Chapter 41
Forty-One
A good little slut doesn’t hesitate to say her safe word.
Why didn’t you stop?
- Arienna
“The fighting is over, right?” I ask Jace as I chew on my nails inside our bedroom.
Richard should’ve been back by now. A guard arrived at the door not long after we got here, telling us that everything was fine and King Morningstar would be back shortly.
But that he’d requested us to stay here until he got back.
“Maybe there was a second incursion?” Fabia says.
Nicholas frowns, but he doesn’t say anything. The knots in my stomach tighten. “Maybe we should go look for him,” I say.
Jace shakes his head. “It’s too dangerous if there’s more fighting. He’ll be back. Just stay here.”
Yet, he doesn’t stay here. He heads for the door to talk to the guards. He steps out into the hall, but he keeps the door ajar so he can keep an eye on me. I try to sneak over to hear what they’re saying, but his eyes catch mine, and I turn away.
Then I spin back around, deciding I’d rather be rude than ignorant. Marching over to the door, I reach for it to yank it open, but he beats me to it.
“Come on,” he says as he grabs my hand.
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing.”
“Jace –” I start, begging him not to shut me out.
“I don’t know,” he says as he pulls me into the hall. “It’s just a feeling.”
Like the horrible one twisting me up inside?
Fabia hurries after us, but Nicholas stays behind, being the obedient brother. My heart racing, I head for his study. He’s in there all the time, trying to solve some problem of Raza’s. But the room is empty.
He isn’t in the barracks or up in the aviary with Maeve either. I suggest looking in the library, but Jace tells me Richard has never stepped inside since its completion. “He refuses to go near it.”
His voice is flat, and at any other time, I’d comfort him, but there is too much fear inside me. I need to find my king. My gut twisting, I hurry through the halls of the castle.
As soon as I arrive outside of the Council Room, I know he’s in there. Marrabel’s standing on one side of the door, her eyes screaming an apology. Irin’s on the other, her eyes not looking at me at all.
My stomach plummets. Something’s wrong.
I hurry towards the door, but Marrabel moves in front of it. “I’m sorry, Arienna, but you don’t have permission to enter.”
I flinch at the sound of my name on her lips. It’s always been, ‘Your Majesty’.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Fabia snaps. “She’s the soon-to-be queen.”
My belly churns and twists. I look past her at the door. My king is in there. I need to get to him so he knows he isn’t alone.
“Explain. Now,” Jace says, and I realise, it’s the first time I have heard him give an actual order. His voice is cold, a promise of discipline.
“The king requested an annulment half an hour ago.” Her words wrap around my throat, suffocating me, and for a moment, they don’t make sense.
Then I realise they don’t actually make any sense to me. I have no idea what an annulment is. She just said it so damn pitifully, I’m assuming it’s bad. “What’s an annulment?”
“He’s erasing your marriage as if it never was,” Fabia says behind me.
My throat closing, I stare at Marrabel, begging her to refute it, but she doesn’t lift her gaze off the floor. My lips work wordlessly as I fight to get something past the hard lump in my throat.
I thought he might be giving up his crown so we could go away somewhere.
Instead, he’s giving up mine.
Without asking.
Without even discussing it with me first.
Mr Communication Is Important.
Mr Safeword and Safeactions so he knows my limits.
Mr Trust Is So Damn Important to Me.
The fucking bastard.
Mr Fucking Bastard.
Finally finding the strength to speak, I rasp, “Move.”
“I’m sorry, Arienna, but I have –”
Jace’s fist slams into her throat, trapping her air like she has trapped mine. He kicks Irin in the chest before she can call on her magic. The witch slams back against the wall, then drops to her knees on a moan. Grabbing her head, he snaps her neck, then goes back to do the same to Marrabel.
I stare at him in shock. “Did you kill –”
“I knocked them out. Our bodies can heal broken bones as long as they’re reset.” Still holding Marrabel’s head, he twists it back around. “They’ll be up in a couple hours.” He moves to Irin, fixes her, then stands and opens the door to the Council Room.
He bows his head. “Your Majesty.”
Working my mouth, I stare at the two broken women, my legs shaking, my heart racing.
“She is not to come in,” my king says, slapping me out of my shock. As he starts to push his chair back, I hurry inside.
“Jace,” he snaps, standing fully now.
“Sorry, Your Majesty,” Jace says without a hint of an apology in his tone, “but guards aren’t allowed in there.” As the door slams shut, my king’s eyes narrow on me.
“Do not make me throw you out myself,” he warns.
Ignoring the agony clawing at my throat, I turn to the Court. “Has the annulment been granted?” Please say no. Please say no. Please say –
“No, Your Majesty,” Dragon Petre says. “You interrupted the vote.”
A tiny, tiny bit of the pain inside me is soothed. But there is still a hel of a lot more choking me inside.
“Then I still have every right to be here.” Hoping that’s right, I head for the table.
Richard grabs my arm as I near his chair, his fingers digging tightly into my skin. Ducking his head to my ear, he growls, “You don’t know what you’re doing.”
“No, you don’t know what you’re doing.” Pulling back on his fingers, I try to get him to release me, but his damn hand doesn’t budge.
He speaks even softer, so softly I have to strain to hear him despite his lips brushing against me. “I promise I will explain everything after, but you need to leave. Now.”
“No.”
“Arienna.”
Ignoring him, I turn to the Court. “What’s the reason for the annulment?” I ask, remembering that’s what he asks all the nobles when they come to him seeking a divorce. I am completely out of my element, grasping at the little bits of Razian culture I’ve picked up on the last few weeks.
“You married under duress,” Petre says. “A marriage is not recognised without the agreement of every party.”
“I agreed,” I say strongly. “I wanted to marry him.”
“Did you take more than ten seconds to say ‘yes’?” she asks, her words, her smile – everything about her making me shiver.
“I… I didn’t count.”
“I did,” Richard says. I glance at him, wondering if he’s lying. “I blackmailed her into marrying me, telling her I’d make her death quick. I also lied about her trying to enter the portal to Earth so she’d get the death penalty.”
“He’s lying,” I say desperately, trying to step forwards but unable to move with his grip on my arm.
Petre looks at me. “No, he’s not.”
I stare at him in horror and disbelief. He holds my gaze with a coldness that scares me. This isn’t the man I married, the one I’ve come to know these past three weeks. This one is cruel and indifferent.
And terrified, I realise, my eyes seeing past the mask he is clinging to.
“You will never have to execute someone.”
“You will not be queen.”
“Well,” I say, begging him to trust in me, “I agreed to marry him of my own free will. Brownies do not turn down marriage proposals even if blackmailed.”
His jaw tightens; pain briefly flashes in his eyes. Turning from me, he addresses the Court. “Grant me the annulment, and I will marry Evangeline.”
“Peace treaty,” I blurt, tugging on his arm, trying to get him to face me, but his eyes stay on Petre.
“You will marry Evangeline Sinclair, my daughter?” she demands.
“My king,” I plea, panic rising in my chest as I realise I am about to lose him. “Peace treaty,” I say again.
This time, he flinches, and his nails dig painfully into my arm. But he does not look away from Petre. “Yes.”
“Then the annulment is granted.”
He pulls me into the hall, my feet a dead weight underneath me. My mind reels, screaming that didn’t just happen.
But it did.
“I can’t believe you did that to me.”
But I can. Because my heart wouldn’t be hurting this much otherwise. He got an annulment. He threw away our marriage. He –
Fabia steps in front of us, anger flaring in her silver eyes. “What the hel did you do to her?”
Before Richard can respond, Jace yanks Fabia out of the way. “Sorry, my goddess, but the Court is watching.”
“I don’t give a da–”
“Pick up Marrabel,” he orders.
Spreading his wings, Richard lifts me up. I think about resisting, but he’s in the air before I can, and then my stupid arms wrap around him. The terror of flying doesn’t seem to care that I’m more scared of what he’s done between us.
“Why did you do that?” I demand as he flies out of the castle, then heads up to our floor.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen like that.”
“No? Because it looked like it happened exactly how you wanted it to.”
His jaw tics as his eyes focus on something above us. “I was just planning on getting an annulment, not marrying Evangeline.”
“You offered!” The words fly out raw and strained. Each pulse of my heart feels as if it’s breaking my ribs. I want to be sick and not just because I’m flying. Will he understand my pain if I puke all over his face? I’d have to lift myself up to manage it, but fuck it.
Fuck him.
Crashing onto the forest floor can’t feel much worse than this. And he would have puke on his face. That sounds like a win-win to me. If I wait until he speaks first, I can get some in his mouth…
“I only did that –”
I push down on his shoulders, lifting myself up as I turn to face him. I open my mouth, but my stupid stomach isn’t playing ball.
His eyes narrow in confusion as his arms shift to hold me in place. “What are you doing?”
Come on, stupid stomach.
I think about Mum having sex with my ex-fiance Karl. About my grandma joining in. And my dad – as he looked when he was pulled out of the ogre’s vagina.
But my stupid frickin’ stomach stays nicely settled.
Ugh.
“Arienna…” he says slowly, “are you okay?”