Tethered (The Avenlore Series) (18 page)

Absolutely.

“No.  Stop that.”  I chuckled.

Nikolas crept closer.  “
There are dangers all around.”  He whispered playfully as he drew his sword.  He eyed a topiary fashioned into a griffon.  “Behind me now, Milady.  I shall best this beast!”  He cried with mock enthusiasm. 

“No
!  What are you doing?”  I said through a giggle and thumped him on the arm.

Nikolas flashed one last grin at me before charging the poor unsuspecting shrub and sliced its head clean from
its body.

I sucked in a breath, I hadn’t actually expected him to do it.  “You did not just do that!”

Nikolas took a step back, sheathing his sword.  He crossed one arm across his torso and tapped his chin with his index finger, studying headless winged body.  “Hmmm.  You know, I think I’ve improved it.”

When he said that, I lost it.  I laughed, like really laughed.  The kind of laughing that brings tears to your eyes and I felt free and happy and blissfully worry free for a moment.  He joined me, laughing a
s well, though not as emphatically as I did.  He watched me, a strange look in his eyes.

I backed into a low border wall and lost my footing mid-laugh and was
well on my way to butt planting in the pale green waters it surrounded.

Sturdy arms caught me just before I hit the water and I heard a splash, but was pretty sure it wasn’t me.  Staggering blue eyes stared down at me
as a ghost of a smile played on his lips.  “It seems you are not yet safe from the beast’s powers.” 

A squeal escaped my
mouth as Nikolas threw me over his shoulder and trotted away.  From this vantage point, I noticed one of his legs was soaked to the knee.  “You got wet!”   

He laughed.  “Do not distress, Milady.  I shall live.” 

We didn’t go far, only to the bench he’d been seated on earlier.  He bent, allowing my feet to touch the ground, and gently guided me back until I was seated.  Training his eyes on mine, he lifted a lock of hair and smoothed it away from my face.

I grinned at him and spoke in my very best ‘damsel in distress’ voice.  “You saved me!”

He sat next to me, a hint of a smile tugged at one corner of his mouth, but his eyes didn’t hold the same playfulness.  “I will always save you.” 

What had moments ago been a playful, goofy moment had morphed into something far more dramatic.  The very air between us seemed to crackle with sparks and every fiber of my being begged me to inch closer to him. 

I tried to give him a smile, but didn’t quite pull it off.  “I have no doubt.”  That was my honest answer, I knew if I were in actual danger, he would save me…or die trying.  That thought sent a shiver through my veins. 

The
need to touch him was overwhelming and I knew there was coming a time when I absolutely could not touch him, at least not just because I wanted to.  And that was the best kind of touch.  So, I gave in.  I reached out and trailed a finger down the crooked line of his nose.  His eyes closed slowly and he exhaled deeply.  “What happened to your nose?”  I asked.

His eyes popped open and he smirked.  “It was broken.  A lot. 
It’s ghastly isn’t it?” 

I studied his nose, then looked back into his haunting eyes
and shook my head.  “I like it.”

Nikolas cocked an eyebrow
.  “Do you now?  Then I shall break it again tomorrow?”  Then, he shot me his disarming and devilish grin and my heartbeats tripped over each other.

I leaned away a bit, the close contact fogging my mind, crumpling my inhibitions.  “You know, on second thought, I don’t like it that much.”

Nodding once, Nikolas leaned forward, gaining back the distance I’d placed between us.  “I just want to make it perfectly clear to you.  I meant what I said before…you will capture the attention of the room.”  He took my chin between his thumb and index finger.  “You are exquisite.”

I slid my chin from his fingers and shook my head as warmth spread over my cheeks.  “Not me.”  I whispered.

A gasp escaped his lips as he tilted his head to study me.  “You do not even know…you have no idea, do you?”

I stood, placing several feet of space between us.  “What you’re talking about?  No, I don’t.”  I
blurted, shaking my head and knotting my fists into my dress.

Nikolas was on his feet, watching me as I paced. 
“Dani.”  He said my name like a prayer.  “You should be reminded every day, so that you never forget.  You should know, you are exquisite.”

His gaze and his words were crippling me, stealing my air and rendering me defenseless. 
I had to fight, had to stop this before I reached the point of no return.  I halted, and stared him down.  “What I know, what I know is that you are taken!”  My breath came in quick, short bursts as I huffed out the words.  “What I know is that if you keep looking at me the way you do, speaking to me the way you speak, I won’t be able to fight this.”  Drawing in a deep breath, I drug shaking hands through my hair.  My words were little more than a whisper when I spoke again.  “I will give in and…and…I don’t, I don’t want to be that girl.  I am not that girl.”

“I would never ask you to—“  Nikolas began, reaching a hand out for me.

I cut him off and backed away from his touch though it cost me great pains to do so.  “I know you wouldn’t, you wouldn’t have to.”

He stopped and the look on his face was painful to witness.  He looked like a tortured man and I wanted to save him.  “Dani, please.”

Tears welled in my eyes.  “I can’t…I can’t.”  I managed the words with some effort and turned from him and walked away while I was still capable.

As I retreated, I heard him call behind me.  “It doesn’t matter if you go,” That made me stop, that stung like hell
.  I turned to look at him as he spoke softly.  “you will haunt me still.”

That stung worse.  A sob shook my body as the tears brimmed over, trailing down my cheeks.  I turned from him again, and I ran while I still could.

Chapter 21

I cried as I ran almost the whole way back to the castle, pausing briefly to collect myself, then snuck back to my room.  I found a small army of seamstresses awaiting my arrival at my door.

As they measured every inch of my body, I bit the inside of my cheek
and dug fingernails into my palms to distract myself.  I wouldn’t cry in front of them, how on earth would I begin to explain?

Once they’d gotten the measurements, they sat me down and began to ask ten million questions about what kind of dress I’d like for that ball.  I tried to answer the questions at first, but quickly grew exhausted of having to simultaneously participate in conversation and hold it together at the same time.  I
ended up requesting that they surprise me, assuring them that I had total faith in their designs.

Once they left, I crawled into the bath and cried some more
, probably doubling the volume of water that filled the tub.  

I sat
in the bath so long that the water turned cold and my fingertips and toes pruned.  Concentrating on my toenails as they sat propped against the opposite wall of the basin above the water line, I pondered whether they may have nail polish here.  My memories were dim, flickering like a candle in a draft, but I could still remember nail polish. 

I tried to think of anything but Nikolas, or nothing at all, but m
y attempts to keep my mind occupied or blank failed miserably.  I found my mind wandering, conjuring the image of Nikolas’ face just before I tucked tail and ran.

And his words,
you will haunt me still
…they played over and over, set on repeat in my mind.

I wondered if he understood that those words would hit home with me, that I
would know exactly what he meant. 

How long had it been?  A few days?  It felt like months since I’d come here, years since I’d known Nikolas.  While that was technically true, I felt like I really knew him,
like I’d always known him.  But, that wasn’t possible.  I had just become aware of him, who he was.  Sure, we went way back, but it’s not like I could remember that.

So, how was this possible?  How could he have become like the sun to me?  Like oxygen?

I bit down on my lip as tears threatened at the rims of my eyelids and sank beneath the water.

Bracing myself against the sides of the tube, I prepared to be assaulted by another mental picture of Nikolas.

I got a picture, but not one I was expecting.

Behind my lids, I saw the worn face of a girl about my age.  Her sandy blonde hair hung limply around her shoulders, face hollow, eyes sunken and empty. 
Immediately I emerged from beneath the surface, cold water splashing as I thrashed.  I squeezed my eyes shut again, trying to see the image, needing to place the face. 

Nothing.

Unease settled in the pit of my stomach, my internal warning system sounded.

Danger.  Danger…
A whisper in my head.

From who though?  The girl?  Impossible.  I only saw her image
only for a moment, the span of a heartbeat, but she was weak, sickly even…her features emaciated and broken.

I climbed shaking from the tub, water sliding in rivulets down my body, goose bumps washing over my skin that
were completely unrelated to the temperature.

I dressed in a haze, pulling on a gown that may have been
green.  As I drew a brush through my hair the flashes of the girl pulled at my mind, fragmented and hazy, like a dream trying to emerge through from the depths of the subconscious.

I pressed
fingers to my temples and closed my eyes, trying to focus.  I tried to recall if this had ever happened to me, this vision thing.  I knew it hadn’t since I’d been here.

What about before?
 

Before what though?  I had been somewhere else, where was it?  I couldn’t recall.  It was like trying to watch
TV with no antenna, nothing but static.  I pushed harder, trying to dredge the memories from the fuzz that surrounded them.  Nothing.

Nothing but nothing.  The only thing that wa
s clearly rooted in my head was the past few days.  I could recall them perfectly, beyond that…only a void.

I’d been told this would happen, I hadn’t expected it so quickly.  I thought it would occur slowly, bit by bit.  No one told me it would be like the flip of a switch.

Overcome with exhaustion, I made my way to the bed and burrowed into the masses of pillows and blankets and surrendered to a deep and dreamless sleep.

***

A firm knock sounded at my door, pulling me from unconsciousness.  I pulled up drowsily and stared at the door.  The knock sounded again.  I pulled back the thick comforter and scooted toward the edge of the bed, dislodging pillows and driving them to the floor.  Too tired to form a coherent thought, I stumbled to the door and jerked it open.

Liam stood at the door, sparing me a sweeping glance before landing his eyes on my own.  “You look…rested.”

“Hmph,” was my eloquent response.  I blinked, trying to remove the heavy fog that lingered on my eyelids and mind after my long nap.

Liam gave me a smirk,
much like the one he’d given me after he kissed me.

Oh, the kiss.

At the thought, a deep blush rushed up my throat and over my cheeks, skin heating in its wake.

L
iam cocked a perfect black brow, the incredible pale green of his eyes catching the light of the flickering torches that lined the halls.  “Something on your mind, Dani?”  The words slid from his lips fluidly.

I raised my own eyebrows and leveled him with a look.  “Not at all.”  I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction, though my skin betrayed me, palms sweating, blush deepening.

He nodded once and smirked again.  Taking a deep breath, he got down to business.  “I have something to ask you.”  He turned the smolder on, sweeping his lashes down and looking at me from beneath their dark fringe .  “I understand there is to be a ball in your honor, and I was hoping you would allow me the honor of escorting you.”  He let the words hand in the air, piercing me with his eyes.

Crap.  

I pictured Nikolas and Brigitte, her arms wrapped possessively around him as they swayed to the music. 

The answer tumbled from my lips.  “Absolutely.”

Liam looked mildly startled, then recovered and a smile lit the perfect planes of his face.  “Thank you, my lady.”  He swept down and seized my hand where it hung limply at my side, pressing a kiss to the thin skin that stretched across my bones.