“My patience is thin tonight, kitten. From you, fromeverything. Put on the Godsdamn shirt and go to bed. I will not have my mate—my future queen—sleeping in the dungeon.”
I try to fight him off, pushing at his chest but he’s an immoveable wall of muscle.
“Wasn’t I doing that for the last few weeks?”
“That was different.”
“How’s that?” I tug at his hand, but he doesn’t let go of my hair. “Because this better suits you? Because I’m a pawn for you to use?”
“Nothing about this suits me.” He seethes, shaking me. “You vex me to no end. If you would just listen, understand, then all of this would be easier.”
“Then you should have thought of that before you claimed me?—”
“Yes, of course,” he snarls, fangs long. “Blame me for this situation. I’m handing you a kingdom, a throne and still, youfightme. Still, yourefuseto see reason.”
“See reason?” My eyes narrow, and I snarl, “I never asked for a throne, for a crown, for any of it! I only wished to help my friends and I’ve woken up tied to you!”
He throws me on to his bed, rage coloring his face.
“And I never asked for you to take my heart, my air, and make meyours.” He leans close, daring me to move. “Those backwards Witches never trusted you, never believed in you. I gave you that. And I’ve put a crown on your head and would bow at your feet if you would justlisten.” Lifting my chin, his lips twist into an unfriendly smile. “But here we are. Put on the damn shirt. Go to bed.”
He stalks to the exit, and I call out to him. Not because I need him—or miss him. But I am alone in these rooms without guards and no magic.What if I’m attacked?
I don’t name the loneliness that threatens to drown me with his departure. Nor the heat in my veins and the ache at the apex of my thighs, that begs for his touch after his brutal words.
“Where are you going?”
“As far as I can get from you,” he rages, nails growing longer, sharper. “If I have to stay one more moment beside you, I can’t control what I’ll do next.”
I’m sure he doesn’t mean it romantically. He looks ready to strangle me.
“I’ll never love you,” I spit, nails digging into my palms, sohard I can smell blood. “No matter what you do to me. No matter how much this bond burns. I will never,trulylove you.”
He laughs, a broken sound that carves into the empty cavity of my heart. “Good. You shouldn’t.”
The closing of the door is quiet but I feel it in my chest. Inside my heart, I know I meant everything I said, but there’s a deep hole left behind. One that feels foreign, yet similar to the yearning in my soul. A true, despondent fear that I’ll never love him—never be loved in return.
I spent weeks plotting, waiting, judging and learning, that I rarely grieved for what happened. Grieved for my broken heart, for the forced claiming, but for the betrayal of Nessa and the missing of my home. I only wanted to survive and not think of everything else.
With his final departure, my heart splinters until those hastily rebuilt pieces fall, the supports gone. Sinking into the bed, my dress crumples around me and the first tears I’ve cried in weeks slide down my cheeks.
Before long, I’m sobbing, broken cries shaking my entire body. I cry for my past, for my future, and for my current circumstances. I cry for my friends, who I miss but can’t speak to, and I cry from my heart. For all the awful, true things Kaden said.
I thought I was falling in love. I thought I found my Heartbond.
Everything is confusing and nothing makes sense. I cry for that, too.
At some point, I fall asleep. It’s hours later as I peel my dry eyes open, cheeks sticky with spent tears. My fingers drift, pulling the light throw blanket from my body, heels discarded by the end of the bed.
I don’t remember grabbing it in my despair, but I’m too tired to think properly.
Curling back into the bed, my final thoughts are of the torches, flickering in the far corners. More of them are lit, casting a soft glow around the bed like a golden halo.
Sleep claims me once again, the darkness a welcomed escape to flee the pain in my chest.
Chapter
Nine
