I have no memory of Hatha taking me from Nadar's chambers. She must have, because I was dressed and back in my own stone cottage. I sat beside the fire on a milking stool someone had brought in from the stables. I watched the flames dance before my eyes. I had not bathed since last night and I could still smell him on my skin. Every now and then I brought my hand to my face just to inhale his aroma.
The loss hit me like a gut punch each time I did.
"My Chosen."
I looked over my shoulder to see Roth. He was alone. We were alone. Hatha had gone to find us dinner.
When was the last time we had been alone? After the Choosing ceremony?
He came forward, laying a hand gently on my shoulder. Right over the bite mark of his son. I pulled away and he murmured an apology.
Now he had my attention.
The Dark Prince apologizing to me?
What was that about?
I swiveled in my stool to face him. He folded to the ground, sitting at my feet cross-legged, like a child awaiting a bedtime tale.
"What do you want Sire?"
He laughed. "Ever direct aren't you my Chosen? Anja would have adored you."
"Anja?"
"
Anja
. My wife. My Chosen. My heart. The Mother of my son." He looked wistful, lost in memory of his beloved.
"I cannot replace her Sire."
He reached up, taking my hand in his. "I know that Talia." It was odd to hear my name come from his mouth. Our relationship had changed, he marked the change with my name. "It was wrong for me to try. Losing her left a hole in my heart that I looked to fill with your submission."
"What of Malchard? Of Beatrix?"
"There is much that we need to bring to rights in Vandarra. I'd like you at my side as The Vessel. Together I doubt there is much we cannot achieve. As my ally. I will not force it." He laughed. "It seems redundant for me to make such a pronouncement. I know you cannot be forced. You are instead a force of will."
"I am," I said, not sure if it was a good or bad quality.
"Like Nadar."
At the mention of his son, my heart jumped. He smiled at my reaction and shook his head. "He is as stubborn as you. As willful in his ways. As vulnerable."
"Vulnerable?" I had never thought myself so.
"Your heart is fragile. You protect it with your pride. As does my son. Pride will not get you the love you seek. You must take risks to find it. You will not always succeed. You will make mistakes. I speak a truth I have lived Talia. I should not have Claimed my Anja, in tying her to my will I destroyed hers. I was frightened of the love that consumed me. I imprisoned her in that love when I should have set her free."
"Free? Let her go?"
"I do not think she would have gone. She loved me as I did her. I should have let her claim me. Given her the power she needed instead of taking it all for myself."
"Claimed you. Is that possible? Can it be so?"
He squeezed the hand he still held in his. "You are the Vessel. You can make it so."
"He does not want me."
Roth shook his head. "He does not want to take you as I did his Mother. He loves you too much for that."
Loves me
. The thought slammed through me like a shot of whiskey. I was heady with the idea.
"So I should take him?"
"If it is what you want. Make it so." He released my hand and stood, leaning over to press a kiss to my head. I watched him leave, walking away in the effortless glide of a Master.
Make it so. Was it as simple as that? My head was churning thoughts as Hatha returned with our food.
"Hatha," I said, "I need your help with Prince Nadar. I mean to Claim him and I want to know how."
She smiled in that slight Hatha way, shook her head and said, "Well, it's about time Mistress."
* * * *
Hatha ran a tight ship preparing me for the Claiming. She blustered and complained, barking out orders like a drill sergeant. Askel muttered under his breath the word tyrant, regretting it immediately after suffering the sharp clip of Hatha's hand. As I had only two handmaidens—Corina too had thankfully survived the attack of the Queen's Guard—Askel was forced into Sarran handmaiden duties. Hatha had barked at him that it was the least he could do, stifling any further protest with her black glare.
I laughed at him and he poked out his tongue, earning him another quick clip to the ear. He was painting symbols up my leg. Her blow made him smudge one. He wiped it off and with a muttered curse reapplied the black symbol.
Hatha had scrubbed and shaved me. She worked now on my hair, weaving it into a tower of glittering curls. Askel looked up from my leg and I was pleased to see the approval in his eyes.
"You look beautiful Mistress."
"And you look very good at my feet Askel."
He grinned and angled his head to kiss a bare patch of skin on my thigh.
"Enough," Hatha barked, "Back to work."
Preparing me took until night fall. Hatha opened the shutters of the back window and let the light of the full moon fall upon my skin. The power washed over me. I closed my eyes and sank into feeling.
Tonight. Rather than tethered I was to be set free. Free in love.
A stab of fear gripped me as thoughts of rejection flooded my mind.
What if he did not want me? What if Roth was wrong?
Hatha came behind me, pressing her body to my back. I leaned into her. "Still your mind Mistress. You do not need thought tonight. Only feeling."
She reached around me and tweaked hard on my nipple. I gasped. She chuckled in my ear. "Feel Mistress. Only feel."
"You are sure he will come," I asked.
Hatha plucked my nipple once more. "I have said it will be so Mistress. You need to trust me."
I turned and took her face between my hands, "More than trust Hatha. I love you."
She blushed and tried to look away but I would not let her. I brought my mouth to hers and laid a gentle kiss upon her lips.
"It's time Mistress," she murmured against my mouth. I gave her one more quick kiss and nodded.
She led me through the township. Askel and Corina flanked me. The streets had been lined with torches. I walked naked and proud, my love, my hope painted on my skin and shining on my face. Far removed from the guarded woman who had been forced upon the Chosen path at the Summer Choosing.
I felt like I had been released. That I had broken free from the cocoon of my pride and fear and blossomed into a creature of delight. Roth's guard lined the street, watching me pass. My pleasure floated out to them. I saw it, like glowing pink tendrils snake out and grab each one, seeping into their souls until they gasped in pleasure.
I was filled to the brim with a delicious freedom. It spilled from my body, soaking the streets with each step closer to Nadar that I took.
At the end of the street was the town common. A pasture set aside for the outdoor meetings of the township. It was a clearing surrounded by a ring of trees. Hatha had arranged for each bough to be festooned with colored paper lanterns. The ground glowed in a rainbow of reflected color.
In the center of the clearing stood Nadar and Roth. Nadar was tense. He did not meet my eyes as I came forward to meet them. I did not know what he had been told to make him come here, Hatha had just told me that it was arranged. Looking into the stony face of my dark angel I was now not so sure. He did not look at all happy.
Hatha presented me formally to both Princes. "Roth, Dark Prince of Pleasure and Nadar, Night Prince of the Dark Master House Roth. I give you Talia of Hawthorne. Mistress Vessel of the Sarran Vere."
Roth and Nadar bowed low whereas I merely dipped my head. Here standing before them as the Vessel, they were my lesser.
As soon as the formal presentation was complete Nadar stepped away, moving behind his father. I raised a brow to Roth in question, he smiled and shook his head.
Nadar didn't know.
He didn't know why he was here.
I searched Nadar's face. He would not meet my eyes. He stared out above my head, his face a thinly veiled mask of fragile calm. The bite mark at my shoulder throbbed with the need to once again connect with his fangs.
"My Mistress comes to ask a Claim," Hatha's voice rang out across the clearing.
"I come to hear a Claim," Roth answered in rote response.
We had Nadar's attention. His eyes had snapped back to look between Roth and myself. Vandarran Claiming began not with the woman but with the man, by asking first Hatha had turned the traditional ceremony on its head.
