Chapter 88 Chapter 88: The Next Morning
Kalev’s POV
By morning, my rejection at the Gala had already been repackaged into footage. There was commentary and carefully edited comments. I watched it on the TV, my heart heavy.
Everyone knew. Everyone in the city and everyone in the sectors. Her shocked place replayed over and over. She turned around. Her dress brushed the floor. Then she ran out.
Fragments of the night flashed through my mind. The look on her face. The way the council had smugly congratulated me after for doing the right thing.
I left the gala shortly after the rejection. I knew that Senna would be in the guest room. I gave her space and didn’t go to check on her. I doubted she would even let me in her room. I expected her not to. But even still, I needed to know that she was okay.
The waited until the next morning to check on Senna.
On my way to her room, I ran into Thistle.
Thistle stood near the far end of the corridor when I passed him. He had been there often enough in the last months that I had stopped expecting distance between us to matter. But now he didn’t look up. Not when I stopped. Not when I spoke his name once, quietly.
“Thistle.”
He glared at me. He wrung his hands in front of himself. He looked like he was on the verge of tears.
“How could you?” he spat at me. “I hate you!” Then he turned and ran away from me.
The maids all glared at me too. Even the guards seemed to hate me. I didn’t blame them. I hated me too. They had all taken a shine to Senna. And now all they saw when they looked at me was the man who had hurt her.
I went to find Endrick. We were long time friends. I could tell him what happened. He’d understand.
Endrick was in the armory hall when I found him. He didn’t acknowledge me when I entered. Not immediately.
“Endrick,” I said. “Let me explain.
His hand paused over the ledger. Then it continued moving. He didn’t even glance up.
“There’s no need,” he told. “You don’t have to explain anything to me.” His voice was curt. He didn’t want to talk to me. It wasn’t what he said. It was what he didn’t.
I stood there for a moment, waiting for him to say something. To ask me a question. Or yell at me. Anything at all. But there was nothing. I left him to it. I would talk to him later, when the sting of it had worn off.
My mother, on the other hand, had a lot to say.
The maids told me that she wanted to see me. I really wanted to check on Senna, just to make sure she was okay. But I went to my mother’s chambers first.
I went into her chambers. She was seated near the window with a cup of tea she hadn’t drunk. Her posture was perfect, as always. Her back was perfectly straight. She smiled when she saw me.
“You’ve become very efficient at breaking things,” she said. “Good boy. I’m proud of you.”
I didn’t respond. She set the cup down carefully.
“You’ve done the right thing,” she siad. “For our family.”
The fact that my mother endorsed this only made it worse.
“Is that all?” I asked.
“Stay,” she said. “Have tea with me.”
I shook my head. That was the last thing I wanted to do. She nodded.
I left her room and went down the hall to find Senna.
Senna wasn’t in her room though. The maids told me that no one had seen her this morning. Thinking that was odd, I wondered if she’d gone into the forest. She loved it in the forest. Maybe she was finding some sort of solace there.
By the time I reached the edge of the estate, the sky had shifted toward late afternoon. I stood at the tree line to the forest. It had been ours, once.
I reached for Orrin. But he was distant. So distant that I almost didn’t feel him.
So I ran on my own legs. I slowed down as I reached the clearing where we’d been together. It was where our bond had always felt the strongest. The air there was colder than I remembered, or maybe I was.
She wasn’t there either. I don’t know why I thought she’d be.
Back in the estate, I asked about her again. Still, no one had seen her. I began to worry. Was she okay? I searched all the rooms she usually went to. Nothing.
I tracked down Thistle.
“Stay away from me,” he said, holding a silver platter in his hands.
“Have you seen Senna?” I asked him.
He lifted his chin.
“She’s gone,” he told me.
“Gone?” I asked. “Gone where?”
“She left last night. Viktor came and got her.”
Viktor!
But that was impossible. She knew Viktor was dangerous. Why would she go with him? It didn’t make any sense.
Until it did.
He’d been waiting. Ready to pounce. He’d planned this. He knew she would be broken, so he’d waited for the exact right moment to swoop in. I could almost hear him now. Persuading her. Earning her trust in her broken state.
That was the real reason he wanted me to break the bond. So he could bring her to his house. He seemed more dangerous now than ever. If he had wanted to kill her, he would have. Which meant he had something else in store for her.
Something worse.
I shuddered to think of what that was.
I had no idea what lies he’d told her to get her to go with him. Just as I didn’t know what he was planning on doing with her.
All I knew for sure was that this wasn’t good. If she trusted him, it would be nearly impossible to convince her to leave his estate. And given how she currently felt about me, which wasn’t very highly to say the least, I doubted she was going to listen to anything I said.
Senna had just walked right into the enemy’s territory. And now that I’d broken our bond, I didn’t see how I was going to get her to leave.