“Did they hurt you?” I asked, softer than I’d intended.
She shook her head quickly—too quickly. “Please, miss. It’s better if you don’t resist. For all of us.”
The implication was clear: my defiance had consequences for more than just me. The Crown was too smart to torture me directly when they could hurt others instead.
“Fine,” I said, hating myself a little. “Lead the way.”
She gestured to clothes laid out on the bed—a gown in deep green with gold threading that would complement my markings perfectly. “You’re expected to change first.”
“Expected to—how exactly am I supposed to change with these?” I raised my shackled wrists, the chain between them clanking mockingly.
The girl’s face went pale. “I’ll… I’ll help you, miss.”
“This is humiliating,” I muttered, but let her assist me. Her hands shook the entire time, and she kept apologizing under her breath like this was somehow her fault.
We’d barely gotten the dress fastened when the door slammed open, making us both jump.
“Taking your sweet time, anomaly?” A Bloomguard filled the doorway—massive, with marks that crawled up his neck like diseased vines. “The Crown Prince doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”
“Maybe he should have thought of that before putting me in chains,” I shot back.
His backhand caught me across the cheek before I saw it coming, hard enough to make my ears ring. The serving girl let out a small sob.
“You speak when spoken to, Earth-trash.” He grabbed my arm, fingers digging in hard enough to bruise. “And you move when we tell you to move.”
He dragged me out of the room, the serving girl trailing behind us. More guards fell into step as we walked, and their commentary was a steady stream of cruelty.
“Look at her boys, dressed in silk like she’s Court-born.”
“The anomaly playing at nobility.”
“The Crown Prince is too generous. After what her kind has done to the realm, she should be crawling through the rot-tunnels.”
“Maybe after the binding. If her mind survives it.”
“Back off, gentlemen. The Crown Prince gets first rights,” the guard guiding my arm said, his tone making my skin crawl. “But after the ritual, after you’re properly broken in? The garrison’s been promised time with what’s left.”
“If there’s anything left,” a woman with marks spreading like disease across her face, corrected. “The last one who went through the binding ritual came out wrong. Still screaming, three days later, before the Crown Prince finally let her die.”
“This one’s different, though. Natural marks. Might last longer.”
“Might scream prettier too.”
I bit my tongue hard enough to taste blood, refusing to give them the satisfaction of a response. But inside, fear was spreading cold through my chest.
The dining hall was smaller than expected, intimate rather than grand. A table set for two dominated the space, carved from what looked like a single piece of coal-colored wood that reflected the green flames of the candles like water. The chairs were high-backed, throne-like, making me feel even smaller than I was.
Auradelle waited at the far end, rising as I entered—as if we were at a dinner party instead of a kidnapping. He wore robes that shifted between purple and black depending on how the light hit them.
“Elle,” he said, gesturing to the chair across from him. “You look lovely, dear niece. That color suits you.”
“Fuck you,” I said pleasantly, but I sat anyway since standing seemed pointless with the weight of the chains.
Servants appeared from shadows I hadn’t noticed, placing plates before us with practiced silence. The food was beautiful and wrong—fruit that glowed faintly from within, meat that might have been venison if venison bled silver, bread still warm but somehow giving off cold steam. My stomach clenched with hunger I hadn’t realized I felt, but I didn’t trust any of it.
“Such language,” he said, lifting his wine glass—the liquid inside thick and dark with an oily sheen on top. He took a deliberate sip but didn’t touch the food. “Your grandmother at least pretended to have manners.”
“Yeah, well, Arkansas didn’t exactly come with a finishing school,” I said. “You get what you get.”
