novelxo Chapter 0809
"The mating ceremony is...postponed?" Pippa gasps, looking up at her Alpha with wide eyes. "Yes," Gabriel drawls, crossing his arms and continuing to glare at me, looking me up and down like I planned this all even though I have no idea what's going on. "Apparently Ariel's people have sent a delegation. And that fool we call a King has accepted them into the palace for negotiation, completely ignoring my suggestion for how they should be treated."
"W-what was your suggestion?" I ask, my heart in my throat. Because I think I already know his answer. Gabriel just smirks back at me.
Elias sighs, rubbing a tired hand over his forehead. "My esteemed brother ordered that they all be beheaded at the door. Which, fortunately didn't happen."
Cold sweeps through my blood as I stare at this horrible man to whom I'm mated.
"Does...does that mean they're here?" I force myself to ask it, my throat tight. "The delegation - they're inside the palace?"
"Not yet," Elias says, drawing my gaze to him. "But they will be. Quite soon."
"Out out out," Pippa says, waving her hands at the brothers. "Ariel must be confined. No men can come in until her time passes.
"Don't be ridiculous," Gabriel growls, baring his teeth at his sister-in-law.
"No," I gasp, desperate for once for them to stay, even as Pippa herds Gabriel and Elias towards the door. "I need to know -"
Elias sends me a sad look over his shoulder as Pippa almost physically shoves them out the door. Honestly I am shocked that she was able to do it - because she's a very small person who certainly couldn't best either of them in terms of strength. But I suppose that Atalaxian ideals regarding women's rules run deep.
A delegation, I say to my wolf as I sit down hard on the side of the bed, rubbing my wrists where the manacles were, even though they don't hurt me. My wolf howls with excitement even as she turns in a tight, anxious circle. Because...what could that mean? A delegation? A postponement?
Dad sent it, my wolf says, panting a little with her excitement. He must have. He must have sent them to get us back. We can go home soon. We can -
But I put a hand on her fur, willing her to calm. Because as much as I hope that that's true - I mean...it can't be that easy, right?
Still, it is my best hope for contact with home. But - who came? Is anyone from my family here?
Is...
But I press my eyes shut against the hope. Because to have him here, in the palace...it would be so good, but so, so dangerous.
Jackson has to stay safe, my wolf says, pressing tenderly up against my heart. We want him safe more than we want him here.
I know, I whisper back to her, my fingers knotting in her hair.
And if he comes here, she says. They'll kill him for being your mate. So, he has to go away.
I nod, agreeing to it.
"Oh, darling," Pippa says, sighing as she comes to my side and puts her hands on my shoulders. "You look so troubled. I'm so sorry, my dear. Let's get you out of this dress and into the bath."
"A bath?" I ask, looking up at her like she's a little crazy.
"Yes," she murmurs, her hands lifting at my arms a little, urging me to stand up. "The purifying bath, to begin the ceremony of confinement. Come on."
"Oh, Pips," I sigh, giving her a dubious look as I stand and start to follow her to the bathroom. "You know that's ridiculous, right?"
"Ridiculous or not," she says with a
little shrug that lets me know that...yeah She kind of does know that it's stupid. "It is tradition. And above all things in Atalaxia,
traditions must be follo Sover?
I sigh and walk with my friend into the bathroom, thinking that Atalaxia could use a great deal less tradition
in its daily practice.
Jackson's stomach grumbles as he
stares at the castle fortress that
stretches before him, perhaps a mile away, built high on a hill. But he ignores his body. Biological signals haven't been as pressing to him since he was a little boy and discovered that his magic kind of négates bodily demands He hasn't eaten in days but...whatever. He doesn't need to.
Instead, all of his focus is on that fucking place.
That castle where they're keeping her - where they're keeping all of the Atalaxian royals. Or at least, where he thinks they're keeping her. They could, of course, have moved her by now but...
Why? Why do that, when this is the most protected place they have?
It's...impenetrable. Even from here t
Jackson can feel the magic
radiating off the place, though of course he can't see it. It is utterly protected, utterly controlled