“Good.” I release her wrists, but keep my hand on her sternum, holding her in place. “Now listen to me carefully. I’m only going to explain this to you once. When I tell you to come, you come. When I tell you to kneel, you kneel. When I tell you to be silent, you don’t make a sound. That is how this works now.”
“You can’t—" Her voice is shrill. “I’m theking’sdaughter! You can’t treat me like?—”
“Like what?” I arch an eyebrow. “Like property? Likesomething to be used and discarded? Likefae?” I let each word land, watching them hit. “I can. I will. And I am.” I let my lips curve up into a smile. “And there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”
Her lower lip trembles. A tear escapes, tracking down her cheek.
“Kneel.”
She shakes her head, a tiny movement, but defiant all the same. “No. I won’t.”
I step back, dropping my hand.
“Kneel. Or I’ll put you on your knees myself. And you won’t enjoy how I do it.”
The silence builds between us. I watch her face as fear and fury fight for dominance. Her eyes dart around, searching for any option that doesn’t end with her on her knees at my feet. But she isn’t stupid. She knows there isn’t one.
Slowly, her body shaking, she lowers herself to her knees.
“There.” I return to my chair and sit. “That wasn’t so difficult, was it?”
Through the connection between us, a spike of humiliation bleeds through, so intense it makes my own face heat for a moment before it fades.
I gesture to the floor beside my chair. “Here. Beside me.”
She doesn’t move, her head shaking, fingers curling into fists against her thighs.
“I saidhere.” I snap my fingers, my voice turning colder. “You can come on your knees or you can crawl. Choose.”
“I’m not—” She swallows hard. “I’m not crawling anywhere.”
I’m out of the chair before she can register the movement. My hand fists into her hair, wrenching her head back, and I drag her across the floor. She gives a choked cry, slipping and sliding against the furs, hands scrabbling for purchase. When I reachthe chair, I release her.
She collapses forward, catching herself on her hands.
“Next time, you crawl when I tell you to crawl. Understand?” I settle back into the chair.
She doesn’t say anything, her body trembling as she stays there on all fours, her head hanging and her breath coming in ragged gasps. A princess of the realm. On her hands and knees at my feet because I put her there.
The satisfaction that curls through me is dark and visceral.
I let her stay like that for a moment, give her a second or two to catch her breath, and then I reach down and catch her chin between finger and thumb, tilting her face up to mine.
“This is what you are now.” I keep my voice soft. “Whenever you are in my presence, you kneel beside me.Every time. Unless I tell you otherwise.”
“Why?” The word comes out broken. “What is the point?”
“The point is that I want you there.” I release her chin and sit back. That is all the reason you need.”
TWENTY-SEVEN
ALLERIA
I don’t knowwhat day it is anymore.
Four days have passed. Maybe. Or five. The light through the walls shifts from silver to gold and back again, and I’ve stopped trying to count. I sleep when I’m too exhausted to keep my eyes open, wake when I have to, and the hours in between stretch into nothing.
Is this how it felt for the fae while they waited to be chosen for a hunt? The question haunts me, infiltrating my dreams until I have nightmares about it.
