Wave-Touched, page 16
When the two left, she pushed the dessert to the far edge of the table. Then she closed and latched the windows before going to sit on her bed with her legs pulled into her chest, trying desperately not to think about anything at all.
CHAPTER TWELVE
For the next several days, they dedicated meetings entirely to extensive discussions about how to approach the return to Thaelis and overthrowing the council with the least amount of bloodshed. Once the agreements were drawn up and signed by all parties, the three Thaelians became citizens of Vanris. They had their own voices in the conversation now, ones with far more detailed information to offer than anything Veyl could provide. She didn’t know the workings of their country like they did. Still, given her role up to that point, and the time she had spent in Thaelis as an outsider, she remained part of the discussions.
Her parents and the Vanrian council, after the first full day of investigating options with the Thaelians, agreed that the best approach would be to arrive in Thaelis under the pretense of going along with the original agreement Veyl had signed. No matter how much they disliked the idea, for it to be convincing, it required her to return to Thaelis with the fleets. She was Thaelis’s ambassador and had committed to seeing this through until they tried and sentenced Kyril in Thaelis. If she didn’t arrive with them, the councilors would immediately be suspicious.
Now that the Thaelians were Vanrian citizens, the rest of Kyril’s crew currently imprisoned in Etrion was to be given a chance to prove themselves. A process that required finding a place to put them all. One of the city’s barracks, along with adjacent military housing, was cleared out to make temporary homes for them. The area was put under heavy watch, given the circumstances, and they had orders to stay within the designated boundaries, but they were at least freed from their cells. Considering the importance of ensuring nothing went wrong with that process, Nalika, Jinau, and Kyril moved out of the palace and joined their crewmates to help ease their transition.
With the three Thaelians no longer in residence, Veyl felt more alone in her own home than she ever had. She did her best to avoid Jaysen without being too obvious about it, spending a part of each evening working on her ability with Arhk and going out every morning to spar with Gannon, Ahrin, and Iyvalin. Merrin and Avris were often there training students, and were happy to offer them additional feedback and instruction when they had the time to do so. Despite her abuse of it, her burned wrist slowly healed.
Veyl missed knowing Kyril was watching when she sparred with her companions. Even more, she missed meeting with him and the others, and not only for the moments of intimacy it had allowed them. For a brief time while the negotiations were going on, she had been one of them. Now that they no longer needed her to be their voice, she felt distanced, not only from them, but from the Vanrian side as well, because of the secrets she had been keeping and the fact that Jaysen sat among them.
Internal strife in Vanris had quieted since word spread of her return, though they were making a concerted effort to keep the fact that she was a Frightener from becoming common knowledge for now. With the situation a little calmer to the north, her parents summoned more military and mind-crafter support to gradually bolster forces along the southern border in case Sarket made a move before the mission to Thaelis returned. More aid from Delaphine was also called upon, primarily of the naval variety, to help protect Vanris’s western coast.
Veyl kept her windows latched at night, no matter how warm it got, and her door bolted. The first few mornings the attendants came to deliver food and had to knock, they looked puzzled, but word of the new behavior apparently didn’t move beyond them, because no one asked about it. It distressed Veyl, however. This was her home, and Jaysen had stolen away her sense of safety within those walls.
Five days after the Thaelians moved out of the palace, Kasiel took Tavin and Kyril to the tethdrak enclosure, relenting to an apparently irresistible desire to see if Kyril could work with the reptilian beasts. Veyl spent most of the morning sparring with the twins and Iyvalin to take her mind off where she would rather be. Later, she attended a few hours of discussion dedicated to logistical planning around the gathering and moving of supplies and soldiers for the voyage to Thaelis. Jinau and Kyril were there. Meyla, Kyril’s second in his fleet, had claimed Nalika’s place at the table now that she was no longer imprisoned. Jaysen was there as well, taking advantage of the moderately less formal setting to wander over next to Veyl, his nearness making it nearly impossible for her to focus on what was being said.
For a time, he just hovered close to her, then he leaned in and whispered, “If you’re lonely without your Feral, I could fill that void.”
Veyl tried to pretend she hadn’t heard him, but a wave of nausea rolled through her, and she shuddered with the force of it. His faint smirk made it apparent he noticed.
Something snapped in Veyl. She was tired of being uncomfortable in her own home, but she couldn’t create a scene. They had been inseparable companions once. Maybe if she talked to him, she could make him remember that and end this torment. She would get him to see reason. Somehow.
When the session ended, she forced herself yet again not to watch Kyril leave. Every meeting was a punishing process of trying not to look at him in any way that might betray her affection or raise Jaysen’s ire. Today, Jaysen rushed out and Veyl hurried after him, pursuing at a distance as he strode back toward the private quarters. He turned down a hall ahead of her. When she reached the corner, she saw him enter her father’s reading room.
Nerves lighting up, she followed, stepping through the door to find him nowhere in sight.
“Jaysen?”
Silence met her unfortunately tremulous query. She walked through the room, peering into the shadowed areas amongst the bookshelves. Her nerves on fire now, she hesitantly made her way to the back, peeking around the tall bookcases for him.
“I see you finally rediscovered your courage?” Jaysen stepped out behind her from wherever he had been hiding.
Veyl barely managed not to jump. She spun to face him, her back now to the rear wall, with him between her and the door. “I wanted to talk.” Again, her voice trembled, and she hated herself for it.
He took a step forward, already closer than she was comfortable with. When he spoke, his soft, sensual tone sent an unpleasant chill through her. “Do you know how different my life might have been if your parents hadn’t insisted on my being a ward here for seven years when Sarket surrendered? But I didn’t resent them for that, because I wouldn’t have gotten to spend that time with you otherwise. I would have given up my throne in a heartbeat for the chance to stay with you, but you would never do the same. Your family is everything to you. Or they used to be, before he showed up.” He moved forward another step, now only a few inches from her, and reached up to brush the backs of his fingers across her cheek. “That’s why I’m certain now that they have messed with your mind, Veyl. What else could cause you to lie like this to the family you hold so dear?”
The contact and his nearness took her back to that night in her bedroom, his dagger at her throat, the sedative making her slow and vulnerable, him touching her as if he had every right to do so. She pressed against the wall, her breath coming quicker now, lightning crackling through her without the drug to suppress it this time. She pushed back on it, afraid of drawing Arhk to them again.
Jaysen looked into her eyes, a hint of curiosity in the tilting of his head. “Ah, I see the mind-crafter emerging now. Do you intend to break me, Khesran Veyl? You don’t even realize that you broke me some time ago, do you?” He brushed her hair back over her ear, leaning in close enough that she could feel his breath on her lips. “Should I tell your parents what they’ve done to you? Maybe it’s not too late for them to fix this.”
“Please don’t.” The tightness in her throat made it a struggle to force the words out. The same words she had spoken that night. She could fight her way free of him this time, but if he told her parents this story he had made up to rationalize what he had seen, they would launch a full investigation. Once their Evokers pulled the kiss Jaysen had seen from his mind, they would dig harder to find the truth. A truth both Nalika and Jinau were aware of. Would they go so far as to eliminate Ceris to interrogate Kyril? Regardless, no amount of fighting would save Kyril and the others if that relationship came to light. All she could do was try not to give him a reason to expose it. “They haven’t altered my mind.”
“I think they have.” It scared her that he sounded as if he truly believed it now. He leaned back a fraction, his gaze moving down below her lips to her neck as his hand came to rest lightly around her throat in what felt like a casual threat. “All I had without you was my country, but your new lover took even that from me.”
“Jaysen,” she said, finding her voice, “you and I were always there for each other. You’re my tehnaak. Why are you doing this?”
His brows crept up. “Tehnaak? I seem to recall him taking that too.” He leaned in, bringing his mouth close to her ear this time, and whispered, “I’m doing this because you were the last dream I had left.”
The inner storm abandoned her, leaving a despairing emptiness in its place. Veyl couldn’t move when he brought his lips to hers in a soft kiss, his hand still on her throat. A cold sweat broke out over her forehead and the back of her neck, her stomach roiling in protest. Then he turned and walked away, leaving her trembling against the wall in the back of the room.
What if he was right? Would she know if Jinau and Nalika had manipulated her? The Evoker could have extracted her memories of such. But no, her attraction to Kyril, unlikely as it was at the time, had started on the voyage to Thaelis, long before she met Jinau. Nalika hadn’t been around for that either, not on the same ship. Not that she remembered.
Veyl wiped her lips and hurried back to her own rooms. It was stuffy there. She cast a bitter glance at the closed windows before grabbing a hooded cloak from her wardrobe and sneaking out of the palace through a side entrance. The light garment was a common soldier’s cloak, meant to protect from the sun and blend with the colors of the desert rather than provide warmth. She tossed it around her shoulders, pulling the hood forward enough to at least cover her distinctive hair, and struck out across the city.
It didn’t take long to reach the area the Thaelians were staying in. The tricky part was figuring out how to sneak past the guards. This wasn’t a visit she wanted to make widely known. Pulling her hood farther forward, Veyl lingered at the corner of a building and watched the two city guards standing at the entrance. They looked bored, meaning they had plenty of time on their hands to question anyone seeking to pass, of whom there were none yet that she had seen. They forbade the Thaelians from roaming outside their area, and didn’t allow the city’s residents to venture into the Thaelian area unless they were in the company of certain approved individuals, such as her parents or other council members. Technically, that meant she could enter. She just didn’t want anyone knowing she had.
An odd but familiar sensation tugged at her moments before Jinau strolled into view. He looked directly at her hiding spot as he walked up to the two guards and engaged them in conversation off to one side of the street. After a few seconds, the Charmer waved her discreetly in with a hand by his leg. Veyl strode quickly and purposefully alongside the buildings opposite them, trusting him to keep them from noting her passage. Then she ducked around the next corner and waited. Jinau joined her a couple of minutes later.
“Thank you, Jin.” She didn’t meet his eyes for fear he would see her shame in them. Although given the zenyal bond, he could undoubtedly sense that something had upset her.
He gave her a scrutinizing look, then nodded. “Follow me.”
Veyl went with him around to a house near the barracks.
He sent her inside and left her there to wait.
The house was cozy and relatively simple in both furnishings and layout. If anyone had been using it before the Thaelians, they had removed all items that might have given the space personality. It was around the same size as Kyril’s home near the port in Dagony, though it lacked the brighter ocean-inspired color scheme and decor that was so popular in that city.
She walked to the center of the main room and stood there, recalling her encounter with Jaysen. Her fingertips touched her throat where his hand had rested, the memory of his quiet threat somehow more potent than that of Kyril’s powerful grip pinning her to the wall in Deepwater.
When the door opened, she turned to see Kyril enter alone, his self-assurance and vigor barreling over her turmoil as he strode to her. He took her arms and looked into her eyes, the pinching of his brows making it clear he could see her distress.
“What happened? Are you all right?”
Despite all that had happened, just being close to him still felt like coming home. The concern that tightened his voice brought the sting of tears to her eyes, but she couldn’t find the words to tell him the truth. Instead, she stepped closer, sliding her hand around to the back of his neck, and pulled him into a kiss. The earnest passion with which he responded, bringing her in tight against him as he accepted the invitation of her parted lips, lit a fire in her. A fire she craved that could help burn away the demoralizing fear and heartbreak caused by Jaysen’s actions.
Her hands gathered the fabric of his shirt, and she broke the kiss only long enough to lift it off. Kyril unclasped her cloak and let it fall to the floor along with his shirt. He reclaimed her mouth as if it were a meal he was starving for and guided her back toward the bedroom. His lips erasing all memory of Jaysen’s. When he undressed her and eased her down on the bed, his caresses did the same for every place Jaysen had touched her and more.
***
Later, Veyl lay curled against him, basking in the false security his strength offered in this place. It wouldn’t be enough to save him if someone caught them like this. Still, she wanted to imagine for a moment that they could protect each other from the world outside those walls.
“Now, will you tell me what’s been eating away at you?”
Veyl closed her eyes and pulled herself more tightly against him.
“Veyl, you’re worrying me.”
She startled at a sound from the next room, and Kyril chuckled. “That’s just Ceris or Jin. We share this house. I must have truly enthralled you if you didn’t realize he was back.”
“Why would I…” It clicked abruptly into place. The zenyal bond. “Oh, by the Break, please tell me he couldn’t feel how much I was appreciating your… talents?”
“He probably could, to a certain degree, given how long the bond’s been active between you.”
It was easy for him to be nonchalant about it, but her cheeks blazed hot at the notion. She tucked her face against his chest. “No. How will I ever look him in the eyes after this?”
Kyril chuckled again, and he rolled on his side, forcing her to shift back from him. He tried to meet her eyes. “What has you so troubled?”
Veyl avoided his gaze. “Can we just enjoy being together for a little while longer?”
“Do you think your body is all I want from you?”
A flash of anger moved through her. “It’s all you can have, isn’t it? You’re not even supposed to have that.”
“I see I’ve woken the storm.” He brushed her hair back with gentle fingers, his touch welcome where Jaysen’s had not been. “The water in Le’equo Cove is the same color as your eyes, minus the lightning, of course. I would love to take you there someday.”
The affection in his smile calmed the crackling energy in her.
“There. Exactly that color.” His expression turned thoughtful. “Now, you’ve had your way with me. Will you tell me what happened since the last time we were alone that has you in such turmoil?”
She drew a shaky breath and made herself meet his eyes. “Jaysen saw us together in my father’s reading room the day I showed you the claw.”
Kyril stilled, the implications racing behind his eyes. “Deeps take me,” he snarled. “I should never have risked it without Ceris there. I can tell if there are creatures around, but I have been relying on him to warn me about other people. Has your prince told anyone?”
“Don’t call him that,” she snapped. She ignored the querying rise of his brows and shook her head, unable to bring herself to tell him what Jaysen had done. “Not so far, but he’s convincing himself that the three of you meddled with my mind to make this happen. If I persuade him otherwise, he’ll see it as my betrayal and could expose us out of spite. If I don’t, he may decide it’s his duty to help me by telling my family, and the results will be the same.”
He sat up on the edge of the bed and turned to face her. “That’s a serious problem, but there’s still more to this. Even at your lowest point, when you were ready to die, you burned with fierce determination. Something has undermined that.”
How could he see so much?
Veyl sat up as well, resisting the urge to pull the sheet up with her. It wasn’t as if he hadn’t seen and touched all of her. “I’m just worried.” She chewed at her lower lip, and he arched a brow.
“There was more to your coming here than just wanting to see me, and more to our coupling than just desire. Did he hurt or threaten you, Seh’hali?”
The caring in his voice wasn’t enough to hide the tightening of his jaw and slight pinching around his eyes that warned of an immense fury waiting to be unleashed upon anyone who tried to harm her. Lashing out at Jaysen would assure his death as certainly as daring to be intimate with her. She couldn’t involve him in this any more than he already was. Somehow, she had to handle Jaysen on her own.
He schooled his expression to patience when she didn’t answer. “I realize our situation is difficult, but I will help you in any way I can. I won’t try to force you to talk about it right now. Just know that when you are ready to, I will be here.”
