[THIS STORY WILL BE TAKEN DOWN ON SEPTEMBER 30, 2024]
He had hunted me, captured me, and locked me in a tower.
Season 3 'Of Crows and Thorns'
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While in RISING, Tabitha discovers something peculiar that may assist Nelle in her plan to escape the...
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For a moment I wasn't sure I'd heard Master Sirro right. "What do you mean?"
"The Alverac is wild magic, Nelle. It's savage and merciless. But most of all it's wilful. Not many of those enslaved with the Alverac lasted very long."
"I thought it simply bound me to Graysen's will."
"Yes, it does. However, it doesn't work the way you'd think, simply forcing you to submit to his command. It's treacherous. Temperamental and impulsive. An artless, innocent thought can trigger its authority."
Oh gods...
The pedestal felt as if it were rocking beneath me but that was my knees knocking together and almost buckling. "I didn't know."
"I don't believe even the Crowthers suspect the extent of how dire it is."
His eyes narrowed on the rope once more. Falling into deep thought, he stroked his chin, his elegant fingers cutting through the dark bristles of his beard. He muttered in a distracted kind of way, "Your twentieth birthday is less than two weeks away, whereupon the Alverac will bind you to Graysen forever."
I swallowed and my throat felt like it had been sliced open with razor blades. My voice cracked. "Can it be reversed?"
He loosened a heavy sigh, dropping his hand down to sweep outward in a gesture of futility. "There is nothing I can do once the wild magic locks your souls together." His eyes met mine and I went rigid at the sly cunning gazing out at me. "There is, however, something I can do before the Alverac becomes final."
I knew exactly what he was going to offer. The same thing he'd offered the night of Evvie's engagement. We'd danced together on parquet flooring to modern music bent to a classical style. He'd revealed enough of the Alverac's truth to frighten me then, enough of it to have me spinning around and running to my parents to learn the awfulness of its full truth. Out on the dance floor, he'd offered me a deal. The answer was more air than voice. "You'd get rid of Graysen permanently."
He inclined his head: a yes.
"There's something I'd have to give in return for your help," I said now, much like I had last time he'd offered. "So what do you want?"
"I think it'd be the same suggestion I made to you last time," he said, his voice silken and inviting.
I'd warm his bed for the night.
Do it, do it, do it—I urged myself.
But, I hesitated.
I wasn't as mercenary as the Crowthers. I'm sure they wouldn't hesitate in agreeing to the deal. And either choice wasn't going to truly save me. I'd either be working here at the Emporium or servicing Sirro.
Gods, what shall I do?
What answer would I give the Horned God?
I stood on the pedestal and the stone felt like a block of ice beneath my feet. A chill seeped in through the soles of my high heels, the leather too. In this oppressive heat, I was bone cold.
