“He cannot, but you can always throw yourself down during an onslaught of madness.” Yarin scoffed a bitter laugh. “Now I’m certain she hates you. I suppose it offers cause for entertainment and… Whatever do you do all day, Enosh? You bury yourself in her womb and then what…? Stare? Drink? I say it is time for fresh— Orlaigh!”

The moment Orlaigh spotted Yarin, she gave him a dismissive wave, though a smile tugged on the corners of her lips. “Ach, as if yer brother dinnae trouble me enough already, now ye came to shush me about court?”

“Old Orlaigh, as plucky as ever. When was the last time my brother led you across the bone in a ceilidh, huh?” Yarin shot up, hurrying over to take Orlaigh’s hands. “Let us dance and remind my bore of a brother how lively the Pale Court had once been.”

“Nay, leave me old bones—”

“Nonsense!” Yarin wrapped his arms around the barrel-bellied woman, lifted her, and swung her around the chamber in circles. “Ada, won’t you join us? How could my brother resist a plea from lips I’m certain he had sucking his—”

“I refuse,” Enosh shouted, seething beside me, veins along his arms swelling with what had to be rage.

“Now, now, brother. You might want to reconsider, given the likelihood of you needing another soul chained in the future.” His eyes flicked to me for the fraction of a breath, but long enough to raise the hairs on my arms. “Did you forget what happened to your last woman? Poor Njala, bleeding out from her throat.”

A dark pit formed at the bottom of my stomach. His last woman? What had happened to her?

As though Enosh had noticed my unease—which, he probably had—he placed a kiss against my shoulder. “Airentsy. In ten days. Now leave my court.”

Yarin lowered a giggling Orlaigh back down before he bowed. “Madam, I thank you for the honor of this dance.”

She pressed a hand to her sternum. No doubt she would have blushed had her blood not gone black such a long time ago.

Even as Yarin straightened, green eyes searching mine, the god faded until nothing was left but the dull chamber.

That, and a final whisper. “Such a joy to be in your head. And Njala…? Well, he killed her dead.”

My blood cooled. “Who was Njala?”

Enosh regarded me, his cool demeanor crumbling with each frown forming between his brows, showing me a glimpse of something behind his arrogant wall of indifference I couldn’t name. “If I take you with me, little one, will you promise not to run?”

“If I promise, will you rot my husband’s bones?”

“I will not.”

I promise.

The lie brushed over my lips, but I licked it away and swallowed it whole. Enosh had already made me a whore, but I wouldn’t allow him make me a liar.

“Then I’ll promise no such thing.”

OceanofPDF.com

Chapter 10

OceanofPDF.com

Ada

“A, n, d.” Letter for letter, I put the sounds together like Enosh had taught me, finger trailing over black ink on yellowed paper. “A, an, and the g, o, d… g, go, god, and the god r… ra— Curses!” With a groan, I let my face sink into the copper pelts of my nest. “It’ll take me hundreds of years to read this damn book.”

Worse yet, I would still be alive, stuttering around stories where one letter looked like the next. If the tail went up from the circle on the left side, it made buh. From the right side crossing to the left? Duh. If the tail went down, it made puh, but on which side? Left? Right? What fool came up with the idea of creating a letter and tipping it around in books?

“Patience, my little treasure.” Enosh folded an arm under one side of his head where he rested inches from me in my nest and tugged a strand behind my ear. “You did well.”

I hated when he praised me.

Loathed how something inside me soaked it up like the cracked ground did when rain came after a drought. ‘You did well’ sounded so much better than ‘You failed to conceive yet again.’

My finger went to the gemstone set into my collar, trailing around the smoothed edges that came together in the shape of a teardrop. “What’s this stone?”

“A diamond.”

When I glanced down hard enough, until chin hit chest, I could see it sparkling a deep, vivid blue from the bottom edge of my vision. “Where did you get it?”

“From the royal house of Nazameh. They’re long gone, decimated during one of the many quarrels about lands, wealth… power.”

“Is it precious?”

“To me, it’s something of beauty that matches the color of your eyes—a blue like the sea between the Kilafa mountains before the land split apart and drowned some thousand years ago.” His hand stroked over the sway of my hip and the thousands of black feathers that covered me as he rose. “But yes, mortals consider it precious.”

I’d never worn anything precious. Never held much value to anyone except Pa, even though a widowed daughter made for an expensive burden. Husbands were generous with their seed when it came to making babies, but stingy once the midwife came knocking. That some worried my fruitlessness might be contagious didn’t help matters…

Enosh let a high-collared jacket of black leather form around his torso, the bone buttons carved with skulls. “It’s time.”

My gaze drifted to the cloud of bone dust swirling at the bottom of the dais. It formed the distinct shape of a horse, coming together in sturdy bones as my chain dissolved where it rested on the steps. Hide soon followed, covering the creature in brittle skin before dull hairs arranged in a black coat.

I rose, brushing down the black feathers of my dress. “What’s this?”

“Yarin is waiting for us.”

My stomach bottomed out. “Us? You’re… you’re taking me with you?”

“I’d rather have you by my side where I can see you than return home to find your collar broken and the few corpses I left scattered in pieces across the court.” He walked up to me, his black hair framing his regal features so perfectly, and took me into his embrace before he whispered, “This will only hurt for a moment, my little one.”

My heart stumbled over a beat before it hit the back of my throat. “No, please, Enosh. Don’t do this—”

“Shh…” Warmth swathed me, coaxing my stiff muscles into a false state of ease. “Once we return, I’ll mend your bones.”

Crk-crk-crk.

Bone crackled beneath me.

Pain shot up and down my shins. It seared my flesh, pushing me toward unconsciousness. I heaved, wheezed in air, choking on my own saliva until—

“There, there. I’m already dulling the pain away.” Enosh caught me at my first sway, carried me down the dais, and propped me on the horse’s back.

I pulled on the train of my dress, sour bile sweeping up my throat at the sight of bone spurs stretching the skin along my shins so taut it yellowed. “I should’ve expected no different from you, you fucking bastard.”

His chuckle echoed from the surrounding bone as he gracefully swung himself onto the horse behind me, his voice a purr across the side of my neck. “If my woman wants my prick up her ass, she only needs to say so, and I shall oblige.”

Nothing but a quiet threat, all while he caressed me into a state of dull acceptance, slowing my heart until it beat evenly. I didn’t hate him nearly as much for breaking my legs as I did for calming the rage pumping through my veins into a mere tingle.

And a comforting one at that.

Bastard.

Enosh wrapped his arm around my middle, anchoring me to him, which was a good thing considering I’d never been one for riding sidesaddle—and there was no saddle at all. “We’ll ride over those hayfields you claim to miss so dearly.”