In a low, seductive voice, he added, “I’m under your spell.”
His warm breath crawled over her skin, lifting the hairs on her arms. The only thing she could focus on was the heat pooling in her core. Her arms wrapped around his neck, and she leaned her head to the side, giving him better access to the space between her neck and shoulder.
Ever so softly, he brushed his lips against her collarbone and kissed her bare neck like he had a million times before.
She groaned. She should stop this. She was mad at him . . . for something . . . but what had it been? “Clyde . . . I can’t.”
Forcing herself to take a deep breath, she took a step back. Her heart was going to beat right out of her chest. “There’s no spell.” Her legs wobbled, and she was forced to grab one of the bed frame posts to steady herself.
“You’re a gift from the high skies,” he said so sweetly; it would’ve been easy to believe he meant it. Perhaps he did, but she was more than just Luna now. She was the kingdom’s future—their saviour, if she only tried to get past everythingthey’d kept from her.
The space between them was awkward, and she yearned to close the gap. To pull him close and kiss him. To feel him lift her, toss her onto the bed, and take control. Only in his comforting embrace could she escape her worries and lose herself.
As if he could read her thoughts, he closed in on her. Leaning over her, he tilted her chin upwards, forcing her to look into his beautiful brown eyes.
There was hunger there—a predatory insatiable hunger. As his gaze trailed over her form, she cursed herself for picking such a thin nightgown to wear; she was practically naked.
“A man only has so much strength,” he growled before finally pulling away. “I want you to be mine.”
His words made her heart flutter, as they always had. She wanted him too, missed how things used to be, but she wouldn’t say that . . . she couldn’t. It was too pathetic of a statement to admit it out loud. So instead, she looked away.
Silence stretched before he bowed his head and retreated, leaving her in a state of unfulfilled desire.
Sleep was near impossible, and after hours of trying, she got up and opened one of the books the king had brought to her room earlier. Flipping open to a random page, she began to read.
Even beings as horrid as the unicorn should be studied. Unicorns are notoriously difficult to capture alive; in fact, in our recorded history, this has only been done once. The process of taking down the unicorn requires an army, and many resources have been lost in the attempts to capture one. Until we have a more viable option to collect unicorns, our knowledge is bound to their corpses. Extracting a unicorn’s magic from its body is a difficult process, but once complete, the magic held within its horn and bones can provide for many. When the material is consumed, it can help increase the length of one’s lifespan; when dissolved in water, the materials purify it, and when it is ground up and mixed in soil, the crops grown are more plentiful, taste better, and feed more.
Luna’s stomach rolled. She slammed the book closed and threw it at the wall with a grunt. Why had the king given her this to read? The answer came to her quickly; it was to show her that she wasn’t human—only a beast to be studied, to be experimented on.
A shiver ran down her spine.
From her studies with her tutor, she had learnt that unicorns had many useful properties, but the information had become twisted and vile now that she knew she was one herself.
The morning light filtering in from her windows brightened her room, signaling as good a time as any to dress for the day ahead. With a sigh, she went to her wardrobe and selected a powder blue silk dress. The dress, perfect with its open back, was chosen specifically to avoid a repeat of last night’s fiasco with Clyde.
Songbirds chirped and sang beyond the window, drawing Luna towards the sill. She took a seat on the ledge, gazing lazily over the bustling palace grounds while absentmindedly spinning Nina’s ring on her finger. As she watched, she pondered what her life might have been like if Nina were still alive.
A commotion at the palace gates caught Luna’s eye. The knights dispatched on the night of the protection ceremony appeared to be returning with a captive: A man, wrists shackled and a black cloth bag obscuring his face, was being led by horses towards the barracks. The horses and knights seemed to be struggling; their every attempt to move forward was met with resistance, causing numerous steps backwards.
A knock sounded on her door and Luna whipped her head around to see Clyde peering in, his fingers tugging at the edges of his perfectly pressed navy tunic. “Ready?” he asked, brushing his hand over the golden fleur-de-lis embroidered across the chest.
“For?”
“King Hendrix has asked the court to gather in the main gardens. He has an announcement.”
She rolled her eyes. She cared little about anything the king had to say, but she had no power to deny attending. As she passed Clyde to leave her room, he placed a hand on her shoulder, causing her to stop in her tracks.
“I meant what I said last night . . . I want you to be mine.”
A frown pulled at her lips. “Even if I forgave you, what kind of future could you have with me locked away like a pampered captive?”
He brushed his finger along her jaw, caressing her face. Subconsciously, she leaned into his touch. “With your power, any future we want,” he whispered. “I’m a patient man. I can wait until your duties with the king have been fulfilled.”
She stepped away from him. She hadn’t told him she wouldn’t transform for the king and wasn’t about to now.
Clyde led her to a balcony where King Hendrix was addressing a crowd of knights and nobility. The king did not turn to acknowledge Luna’s arrival, making her hopeful that this announcement wasn’t about her.
“Thanks to your quick thinking and valiant efforts, the battle was a success!” The king’s voice boomed across the open expanse. “We have taken a prisoner! It is believed to be one of the Darkened One’s trusted men. A huge triumph!” As the king spoke, Luna searched the crowd for the prisoner but did not spot him. The knights must have already brought him to the dungeons. She wondered who they had captured; could it be Damien?
