Sewn & Scarred (The Fated Creations Trilogy #3)

Chapter NineteenEvaline

Chapter Nineteen

Evaline

T he Vasi who stood guard outside my door today, and escorted me to the dining room where I’d been summoned for dinner, had short brown hair. I’d barely gotten a glimpse of his face, but had seen how his dark red eyes sat unsettlingly against his fair skin, and that there was a scar that cut down his chin.

I strode behind him as he led the way until he stopped and leaned to grab the door and held it open, nodding for me to enter.

I walked past him and he huffed.

“You’re welcome,” he grumbled before the door shut behind me.

So now my captors wanted pleasantries from me, too?

My thoughts cut off as my eyes settled on Vasier sitting at the head of the table. It was a rectangular table, and the sides were several paces longer than the heads were. The top was littered with dishes, all with closed lids to trap the heat inside.

“Evaline,” Vasier said in welcome, before flourishing his arm out toward the table. “I hope you’re hungry. Have a seat.”

As he said the words I noticed that there were three vacant chairs around the table. One at the other head, and one in the middle that stretched between them, on either side.

Just then the door behind me opened and I turned to see Sage and Lauden enter.

I turned quickly away so that I didn’t have to look at them, and took a step toward the table just as Lauden strode past me and set his hand on the back of the chair at the opposite head as Vasier.

“No,” Vasier’s voice cut through the silence, and Sage and I both slowed our strides.

Lauden looked up as he continued to pull the chair out for himself.

“That is Evaline’s seat, now,” Vasier said, nodding to the chair to his left. “Sit there.”

Lauden’s head tilted back as if he’d just been hit in the face. “I always sit here,” he said, with the slightest of scoffs.

The words barely left his mouth before Vasier was snapping a vicious look at him. “Yes, before Evaline arrived. Now, it is her seat.”

I stayed silent as Lauden straightened and watched as his jaw ticked. He rounded the table to sit at the chair Vasier had delegated for him.

Sage sank into the seat to Vasier’s right, and I sat at the head, only slightly reveling in how Lauden glared down at his plate.

“What’s the occasion?” I asked, fearing he’d done something awful to the Kova, or someone else.

Vasier laughed and lifted a glass of white wine.

“Nothing, this is just our family dinner. We eat together every night.” He nodded toward me. “We wanted to give you your space for a few days before we invited you into our tradition. Besides,” he said, and his eyes searched mine. “Since it’s been a couple days, I’m sure you’re ready to move on.”

I glared at him and had to anchor my hands on either side of the table, my fingers curling over the edges and my knuckles white.

He smiled, eyes never leaving mine as he tilted his head back.

“We’re ready,” he called, and the door swung open.

If it had not been for my hands already holding me in place, I think I might’ve fallen from my chair at the sight of the servants who rushed in.

There were several, way too many to be necessary for the small task of coming forward and lifting the lids off of all the food. But I understood as my wide eyes settled on Vasier between the many arms that reached between us, that this was exactly what he wanted. He wanted me to see them, his servants, and his steady stare confirmed it.

I swallowed and pulled my eyes away from him and tried not to look at them, but I could hardly help it.

There were women and men. Their clothes looked to be one piece that was both a top and bottom sewn together. It buttoned up the front and had long sleeves and long pants, and had a wide scooped collar that exposed the skin of their necks. All the men’s hair was cut short and the women’s was tied up into tight buns on top of their heads.

And I realized why their hair was pulled back, why their tops swooped down by their collar bone.

To clear a path.

I couldn’t help the gasp that shook through me at the sight of their necks, every single one of them. They had bruises, fang marks, and cuts all over the skin in different stages of healing. I even saw a couple of men—one with red hair cut so short it looked as if a flush had spread over his head, and another with blond hair so light that I thought he was bald for a moment—with slices at their necks. They looked as if daggers had been taken to their skin, as if it had been slit open to drink from the cut, rather than a fang puncture wound.

My eyes filled with tears as they shuffled from the room, the food finally revealed, and I turned my gaze. Not on Lauden or Vasier, I would’ve expected nothing less from them. My eyes landed on Sage, and I could see her tight jaw and the way she kept her eyes away from me through my tears.

The woman who got me up out of my grief when I’d given up hope, she allowed this?

The woman who’d held my hand when James told us that Charlotte was dead, she stood by and watched this abuse?

Vasier cleared his throat and went on to describe the different dishes. It was more than the four of us could ever eat. Roasted meats, potatoes in several forms, greens, breads, cakes, and tarts.

When he was done the three of them started portioning the food out to their plates, but I could only look down at my lap and will myself not to cry aloud.

Finally, Vasier sighed. “You don’t approve of my servants?”

I scoffed and whipped my head up to look at him, eyes burning with tears. “Servants? You mean slaves.”

He wagged his head. “Sure, whatever term you’d prefer.”

I gaped at him. “You’re vile. Those poor people don’t deserve this. They don’t deserve to be your slave, whether that’s to cook you dinner or to feed you blood.”

He leaned toward me, over his plate.

“Would it make you feel better to know that they don’t suffer long?” Then his lips stretched into a wicked smile before he fell back against his chair.

I started to stand, but he sighed loud and long.

“You don’t want to do that,” he said, and dragged a lazy finger around the rim of his wine glass. “If you leave, I’ll be forced to have you held down while you watch me put one of those slaves out of their misery. It is dinnertime, after all.” He cocked his head. “Which would you prefer? To have dinner, or watch me have mine?”

I swallowed and sat back down.

I stayed silent while dinner progressed, and jumped to serve myself a ladle of greens and beef when I saw Vasier fix a stare on my empty plate. Any appetite I had dissolved at the sight of the humans, but I forced myself to eat. To ensure he didn’t hurt one of them as punishment for my disobedience, and because I wanted to remain strong. So I ate, even if it was slow and in small bites, and each one had to be swallowed past the bile in my throat.

The three of them made small talk together. Mostly about what had been happening on the island while the two Sorcerers were gone.

I couldn’t bear to listen, I forced my mind to wander to get through dinner. I tried to focus on anything else, and opted for counting.

It was a mindless and repetitive task that I knew would numb my brain until I was able to pretend that none of this was happening.

I counted how many times I heard the fire crackle on my right, behind Lauden. How many times I chewed each bite. How many bites I took. How many times Vasier interrupted what Sage was saying to speak to Lauden. How many times Lauden did the same. Until I was addressed.

“Evaline, do you need anything from Rominia?”

I jumped at the name of the kingdom and looked up in confusion.

“What?”

Vasier waved a hand toward Sage as the other hand dropped his napkin on his empty plate.

“Sage is going to go back and get some of hers and Lauden’s belongings. She can get something for you. Something sentimental?”

“I…” My mouth hung open as I tried to process his question.

Sentimental.

Maddox was sentimental. Seeing Wyott and Cora, that was sentimental.

I swallowed. “The only items I have of sentimental value are my weapons. And you took those from me.” I didn’t dare mention my mother’s locket. It still sat on the counter of mine and Maddox’s bathing chamber, but I didn’t trust Sage to bring it back to me.

Sage cringed as she looked down at her hands.

I’d spent the last few days mourning the betrayal, and my loss. Grieving over the friends and family I feared I’d never see again.

And now, at Vasier’s words, the sorrow stampeded back to the surface, and I had to push it away.

At least I’d said goodbye to Cora and Wyott, even if I’d only anticipated being gone a few days and not, potentially, forever.

But I didn’t get to say goodbye to Maddox. I didn’t want the Vasi to know where I was going, that I’d been trying to bring Maddox back. But now, all I wanted was to see him one last time. To say goodbye, even if his eyes were still red. Hopefully, he was still inside, still fighting. Hopefully, my blood helped with that.

My heart lurched at the thought.

My blood. He could only drink my blood.

I tried to steady my heart, schooled my features, and turned my stare to Vasier. “There is one thing.”

His brows rose. “What is it? We want you to be happy here Evaline, if there’s something we can get you to help with that, we’re ready to do so.”

“I want Sage to take my blood and leave it in Rominia. I want her to take it there, regularly.”

Vasier seemed genuinely surprised by that and leaned forward onto his elbows.

“Why in the name of the Gods would you want her to do that?”

I swallowed. There was no use in keeping it a secret anymore. He already had me.

“Maddox can only feed from me. Even as a Vasi.”

His head tilted forward, brows furrowing together.

“He’s still alive?” Then his eyes cut to Sage and Lauden. “You didn’t mention that,” he snapped at the latter.

Lauden swallowed. “I figured you’d suspect as much. He’s the son of the First, they aren’t going to just kill him.”

Vasier slammed his hand on the table and lurched toward Lauden as Sage and I flinched.

“ I am the First,” he hissed. But then his eyes slid to me, and he seemed to see the tension that coiled my shoulders, and he laughed it off, dusting his hand against the table as if he were cleaning it. “You’re right. That would make sense. My brother always was a coward. Even saying goodbye would’ve been too much for him.”

I bit my tongue so hard to stop myself from spitting back a retort that I tasted blood.

Vasier settled his gaze on me again. “You want Sage to take your blood so that you can keep him alive.”

I nodded. “Yes.”

He tilted his head. “Why would you want to do something like that? This is your home, now. You will never see him again.”

I swallowed. “Just because I’m stuck here doesn’t mean he should die, Vasi or not.” I didn’t tell him the real reason, but I’d forgotten that Lauden and Sage had been there when I’d told Wyott that my blood may have been the key to bringing Maddox back.

I was reminded as much when Lauden quickly leaned toward Vasier.

“She wants him to come back. She thinks that her blood will be able to bring him back.”

Vasier narrowed his gaze at me. “Why do you think that?”

I shrugged. “Because my mother was the Creator.”

His eye twitched and he evaluated me for a long moment.

“You said you want me to be happy here. This will make me happy,” I added, and Vasier nodded, a slow smile playing over his lips.

“Deal.”

“I also want her to give them a message.”

“Evaline,” he warned.

“You can read it. I only want to tell them what happened. That way they know why Sage is dropping off the blood, and where to find it. If she doesn’t tell them they’d never know to look for it.”

He sighed, before nodding. “Fine.”

Sage wrung her hands in her lap and I watched as she tilted her head as if she were going to speak several times before she actually did.

“What if they kill me?”

Vasier snickered. “They won’t kill you, little Sorceress. Remember? The Kova don’t harm women.”

The line started jovial, but by the last word, he was sneering.

Dinner, and then dessert, played out without any more confrontation. Finally, Vasier stood to leave.

“Your escort will be here shortly,” he said to me, before leaving through the entrance that I’d come through. The door swung on its hinges but did not close, leaving me a clear view of the hallway.

Sage picked at the skin of her thumb, and Lauden lazily swirled his wine in his cup.

“Aren’t you going to leave?” I asked him.

He rolled his eyes.

“Do you really think we’re just going to leave you here alone?”

As he said the words I heard footsteps down the hall and loud laughter.

“Waiting on her hand and foot is boring as fuck,” a voice echoed from down the hall. It was the guard who’d escorted me here today. I straightened. “But it gives me a secret pleasure that I’m the one who bled him dry.” He snickered and my blood heated. “You should’ve seen the way he tried not to flinch from the pain, and tried to hide the fatigue. Vasier had me cut him—well it had to be about a thousand times. He was healing too fast.”

He and whatever Vasi he was with were laughing when they must have turned a corner and seen that the door was open. Must have assumed that Vasier would be angry if I heard that confession.

But he wouldn’t. He wanted me to know.

It’s why he left the door open.