“No...”
My legs give out, and I fall to my knees, a desperate sound bursting from my throat.
“Look what you did, Auren!”
I flinch at his angry accusation as I look behind me, finding Midas shoving off the heavy door from his chest and rolling up to his feet. He looks from me to the woman with a bitterly disappointed look on his face—one that’s laced with condescension.
He shakes his head. “Do you see?” he demands, pointing at her. “Do you see why you need to stay in your cage?”
Sobs crush themselves in my chest, pummel up my throat, pinch at the back of my tongue.
I killed another innocent. This poor woman didnothingexcept be forced to act as my stand-in, and I murdered her.
Horrible guilt rings through my hollowed chest, rattles my entire body until I’m trembling with the resonance of agonized regret.
“I didn’t mean to...” My pathetic response makes me hate myself even more.
Why did I push her aside? Why didn’t I notice my glove had fallen off?
I hear the sound of Midas’s shoes as he walks forward to stand over me, the lantern light causing a long shadow to cast from him.
He clicks his tongue in reprimand, shaking his head as his eyes skim over the woman’s statue. “Do you see, Auren? This is why you need the cage,” he says again, his voice grating against my ears like metal against stone. “Not just to protect you, but to protect everyonefromyou.”
My tears drip.
My spine aches.
I called Rip a monster, but really, I am.
As I continue to kneel there, staring at the woman’s tortured face, Midas lifts my hood and places it back over my head and then lets out a long, heavy sigh. “It’s alright, Precious,” he tells me, tone softer. “I’ll fix this. You don’t need to worry about a thing.”
He’s being kind now, his voice no longer hard or accusatory as his hand comes down to pat me. His fingers graze adoringly over my head, a heeled pet to be stroked. And right then, I wonder how the hell I fooled myself into thinking this was love.
How did I look into his eyes every day and not see that when he looked back, he was devoted to the gleam of my skin rather than the love of my heart? How did I miss the blinding truth that’s been there all along? How did I mistake anownerfor alover?
“You’ve probably exhausted your power with this little tantrum,” he muses. “It’s a shame, because I have a list of things I need you to make gold for me, but no matter. I can wait a bit, and in the meantime, you can regain your strength.”
Midas talks and plans and goes along on his path, while I lie battered and bloody on mine. Bile floods my mouth until I’m choking on the acidity of heartbreak.
“I’m sorry I lost my temper with you, but you see now why I’m right. Why this is so important,” he tells me. “You’ll get used to this again, Precious, and everything will be as it was. Don’t worry, I’m not angry at you.” Something feral in me wants to growl and bite off his petting hand. “Now, be a good girl and roll up your ribbons. Stay put while I go to my meeting. I’ll have to get the cage door repaired tomorrow.”
All I can hear past my thudding anger is the cracking glass as it shatters between us.
Midas starts to leave, stepping over the door as he goes, but I turn, my voice stopping him just before he gets to the doorway of the room. “If you walk out now, I’m done. I will never forgive you. For any of it.” My voice is hard, enraged, pushed past the brink.
He hesitates a moment and then says, “I love you, but I don’t need your forgiveness, Precious. I just need your power.”
Chapter 39
KING MIDAS
In the corridor, I straightenmy robe. It’s thick, but so is the draft in this ice castle. It doesn’t matter that the weather isn’t battered with blizzards here. The cold seeps inside in a different way.
I look back at the closed door once. The wood is thick, the walls thicker, so I can’t hear if Auren is still shouting, but I sent an entire contingency in there to guard her.
My shoulders are tense, jaw sore from how hard I clenched my teeth. I do not enjoy handling her by force. Not at all.
She has always been compliant, trusting. It’s one of the things I admired about her. That she had the capability of being soft and malleable, despite her circumstances.
