This love is like a curse (30)
A large man's hand slowly slid over her stomach over the soft fabric. It was a movement as if he was touching something that belonged to him.
—You use the same incense as your mother. The same aroma emanated from Madame Senevier's hair. Once you breathe it in, you become obsessed... Constantly... constantly looking for it again.
The man's hand groped towards her chest.
Thalia instinctively jerked, trying to escape from his hands. But the man did not move.
He pressed her to him from behind and pressed his wet, hot lips to the skin under her earlobe. It seemed as if a larva had attached itself to the skin and was sucking out the juices.
The waist tensed and began to beat as if in convulsions.
The man roughly threw her onto the soft carpet, crushing her with all his weight.
She waved her arms and legs like a person drowning in water. The table overturned, and the tower of puzzles that had been put together over several hours crumbled. She, trying to crawl away, tried with all her might to escape from under the savage who pressed her to the floor, but he grabbed her by the ankles and sharply pulled her towards himself.
Thalia looked at him in horror. A primal fear gripped her - from the realization that someone could so easily immobilize her.
“Calm down... try not to move,” he said, squeezing her wrists with one hand and grabbing her chin with the other.
She desperately tried to turn away, but could not move. He pressed her cheeks, forcing her to open her mouth, and roughly pushed his thick tongue inside.
Her throat tightened in disgust. It seemed as if a huge slug had entered her mouth.
She didn't have the courage to take a bite of that disgusting thing. Tears welled up in her eyes and she choked on sobs. The man, pressing his muscular body to her, breathed greedily, excited.
- Ah... Madame Senevier... how I missed you...
His hand crawled under her skirt. The touch of a hard palm on bare skin made her body tremble.
A fear came over me, comparable to the fear of death. She felt long, hard fingers penetrate deep between her thighs.
From the burning pain inside, Talia opened her mouth like a fish thrown onto land. The man, pressing his sticky lips to her face, croaked:
- No need to tremble so much. The pain will not last long. Even Your Highness will soon be moaning with pleasure...
And suddenly the oppressive heaviness disappeared, as if it had never existed. Thalia instinctively crawled into the corner. For several seconds she could not understand what had happened.
Only a moment later did she see Longboat in the uniform of the Knights of Roem, who was squeezing the rapist's head with one hand, beating him mercilessly.
The scene was so surreal that Talia was speechless. The man’s neat face was now disfigured, blood was gushing from the abrasions, as if he had been dragged along a rough wall. Rattles escaped from the wide-open mouth, distorted in pain.
- W-wait... I... wanted to talk...
Longboat roughly pulled him by the hair and forcefully slammed his head against the wall. There were dull blows and the man’s face turned into a bloody mess. Thalia had a hard time holding back a scream.
“Talia,” Barkas spoke calmly, without taking his eyes off his bloody face. - Go to the room.
His voice was so smooth that it was hard to believe that it belonged to the one who had just shown such cruelty. Therefore, Talia did not immediately understand that he was addressing her. Only when her gaze met his eyes - blue as the sky, covered in an ashen haze - did she realize that these words were addressed to her.
“Talia Roem Girtha,” Barkas added slowly, almost coldly, for the first time daring to say the princess’s name out loud. -Didn't you hear? I said go to the room.
She was still sitting in the corner, staring at him. Then he suddenly roared:
- Alive!
At that same moment, a burning sensation, like sparks, ran through her body.
She rushed out of the office like a driven horse, ran into the bedroom and dived under the thick blanket. My whole body ached.
She rubbed her skin furiously, as if trying to erase the slimy traces of her tongue and hard palms from it. First her neck, then her chest, then her hips—indiscriminately, she began to beat herself with her fists.
It was terrible. This man. His touch. The fact that Barkas saw her in this form. Everything was disgusting.
She hit her thighs so furiously that bruises appeared on her skin, and then buried her face in the pillow and let out an animal sob bursting from her chest.
She didn’t know how much time had passed. But suddenly I felt the presence of someone else. Sharply raising her head, she saw Longboat standing at the door. As always - not a single wrinkle in my clothes, not a drop of embarrassment in my posture. Perfection.
“You won’t have to see him again,” he said coolly.
Talia, blinking her blurry eyes, asked in a trembling voice:
-...Killed?
Longboat's eyebrows trembled barely noticeably. After a short pause he spoke again:
“He will be banished forever.” Until the end of his days he will not be able to appear either in the capital or in any other big city...
At that moment, the last threads of reason were severed. Thalia grabbed a pillow and threw it at his face.
- Why?! Why did you spare him?! You should have killed him! He should have been slaughtered like a beast! Cut off these dirty hands that touched me! Tear out that vile tongue that...!
She screamed as if she had gone crazy, but suddenly she grabbed her throat and began to tremble finely. It seemed as if someone was squeezing her throat, not allowing her to breathe.
- If he stays alive... he will definitely return. He will come again to trample me. He wants to defile me... He... he said it himself... it's like he's obsessed... he can't stop... he can't stop looking...
A strangled sob suddenly escaped from her throat.
Talia covered her sobbing face with her hands and began to breathe heavily. Then, as if in a frenzy, she began throwing everything she could get her hands on at him.
- Useless bastard! I don't need someone like you! Get out! Disappear! Out of my sight...!
She threw books, figurines and everything that was nearby until she suddenly held her breath. A candlestick, picked up at random, flew towards Longboat's head with a dull ringing sound.
A heavy metal object cut his forehead and temple and fell to the floor with a roar.
Thalia watched, fascinated, as the scarlet blood flowed down his pale cheek and neck.
A strange sound, half a groan, escaped from his throat:
- Ah... ah...
The longboat, looking down at her coldly, slowly turned around.
At that moment, her body seemed to be doused with icy water - the cold penetrated to the very bones.
Thalia jumped out of bed, rushing to stop him. But he had already left the room.
She remained looking into the dark corridor, and then collapsed on the floor, as if exhausted.
I wanted to fall through the ground.
Longboat saved her. And she... used him to vent her pain. It would be strange if he didn't feel disgusted. Naturally, he had to hate her.
With a face distorted by agony, she buried herself in the carpet and burst into hot tears.
From that day on, Longboat no longer appeared in front of her. Several months passed before Talia saw him again - at the ceremony of appointing commander of the empire's knightly order.
She watched from afar as he stood before the emperor, down on one knee, and without a trace of emotion read out the oath of allegiance.
Her father placed the sword of the empire on his shoulder and in a solemn tone proclaimed him the head of the imperial guard.
An unheard of high position for a young man who was not even twenty. But no one dared to doubt his dignity.
The longboat slowly turned around and began to descend the steps. Light poured through the glass ceiling onto his face, like torrential rain of sunlight.
She captured this moment in her memory down to the smallest detail.
The longboat walked, straightening his back, through the crowd. His cold profile slid past her indifferently.
She looked after him and muttered quietly:
- Goodbye.
And then she involuntarily added:
- Don't go.
Her eyes were treacherously clouded with tears, and she squeezed her eyelids. When I opened them again, he was no longer there.
The boy her mother gave her seven years ago has left her life.