Arya’s eyes flutter. Her eyelids feel so heavy she has to put all of her energy into pulling them back. She barely recognizes the room she’s in but she’d know these palace walls from anywhere. Suddenly, the realization of what’s happened hits her and she shoots up. She’s shackled to a bed and there are alumni surrounding her. Lumi, Rayu, Jax and Mekhi. At least he’s smart enough to surround her with people she cares about too much to cut through or harm. Beyond them, Malich rises from a chair still only donning his pants and slowly begins to approach. She both hates and loves the image of his half naked body, eyeing every inch of him as he approaches. His dark wavy hair sits a tousled mess atop his head. It’s grown longer and it makes him look even younger.
Images of the naked girl in his bed flash through her mind. She clenches her eyes shut hoping to drive them out of her head completely. Lumi and Jax part to allow Malich to walk through and sit at the edge of the bed. Arya lunges at him, bearing her teeth, only to be yanked back by the shackles around her neck and arms.
“If you think you’ve spared her life you haven’t,” Arya glares at him. Nothing could curve her appetite for murder at the moment. “I’m going to find her, and when I do I’m going to sever allof her fucking limbs.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Malich glares back, daring to lean in closer. “She’s Princess of the Winter Court and if you go after her you’ll start a war you don’t want orneed. Not to mention the fact that you have no right. You walked away, remember?” Arya sits back, her eyes locked on his, wondering when his heart turned so cold to her. “Release her,” he commands.
“Is that wise?” Dax shifts nervously. “The last time she got angry with you she put her sword through your abdomen.” Malich whips his head in Dax’s direction. Mekhi and the others simply look surprised. Dax shrugs. “Ihsan told me.”
“Did he also teach you how to disobey orders?”
Dax shakes his head and reluctantly does as he’s told. He releases Arya from her shackles and follows the others out of the room. Once the door is closed, Malich moves closer to her. She backs away.
“People talk Malich. I know all about your nighttime activities.”
“I wasn’t trying to keep them a secret,” he shrugs.
“I ask for time, so you start sleeping your way through the Summer Court?”
“Grow up Arya,” Malich sighs, rising to his feet.
“What?” She stares at him in disbelief.
“I said grow up,” he repeats. He crosses the room and pours himself a glass of spirits. “What did you expect me to do? Was I supposed to wait for you to figure things out like you did before? How well did that work out for me?I won’t be a passenger upon the ship of your swaying emotions. If you want to be mine, be mine. It’s that simple. If not, you know where the door is. I’m tired of playing these games with you.”
“I wouldn’t be in this mess if you hadn’t-”
“So it’s my fault you’re incapable of making a decision?” He cuts her off. “Tell me, when you allowed the new king to crawl between your legs, was that my fault too?”
Arya sprang to her feet and lunged. He quickly counters, pinning her to the wall, one hand around her throat and the other pinning her arms above her head. “I didn’t want to go to him, you forced me to!” She shouts at him, tears forming in her eyes.
“I forced you to confront your feelings, not share a bed with him. That was all you.”
Arya shoves Malich away from her. He’s right and she hates him for it. Mostly she hates herself. She drops to her knees and sighs.
“I’m sorry,” she apologizes.
“For which part? Sleeping with Ihsan or stringing me along?”
Arya looks surprised. “I haven’t been stringing you along…I loveyou. Had you have granted my request for council I would have told you that. You’rethe one I want to be with. I know that now. I think I’ve always known, but I was afraid to admit it to myself.”
“Afraid to admit what to yourself?”
“That I’m such a horrible person I fell in love with a man who’s had me beaten on more than one occasion. A man who beat the boy I fell in love with almost to deathand then kept us from each other for no reason other than he wanted me to himself. A man I looked to as a father because I didn’t have one. That’s the hardest truth to swallow,” Arya sulks, “What kind of person does that make me? Weak? A hypocrite?You’re a horrible man who’s done horrible things and I should hate you but I don’t. I love you when I shouldn’t and it makes me questionmyself. It makes me question why I love you so much when everyone knows Ihsan is a much better man.”
Narrowing his eyes, Malich replies sarcastically, “I’m not exactly feeling the love here Arya.”
“I feel as if you’ve cast some sort of spell on me. I should be running in the opposite direction, but Anan help me, I can’t seem to stay away from you.”
Malich holds out a hand for Arya to take. After taking a deep breath, she takes it. He helps her to her feet, tucking a few loose curls behind her ears. “I understand that you’re hurt, but you can’t simply kill everyone I’ve slept with.”
“Will the Summer Court be short on citizens if I did?” She muses. “Something tells me that if the rumors I’ve been hearing are true, my kill list would be extremelylong.”
Malich laughs. “Don’t blame the girls, blame me. I was so lonely without you that I had to fill my time with someone. You haunted me every time I closed my eyes and often while I lay awake. I tried to get you out of my head, but I failed miserably. Every night, as beautiful as those girls were, none of them were you.”
“And the Princess?”
Waving her off he says, “Kahlem is trying to marry me off. I’m pretty sure his goal is to create a rift between us. Divide and conquer. But I don’t want those other girls Arya. I want you.”
She tries not to show how much it pleases her to hear him say that, but a smile surfaces before she can stifle it. Seizing the opportunity, he closes the distance between them and softly presses his lips to hers, groaning against her mouth.
When Malich pulls away she promptly slaps him across the face. He glares at her as if she were crazy. “What was that for?”
“You smell like her,” she replies, “Get rid of her scent and come find me.”
Arya exits the room. She can hear him laughing as she walks the halls to find the others.
They’re gathered in the sitting room and Mekhi leaps to his feet as soon as he sees her. His eyes search behind her for Malich, “He’s showering to get that girls scent off of him,” Arya puts him at ease.
“Do you remember what happened?” Mekhi asks. She shakes her head. “You burst into flames, setting that entire room ablaze and nearly killed us all.”
Arya’s heart skids cross her chest. She can’t remember. “What?”
“Has Alara or Tomich shed anymore light on your origin?” He asks.
“We aren’t exactly on speaking terms, Alara and I.”
“You needto find out more about yourself and figure out what’s happening to you.”
Arya looks around the room. They all felt the same way he did. Perhaps they were right and she should try harder with both Alara and Tomich to learn more about herself, but part of her is afraid of what she’ll find when she did finally learns the truth. What if that truth took her away from the people she loved? What if she didn’t like what she found?
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