August 5th
I sigh, and through my sigh, the word “Fuck me” breathes out of my mouth when I look at the mark. The ugly fucking burning “eight” symbol on my wrist tells me my life is not mine but of another.
In the corner of my vision, Pandora stands, bewildered, with wide eyes, brows shooting to her hairline, gazing at the mark tethering us together. We were brawling it out a moment ago. Blood and swelling bruises sink into us, showing us how truly violent we can be in each other’s presence.
And now we’re fucking tethered.
I turn to her, wondering what to do. I’ve wanted her dead. Even through the ache of having her around, I imagined my hands around her throat and snapping it. Now we are marked, and I don’t want to fucking die.
Fuck.
Folding my arms across my chest, my finger taps my arm as I try to figure out what I will do with her. However, I’m also not the only one with my gears turning. Pandora brushes herself off, raises her hand, salutes me, and then just fucking turns away as if she’s leaving.
“What the fuck are you doing?” I say through clenched teeth.
“Oh…we’re tethered, so…”
“Yes?”
She shrugs. “You can’t kill me. Therefore, I am just going to do my thing now. You are more than welcome to come, but I know you’ve got a lot of things going on at the Kingdom of Flesh and—”
A dark, acidic laugh seethes out of my mouth. “We are tethered, yes,” I say, taking a step toward her. “But that only means my life is now on the line regarding your carelessness. To avoid being killed, I must lock you up.”
“What?”
I take another step toward her. “Yes.”
Pandora turns away from me, running toward the exit.
With a sigh, I kick my boot off, tap my foot into the ground, and then, before overthinking, slam my toes into the hard ground.
Pandora cries out, vulgar and swearing, as she falls to her knees.
Her hands cradle her foot, where I had slammed mine, and she rocks back and forth in pain.
“You see, Little Creature,” I say as I stand over her. “My pain is your pain.”
“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.”
“She killed your parents,” I say. “Aren’t you a little mad at her?”
“And now she’s marked to you, and you are my brother, whether you like it or not. I will not lose another family member.”
My tense shoulders ease. “Very well. She can stay in the cells until I figure out what I want done with her.”
Walkyer’s eyes widen, and he says incredulously, “Why don’t you get to know her? From what Alad tells me, you two are made for one another. I’d shower her with everything she desires if she were mine.”
“I bet,” I mutter. “You would have proposed to her the moment you saw her.”
Walkyer looks wounded. “Give me a little credit. At least a day…”
I sigh with irritation. “I enjoy Pandora’s company; she was everything I needed…until we tethered.”
“Why?”
“Because marking is a curse. Her feelings can conflict with mine, and the same can happen to her. I would consistently wonder if what I feel is for her or because the tether forces us to be together. She will be nothing but my downfall, and being around her reminds me of a leech sucking away at my skin. Pandora Hart is a liability. If you want her to live, house her with the other one in the cells.” I eye Emmerton and those piercing green eyes before focusing on Walkyer again.
“At least until I can figure out how we can exist without her running away from me.”
Walkyer smiles, and it softens his features. “I never heard you speak like this about a woman before. You must really care for her.”
I throw him a sharp look. “Not you, too.”
He straightens up on his throne. “I am sure that time will make you grow closer. But until then, remove Pandora from the cells. I will get Ri to make up a room for her beside yours, where she cannot escape from until she warms up to the idea that we are not the enemy. We just want to make her safe.”
“She’s not going to listen to me. The last time I saw her, every second word that came out of her mouth was ‘fuck’.”
“It’s because you threw her in a room that resembled a cell and then, as soon as we got to the castle, threw her into another cell,” Alad says.
As I fucking said earlier. Everyone around me is on Team Pandora, justifying everything she does because she acts cute and innocent around them.
“Get her to listen,” Walkyer says. “Uh…bring her something she loves to break the ice and lure her into a conversation where she understands we’re here to help her.”
Something she likes? I never had to bargain—no, I was never underneath another to feel as if I needed to sway them to an agreement. This is new to me to do because I can’t fucking kill Pandora Hart.
“All right,” I say. “I will give your way a go, Walkyer.”
“Wonderful! It would be best if you went right now. And be nice.”
With a roll of my eyes, I turn away from them, thinking deeply about what to do. What does Pandora love? A kitten? She can get to know some animal—no, not for the first time. Something small…a taste…taste…food?
There was a conversation not long ago about food that we talked about. She loves burgers, but we’ve had burgers before. The only other one she’s never tried, so what if she fucking hates it? What do I do then? Go back and order a fucking burger for her?
I don’t know how to interrogate someone I can’t hurt.
Far out. Why is this so fucking hard?