My advisers nod, scribbling notes onto their parchments and speaking to each other in hushed tones.
“May I have a word, Tauren?” Kennix mutters. “Alone.”
I scowl at the demon. With a swish of my wrist, my advisers file out, leaving us alone with only the flickering candles.
“What is it, Kennix?” I sigh.
“If I may speak plainly.” His voice is measured. “After watching you with the princess, it seems you have some sort of attachment to her.” Before I can object, he continues, “And while I’d never be foolish enough to tell you not to pursue a romantic connection, I’d like to remind you what’s at stake here.”
“The rider is being dispatched as we speak,” I reply gruffly. “There is no need toremindme of anything. I haven’t forgotten what Elheart has done.” How could I? It’s been years since he stole my little sister from me. Kidnapped in the middle of the night, leaving nothing more than a letter telling me she’d be staying with him in his palace. He’d built a salt barrier into his palace walls before I could rescue her. There’s no way for anyone of our kind to ever go in.
Or out.
I missed my chance to apprehend him at the ball last week, to give him the choice to either give my sister back or bleed out on the golden dance floor. I won’t miss my chance again.
“Maeve will be returned to us,” I tell Kennix. “Elheart won’t be able to stand the thought of me keeping his bride as myplaything, and considering she’s one of the precious twelve, he won’t want to risk starting a war when he has to tell King Sol that one of his daughters was captured by demons while under his protection. Maeve will be home within the week, and in the meantime, I will enjoy Princess Dahlia until I am tired of her.”
Kennix nods, seemingly satisfied with my answer. He summons the advisers back inside to begin drafting the letter.
But it is not my little sister that I think of as his quill sweeps across the parchment, the ink reminding me of long, sleek hair and eyes so dark even a demon could get lost in them.
7
DAHLIA
Wind whips at my face as I lean over a sweeping iron balcony. This tower is so high up I can’t see the ground, only a thick layer of mist swirling around the dark walls of the castle. Occasionally, jagged rocks catch in the moonlight through the mist. Taunting me.
Looks like I won’t be making ropes out of bedsheets like they do in my fairytale books.
There’s only one bed in here anyway, and it’s not big enough for any ropemaking. I shudder to think of the monster who sleeps there – how close he’d be if he makes me share his bed.
Tauren. That was the name he gave at the ball. If I’d known about the monstrous friends he keeps in his castle I would’ve thought twice before throwing myself at him. It’s too late now, though.
Whatever they are,or he is, I’m trapped with them until I can find a way out of here. With the door to the hallway locked and the balcony over a three-hundred-foot drop, that may take a while.
After the guards shoved me in here, I spent the first five minutes pounding my fists against the door and the next hugging my chest as I paced slowly around the rooms.
There’s a bedroom with a four-poster bed, its red curtains dripping like blood behind the headboard, while the dozen flickering candles scattered around the furniture don’t make it feel any cosier. A bathroom with an obsidian bath that’s big enough to swallow me. A dining room with a long gold-rimmed table and half a dozen chairs. And finally, some kind of living room with a crackling fireplace that looks more like the open gates to hell than the warm hearth it’s supposed to be. Burgundy chaise longues and armchairs circle the fire while the carpets felt soft beneath my pointe shoes.
But I didn’t stay in there long. The moment I spotted the night sky through an open door, I barrelled through. Only to be met with the pointed iron railing that now cuts into my palms.
A barn owl swoops over my head. Its call echoes through the night.
I look up at it, glaring. I’d never wished more for wings.
“If you fall I won’t catch you.”
I gasp, whirling around. But my shoes lose their grip on the floor, and I slip. My arms flail for the railing, finding nothing but air, until two hands yank me forward and I slam against a warm chest.
My eyes ease open. I’m being held again, just like I was at the ball. Except now the once-charming stranger glaring down at me makes me feel nothing but fear, and the only people who can save me are a million miles away.
“Don’t test me, human.” Tauren’s growl vibrates through me. With a frustrated huff, he drags me away from the balcony and back inside his living room.
The door is pulled shut before I can breathe again.
Releasing my wrist, my captor marches past me, stopping at a side table to pull two goblets from a cupboard. I watch as he pops the cork of a crystal bottle and pours out some wine.
It’s funny. He looks so similar to how he looked at Blossom’s party. His custard-blond hair curls in waves around his ears. His tunic, black with delicate gold embroidery, fits well against his broad, muscular shoulders. So broad that I completely miss what he says as he turns to face me.
