Page 34 of The Rat King
His face hardened, and he turned to the crowd. “I will fix this. You have my word, in three months’ time, you will be free.” He said no more before he turned back to me. “Get her on her feet.”
Gruff hands were crammed underneath my armpits, and they hoisted me up. The guard let me go with a shove. Before I stumbled, Nighval stepped forward, catching my waist. My hands went to his hard chest and to save my nose from crashing into it, I tilted my head back, only to find myself staring into the darkest hickory I’d ever seen. But instead of anger, they were filled with something else which was cruel, calculating.
We studied each other for a long moment, then he leaned forward, and I flinched, but his lips passed my cheek and stopped so his warm breath was on my neck beneath my ear and my trembling began anew.
“Let the courtship begin,” he whispered. With a quick movement, I was in his arms, and he was stomping toward the stairs, down to his horse. He grabbed my hips and lifted me onto the saddle, then swung up so he was sitting astride while I was sidesaddle in his lap. An arm snaked around me, and his other grabbed the reins. I felt him nudge the animal, then we were moving quickly away from the castle.
“Where are we going?” I cried as the horse jolted around a corner and Nighval’s arm tightened. He didn’t speak and kept steering the animal through the city. When we finally reached the outskirts, he slowed and gave me an assessing look. By now the blood on my prison dress had dried and fatigue from my near-death experience and the month in prison was setting in. I blinked up at him.
“Where are you taking me?” I tried again.
“You should try to sleep,” he said, his voice taking on a softer tone. He handed me the reins indicating for me to hold them for a moment and since he’d saved me from certain death, I obliged, despite the fact that he’d said some ominous things to me. A second later, with one arm, he swung a large black cloak around his shoulders, then adjusted it so it was around me, too. What in the hell?
“Nighval, I killed your brother. You just saved me from the axe-man. What is happening?” I asked, handing him back the reins and snuggled the cloak closed so only our hands were poking out. We entered the edge of an open plain and a gust of chilly air breezed by, lifting the strands of my hair, and I tucked back into my captor. “Are you my captor now?” I asked him.
He took a deep breath and released it with a sigh. “Can’t you just fall asleep?” he asked, voice a bit threadbare. “Unless that’s a game you’d like to play?” He perked up at that, squeezing my side playfully.
I groaned. “I’ll sleep once you tell me what is going on.”
“Deal,” he grumbled. “If you must know, those idiots were about to seal our fate forever by executing you. I made a concession I find very unsavory, to get that pill, which will adjust how you see things. Once it takes effect, things will be different for both of us, and…” He lowered his eyes to my face and an expression I could have sworn was amusement danced there. “And once it does, I plan to show you I can indeed coax a witch’s heart into warming to me.” I sucked in a breath. “To fall in love with me. Even a king-killer such as yourself,” he said, and the amusement shifted into a smug grin.
“If I couldn’t fall in love with your brother, I certainly will never fall in love with you,” I said, sounding equally as horrified as I felt. His chest rumbled, and I glanced up to see him chuckling. “I won’t,” I said, staring straight ahead. “We’d be better off trying to find your mother and convince her to let bygones be bygones.”
Nighval frowned. “You don’t know my mother and you, and I made a deal that you would fall asleep if I told you the truth.”
“But you didn’t tell me where we are going.”
“My home, of course. Now go to sleep so the damn pill will take effect and we can get on with it.”
“Wait, what happens when I wake up?”
“You won’t remember any of this conversation, of course. Only that I so very bravely saved your life. I’m already off to a good start, aren’t I?”
“Oh my God, you really are a monster,” I said, tossing the cloak away from my shoulders and twisting. What for, I didn’t know. The ground was way down there, and I’d probably break an ankle if I fell off the beast. I had to get away. If Samara had been willing to give him that pill, maybe she’d help me figure out another way to break the curse. But if what Nighval told me was true, I was minutes, maybe seconds from being brainwashed by her magic. The thought of losing control like that terrified me.
“Perhaps, but I think you secretly like my particular breed. Now sleep,” he said.
“No,” I said, as Nighval tucked the cloak back around us.
“You will,” he said. “And you better do it soon, before I turn back into a real monster.” The smile he gave me was positively wicked, and I shivered.
This was good because I was not dead. Bad because I had a pill dissolving in my belly that would brainwash me into forgetting what type of creature was whisking me away. But Nighval didn’t plan to kill me, and I was gathering all the vitriol earlier that had possibly not been directed at me as his tone had lost some of its edge since we’d gotten out of sight of the crowd.
I glanced around. Ahead of us, far in the distance, was a dense green forest. The road we followed led there. I craned my neck behind me. The city we’d come from was no longer visible. There wasn’t a structure or dwelling in sight.
“Why can’t you just magic us away?” I asked him, yawning. Shit.
His arm tightened around my waist, and his hand gave my hip a squeeze. “I could, but this is nice.” he asked. “I think a few weeks of forced proximity is going to be a boon for our relationship, don’t you think?”
“There is nothing you or that pill can do to make me feel anything besides loathing towards you.” I had to cling to that thought. Because if he was right, and he somehow found a way to make me fall for him, what would happen then? I wasn’t foolish enough,anymore, to think there was a happily ever after waiting for me somewhere down the line. He saved my head from the executioner. Now I stood to lose my heart.
“We’ll see,” he said. “Now be quiet and go to sleep before I tell you all of the things I’m going to make you feel.”
“That will never happen, so keep dreaming,” I said, squirming restlessly in his arms. He responded by squeezing me closer. So close my body, which wasn’t delicate, felt dwarfed in the shadow of his ridiculously huge form.
“Last time we were this near, I recall you had a very different reaction to my touch,” he said.
“You were controlling me with magic.”
