I wanted revenge on my stepfamily, but now I want to take revenge on him.
Valen leads the way outside, into the front garden, and we stroll among the flowers.
“Lady Rosamund,” he says again, and I flinch.
“Why so formal?”
“It’s as it should be,” he whispers.
This distance between us… is my choice. My fault. Valen asked me to follow him, and I refused because I created this fairytale in my mind years ago, where Lord Eorl would be my prince, charming and kind. Because I’m still clinging to any other outcome than the obvious one.
“You’re angry,” I say. “What’s wrong?”
“You knew,” Valen says. “About the hunt. About the danger my friends were in. And you didn’t come to warn me.”
I close my eyes briefly. “I couldn’t.”
“Oh, couldn’t you?”
“No,” I say, “because he locked me up in my room! Valen…”
He stops in his tracks. “He did what? Are you joking?”
I shake my head, miserable. “Believe me, I fought him, and I wanted to come warn you, but I couldn’t. Are they all right?”
“They are fine. Rosie… He locked you up, and you still want to stay and get married to that piece of shit?”
“I can’t blame him for hunting dark fae, Valen. Remember my story. Hating your kind doesn’t make him a bad man.”
“No, that’s not why he’s a bad man, and you know it.” His eyes seem to glow with fury. “The fact that we are discussing this is stupid.”
“Oh.”
“Not you, Princess. This argument, the fact he locked you up, that…” His gaze dips, and he goes still. “Fuck, your hand.”
I wrap my other hand around it. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s black and blue. What did he do now?”
“I’m fine.”
“Fucking hells, Princess.Fineis the last thing you are. You’re not safe here. Please, come away with me.”
“Because I’m in danger? Why you’re asking me to leave with you?” I swallow hard. “Why, Valen?”
“Because I love you,” he whispers. “Don’t you know that?”
My eyes sting. Does he mean it? He’s never mentioned anything like this before. Never asked. “I don’t know what you’re offering me. What will I be? Your friend? Your mistress?”
“You’ll be my woman, my wife, my everything.”
My heart jolts in my chest. To be with him. To belong to him. The image forms in my mind, walking with Valen hand in hand, talking and laughing out in the open, together without fear.
“We’d have to live in the mountains,” I whisper. “Leave everything behind.”
Suddenly, he turns away. “I see,” he says, his voice rough. “I can’t stay here any longer.”
Panic grips me. “What? But you said you’d stay until the wedding?—”
