This was fun while it lasted.
“I think it’s time for me to go.”
I slipped my wings free and shimmied to fly past him. His unnaturally powerful hands were around my waist before I could fly any higher into the air.
“On the contrary, Madame.” A chuckle. “You’ve only begun your stay.”
“It’s just Nahomie,” I blurted out before I could stop myself.
The Monster King grinned.
All seven of my hearts squeezed.
“I think I’ll keep you,Nahomie.”
Tassarion Everthorn clapped his wings together and instantly drowned us in darkness as every burning flame in the foyer winked out.
“You’re not going anywhere.”
The bolts on the doors behind him clinked, screwing shut. Then Tassarion Everthorn grabbed me by the waist, tossed me over his broad shoulders, and drug me back into the darkened corridors of the manor as I released a chortling scream.
Chapter 10
Nahomie
“Let me out!”
This was my third dawn trying to break out of the bedchambers I’d first awoken in. After Tassarion had dragged me back here and dumped me inside, he’d locked me in and didn’t return.
For his faults, the king was a benevolent captor.
Every dawn, I was provided with multiple fresh meals throughout the day. An ornate cart would surface, covered in all sorts of delicacies and ravishing treats, enough for me to stuff myself and still have leftovers. In some strange, twisted form of fate, every meal was always one of my favorites from back home in Edenael.
I also found a new set of delightfully lovely clothes within the armoire against the opposing wall every dawn. Gowns of velvet, lace, and silk, colored in ivory, crimson, gold, purple, and obsidian.
Like magic, every time I left the bedcloud, the pillows were fluffed; the sheets were pulled, and the bed was properly made. When it was time to rest, I found a bonnet, twigown, and fuzzy slippers awaiting me.
The window drapes would open and close by themselves. When I entered the washroom, the pool-sized basin would fill itself with hot, bubbling water. When I finished bathing, a warm, cozy, obsidian robe awaited me while all of my favorite hair products were laid out on the counter for me to freshen my braids.
It was perfect hospitality.
For a prison.
Though I was fed, dressed, and well-attended to by the manor, I wasn’t satisfied. I’d been dumped in here against my will. Each time I tried leaving, I found my doors bolted from the outside. When I attempted to set the place on fire with blackfire, my powers were of no effect. Saundeiah and Khaziah never returned. Obsidian hadn’t shown himself once. And Bones was still nowhere to be found.
A pretty cage was still a cage, and I desperately ached for my freedom.
Dressed in a pretty crimson gown of velvet with beautiful gilded buttons lining the front, I once again gathered my skirts and lunged for the bedchamber doors. I’d learned my lesson with the windows. I’d tried escaping through them once, only to be grabbed by a handful of the thorns that wrapped the exterior of the manor, and yanked back inside.
I banged into the doors, shoulders first. The doors didn’t budge. Frustrated and in pain, I pulled back, working out the kinks of the joint before I gathered the nerve to try again.
“Determined little creature.”
Tassarion’s smug voice on the other side of the doors made my nerves stand on end.
I wanted to wrap my fingers around his throat and strangle him.
“If you ask nicely, I’ll reconsider your freedom,” he said.
