“No.” He wanted me to use my magick. That was all he ever wanted of me.
“There will be a binding ceremony, Jessamine, but not a wedding.” His voice had gone cold, losing all civility. “It will include a contract that has new terms in place to bind you to me.”
“I will not do it.”
“I’ve already bought you from your father. And since he’s washed his hands of you after you fled from the palace, disobeying his wishes, I have the authority to do whatever I want with you.”
He picked up a piece of parchment and waved it casually.
“This right here says you’re legally mine.”
Though I wasn’t surprised, tears pricked my eyes to hear that my parents had officially abandoned me. That my own father had given me to this malevolent monster.
“And this,” he picked up another piece of parchment with his good hand and waved it in the air, “is a list of the fae you will kill for me.”
He wore a steel prosthetic and glove on the hand where his three fingers had been cut off by King Gollaya. Everyone had heard the story. I had once felt sorry for him for being humiliated and hurt in such a way, until I’d met him and he’d whispered all the wicked things he wanted to do with me. He’d believed our children, his heirs, would have my powers. And that I would have been his weapon to help him regain the kingdom of Lumeria for the light fae.
“No,” I grated through my teeth, trembling with both fear and fury. “I will not kill for you.”
“You know, I’d thought to let my guards have their way with you, to take turns until you softened your resolve.” His lusty gaze roamed over me. “But they won’t even touch you.” He laughed. “I had to pay Selwyn a bonus bag of coin to be the one to capture you and carry you back. They’re all afraid you’ll kill them with your magick.”
I said nothing, glaring at him with the hatred burning up my soul.
“I have no patience left for you. Rather than waste my time with torturing you, and to be the honorable fae lord that I am, I am going to give you a choice between two options.The first option, you live here in my palace in comfort with all the luxuries I can afford. In exchange, you will obey my every command without question.” He leaned forward, his icy blue eyes menacing. “Or, you will burn at the stake.”
My voice quivered as I said clearly again, “I willneverkill for you.”
“Then you will die. I have no use for a poisonous witch who won’t do my bidding. Especially one soiled from fucking a dark fae.” He snorted with disgust. “A beast fae, at that.”
He stood suddenly and I flinched back, thinking he meant to strike me. He laughed at my fear of him.
“They are cursing your name all over the city. The light fae whore who spread her legs for the enemy rather than marry their high lord and serve her own kind.”
I gulped at that.
“Yes, that’s right. It’s been told far and wide that Princess Jessamine Glynmyr fled to the Borderlands rather than marry her father’s choosing, running to live amongst the beast fae clans and fucking their king like the whore she is.” He tugged on his silver-embroidered tunic to smooth out the brocade fabric. “Even if you escaped my palace, the townspeople would stone you to death for betraying your own kind.”
“I haven’t betrayed anyone but you.”
He stepped close and pinched my chin between his gloved fingers, forcing my head to tilt up at an awkward and painful angle.
“And for that, you will become my witch to rule and obey. Or you will die.”
His gaze narrowed as he grinned wider. For a moment, I expected to see the black striations in his cold eyes as I did in that dryad and in those of Selestos. But no, the evil that ruled this male was entirely his own.
“You made a fool of me, bitch.” He pinched my chin hard. “You’re lucky I’m giving you a choice at all.”
“Just like King Gollaya made a fool of you, right? Is that why you want to kill him so badly?”
He backhanded me hard with his metal prosthetic. I gasped at the sharp sting on my cheek, panting through the pain.
“You have one hour to decide. Mylady.”
He stopped in front of Selwyn and the other guard at the door. “Don’t leave your post for anything at all. Keep the door locked, and no one is to enter. Trust me, if you allow her to use her magick on you, you’d be dead before we found you.”
“Yes, my lord,” said Selwyn. I recognized his voice as the one in my ear right before I lost consciousness back in the tundra.
They exited and I heard the hard snick of the lock.
