WARHAVEN II

Fifteen

Davina

I am alone with the one person who can see through me. He can feel everything. The knowledge is completely humiliating and overwhelming.

I turned my back to him, not wanting to see whatever pity was on his handsome face. The pain seared in my chest as I struggled to get a grip on my emotions.

His voice cut through the tense air like a blade, "Davina, you should lie down, get some more rest." I could not decipher the emotions within his tone of voice and it threw me off, made me feel unsteady.

I could barely feel that he was here, in fact that was all I could feel from him. I couldn't sense his emotions at all. It was like we were barely mates. The bond is a shriveled, dying thing. I wonder if he can feel more than I.

"I do not want to. Leave me be, like you have been. I will figure it out, I just need to be alone." I said, whispering, my voice breaking through my tears.

"I didn't know you were here-" He said.

"You refused to help me. That's what Lorenzo said, right? When was this? When Nargue disappeared? She came here to ask you for help with me. And Lorenzo came, not you."

"Can you blame me? You denied me. We solidified our bond and you publicly rejected my invitation. I tried to bring you here with me but you did not want me." He said, voice a small whisper.

"I didn't have a choice. Nothing I did before Augustus died was my own choice. I had no control over myself. And they all watched it happen!" I yelled, gesturing about, crying heavily.

"What do you mean?" He said, dark brows furrowed, he looked scared.

"Nothing. I really don't want to get into it. Please, leave me be and I will leave you to whatever occupies your time in this frigid place." I said, taking a deeper breath and wiping my tears.

"My home is not frigid." He said, offended. Of course that is what he picked up on.

"It is. It's freezing and bland in the middle of cold-dull nowhere and I have no desire to be here. I want to go home." I said.

He scoffed, "You clearly know nothing about my kingdom and I take great offense to that, but what offends me more is you wanting to go back to WarHaven instead of being here. That place is truly lifeless."

"I don't want to go back to WarHaven and I don't care that you take offense." I threw back. His eyes looked so tired and dull, the silver within still and nearly lifeless.

"Then where would you like to go? I am at your mercy once again, please, great one what can I get you?" He threw his hands up and bowed sarcastically.

"At my mercy?" I scoffed, crossing my arms in defense,  "You've never been at my mercy.
If anything I have been at the mercy of this fucking bond coming in and fucking with everything! Fucking with August and my marriage!" I yelled, heavy sadness overtaken by seething anger.

"First off, I didn't ruin your sham of a marriage. Your entrapment of a union, you and him did that just fine on your own. I didn't fuck with anything, I helped you even though it caused me great pain every waking second!" He yelled, anger building and hurt coming through on his masculine face.

"You seduced me with sly words and soft touches and I fell for it." I pointed at him, "You didn't make things any easier to stay loyal to him and maybe, just maybe his jealousy wouldn't have gotten to him. Maybe the malice spell wouldn't have fed off that." I sobbed dryly, "Maybe he wouldn't have ruined me so greatly if I had just kept my legs shut! I should've been a loyal wife."

My words came to a whisper, the self blame consuming me entirely. It was all my fault.

"What are you talking about, Davina? What malice spell? And how is being intimate with your mate a bad thing? You are mine!" He yelled, words breaking and quieting, "You're mine. And you have acted like that is a bad thing because he brainwashed you."

"The malice spell that Morana and Una placed on him. It fed off his jealousy and he..." I shook off all the memories that flooded my mind, holding my head as pain seared through it, "I was his wife first-"

"You have been mine since our soul was forged as one. Since conception. Do not get me started on who you truly belong with. And what are you talking about? A spell they placed? I know nothing of this." He said, confused.

"Of course you don't." I closed my eyes, my splitting headache draining me.

"Then tell me. Talk to me. You've pushed everyone away in this and I obviously don't know the full story because the Davina I know would never conduct herself in such a manner that negates the emotions of others. You are all going through this together, the loss. You forget Nargue lost both her brothers in this fight." He huffed, "You forget that you have a mate...who is connected to you...in every way."

He turned his palms out, showing off the scars littering his pale skin. The healing and the healed.

My gut wrenched at the sight, sickness overcoming me. I had been so selfish yet again. Trying to escape my own plight, and creating one for him.

"I'm sorry..." I placed my hand over my mouth and sobbed, falling to my knees on the thick rug, my cries silent.

"You forget that in your misery, I am being tormented by your feelings and self destruction. And on top of that, being rejected and away from my mate for far too long. I am a King, as well, since you seem to forget. I have subjects who depend on me to be strong when I am not, brave when I am not, and to not lead with an emotional mind. You are beginning to affect my leadership and my Kingdom, my people. I take that very seriously. So from now on you will get up out of bed every morning, attend breakfast, go outside, socialize, shower, eat, and enjoy. And if you do not, we are going to have an issue. You may find this cruel but it is out of love and my own self preservation." He said assertively.

I cried there on the floor like the weak creature I had become. And he left me there, slamming the heavy door behind him.