They were escorted to a cell next to Flint and Steel. The iron door clanged shut, and the smaller girl began to cry.
I wanted to scream. To tear free from these chains and rip Alanna apart with my bare hands. What kind of monster locked up children?
One of the guards looked over at Ari. “The queen requests your presence, pet.”
Ari snarled, gnashing his teeth. “Don’t call me that.”
Pet. The guard had called him pet. Was that Alanna’s nickname for him? Or was that just what the guards called him?
Was Ari her prisoner too? Trapped in her web just like the rest of us?
A bitter laugh nearly escaped my throat. Fitting. The monster who’d helped torture me was nothing but a caged animal himself.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Darius
Alanna had ordered that I dress for court.
Court. Where I was supposed to stand before her kingdom and destroy Alice. Publicly reject her. Rip her heart out with words instead of claws.
The thought made me sick.
I'd claimed her. Made her mine. And now I'd have to look into those eyes and lie—tell her it meant nothing. She'd believe me. That was the worst part. After everything she'd been through, she'd believe every word.
I sat in a bathtub in the chambers Alanna had assigned me—right next to hers, of course. Close enough for her to keep her eye on her new pet. The word made my skin crawl. I knew what she wanted. Once Alice was gone—rejected, discarded, believing I'd never loved her—Alanna would expect me in her bed. Her hands on me. Her body against mine. And I'd have to let her. I'd have to pretend I wanted it.
The bathroom was obscenely lavish. Gold fixtures. Marble countertops. I stared at the water, still and silent around me. I'd never felt so alone.
The water lapped against my chest, warm and suffocating. This tub was large enough to drown in. I could slide under. Fill my lungs. End this before it began.
Escape Alanna and her games forever.
But I wouldn't. I couldn't.
Because if I died, Alanna would take her fury out on Alice. She'd make her suffer in ways I couldn't even imagine.
So I sat there. Defeated. Broken. Waiting to destroy the only woman I'd ever loved.
The door to my bedroom creaked open. Footsteps shuffled across the floor, hesitant and slow.
I didn't move. Didn't turn around. I knew who it was before he appeared in the bathroom doorway.
Rabbit.
I heard his breath—shallow, shaky. The sound of a dog bracing for a blow. I glanced over my shoulder. His eyes were red-rimmed and swollen, his pale face blotchy from crying. He'd always been a nervous, fearful fellow—wringing his hands, checking his pocket watch, jumping at shadows.
Fuck him. But it took guts to face me. One wrong move and I’d rip him apart.
Now he was something worse.
A yellow-bellied traitor.
I rose from the tub, water streaming down my body, and grabbed a towel to wrap around my waist. Let him see the scars Alanna had given me over the years. Let him see what he'd condemned Alice to.
"Get the fuck out of here. Before I rip you apart with my bare hands."
He flinched but didn't retreat. "Darius, please listen?—"
