Nobody's Goddess (Never Veil #1)(27)

“That decree was my own doing, and I am delighted to at last be free from the order. For what would become of me had you not ventured here, against all counsel? What is your name?” he asked.

“Noll,” I whispered. My lips froze as they brushed against the icy surface of his ear.

His hand stopped stroking my head and balled into a fist around some of my hair. It hurt a bit, but I couldn’t express my alarm. My voice choked at the realization of what was happening.

“Olivière,” his voice croaked through the darkness. Somehow he knew my full name, the girly name I couldn’t stand to hear spoken. Like the vision in the cavern.

“Oh, Olivière,” he spoke again, his voice trembling. He let go of my hair and wrapped both arms so tightly around me, I thought he must have worried that I would float away.

And then I knew he would never again let me go.



He let me go home that night, but I could never truly be my own again, never truly be out of his embrace. Four months had passed since the lord of the village had found the goddess in me. I was only half a year away from turning seventeen.

And Mother was dying.

Before my thoughts were consumed with Mother’s illness, I found myself bitterly thinking like Ingrith said she once did, hoping at the very least that the news of my foolish trespass might spark some jealousy in Elfriede—what was a scrawny, puppy-face boy compared to the lord of the village?—or some kind of regret in Jurij that I, too, had someone else to love me.

But I was lying to myself. A scrawny, puppy-face boy was everything. And Elfriede and Jurij were so dreadfully excited for me. It was the only time they bothered to spare me any thought as of late.

“Wasn’t Mother right? We all knew your man would find you. And soon you can have your Returning and be as happy as me.”

“Now you know the joys that exist between a man and his goddess! Now you know real love.”

Their happiness was like the fangs of a monster, tearing into the defenseless flesh of the queen who’d foolishly set out to slay the beast, only to meet her own doom.

I couldn’t get used to the idea that I was somebody’s goddess. Not just anybody’s goddess, either. But it was so far from what I’d wanted I didn’t know what to do. Not only was Jurij’s curse unbroken, but I left the castle that night knowing my future. Knowing I had someone to Return to.

Because no one seemed to consider that I might not want to Return to him.

My only refuge was Alvilda’s workshop, as far west from the castle as one could get, short of living in the commune.

Alvilda’s trade had once been secondary to Father’s, considering she took it up only after refusing her Returning. However, since my mother’s illness, Father was less inclined to work than ever and only did so when Mother was conscious enough to remind him. Alvilda stepped right up to fill in the void, and she got most of the real work these days. At least Father was too far gone to care. In fact, he helped her from time to time. Or just gave her a tool he no longer felt he needed. Mostly because he no longer felt like working.

I knocked and let myself in at the usual call of “No masked men here, come in!” Master Tailor sometimes visited his sister, and he could take his mask off in front of her.

But she failed to warn me that an unmasked man was there.

“Noll! What brings you here?” Alvilda looked up from her work—an ornate bed headboard, I believed. The smile that flashed over her features was genuine, although she couldn’t be torn from her work for long.

Jurij and Elfriede were seated at the small dining table, eating. The table was covered with a thin layer of sawdust that belied how often Alvilda really used the table for its intended purpose.

Elfriede laid the rest of her crispel on the table and wrinkled her nose. “Good day, Noll.” At least I think that was what she said. Elfriede’s gentle voice and Alvilda’s tools running across the wood made for a bad combination. If I care to hear what she has to say, anyway. I shook my head. I was being awful. It wasn’t so bad when we were home without Jurij and she could tell me how happy she was that “my man” had found the goddess in me. But whenever Jurij showed up, I felt like there was nothing but frost in the air between us.

I’d spent the morning in the garden, trying not to think about anything, to little avail. I saw Elfriede leaving with a basket, and I figured she was off to fetch her man. I didn’t figure on encountering them here.

It’s almost like she knows what you told Jurij. She probably did.

“Good day,” I said at last. “Didn’t know you were here.”

“Gideon sent us on a quest,” said Jurij as he shoved the rest of the cheese in his mouth.

Alvilda laughed as she ran her file back and forth against the large rough edge that remained on the future headboard. “Not one of those monster-hunting quests, is it?”

It was my turn to smile. “No, we haven’t been on one of those in a while.”

Elfriede spoke at the same time, and rather loudly. “I always thought those games were rather stupid.”

I opened my mouth to point out that her “beloved” enjoyed those games she found rather stupid, but I thought better.

Jurij looked first at Elfriede and then at me. I was surprised he was able to tear his eyes off her for someone as unimportant as me. He stretched and stood from the table, strolling over to examine some of the pieces of wooden art that lined Alvilda’s walls from one side to the next. Jurij pointed to one of the pieces. “Have you ever seen this one, Noll?”