Nobody's Goddess (Never Veil #1)(63)

“The lord of the village does not move into the commune,” I said. Alvilda and Father both looked at me with puzzled expressions. I sighed. “And did Mother know what you had done?”

Father rubbed his cheek and stared at his empty bottle. “No, she was already beyond consciousness by then.” A tear trickled out of the corner of his eye; that eye seemed dark and lifeless with its dying flicker. “I didn’t know for certain until today that she truly still lived.”

“And does Elfriede know?”

Father continued to scratch his chin. “I think she knows enough. She probably pieced some of it together. She spent more time around the house than you after I told you your mother died.”

Probably because I spent most of my time outrunning carriages and deliverymen’s carts. And because she was there, almost always with Jurij.

I’d had enough of the tiresome discussion. I would say my goodbyes and be on my way. Back to that chilling castle, the closest thing I had to a home now. I stood to leave when the door burst open. Jurij and Elfriede appeared in the doorway, and before anyone could speak, Jurij swept me into his arms and held me tightly.

“Noll,” he whispered. “I didn’t know you came. We missed you.”

My hands moved numbly to squeeze him back. Elfriede, still in the doorway, wouldn’t look at me. She stood there, her eyes on the floor, one arm cradling the other against her chest. She hadn’t missed me at all. In fact, I imagined seeing her new husband in my arms was enough to make her wish she had seen the last of me when I rode off in the black carriage.

They never cared about me. Not Father, not Elfriede. They wanted me to stuff away all my hopes, all my feelings. I tried. I did. But if I’m going to accept that I’m the veiled lord’s goddess, as they want me to, then at least I’ll have one thing to remember before I lock all my happiness away.

I ran my fingers through the back of Jurij’s hair and kissed him.



The ground exploded. It cracked and groaned and roared to life. And I knew, just a moment too late, that it wasn’t the euphoria of my first kiss that made me feel as if the earth moved beneath my feet. It was actually moving and I was sent flying.

“Alvilda! Are you all right?”

I looked up to see a masked man in the doorway. He crouched near Alvilda, who must have fallen off of her chair.

“I’m fine, Jaron.” Alvilda pushed away at his chest even as he extended his hand to help her. “How is everyone else?”

I took in the shambles of Alvilda’s home and shop. Furniture tipped over, carvings fell off the mantle, and some of the artwork was on the floor and split in two. Her tools lay scattered about the room. On the ground, Father rubbed his elbow. Jurij lay on Elfriede’s lap beside the doorway. Elfriede wept. Jurij was moaning and a trickle of blood ran down his face.

And I was clear across the room, dazed but uninjured. It was as if the ground had moved solely to split Jurij and me apart.

And as I thought that, I knew that it had. That he had made it so.

Why did I do that? Goddess help me. I’m sorry, Jurij. I’m sorry, Elfriede.

But when I thought of how much the lord had overreacted to my inability to Return to him, I wasn’t very sorry to have hurt him.

Although only two specters had brought me to the wedding, half a dozen filed into the home now. I blinked and swore I saw even more of them piling into the road outside.

Alvilda scrambled to stand beside me, elbowing Jaron as he tried to restrain her. He didn’t succeed, but he trailed after her, only one step behind.

“What’s going on here?” Alvilda demanded of the specters. She still hadn’t learned that she couldn’t take them in a fight.

“Alvilda—” began Jaron.

“Be quiet until I tell you to speak again!” snapped Alvilda.

Jaron spoke no more.

The specters moved around Alvilda and seized me, propping me up. Alvilda launched herself at them, but the specters weren’t bothered in the slightest. Jaron wrapped his arms around the kicking, snarling Alvilda but had no choice but to let her go when she ordered it. Two specters took Jaron’s place and grabbed Alvilda to restrain her, if only to stop her from yipping at them.

“I apologize for being so late to the celebration.”

Alvilda ceased struggling. Even Elfriede stopped weeping. All eyes but those of the specters turned toward the black figure that had entered the room.

“Congratulations, my dear,” said the lord, extending his hand downward toward the weeping Elfriede. She looked back at him, confused, her eyes still swollen with tears.

The lord pulled his hand back, not bothered by Elfriede’s lack of reaction. “What an accident!” said the lord. My gaze fled to the fallen Jurij on Elfriede’s lap. The blood I’d noticed earlier extended clear across his left cheek. His left eye was swollen and clamped tightly shut. A bloodied gouge lay on the ground beside him.

The lord waved his hand in their direction and a few more specters entered the already crowded home to sweep Jurij from Elfriede’s lap and carry him outside. Jurij moaned as he disappeared from view. Moments later, a black carriage passed by the open doorway, silently slipping away from sight.

What have I done?

“Fret not, my dear,” said the lord to Elfriede. “My servants shall attend to him.” He crouched down and cupped Elfriede’s chin in one gloved hand. “There, there. You have to smile. Today is your wedding day. And was it not kind of me to allow your sister to attend?”