Page 137 of A Requiem of Fire and Ice

“Fuck!” she cries out.

Leaning down, I grab her by the arm, hoist her until she’s thrown over my shoulder, and saunter out of the amphitheatre.

“Reen!” she snaps. “Where the fuck are you taking me?”

“To the Kingdom of Flesh. Right now, you’re a liability.” I grasp her legs when she kicks. “I’m not dying because of your recklessness.”

“Fuck you!”

“We already have. And if you calm the fuck down, we can form an agreement.”

She slams her fist into my back and then cries out in pain. “I don’t want to get locked up in a fucking castle all my life and surrounded by fucking guards, Reen! I want freedom! Give me the freedom that you promised!”

“Everything changes now. I can’t kill you without my life on the line, and I am not dying over your stupidity.” She still slams her clenched fists on my back, but they’re weaker now that she knows it hurts her, too. “I thought you would like the fact that we’re tethered. We can spend a lifetime together.”

“This isn’t what I meant,” she mutters. “We both know I wanted freedom. Where you’re taking me, there are iron bars and suffocation.”

“The way you’re acting, I am inclined to let you rot in the fucking cells, Pandora,” I say.

“I hate you!”

I sigh. “You don’t.”

She mopes. “I really don’t. The dick was too good.”

Fucking hell, what the fuck am I going to do with her now?

As much as she will hate me, I need to lock her up. She’s volatile because her brain is in “freedom” mode. If she is in a cell for a couple of days, maybe a week, she will clear her head, and then we can actually fucking come up with a plan. Until then, I need Alad and Astin. Pandora will abuse all her powers to escape because she knows I can’t fucking kill her.

It’s a double-edged sword.

“Prince Reen?” I grimace when I see Alad not that far from the arena. His focus shifts to Pandora over my shoulder and then back to me. I raise my arm, revealing the tether, which I shouldn’t have done. Everyone who meets Pandora turns into her supporter, waving white flags. There’s a glimmer in his silver eyes and a beam of a grin. “I shall prepare her a room on the ship I hired…considering you burned down the other one.”

Pandora barks out a laugh.

“Get an earth elemny to make up a cell and ensure bars cover every window and that she can’t escape,” I say. “Pandora is now my weakness, and she’s aware of it. Any chance she can take, she will abuse.”

I need to think of something on the spur of the moment. It’s hard, considering I’m the one who needs to agree to Pandora’s terms or to compromise. The cells sound like a good idea, and then I can sit down there and talk to her while she’s safe, but I doubt she would want to speak to me. I can also fucking hear Walkyer telling me to get her out of the cells and figure something out with Pandora.

This is a new dynamic.

Then, without warning, pangs of irritation sharpen across my heart. Pandora’s emotions slam into me, powerful, fast, and filled with annoyance. It’s likely why I am more frustrated than usual at this moment. She’s making it hard to assess the situation, clouding my brain with her feelings.

Another issue arises. What are her feelings, and what are mine? If I am horny for a fuck, my emotions can persuade her when, perhaps, she may not have wanted it in the first place. Her love for me could confuse my affection for her. Then, it’s a battle of what’s real and what’s not. Which emotion is mine, and which is hers?

This isn’t good. How am I supposed to fall for her now if I constantly question what’s a raw emotion and what’s fake?

Shit…this is more complicated than I ever would have thought. I don’t know what to do anymore.

August 5th

King Walkyer rests on his throne, hand against his cheek, and icy blue eyes glowering at me when Alad tells him everything that happened. Even the details about the nights we spent together and how I burned the ship down…When I fucked Pandora senseless.

It doesn’t fucking surprise me, considering Alad’s the biggest stalker within Eraminia. But Walkyer’s eyes widen a fraction, and there’s a hint of sadness deep within them because he’s infatuated with a woman he met once…from a distance…when she was in a taxi with her fucking friends.

We all need therapy.

“I forbid anyone from harming Pandora,” Walkyer declares. “Her life is to be protected above others.”