By the time I hear the scrape of a plate along the wooden floor, my belly is full, and all I want to do is stay in this moment forever. Except, I’m forgetting something. I’m supposed to…fight? Fight who?
“Do you want me, Lia?” the Prince asks. “We could be so happy together. Accept me now, and you will have every comfort.”
“I…n-no?” My thoughts are so muddled they do not feel like my own, and I try to force my eyes open, but my lids are so heavy, I cannot seem to make them move.
The Prince’s arm tightens around my shoulders, and he presses his hand over my heart “You want me. You need me. You love me.”
A shudder racks my entire body, like a piece of me is waking up after so long asleep. But then, there’s warmth and the brush of lips to my cheek, and the gesture is so tender, tears prick my eyes.
“I…want…” The urge to say yes, to beg this man to keep me safe is strong, but he is not who I am supposed to be with. His touch feels…wrong. Almost painful.
Memories assault my mind. Ropes winding around my body. Being unable to breathe. Falling, my wrists bound, the King’s laugh. My father’s screams. Pain at the corners of my mouth. Gagged. Tied to a beam. Left until I was too weak to move.
And Roarke. His scent. His fingers stroking mine. His laugh.
“No!” I shove my hands against the Prince’s chest as I force my eyes open. His face is twisted in anger, and though I manage to scoot back a short distance, it isn’t enough. He strikes me across the cheek, and I yelp. “You…spelled me!”
And I will do so every fucking day until you give in.
His lips do not move, but I hear his enraged voice in my head as clearly as if he had spoken. His expression shifts, morphing into one of stern disapproval mixed with…a decidedly patronizing look. “I did no such thing, Lia. I cared for you. Like I will care for you every day for the rest of your life.”
“And would you hit me every day as well?” Wrapping my arms tightly around my body, I find the bruises from so long bound, and I use the pain in my ribs, along with the throbbing in my jaw, to help me focus. “You do not care for me. You only want to control me.” I must get out of here. My gaze flies to the door over his shoulder, and hope fades with the sight of the two very large, very angry looking Fae guards blocking any escape.
The Prince roars an oath and wraps his fingers around my wrist as he jumps up. The motion sends a shock of pain through my shoulder as he drags me across the room, then hauls me to my feet.
Fresh air drifts over my cheeks, but as I focus on the window, I want to cry.
“Look,” he snarls as he presses his body to mine. I must have miscounted the previous night. We aren’t twenty floors up. It is at least thirty. The people on the ground look so small, and the tower is as smooth as a blade of grass. Nothing to hold onto, no ledges, no outcroppings. If I try to escape through this window, I will die.
He pushes me forward, bending me over the sil so my upper body is hanging beyond the boundaries of the stone. I cannot breathe. My throat seizes, and my lungs spasm as I desperately struggle for air. It is as if a chain has tightened around my chest, and panic consumes me. My arms and legs flail helplessly.
“Do you feel that, my future bride?” he sneers. “That is the power of the bargain you made with the Fae. Until you can say my name and tell me you do not want me, my father’s air magic will stop you from venturing one foot outside the tower walls. You will stay here or you willdie.”
As my vision narrows, pinpricks of light and dark vying for dominance, the Prince grabs a thick chunk of my hair, pulls me upright, and then sends me reeling across the room where I crash into the cot I woke on.
Hoarse, wheezing breaths escape my chest as the magic relinquishes its hold on me, and I glare up at him. “I…do not…want you…Braxton.”
That should be it. I should be free. But the Prince only laughs. At first, it is merely a scoff, but then, the sound turns to a deep, all-consuming chortle as he braces his hands on his knees. “You foolish human. Braxton is the name we let slip from time to time, just to trap humans like you. A Fae’s true name is their most closely guarded secret. You belong tomenow, Lia. Because you will never know me as anything other than your master and your mate.”
“My name is Aurelia.” The words escape weaker than I intend, his admission shaking me to my very core.
“Your name,” he snaps as he towers over me with his hands on his hips, “is whatever I wish it to be. You should be thankful I do not choose a different one. Like whore. Harlot.Slave.”
I cower in the face of his rage. “You wouldn’t…”
“Do not test me.” He points to the spindle, then sweeps his arm out to gesture to the bales of straw against the wall. “The King has decreed that your assigned duty is to spin this straw into gold. If you cannot, per the terms of our bargain, you will be punished. And he has left your punishment up to me. Two days bound to the beam should suffice, I think. You have until tomorrow morning.”
“You said you would not hurt me,” I say as I try—and fail—to get to my feet. The room spins, and I fall back on my bottom once more.
“You need to pay better attention, harlot. Myfathersaid he would hot harm you. I made no such promise.”
Before I can protest, he stalks out of the room, and the door slams shut, a heavy lock clanging in his wake.
The Fae have won. My tears tumble freely as I huddle in my solitary prison. I have no food, no water—only a chamber pot and a window I cannot even stick my head out of. And I am to spin straw into gold. I could not spingoldinto gold, let alone straw.
My gaze lands on the beam in the center of the room. Two days. There is no way I can survive two days without breaking. Without giving in to the Prince’s charms. I know now…he did not leave me there all night. At most, it was four or five hours.
Two days and I will give him whatever he asks for.
