Page 90 of The Rat King
I pulled my hand from the package and threw my arms around his waist, squeezing so hard I hoped it would convey my gratitude. When I released him, I turned around to see a too curious Jetta had tipped the box over and was pulling my backpack from inside.
She turned it over, inspecting it. “I heard about this thing. Doesn’t look like much.”
“It’s not the pack itself, but what’s inside.” As glee brightened my features, a wave of guilt surged over me. How could I be feeling any sort of joy whenever the man I loved was frozen in some sort of magical stasis?
As if sensing my deteriorating thoughts, Jetta ran her hand up and down my arm. “He would want you to enjoy this. You’re allowed to have happy moments, too.”
I nodded and looked at the warlock. “Thank you, Link. This is the best gift ever, and I hope it wasn’t too much trouble.”
“Nothing is too much trouble for my queen,” he said, and the earnest, yet self-assured grin he gave me might have been dangerous if I were any other woman. Link was gorgeous, as were Eshan and all the other warlocks in their own unique ways. Including Jetta’s father, who was a total silver fox. Nighval was the most handsome of all, though, and the most powerful. It’s not something he ever would admit, but I could tell, and so could everyone else. And Jetta was right. He would want me to enjoy this moment and make something beautiful despite the soul-crushing circumstances.
“Jetta, if you promise to let me do whatever I want to your face, I’ll take a break from standing vigil this afternoon and go back to him after dinner,” I said.
“Only if you agree to eat dinner,” she said, smirking.
“I will eat dinner.” I held up one hand and crossed the other over my heart.
“Done,” she said, and hoisted the backpack off of the table, looping her arm through mine. “You’ll need to do your best work because I’m meeting a certain someone for dinner, which means you guys will have to make sure Avery keeps her promise.”
Link and Eshan agreed and watched as she tugged me out of the room.
An hour later, we were sitting in her room and the contents of the makeup bag were strewn across the vanity in her bathroom. “I need something for my cheeks,” Jetta said.
She selected a few of the small Nars compacts, flipping each over to read the names of the shades. “Let’s see. Will it be Sin, Desire, or—” She burst into laughter.
“What?” I asked, making my mascara face as I coated my lashes with my favorite waterproof black.
“This one is called Orgasm,” she said when she finally contained her giggle fit. “So strange. I wish I could visit your plane.”
I gave her face a once over. “Definitely Orgasm,” I said. “I think Desire would be too intense for you. Too pink. You need something softer that will make your pale skin glow. And after you use that,” I handed her another compact with a shimmery finishing powder, “dust some of this lightly over the highlights. You can also use it on your collarbone and the top of the girls.”
She did as I said and caught my gaze in the mirror as she was assessing herself. Noticing my somber expression, she turned and wrapped her fingers around my wrists. A tear trickled down my cheek, carving a path through the powder, and I gave her a weak smile. She pulled me into her arms and said, “We’ll get him back, Avery. I don’t know how I know, but I do. My intuition about these things is never wrong.”
Chapter 62
Nighval
Likeeverythingmymotherdid, this scheme of hers was vicious. Her vindictive power washed over me, and my body seized as a bone-deep chill bit through every cell. When Avery rolled Samara off me, the terror lacing her expression before she realized I was alive caused my heart to split in two.
And now, she didn’t understand that I could hear her, that I could see her when she came close. That I could feel every tear that fell onto my face. Feel every time her warm lips brushed against my cool ones. She didn’t know that as she sat beside the small bed which they’d brought into the space to lay me upon and she buried her head into my chest as she gripped my arm, that I felt it all. I was grateful they hadn’t put me in my own bed since that at least gave her a place of refuge, because I knew so very acutely this was killing her.
I heard every conversation, from the guards to her own incoherent mutterings. I heard her scream and wail to the heavens, to the Goddess, and to the warlocks. I would have laughed if I could. I’m fairly sure half of them were afraid of her, and I knew all of them were doing everything they could to discover how to break this curse.
I heard it when Eshan told her she was stronger than this and from the corner of my vision, saw his arm around her, supporting my queen, as he helped her from the room so she could rule our kingdom.
I was grateful for my friends and how they were supporting her. I had lost track of time, though I knew only a few months had elapsed, but I longed for her suffering to end. I wasn’t sure I could bear another of her sleepless nights, the pacing and moaning, her tearful sobs. Some nights she kept them at bay, and I could see her sitting beside me with a blank expression on her face, like she had physically spent all the emotion she kept bottled inside and had nothing left to give. Her breathing would change on those nights as her head rested on my chest, and I would know she was asleep. Sometimes, either Link or Eshan would sneak into the room, work a spell, and carry her away. Presumably back to our bedroom.
The days that followed were the worst ones, because she would be angry that she was taken away from me, but rested, so the anguish would spring back to life again with renewed energy. And the cycle would repeat. Last night had been one of the bad ones, and I hoped my friends would be able to get her through the meeting today.
“Do you think he’s ever going to wake up?” one of the guards posted at the door to the chapel asked.
“I dunno,” the other replied, and I tuned them out.
Every one of their idiotic conversations, I heard, too.
I heard everything. I heard it all and could do nothing. It wasn’t like it had been with the rat curse and my heightened senses, some of which still lingered. This new torment was maddening, being trapped in one’s mind. I heard every footstep, every breeze, birds chirping distantly through the window. I even thought I heard the castle groan as the temperature dropped overnight.
I heard the familiar crackle of magic as the witch whisked into the chapel on a power-filled breeze. I couldn’t see enough of the room in my periphery with my frozen gaze to catch sight of her.
