Chapter 4: A Throne of Ruin: Chapter 4

I laughed as I finished his letter and set down my own, as well as the rest of the elixirs and draughts I’d made up. In the letter, I’d told him about my father being strict with me growing up and his recent revelation as to why. I told him that Hannon had invited him for dinner or a midnight snack, and that my brother forgave him even before I explained why we’d been drugged.

And the details had kept flowing from my pen—babble about the market where Phyl gave me the dagger and withheld the finer rendition, saving it for . What Phyl said about my mother and me. About James, and the way my feelings for him had completely dried up. About Jedrek’s presumptuousness and threats. When I’d finished, the letter was nearly three pieces of parchment, front and back. I couldn’t ever remember being so open with anyone. I hadn’t worried about being embarrassed or saying something that might be deemed peculiar. I’d laid my life out raw and plain.

And yet, suddenly, it didn’t seem like enough.

After reading his letter, I grabbed a piece of blank parchment that he’d left and penned a quick reply.

I gathered the regular everlass I’d come to collect, stowed it away, and quickly headed out. I wanted time to read before I had to call it a night. The book on dogs would likely put me to sleep, and so that should be my book of choice, but the other promised to be full of action and fun and excitement, and I couldn’t wait to get to it.

“Finley. It’s time to get up.” Sable slapped me on the forehead.

I flinched before blinking my groggy eyes open, catching her staring down at me.

“Go away.” I gave her a shove.

“No. Hannon said to make sure you get up. You need to be an active member of this household and village. People are counting on you. Get !” She slapped me on the forehead again, then zipped away squealing laughter before I could get my foot out to kick her.

I rubbed my eyes and then stretched. I’d stayed awake way too late again last night. The book he’d picked this time was so much better than the last. The adventure aspect was unparalleled, and the slow-burn romance had me turning the pages like fire. I was halfway through, and there’d barely been a kiss, but the sexual tension leapt off the pages.

Groaning, I rolled out of bed and headed to the wash shed and my version of coffee.

Later that day, after convincing Old Man Fortety that I intend to end his suffering, though I neglected to say how, I gave him a weakened crowded nulling elixir and left Hannon to it. Just like with Father, I couldn’t stand to see someone die from one of my supposed remedies. Call me a coward, but some things I wasn’t sure I would come back from.

I used the waiting time to stop by the library. I couldn’t stop giggling when I returned the book on trees, reminded of the way Nyfain had crossed out the word poison. He wasn’t wrong. The author had slyly inserted information about various poisons in between the sections about trees.

I grabbed the book I’d be sending Nyfain’s way next—after I knew how he liked my comments. Talking dirty—or writing dirty—was new to me, and while I was immensely turned on by it, there was a large possibility that I sounded like an idiot. Time would tell. I doubted he’d come out and tell me if he didn’t like it, but I’d certainly be able to tell from his comments.

On my way through the village square to deposit my library book at home, I noticed a few of Jedrek’s “bros” standing in a cluster near the open door of the pub. It was early for them to be crowded around like barflies, waiting to see which available (or not-so-available) woman they’d try to take home. As I passed, their volume dimmed, and their eyes shifted toward me.

Tingles crawled up my spine at their various expressions. Most were conniving and smug, like they knew a secret about me. Obviously this could be traced back to Jedrek, but I didn’t like the fact that they looked so gleeful. One, a weasel-faced dipshit that was dumb as rocks, smirked before looking down my body in a suggestive but condescending way. It was the sort of look guys gave a woman when they thought their bro owned that pussy. One that suggested the woman held zero power in the dynamic.

What was Jedrek planning that these clowns thought would come to pass? Clearly he thought he had me somehow.

Cold dripped down my spine as I remembered his ridiculous talk about the demon king. He thought I’d tried to make a deal for my father’s life, as if anyone from this village could even reach the demon king.

Sure, Nyfain had suggested that I do that very thing—bargain for an escape—but the how of it was still very vague and half-formed. I struggled to believe someone as dense as Jedrek could have figured it out.

Still, that didn’t mean he hadn’t consulted with the demons in town. And if they went to the castle to ask questions, the answers would lead right back to me.

The question was, would the demons care? Their goal was to torment Nyfain. Maybe I was only relevant when I was his captive.

Then again, they knew that I was an easy way to get to him. Maybe they’d thought he’d killed me. Hearing that I was still alive and had escaped, or, worse, that he’d let me go…

Inside, my guts were twisting, but I stalked away like nothing bothered me.

“Hey.” I barged into Old Man Fortety’s house, emotions roiling.

Hannon glanced up from the couch, cookbook in hand. He’d always been able to read me, so it came as no surprise when he immediately tensed. “What is it?”

“I don’t know, maybe nothing. How is Old Man Fortety?”

“You tried to cure me, didn’t you, you rotten, good-for-nothing little heathen,” Fortety yelled out through the open bedroom door, crotchety as ever. “I’m feeling better, aren’t I? Yes, I am! You lied to me! Never trust a woman. Haven’t I always said never trust a woman? I thought you were different, Finley Mosgrove.”

I smiled in at him and then closed the door. His ranting continued.

“It worked,” I surmised, too distraught to feel happy.

“It continues to, yes, though if you were ever going to do an oops, he would’ve been the best contender for it. What happened?”

I explained what I’d seen and my worry about Jedrek.

“Or it could be absolutely nothing, and Jedrek is just spreading rumors to cover for his tiny ego,” I finished. “I really couldn’t say. But I want to ask Nyfain—”

“Yes,” Hannon said, standing. “Write a letter and go now. You can hunt tomorrow. We have enough to last us a few more days.”

I nodded and jogged out, cutting through the backyards of houses and trying to stay out of sight. The Jedrek problem might be nothing, but even if he didn’t involve the demons, he could make trouble. If he tried to force the issue, I could take him with a dagger, I was sure of it, but what if he happened upon me alone and without weapons?

I stopped at home just long enough to hastily scrawl out the letter to Nyfain and snatch up my knapsack. Once at the birch, I found the bush and pulled out the mostly empty parcel, finding only a letter from him in it. I swapped it for mine and stood, contemplating whether to read his note here or back within the safety of my house.

But my house wasn’t really safe, was it? Jedrek could barge in and force an audience any time he liked. He wouldn’t do anything, surrounded by neighbors who would come to our aid, but he could scare the kids and threaten me.

Out here, however, I could evade him. If anything, with my animal’s help, I knew I could run faster than him and his friends. I would run straight to Nyfain if I had to.

Or maybe I was overthinking this due to recent events and my fatigue.

I worked my way to the far side of the everlass field, and then climbed a tree and settled into the branches. Perhaps I was overthinking things, but safety first.

I pulled open the parchment and was surprised to see Nyfain’s handwriting was messier than usual. The lines bowed in places and the ink was smeared in a few spots, as though he were pressing too hard. The second I started reading, I knew why.

I smiled because he was talking about the book he’d read—

I blew out a shaky breath and my heart grew warm. I hated to admit my animal was right, but…she was right. Nyfain could and would handle any danger that I couldn’t handle myself. He wouldn’t balk, and he wouldn’t back down. He’d fight until he bled out, for the kingdom, and apparently now for me.

I bit my lip, took stock of my surroundings, and worked down the tree. Back at the birch, I scribbled a hasty note and got out of there.

He’d be giving me some weapons. That was good at least. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t accept a gift so easily, but the guy had a royal armory and didn’t use weapons. He could spare a few things.

Halfway home, an owl screeched, warning its kind of my passing.

Every. Damn. Time. It seemed like it just hung around the area, waiting for me. It was nocturnal, for goddess’s sake. Did it not have something better to do than watch its stoop for kids traipsing over its lawn?

“Sleep or something, you blasted thing.”

Frustrated, at wits’ end, I snatched a rock from the dirt.

“And if you can’t sleep, hunt. Help your family out. Unless you don’t have a family, which makes sense, since you are obviously a rotten fucker who can’t mind its own business.”

I threw the rock, missed by a mile, and kept trudging toward home.

I’d told Nyfain that I was fine. That I was calm. Pure lies.

Because it made me nervous that Nyfain had focused solely on Jedrek and not said a word about James, who had also been a dick. Being an alpha whose duty was protection, he’d clearly sensed which one of them was a threat. He’d essentially confirmed my fear. And while I would love to snap my fingers and tell Nyfain to give Jedrek a hunting accident he wouldn’t walk away from, I didn’t want to do anything until I knew more about the blowhard’s dealings with the demons.

I neared the edge of the wood and spied a shape walking past the perimeter. I pulled my animal closer to the surface, needing to further enhance my sense of smell and hearing.

A growl ran through her thought.

Fuzzy eyebrows… That was probably Clautus, Jedrek’s right-hand man. He usually hunted in the communal wood on the other side of the village. The only time he ever came this way was to show girls how brave he was by walking five feet into the Forbidden Wood. That trick had stopped working a few years back when it became known that I went deep into the Forbidden Wood to get everlass. Deep compared to their reckoning, anyway.

I thought, easing my new dagger out of its worn sheath.

I would.

I gripped my dagger a little tighter and then lowered it at my side, natural for leaving the Forbidden Wood at night. He’d have no idea that anything was amiss. Barren branches scraped across my shoulders. The warmth from the sun washed over my face.

Clautus saw me immediately, his brow furrowing and his lanky body pivoting.

“Finley,” he called out too loudly. He was only ten feet from me and didn’t need that volume—he was calling someone else.

A surge of adrenaline fueled my speed. Fire roared through my blood, my animal providing me with power.

“I’ve got places to be, Clautus.”

“We heard your dad is doing much better. Imagine that. Jedrek was right, I guess, huh?”

“About what, being a limp-dicked shit lozenge? Yeah, I’ll say he was right.”

He caught up to me as I reached my usual reading sycamore, angling past it toward my cottage. He pushed in close, trying to intimidate me. It was something he’d done in our youth, the older kid picking on the younger.

Then I grew up.

“Speaking of,” I said, “what did you do in a past life to end up looking like you do? You look like a puckered asshole with a bad bleaching job. And if your eyebrows are like two bushes out of control, what must your balls look like? With a dick as small as yours, you should consider landscaping so the succubi can find your pecker. They probably think the damn thing fell off from inactivity.”

“I hope Jedrek slaps that mouth off your face.”

“I’d love to slap that face off your head. The village would look a whole lot nicer.”

I reached my lane as Jedrek walked my way from the other end. He had a purposeful strut, screaming determination.

Clautus waved at him, silently communicating that he’d found the prize.

“He obviously knows you found me, idiot,” I said, nearly at my door. “He can see.”

“Finley,” Jedrek barked, an unspoken command riding his words.

Unlike with Nyfain, though, I felt zero compulsion.

In measured steps, I walked to my door and laid a hand on the knob.

“It’s been arranged. You’ll be Jedrek’s,” Jedrek said smugly.

“What Jedrek wants, Jedrek gets,” Clautus intoned.

“What’s that, Clautus?” I asked sweetly. “I couldn’t hear you with Jedrek’s dick stuck in your mouth.” I let my focus drill into Jedrek. “Leave me alone. That is a warning. You’d do best to heed it. I didn’t meet the demon king, I don’t talk to demons, and I will marry you. Save some face and find someone who is willing.”

He sneered. “Never say never.”

I meant to turn the knob, but I had to pause for a moment. “Really?

? First you talk about yourself in the third person, and then you drop that tired cliché at my feet? Seriously, bud. You’re making a fool of yourself right now.”

The door swung open, and Hannon stepped out, his face closed down and his eyes hard. His chest puffed up as his gaze beat into Jedrek.

“Is there a problem?” he said in a deeper voice than usual.

Jedrek tensed and narrowed his eyes. His smirk grew. “Not at all, Hannon. Or should I call you ”

“Get off my property, or I’ll make you my bitch,” Hannon replied, gently taking my arm and pulling me into the house. “You’re not welcome here.”

Jedrek spat to the side, and then Hannon shut the door on them, his shoulders tense.

“I asked around,” Hannon said, turning. “Jedrek was overheard boasting about making a deal. None of my friends know the details, but apparently he made it last night when a succubus and an incubus were getting him off. He was overheard saying it would be easy to live up to his side of the bargain, and then…” Hannon’s face turned red with anger. “He said some not-so-nice things about you.”

“What he’d like to do with me, right?” I rolled my eyes. “Guys like that are so predictable. They have to be loud and crass to puff up their egos.”

“What are you going to do?”

“The few demons in town don’t matter. Their power is weak. It’s the demons at the castle I’m concerned about. Nyfain will look into it. If something is going on, he’ll know what to do. He’s been dealing with them for a long time. He knows how they work.”

“It would be easy to say that Nyfain got you into all this, but when it comes to Jedrek, that’s not even remotely true. I actually think you got lucky that Nyfain found you when he did. Because Jedrek would’ve always taken desperate measures to get what he wants. At least now you have someone powerful and knowledgeable in your corner. I shudder to think what would’ve happened if you didn’t.”

Nodding, I headed to my room. He was a hundred percent correct. Nyfain’s actions in the beginning were strange and fucked up (in retrospect, I had to wonder how much of that had been fueled by his dragon), but at the moment, I was incredibly thankful for him. One thing I knew for certain: if there was a problem I couldn’t handle, Nyfain would absolutely take care of it, and he’d do so viciously.