Chapter 30

Hollow:

Farley wouldn’t talk much, but that didn’t surprise me. I suspected she would be down for at least another few days, needing to recover from what happened, and from what almost happened. I saw something in her that actually scared me. She told me that her magic would have killed the guard if we waited it out, and she seemed so very willing. I saw nothing in her eyes. No guilt, or worry, or fear. I had never seen something like that in her before. It worried me only in the sense that, I knew what she would feel if she did something she might have regretted.

I watched her sleep, finishing up the wooden rose I had carved for her. I thought sleep might have been the best idea for now, since I didn’t have anything helpful to say once she woke up. Farley didn’t know what choice she nearly made, and I had to prepare for when it hit her.

Her sleep had been restless, and it made mine the same. I gave up on sleeping early in the morning, before the sun rose. I would have felt tired anyway, so it didn’t feel like a loss for me.

Farley stirred, her nose wrinkling in her sleep as she turned to me. Her hand reached out, and felt around until she found my leg. She grabbed me a little closer to the inside of my thigh than she would have if she were awake, but I would have had to be insane to have minded it. I waited for her to wake up and realize what she did.

“Have I been fondling you?” Farley asked, her eyes opening.

I smiled. “Only slightly. Don’t worry, your innocence is intact.”

She sat up, yawning as she flipped her hair out of her face. “I seem to recall very recently letting you do something to me that would suggest my innocence was lost.”

“Not at all. It’s only lost when you finally let me have at you. Any time by the way.”

She lifted an eyebrow. “We’ll be getting married soon, so…”

Ah, I knew what she meant. “If you would like to wait, then we’ll wait.”

Her cheeks turned pink, and she looked away from me. “It’s just, I wanna do this one thing right. It’s silly, but it would make me happy.”

I took her hand, and pressed my lips to her knuckles. “Then we wait,” I said again. It wouldn’t have been a problem for me. Not only because we would be married soon, but because if she told me she never wanted to go that far, I really believed I could have lived with it. Honestly, it felt like enough just to get to share a bed with her. I got to wake up to her face, and her tiny hand on me. What else did I need?

Farley cuddled up to my side, looking at the completed rose in my hand. “That’s pretty. What’s it for?”

I handed it over, and then put my knife down. “It’s for you. I thought you would like it.”

I waited for her to say something, not that I needed the praise or approval. But… I sort of did. Then Farley gave me a hug and kiss on the cheek. “I love it. Thank you for this.”

I exhaled. “Well I’m glad you like it. I’m not very good at gift giving. Mostly because I’ve never bothered.”

She laughed, and then eyed the ring she put back on her finger. “Not totally true. And I think you’re good at it.”

Then it came time to ruin her day, because I knew we couldn’t get away with hiding out for very long. Father would come up to check on me if I didn’t go down, and Farley probably wouldn’t want to hide. I still presented the option to her. She did as I expected her to.

“What about the ring?” she said. “Your father shouldn’t see it.”

“I don’t want you to take it off.” Ever.

She thought for a moment, and then turned it around on her finger. “There, now he won’t see the stones. He probably won’t think anything of it.”

“No, he really won’t.”

We dressed, and Farley gave me an accusing look when she saw the closet full of dresses for her. While she said nothing, I suspected I was in trouble. She put one on, and I did my best not to watch her. This dress was pure white, and without a corset. I had a few of those made for her, because it seemed unfair that she would have to be uncomfortable all the time. This one looked simple, with short sleeves, and a hemline falling to her knees. She matched it with boots, and joined me for the walk down the tower steps.

The castle stayed quiet, but not for lack of people. The staff didn’t talk, and they didn’t look at either of us as we walked past them. Last night had been a trauma to them, so I couldn’t imagine chattering seemed ideal in the moment. It mattered little, because we passed them without another thought.

The destroyed room had been fixed when we crossed through it, but Farley still flinched. They didn’t leave behind a single trace that anyone had been horribly murdered or crushed by a falling table and trampling people. Farley’s eyes somehow went to all the spots that I could remember a body being. They lingered where I’d decapitated the guard, and she stopped walking. Did she think less of me for killing him? I didn’t think she contemplated that. It looked more like self-reflection.

“Come on, love,” I said, tugging her hand. “We don’t need to linger.”

“Maybe we should,” she whispered, but let me take her away. Her eyes stayed on the room until she couldn’t see it anymore.

Farley stayed close at my side, clutching my arm and looking around as if a monster chased her. I wished I could have made her feel safer, but I didn’t know what to say. She would fear what the villagers would do in response to a man with magic attacking them, and naturally, they would see her as a threat. If they came for her, then I didn’t know what I could do other than kill them all.

We entered my father’s chambers, finding the man hunched over his desk and grumbling over a parchment he wrote on. The quill in his hand had stopped moving, and he stared blankly at what he had before him. Then he cursed and crumpled it up before tossing it into the corner with a pile that I assumed contained other rejects.

“Enjoying yourself?” I asked.

Father didn’t even look up to glare. “Do you need something?” he said as he scrawled something new. “Because I’m trying to find the proper words to keep my people from leaving out of terror. Their king failed in keeping them safe, and I didn’t even know a warlock lived in my castle for the past several years. They’ll never trust me again.”

“I don’t believe that,” Farley said. “They look at you with reverence, and no mad man can take that away. They’ll see it as another evil person with magic, who probably used it to make you all believe he was innocent. I’ve found that if people can blame the one with magic, they do.”

I rubbed her back, and pressed my lips to her temple.

Father sighed, then glared at his parchment. “This won’t do.” When he glanced around him, he cursed again. “That was my last one. Go fetch me more, would you?”

Instead, Farley walked around the table, and Father flinched away from her. She paid him no mind as she waved her hand across his parchment. The ink rose from the page, and drifted through the air as it went back to the bottle it came from. Then Farley returned to me.

“You could say thank you,” I said.

Father threw a quick glance to Farley. “Thank you.”

She half bowed.

“When are you addressing the village?” I asked.

Father paused his writing. “An hour, if I can make this speech work. I already gave the families their money, and decided it should be enough to keep them comfortable for a while. Many women lost their husbands, and they need time to figure out how to survive. It wasn’t like I didn’t have the money to spare.”

“That’s very kind,” Farley commented.

“Well what am I supposed to do? My carelessness got people killed.”

I didn’t think he should have been taking the blame for this. We had a whole castle full of people that didn’t notice it either, and no one could have been blamed for not figuring it out. Even Farley couldn’t feel his magic, and if she couldn’t, then I didn’t think anyone could have. I didn’t tell my father any of this, because I wouldn’t have wanted to ease any suffering. He’d hit her, treated her like nothing, and that hadn’t been fair of him. Why should I have made this any better for the man?

“We should talk,” he decided, setting the quill down.

“About?” I asked.

He rose up from his seat, and walked around to sit on the corner of his desk. He eyed Farley and the way she clung to me, and maybe he even noticed the way I loomed over her. The way I seemed ready to attack anything that came near the girl.

“The two of you,” Father said. “We need to discuss your relationship.”

I got defensive without hesitation. “Say a word against it, and we’ll be gone by sundown, I swear.”

Father raised his hands, waving me down. “No, that wasn’t what I was going to say. I know that nothing I say to you is going to get you to see reason. You’ll do what you want, because you believe that it’s right.”

I rolled my eyes. “We don’t have to stay and listen to this lecture. Let’s go, Farley.”

“Wait!” Father said as I turned to take Farley out. We paused. “You didn’t let me finish.”

“Fine, then speak.”

The man took a deep breath. “I can’t stop the two of you from being together, and the consequences of you leaving would be worse than you staying and being with her. I’ve decided to let you remain together.”

I laughed at him. “Because either of us would have listened to you if you opposed?”

“Just let me have this one, Bartholomew. The two of you can be together as you wish, because I don’t think Farley means any harm to the people around her. The villagers will learn to live with this, and eventually, they’ll realize that they’re safe from her. They can’t complain if she does not give them a reason to.”

I didn’t realize that having my father’s permission would have made me feel relieved, but it did. No more fighting with him, and not having to wonder if he had plans to do something that I could not undo.

“Thank you,” I said.

“You’re welcome,” he returned with a smile.

I watched my little wife grin, and it spread to me as I said, “Now would probably be a good time to mention that we’re engaged.” I picked up her hand, and turned the ring around.

All color drained from Farley’s face as she smacked me, shouting, “Hollow! Why do you keep doing things without asking me?! What the hell is your problem?!”

My father had paled too, his eyes wide, and staring at Farley’s finger. “Your mother’s ring.”

“Yes, you gave it to me.”

“For the princess.”

“True, but would it not mean more for it to be on the finger of the girl I love, than a little tart I would have hated my whole life?”

Father didn’t answer. He walked over to his desk and sat down. I watched him open a drawer, and pull out a bottle of whiskey and a glass. He poured it halfway, stared at it, and then shook his head before drinking right from the bottle.

“Father?” I asked.

“Leave,” he said. “Just… go away for a while. You… you couldn’t let me have a day, could you?”

“Sire,” Farley tried. “I know that this is going to be—”

He held his finger up to silence her. “Hush. Get out. I want to be alone for a very long time.”

Farley looked to me for direction, and I shrugged at her. Father had the bottle tipped to his mouth, so I decided that we probably needed to leave. Farley would have preferred to beat me in private anyway. When we got into the hall, she put her hands on her hips to glare at me.

“I regret nothing,” I said.

“You’re going to regret it when you wake up to me holding a pillow over your face.”

“I dare you,” I said, bending to her. While Farley didn’t seem happy, she let me place a quick kiss on her lips. “You don’t have to worry.”

“Of course I do. Your father hates me.”

I shook my head. “Not at all. He wouldn’t have agreed to letting us be together if he hated you. Trust me.”

She did not look like she trusted me. “He didn’t agree to us getting married. He’s going to get drunk so that he doesn’t have to think about it. That might have been worse than yelling or trying to kill me. Your father didn’t even have anything to say.”

That hadn’t actually been a bad sign. It only meant he needed a little while to let it sink in, and Farley would understand that soon enough. If he had wholly opposed, then things would have gotten broken, and he would have hit me more than a few times. I had been prepared for that, but he only turned to the drink. It left me optimistic.

“Relax,” I told Farley. “Things will work themselves out. When Father sobers up, he’ll probably come ask us when we want to get married.”

“Oh? Do I get to be part of that conversation, or are you going to make the choice for me? Ya know, since you love doing that.”

I sighed. “I’m an ass. I’m sorry.”

“Good.”

I took her hand, and pulled her in the direction of our room. She grumbled and called me a few names, but for the most part, she didn’t seem to mind. I let her free when we got inside and I closed the door.

I flopped down on the bed while Farley paced around nervously. She wouldn’t listen to me when I said it would all be fine, so I let her pace around, twisting the ring I gave her.

Eventually, she stopped. “I need to distract myself with something. I’ll be right back, I need my bag.”

“Hold on,” I said, pointing to the closet. “It’s in there.”

She narrowed her eyes at me. “Why is it in here?”

“Because this is your room too now, and I thought it would be convenient.”

I deserved it when she raised her hand, and began beating me with the pillow she took control of. I didn’t even fight her when it happened, because I probably should have talked to her about it.

“We were busy,” I said as the pillow hit me in the back.

Farley looked at me like it didn’t matter. “You had time to move a bunch of dresses and my bag in. You couldn’t find two minutes to ask me if I wanted to move in here with you?”

“Not really.”

She hit me harder. “You have used up all of your chances. Swear to me that you won’t do this again.”

“You know I can’t do that. I don’t want to lie to you.”

“I would prefer it.”

I grabbed the pillow, holding it against my chest as Farley used her magic to make it a real struggled. I still kept a hold on it, smirking at the girl. “I swear that the next time we need to make a choice about our relationship, I will ask you first. Though the next thing will probably be about children, and neither of us really get to choose when they happened.”

Farley blushed as she made the pillow thrash in my arms. “Good, then I’ll take your word for all that.”

She turned to the closet, and started trying to shove her things into the ratty bag she brought from her home. Of course, I hurried to undo all her progress.

“Hollow,” she scolded. “Knock it off.”

I hung one of her dresses back up before she could get it from me. “I will not. You live in here now. We agreed.”

“We actually didn’t agree. We talked about you asking me things first, and you said that you would. How is that me deciding to move in with you?”

It all made sense in my head, so I only needed to communicate it properly to her. “I thought the agreement was going forward, so the things I said still stood.”

“No, it starts any time I want.”

She went back to packing, and I nearly panicked at the idea of her abandoning me for that tiny room under the stairs. She deserved better than that, and I didn’t want to go back to waking up without her.

“Will you move in with me?” I asked.

Farley stopped, and turned to me with crossed arms. “You’re asking me?”

“Begging would be a more appropriate word. I don’t want to go to sleep unless you’re next to me. I don’t think sleep would come.”

She took a step so close to me, that she had to turn her head all the way up to see my face. “Really?”

I nodded.

Farley took hold of my shirt. “Then as your future wife, I feel like I should make sure you’re as content as you can be.”

“That would be very nice.”

She pulled me down to her, and I closed my eyes before our lips touched. We started slowly, her mouth feeling like silk as it moved in time with mine. I took in her scent, and how it made me feel to be so perfectly surrounded by it. How could I ever have been expected to live out some other life? It all seemed so impossible now. But why would I waste time thinking about that when I could have been enjoying Farley? I let it all go, and thought about nothing but the girl in front of me.