Chapter 8 - the Necklace

Thoridor put me down, but his hands lingered around my waist. “Okay, I promise to give you space. I’ll try not to touch you unless it’s absolutely necessary.

“Greatly appreciated,” I mumbled.

“But,” Thoridor continued, “it’s only fair if you return the favo—”

“Done,” I said immediately, “I won’t touch you at all.”

“Let me finish,” Thoridor said lowly, and continued, “you have to give me a chance too. I know I did awful things— dreadful things, really. But they were all designed to get you to want nothing to do with me. I did them so you wouldn’t want to stay. It wasn’t me, I would have never treated you that way if I didn’t think I absolutely had to. It killed me, treating my mate that way. Ripped me to shreds internally, believe me.”

I nodded reluctantly. I believed him — I knew he had been trying to get me to leave. It was just hard to totally disregard his behavior regardless.

“So I will give you a chance to let the fire of our bond fizzle out, if you give me one too. Please try to give me a clean slate. Maybe then you won’t think of me as such a monster anymore.”

He had such pain in his eyes saying those last words, that I actually felt really bad for him.

“Okay,” I said, “I’ll not to let the past affect me too much. It might take me a while to really let it slide, though, and if you mess up once, I’m done trying.”

Thoridor nodded. “That’s fair,” he agreed, “one chance is all I need. I won’t mess up.”

“I might be pushing my luck here,” he continued, glancing at Warrian, “but in order to really get a level playing field: I think you should stop touching Warrian too.”

Warrian’s face contorted in angry confusion. “Hey,” he said, “leave me out of this.”

“No,” Thoridor said, “when I touch her, the bond might cloud over her judgement, but when you do, her heart might.”

Warrian laughed smugly. “Isn’t that an answer enough, though?” he asked. “Her heart has already decided, apparently.”

“Stop it, both of you,” I hissed. “I am not some sort of prize to be fought over. And you are certainly in no place to be making demands, Thoridor.”

I pushed his shoulder angrily, but all that did was hit me with another wave of sparks. I gritted my teeth and breathed through my nose until my mind cleared again.

“How come some touches cause more of a reaction than others?” I asked, “I’ve touched you before without much trouble.”

Thoridor smiled, and I hated how it made me feel. “It’s the intention behind it, I think. Casual touches will have less of an impact than… passionate ones.”

I looked down to hide the blush creeping onto my cheeks. “Well, I’m going to need a little space. You males are distracting me. I need to focus on getting my strength back.”

“About that,” Thoridor said, “Aricor has offered to help you train. Both physically and… the wielding part, I suppose. As long as we have no other duties to take care of, of course.”

“That’d be great, thanks,” I said.

We had made it to one of the informal sitting rooms of the Aquatic palace, and sat down in three armchairs by the fire. I put my feet up on one of the ottomans and reclined into the velvet backrest of the chair. I glanced down at the neckline of my dress, which just barely exposed my mother’s necklace. It glittered in the warm light of the dancing flames, and seemed to vibrate with each of my heartbeats.

I picked up the pendant and rolled it back and forth between my fingers mindlessly. I held it up to one of my eyes and peered through the red gemstone. A little speck of white in the red caught my eye. I reached behind me and unhooked the necklace so I could inspect it a little more closely. I turned the gemstone over in my hand, and to my surprise, the little white spot moved. It drifted to the top of the gemstone again. It was an air bubble.

My jaw dropped in shock — the gemstone wasn’t a gemstone at all, but rather a dainty vial, that held some sort of bright red liquid.

I tapped Warrian’s shoulder. “Does this look like blood to you?” I asked him. Warrian took the pendant from me, and turned it over just like I had.

“Hmm,” he hummed doubtfully, “looks a little too bright and too clear to me. I’d assume blood to be a bit more opaque, and perhaps a bit darker too?”

“I thought so too,” I agreed, taking back the necklace. “Let me see,” Thoridor said, and held out his hand. I handed him the pendant, careful not to touch his skin in the process.

“It could still be blood,” Thoridor said pensively as he held up the amulet, “when vials like this one are meant to hold blood, an elixir is usually added so the blood doesn’t dry up or coagulate. It could change the appearance of the blood slightly. What else would it be?”

I shrugged, and put the necklace back on. “I wonder whose it would be,” I mumbled mindlessly.

My mother had given it to me when I was a child. Would the blood have been her own? Why would she not have told me?

“I’ll have a room set up for you at the palace, Serin,” Thoridor said, “I could arrange one for you too, Warrian, but I assume you’d prefer sleeping at home?”

Warrian sat up and looked around me to meet Thoridor’s eyes. “If Serin is staying, I’ll be staying too,” he said firmly. Then he glanced at Thoridor and added “please.”

Thoridor sighed. “Alright,” he agreed, “I’ll have them set one up for each of you.” He lifted himself out of his chair and walked out of the room.

As soon as he had disappeared from our view, Warrian leaned closer to me. “I can come sleep in your room, if you’d like?” he offered.

“No, War,” I smiled, “that’s okay. I have kept you up enough as is. We should both get some rest.”

“Okay,” Warrian sighed, “but please don’t push me away. I want to be there for you. Please don’t let him drive us apart.”

I wrapped my arms around Warrian’s neck and hugged him to my chest.

“Don’t worry,” I said, “you still have my heart. But this bond — I can’t lie to you. I feel it deep within my soul. It’s calling out for Thoridor all the time. It’s exhausting. I’m dying for the fire to burn out a little, so I can think a little more clearly. I bet that will make things easier for you and I too.”

Warrian hugged me a little tighter. “I sure hope so,” he mumbled.