Page 33 of The Hunchback
Frollo exhaled loudly, and some of his anger bled out. “Look, I will not pretend to understand how difficult, isolated, and confining your life must feel. But mingling with others willneverbe a possibility for you. And youneedto stay away from Esmeralda.”
My head jerked up, and I glared at him in outrage. He sustained my gaze, his hard and unwavering.
“I realize that you are no longer a child and that, as an adult male you have certain… needs. It was my failure not to account for that sooner, and I will do my best to remedy that,” Frollo said, somewhat stiffly. “But Esmeralda is not for you. She’s a stunning woman with a heart of gold. But do not confuse compassion with romantic interest.”
I lifted my chin with defiance. “I assure you, Praetor, what Esmeralda feels for me isn’t compassion.”
He recoiled and stared at me as if I’d lost my mind. “You think she’s falling foryou? You think she would refuse the Grand Magister of Parisandthe High-Seraph of the Elysium foryou?”
“I don’tthink, I know,” I said with arrogance, a smug smile stretching my lips.
Frollo took a step back, a look of horror slowly dawning on his face. “Kwazeem… what have you done?” he whispered. His face took on a pleading expression that had my stomach knot with worry. “Tell me you haven’t touched her? Tell me you did not defile her?”
My anger flared at that last comment. “My love for her, or hers for me isn’t vile or foul. You and the rest of the population may not deem me worthy of Esmeralda, but she sees beyond this body. I am not a monster, I am a man!” I shouted, slapping my chest with both palms.
“THIS ISN’T ABOUT SENTIMENTS, YOU FOOL!” Frollo yelled. “You are a Fallen. Your DNA is a death sentence to a Vestal! Do you not remember what started the war between the Elohim and your people?”
I blinked at him, confused. “A Fallen ran away with the previous High Seraph’s mate. What does that have to do with anything? Esmeralda wasn’t mated to anyone before choosing me.”
“Before choosing you…” Frollo breathed out, as if speaking to himself.
Pale, looking almost haggard, he stumbled to the nearest couch and let himself fall into it. I’d never seen him look so crushed, so defeated. The sense of unease came back with a vengeance, laced with a certain amount of hurt. Yes, he had wanted her for himself. But couldn’t he even muster a sliver of happiness for me that I could have found my soulmate, against all odds?
Frollo snorted and shook his head with a sad smile. “Tell me Kwazeem, didyourmatelook tired when you last parted ways?”
I stiffened, a sense of dread washing over me as my mind was flooded with images of Esmeralda looking weary as she stood at the entrance of the forge, staring at me.
“She did, didn’t she?” Frollo asked, although it was more of a statement. The look of hurt, betrayal, and sadness on his face clawed at me as my anxiety climbed another notch. “You’ve killed us all, Kwazeem. All three of us.”
“Stop with your damn riddles and speak plainly!” I exclaimed at last, exasperated.
“The war didn’t start because a Fallen stole High Seraph’s Galleus’s mate—he would have merely hunted and killed him for that. The war started because Arahzor, the Fallen in question, drained Armina of her Divine Light. Why do you think your people used to be called Light Eaters as often as Light Bearers?” Frollo snapped. “You feed off the Light of the Elohim. Once they’d run away, without the Elohim to feed him, Arahzor devoured all that Armina had, severing her link to Vesta.”
“What do you mean?” I whispered, memories of gorging on Esmeralda’s Light as I passionately made love to her flooding my mind. It had been like a drug, a divine nectar that could only pacify the unquenchable thirst within me.
“Meaning that he had turned an Anointed Vestal into a commoner,” Frollo spat out. “She was never again able to summon the elements, her ergokinetic powers snuffed out forever.” He rose to his feet looking at me with barely contained seething rage. “Do you know what will happen when Esmeralda is unable to perform the Grand Chakra Ceremony on the plaza in two days or any other of her Vestal tasks in the following days? Do you think Phoebus will sit by idly when he finds out the one female he’d wanted as a consort has been thus defiled?”
“But… I have been enhancing her power,” I argued feebly, refusing to believe my love for Esmeralda could have caused such a horrible thing.
“There is no such thing as a Fallen—”
“I HAVE!” I repeated forcefully. “Esmeralda has awakened a power inside me I didn’t know I had, and she confirmed thatIhave made hers significantly more powerful than ever before. That first night in the chapel while she Chanted, she fed offmyenergy, and hers fueled mine in return, which accelerated my symptoms. At the Festival, that same link formed between us which made her so incredibly powerful, and me so ill, so fast. Even the first time I kissed her, days before the Festival, I hadn’t drained her. You must be wrong.”
My arguments sounded logical to me, but I was also grasping at straws. If what Frollo had said was true, it would devastate her, and it would crush me.
“For all our sakes, I hope you are right,” Frollo said, in a cold voice. “Where’s my syringe case?”
Lips pinched, jaw clenched, I bit back the comment thatIshould keep it, not him. But I’d pushed him enough for one day. Anyway, now that I’d finally been able to examine it closely at my leisure, I’d be able to replicate a kit of my own to no longer be at his mercy. With a strategically placed set of mirrors, I might even be able to perform the procedure on my own.
Without a word, I turned on my heel and marched to my bedroom to retrieve the case. After I returned and handed it over to him, I kicked myself mentally for not having disposed of the contents of the vials. Although she hadn’t said it in so many words, Esmeralda had hinted at Frollo making use of it in a more than questionable way.
He took the case from my hands, opened it, and examined its contents. The odd glimmer in his eyes as he stared at the vials filled to the brim with the silvery liquid sparkling as if it had captured all the stars in the sky made me further regret I hadn’t disposed of it.
“I want you to leave Paris,” Frollo said in a calm voice, devoid of emotion.
My heart sank.
“What?” I whispered, staring at him in shock.