For the first time since this conversation began, his lips curve. Not a warm smile, not something human—something darker, amused, like I’ve finally asked the only question that matters.
He takes a step toward me. Then another. Each one slow, unhurried, like a predator closing the space between him and prey that has nowhere left to run.
When he reaches me, he lowers his head, his breath ghosting across the shell of my ear.
“You already are,ogonek.”
The words slither down my spine, cold and hot at once. Goosebumps erupt across my skin, my breath catching before I can stop it.
Something in me wants to jerk away. Another part of me—something dangerous, traitorous—won’t let me move. He’s too close, too beautiful, too terrifying. That sculpted face, the quiet power in the way he carries himself, the command in his every word.
It’s obscene, how much I notice it now, how much my body reacts.
But I can’t forget what he is. What he’s doing. He isn’t offering me a choice. He’s handing me a death sentence dressed up as a vow.
One way or the other, he will own me.
And if that’s the truth, then I’d better make the right choice.
I grew up on survival. I know how to bend when the wind is strong, how to find light in the smallest crack, how to keep breathing even when the world tries to choke me. My instincts are honed to precision, sharpened by years of clawing my way through.
Every second I’m alive right now is mine only because I’ve learned to take it. Every breath I draw is a calculation.
So I do the only thing left to me.
I lift my chin, even as my heart slams against my ribs.
I will marry him. But on my own terms.
I force myself to ask, “Are you doing all of this just to protect me? Why ruin your own life by marrying me when I’m nothing—just an unimportant employee?”
His eyes narrow, unreadable, like he’s measuring how close I dare to dance to the fire. For a long, terrifying beat, he says nothing.
Then, smoothly, he tilts his head. “If you truly don’t care about your ex,ogonek, then sleeping in my bed, wearing my ring, should mean nothing to you.”
My stomach twists. My throat dries. He doesn’t blink, doesn’t move, doesn’t let me look away.
“What’s in this for you?” I whisper, my voice trembling despite every effort to hold it steady.
That’s when he smiles—slow, sharp, terrifying. He steps closer, close enough for me to feel his breath ghost my skin.
“I don’t trust you,” he murmurs, voice like steel wrapped in velvet. “But I would rather you bleed for me…than against me.”
Goosebumps race down my arms. He isn’t saving me. He’s binding me. And I know, with bone-deep certainty, that whatever choice I make now will cost me my soul.
“I’ll marry you.”
The words leave my lips and hang in the air like smoke.
He doesn’t smile. Doesn’t even blink. No triumph. No regret. Just…blank. He pulls away, turns like he’s already done with me.
“We get married tonight.”
Panic scrapes up my throat. “No.” My voice cracks, but I force it to be firm. “This is probably going to be my only marriage in this lifetime, and I…I can’t get married just like that, with no one I love around me.”
He stops mid-step, shoulders taut, and slants me a cold glare over his shoulder. “Excuse me?”
“Yes.” I nod quickly, heart pounding so hard I feel it in my teeth. “If you’re going to take my freedom from me, at least do me the favor of making it magical.”
