then the knob turned and the door swung open, revealing Idris on the other side.

I didn’t even try to reason with him first, and darted for the small opening in the door, slamming into his body with all the strength I possessed at the moment which, admittedly, was not much. All I knew was that I wanted out of that room, and I figured that once I was out, I could try to reason with Idris. I could reason with him from within the room, but being trapped was quickly fraying my patience, and nothing productive would come from me shouting at him.

So I had to get out.

But Idris was ready for me to try that, apparently, because he caught me against him with a grunt and shoved us both into the room, slamming the door closed again behind him. My wound twitched with pain at the sudden rough treatment, but I ignored it to glare at Idris.

“You fucker – ”

“ – Rook –”

“Let me out! What the hell is wrong with you?”

“Rook, I can’t have you running around while wounded and with someone aiming to hurt you. It’s not safe – ”

“Okay?? So talk to me about it like an adult, don’t just lock me in with no fucking explanation!” I said harshly, and then paused as I remembered how I’d woken up.

I slowly raised my eyes up to his.

“Did you drug me?”

Idris’s lips pursed.

“No – answer me, asshole. Did you drug me?” I asked again, louder, taking a step into his space. There was a horrible pinching sensation in my gut.

How could you?

I turned away to pace the length of the room, running a hand through my hair. It was silent for a few minutes as Idris watched me, looking guilty as shit.

Good.

Maybe I just had to wait it out, I thought. Idris was just scared. After a few minutes, surely he would see how wrong all this was and let me out. Then I would generously grant him the opportunity to grovel for my forgiveness.

“It’s just until I can catch whoever made that deer – ” Idris said suddenly, but I cut that shit off right there because I was out of patience and because the first words out of his mouth weren’t I’m sorry, please forgive me.

“And how long is that going to take?” I demanded, whirling to face him, probably looking a little psychotic, but I didn’t care. I wanted out. “How long are you going to keep me rotting in here? I’m your husband, Idris, not your doll, and you cannot decide where I go and what I do.’

Normally, this was the part where Idris would say some bullshit like ‘I know that, I’m not trying to control you’ and I was fully expecting his excuses, a counter to them balanced on the tip of my tongue.

But he didn’t give me excuses this time.

And I kind of wished he had.

Idris frowned at me, and there was a strange darkness to his eyes, a heaviness in his gaze that felt foreign. Felt dangerous. Like a lion that had finally stopped playing with its food and decided to go in for the kill.

“Why can’t I?”

“…Excuse me?”

“Why can’t I decide where you go, what you do? You aren’t very good at taking care of yourself, Rook. You have no care for your own safety, for your wellbeing. You allowed Calix to abuse you for gods know how long. You eat or drink anything without worrying about how it might harm you. And then when some demented freak of nature attempts to take your life, you stay to fight it instead of running and end up gravely injured in the process? No. I won’t allow anything else to happen to you, Rook. I won’t.”

I flinched at the mention of Calix. My chest rose and fell rapidly, breathing becoming shallow with my anger.

I allowed him?

My fists clenched at my sides. Gods. Gods!

“It is my fucking life to live. My choices to make. I can’t live my life in a box, Idris, and I think you’re forgetting that I allow you to be a part of my life. Don’t make me regret that decision.”

My voice had started shaking by the end. Even just the implication of leaving Idris made me feel physically ill, a horrible cramping pain starting in my gut.

Because I loved the fucker. But he wasn’t fucking listening to me. If I had to threaten him with divorce to get him to come to his senses, then that’s what I had to do.