Noc’s voice.
He couldn’t be here. I had to have blacked out.
“Who are you?” my father asked.
“Get Frey.” Noc’s voice ordered.
“You’ll do no such thing!” my father snapped, his deep voice no longer astonished but annoyed.
“Fucking get Frey!” Noc demanded.
“You’ll mind your betters,” my father hissed.
A moment of nothing before, “Goddamn…get…Frey.”
The pain drove deep as I chanced looking over my shoulder and saw Josette disappear from the doorway.
I also saw Noc, fury carved in his handsome features, moving to me.
How was he there?
Why was he there?
The pain remained, I couldn’t have slipped into oblivion.
Thus he was bloody there.
“Know your place!” my father commanded on a near-shout. “Remove yourself from this room this instant!”
Noc didn’t remove himself from the room. He arrived at my front, his eyes holding mine.
His voice came as a shock, precisely the gentleness running through it that belied the look of wrath seated deep in his eyes. “Let go of the hook, baby.”
“This is beyond the pale, a servant intruding on private matters of members of the most powerful House in Lunwyn!” my father decreed loudly.
“Frannie, sweetheart,” Noc whispered, ignoring Papa, and I felt his hand touch light at my waist, “let go of the hook.”
“Intolerable!” my father bit out. “Franka, is this domestic your lover?” he demanded.
“No,” I answered my father hoarsely. “You must go, Noc,” I whispered to Noc, not wishing to whisper, but I had the strength for nothing more. “Please. You must. It will be worse if he doesn’t get to finish. I need to complete my punishment.”
A flare of rage blazed in his eyes but he simply repeated, “Let go of the hook. Hold on to me.”
“I need to endure or they’ll turn to Kristian,” I told him.
“Please, baby, let go. I got you,” Noc replied.
“Stand back,” my father ordered.
“You must go,” I went on.
“Promise, Franka, I got you,” Noc said.
“Stand bloody back!” my father commanded, his voice no longer affronted and annoyed.
No, it was much worse.
At the warning of it, sheer terror coursed through me, almost paralyzing.
“You must go,” I declared. “Now or he’ll—”
As I spoke my last, my father thundered, “Stand back!”
But through his thunder, I heard the whistle of the whip.
I knew he’d repositioned and I knew his aim.
It was not me.
Therefore I did what I did next automatically, without thinking. I did something I never did. Not since I was a youngster. Not since I’d learned how vile it was, what I had in me, what my mother gave to me, what I took great pains to hide, using intrigue and torment like weapons not only as was expected of a Drakkar, not only as a way to hold others at bay so they wouldn’t be touched by the darkness of my soul, but as a way to conceal the true power I held.
I let go of the hook and twisted. Unable to bury my cry of pain when the fire of the movement tore through my back, I lifted a hand and swept it wide and high, the sapphire glow bursting forth, the tip of my father’s lash glancing against it, sending it back where it tore through the skin of his face.
He fell back in surprise and pain, his feet slipping from under him, landing on his arse.
That would not mean good things for me.
But at least he’d not landed the whip on Noc.
“Holy fuck,” Noc whispered.
I turned back to Noc urgently.
“You must go. I’ve done wrong. Kristian has done wrong. I must endure or they’ll turn their attention to Kristian and he won’t endure, Noc. He won’t. And I must protect him.”
“Franka, who the fuck is that guy?” Noc asked.
His look of shock barely penetrated when I answered, “My father. And I must complete the punishment. I must.”
“Baby, this shit is whacked.” He started to unbutton his shirt. “Let’s get you covered. Frey can deal with him. Let’s see if this place has a doc—”
I’d heard my father scramble up, felt his fury sparking the air, and I instantly lifted my hands to the hook, curling my fingers around.
“I’ll endure,” I announced to Papa. “Don’t hurt Noc. I will not fall. Tell her. Tell her I’m still standing.”
Noc’s hand returned to my waist and curled in. “Baby—”
I looked in his eyes. “He’ll break. Kristian will break. I must—”
“She’s used her magic, Anneka,” my father said from behind me and terror gripped me because I knew he was sharing this with my mother.
“No!” I cried. “Recommence! I will not fall!”
“Go to the boy,” my father ordered.
Gods!
Kristian!
“No!” I shrieked.
“What the bloody hell?” Frey’s voice came from the direction of the door.
I let go of the hook and whirled to my cousin.
Lifting my arms crossed in front of me to cover my bared breasts, I beseeched, “You must stop her! You must command the elves! You must bring the green witch! She’s going to Kristian. He’ll break. The green witch must go there and stop her.”
Frey’s face was a picture of disbelief and distress as he stood in the doorway staring at me, Josette cowering behind him.
“Explain what’s happening,” he bit out tightly.