CHAPTER 148: STORM WRAPPED IN ALE

The tears increased...got worse and soaked Percy’s shoulder.

Each time Kali tried to stop, she remembered how she couldn’t stand up for herself earlier and had been weak. The tears poured, stemming from the depth of her heart. From the darkness that raged a storm within her.

Kali hated that she had been weak in the face of her oppressors. She hated that she had almost cried in front of those men, she had stuttered. Shown fragility!

It was because she didn’t expect to see those men anywhere near their estate. To see them suddenly at the start of her day. It’s been years since she left her mother and all of her patrons. All her past life behind. Except someone had invited them into the estate knowing Rhane had traveled.

When Kali stopped crying, she wiped her eyes with Percy’s shirt and exhaled. Taking two steps away from the young man.

"What are you doing here?" Kali asked with a cold voice, her eyes dead and blank.

Percy gulped softly; he didn’t understand how emotions could swiftly change in seconds. He’d been caught by surprise when Kali fell into his arms, at first he was scared she’d tease him and then hit him. He wanted to save himself by pushing her away but she held him even closer.

Then he heard her sobs. It wasn’t just heart wrenching, something about it made him want to gather her up in his arms and console her. Percy was skeptical, Kali wasn’t just any woman. She was storm wrapped in ale.

Nobody, especially not Percy understood Kali and what triggers her. So Percy stood there contemplating what to do with her. To do with a strong woman crumbling in his arms. And just when he lifted his hand to hold her, Kali sniffled and moved back. Percy dropped his hands to his side.

Kali’s eyes held Percy’s gaze captive, as if daring him to look away.

"I came-" Percy coughed when he heard the strangeness of his own voice. He sounded like he’d been trapped in a box for days.

"Your brother, Rhane...he asked me to tail Lord Nikolai." Percy replied, "He suspected his movement so he asked me to find out what it was and report back to him. It was following Lord Nikolai that brought me here...I didn’t just come on my own accord."

Kali sized up the young man, giving him a quick nod. "You’ll have my brother know that this is not the first of his visits. I have reasons to believe that devil of a man has his eyes on the estate."

Percy finally blinked when Kali turned, he wanted to reach his hand forward and touch her face. Ask her what happened and had broken her to the point of crying. Percy didn’t know why but he wanted to know.

When Kali turned and saw the expression Percy had, she snarled. "If my brother should hear of what happened today...I will enjoy crippling you."

Percy pressed his lips and nodded. "I will only let him know of Lord Nikolai’s visit."

"You will." Kali replied with a stern voice. She glanced at the young man’s worn out boots, then back at his face. "And my brother? How are things going with him?"

"He..." Percy opened his mouth. He wanted to tell Kali of the hunting and what had happened. Even how Rhane had lost his points to Gerald but he thought better and closed his mouth. Instead he said,

"You know Rhane...he’s the best in everything. I’m sure before I return he’d have won my mistress as his wife and we’ll be on our way back."

Percy noticed how Kali’s face brightened at his words and he smiled. Seeing that she was already having a hard time Percy didn’t want to make it worse.

"He’ll be back..." Kali repeated, trying to hide her excitement but it still showed. Using the back of her hand, she wiped the tears that lingered on her lashes. "That’s right! Rhane is better than any man out there. He will always return home."

Kali’s words were made more for her reassurance than to Percy.

"You should head back and help him, if he’ll return with his wife he will need help. And tell him exactly what I have said." Kali said, getting ready to head back to her room.

Percy hesitated, "I can still stay until tomorrow and-"

"There is no room for that, take the carriage and go back." Kali interrupted. "Leave."

Percy stared at the woman, she was tall, her voice hard and chilling. With the rough features that would scare any man, A wolfcut black hair, with matching eyes color. A scar on her upper lips and lots of piercings on her ears and nose. Maybe the features were to hide her beauty so it doesn’t make it the first thing anyone saw, but beyond that what Percy still saw was just a girl.

"I’ll leave." Percy settled. Without looking back, he turned and left the place.

Kali who had acted uninterested when Percy left, turned and walked slowly towards the gate. She watched in silence his carriage disappearing in a distance.

She hated it, how fragile she looked whenever she was around him. Kali didn’t want that to happen. Once she breaks her walls and let any man in, it’d be the beginning of another hell for her. She had known men...and she knew exactly what they could do when they’re let in.

With that Kali retired back to her room, to get ready properly for the day. And if those men with Nikolai still remained, she was sure this time she’d risk everything just to have them buried alive.

. . .

"Idiots!" Nikolai flung a heavy jar across the room directed at the men who now knelt with their head bowed.

"All you had to do was one thing! Get her to be weak...make her a fragile woman with words. Break her until she can no longer stand but you failed and even that is an understatement."

Pacing from one end of the room to another, Nikolai ruffled his hair. Frustration adding wrinkles to his tired face.

"What could we have done, Lord Nikolai?" One of the men dared to ask. "She...she changed. No longer the child we knew....did you see the look on her face? She could have killed us."

Nikolai stormed towards the man that had spoken then kicked him with force. "Then keep breaking her until she seeks solace in death itself."

It’s all over. Nikolai thought to himself, wiping the beads of sweat on his forehead. He’d thought that Kali would be very easy to break. Just a little girl with a snarl and rogue spirit. Bringing back her old fears and pain should have done the job but it didn’t.

Nikolai exhaled with force, there was only one last option and it was to have Rhane killed. Nikolai made his way to the door, he needed to return to the tournament before the final event. So he-

"Lord Nikolai...what about our pay?"

Nikolai turned, giving the men a deathly glare. He exited the estate, walking briskly to his horse. If the drinking contest was first before the trial of veil, then the plan he made earlier before leaving would yield fruits.

No man with clouded minds would survive the rough mountains. Rhane’s death was Nikolai’s final rope.