My jaw clenches. This resyn stuff is bullshit. I mean, it is keeping Prys away, which is something positive, but still. If even slimeballs like him are going to abide by it, it is going to be impossible to shake off.
“I thought they’d be performing,” whispers Llywelyn, sounding defeated.
“It’s okay,” I whisper back. “Let’s get out of here.”
Llywelyn’s back stiffens and for a moment, I think he is going to be a stubborn ass. But thankfully, he turns and takes us back to his rooms.
As soon as he steps through the double doors, he drops my leash and his antlers vanish. I open my mouth to say something, but there is a knock on the door.
Whirling, I fling it open. Prys ignores me and steps inside before I can slam the door in his face.
“Your Highness,” he bows low. “I’m so sorry I could not invite you to my table.”
Llywelyn stares at him. “I am a resyn, you had no choice.”
Prys prowls forward. “There is always a choice,” he purrs. “I should have acknowledged your magnificence.”
Llywelyn blinks slowly. He doesn’t reply.
“You are looking especially beautiful today, if I may say so, Your Highness.”
My fists clench. What a fucking creep.
Llywelyn shakes himself as if escaping a stupor. “Would you care to join me for some tea?”
I can’t see Prys’s face, but I just know that the smirk spreading across his thin lips is pure evil.
“It will be my greatest pleasure.”
Scowling, I watch as Prys joins Llywelyn at the table. Tae appears out of nowhere with a silver serving trolley laden with tea things. Quietly, I help him set the table while Llywelyn and Prys engage in polite small talk.
Tae takes the empty trolley away and I settle by Llywelyn’s feet. I hate this. But there might be an opportunity to learn something. The silver lining on this dark cloud.
So I make myself as unobtrusive as possible, and I observe. It very quickly becomes apparent that Prys is a genius.
A frigging mastermind at being a slimeball. Someone who can read people and play them. An expert manipulator.
Somehow, merely from watching Llywelyn stroll around the games room, he has discerned that Llywelyn is even more vulnerable than usual. And he is here to pounce. I don’t know if he merely wants to fuck Llywelyn for the bragging rights, to add another prince-shaped notch to his bedpost, or if he has something even more sinister in mind. He could be planning on getting Llywelyn completely under his thrall, making him his own puppet prince.
Whatever the motive, he is racing expertly towards the goal. He is throwing compliments and attention at the lonely prince. Love bombing like a true professional.
Llywelyn, to his credit, put up far more deflection than I would have thought him capable of. But now he is staring at Prys with wide eyes.
An abused puppy watching someone holding out a treat. There is so much desperate yearning in Llywelyn’s golden eyes that it is making me sick. He should be looking at me like that, not Prys.
I stare up at Llywelyn for too long. I can’t help it. He notices me staring and looks down at me. Golden eyes swirl with pain, loss and grief. Then he looks back at Prys, leaving me sitting at his feet, gasping for breath.
Oh my god. I’m such an idiot. I’m supposed to be good with people. It is my fucking job. How the fuck did I mess up so spectacularly?
Fuck.
Llywelyn lost his shit and smashed up his rooms. He behaved like a toddler. Acted like an asshole and then broke down completely.
And… I didn’t go to him. He cried all night alone in his bed and I never came. I didn’t hold him.
I thought I was giving him space. Tae thought that is what he needed.
Llywelyn thinks it means I’ve had enough of him.
