Chapter 80 Alone
The black marble floor felt like it was tilting beneath my feet. I dug my fingernails into my palms to anchor myself.
"Men of his age and power," Vespera continued, her voice projecting across the atrium, "they enjoy a challenge. They enjoy breaking a feral creature. But once the creature learns to roll over and sit on command... well, the sport is quite over. He puts the toy back in the box and moves on to the next war."
"Klaus is a strategist," I said, my voice trembling slightly despite my best efforts to control it. "He is occupied with the northern borders."
Vespera threw her head back and laughed. It was a high, tinkling sound that scraped against my nerves. The courtiers around her chuckled in obedient unison.
"The northern borders are quiet, Nerissa," she said, leaning forward, her eyes glittering with malice. "He isn't busy. He is avoiding you. He looked positively exhausted the last time he dragged you into the court. You drained him. And now that he has his strength back, he doesn't want the parasite clinging to his coat tails."
The word hit me right in the chest. Parasite.
Before I could form a response, before I could summon the oceanic pressure in my throat to wipe that smug smile off her face, the heavy bronze doors at the far end of the atrium swung open.
The court fell silent. Genuine, respectful silence.
Klaus walked into the hall.
He was flanked by two generals in dark grey uniforms, but he eclipsed them entirely. He wore his full combat coat, the silver braiding catching the yellow light of the glass ceiling. His hair was brushed back, neat and ruthlessly severe. The lines of his face looked sharper, carved from cold, unforgiving marble. He didn't look exhausted. He looked like a god of war stepping onto a battlefield.
My heart slammed against my ribs, a frantic, desperate bird trapped in a cage. The air rushed out of my lungs.
"Klaus," I whispered. The sound didn't carry, but the movement of my lips did.
He stopped walking. The generals beside him halted immediately.
Klaus turned his head slowly. Across the expanse of the black marble floor, past the sneering face of Vespera and the whispering courtiers, his eyes found mine.
I expected to see a flicker of recognition. A micro-expression of regret, or warmth, or even the agonizing pain we had shared in the deep. I expected to see the man who had held me while I coughed up black sludge, the man who had laid his forehead against mine and promised to save me.
I saw nothing.
His sapphire eyes were flat, dead stones. There was no light in them. No fire. No connection. He looked at me with the absolute, chilling indifference of a stranger looking at a piece of broken furniture in a hallway.
I took a step toward him, my hand lifting slightly, a pathetic, involuntary reach for a lifeline.
Klaus didn't even blink. He turned his head away, cutting the eye contact with a physical finality that made my stomach drop. He leaned down slightly to murmur something to the general on his right, his face a mask of bored authority. He didn't spare me a second glance.
He resumed his long, predatory strides, walking right past our side of the atrium and disappearing through the archway leading to the Emperor’s war rooms.
The heavy oak doors clicked shut behind him.
The silence in the atrium held for three excruciating seconds before it broke into a wave of mocking laughter.
"Oh, my," Vespera sighed, placing a hand over her heart in mock sympathy. "That was... devastating to watch. I almost feel sorry for you."
The humiliation was a physical fire, burning its way up my neck and settling into my cheeks. I felt completely exposed, stripped bare in front of a hundred predators who were feasting on my rejection. My throat closed up, tight and aching. The tears threatened to spill, but I refused to give them pearls. I refused to let them see me cry.
I didn't say a word to Vespera. I couldn't trust my voice.
I turned on my heel, the dark fabric of my dress snapping around my ankles. I walked away, keeping my back straight, my chin leveled. Every step felt like walking through deep, freezing water. The whispers flared up behind me, louder now, emboldened by the Grand Admiral’s public dismissal.
...discarded...
...a pathetic little fish...
...knew it wouldn't last...
I reached the staircase and began to climb. I didn't stop until I reached the heavy iron door of the West Tower. The guards pulled it open, their faces impassive. I stepped inside, and the door slammed shut with a final, echoing thud.
The silence of the room rushed back in to greet me.
I walked to the center of the rug and stopped. I stood there, staring at the cold hearth, listening to the frantic, painful hammering of my own heart.
He hadn't just left me alone in the tower. He had abandoned me to the wolves. He had looked right through me, erasing everything we had survived together with a single, cold glance.
My knees finally gave out.
I collapsed onto the floor, the heavy skirts pooling around me in the dust. I wrapped my arms around my chest, trying to hold myself together, trying to physically contain the agonizing ache spreading through my ribs.
I opened my mouth, but no sound came out. A dry, ragged sob tore through my throat, shaking my entire frame.
I was completely alone. And the man who had promised to be my Anchor had just cut the chain.