Chapter 20
The Dragon King
The princess had finally revealed her true nature, and her magic was strong. That wardrobe must have been five or six times her own weight, and she’d maneuvered it effortlessly and fast. I’d heard of few telekinetics who could accomplish that without years of training.
My ribs and shoulder ached where I’d taken the brunt of the force, but the pain meant nothing compared to what I now knew. I had her. No more lies.
I snapped my shoulder back into place, then kicked a broken plank out of my way and stalked toward her. “So, this is what you’ve been hiding from me.”
She circled away, shock and disbelief twisting her features. “I haven’t hidden anything. I…I didn’t do anything.”
Just as it had in the feasting hall, her scent wrapped around me like a silken noose, awakening a hunger that threatened to break my control.
My jaw tensed. “That was your magic. Do it again. I want to see you wield your power.”
“I can’t,” she protested. “I don’t have—”
I seized her arm, regretting it the instant my fingers touched her warm flesh. “Do you take me for a fool? You’re as powerful as your sister, and you’ve been concealing it. Either you’re lying to me, or you’re lying to yourself.”
Her eyes rounded and her pulse ratcheted. She froze beneath my grip—a frightened animal. “I’m not lying. Nothing like that has ever happened before.”
I released her. What was I doing? Her sweet fucking scent had addled my brain. She was terrified, and all I wanted to do was push her harder.
Control yourself, you bastard.
I put three steps between us, not trusting myself to be so close. “Did you use your power to escape from your room?”
I held the only key, and the guards had returned it to me each time after they’d locked her away. She had to have used her magic.
Belle opened her mouth, then closed it, glancing uncomfortably toward the door. “I don’t think so.”
Her voice ached with confusion and misery, and the roots of doubt began to creep through the cracks in my armor. Did she really not know, or was she simply a superb performer?
I circled, studying her closer than I should have. Summoning her magic had taken a heavy toll. Her eyes were half glazed, and exhaustion pulled on her shoulders. For a second, she swayed.
I reached out to steady her, but she recoiled, subtle but unmistakable.
She despised me. I knew it, but the taste was bitter on my tongue. “Clean yourself up and get to bed,” I said. “You’re a disaster.”
A beautiful disaster that had bewitched my mind. Her flushed cheeks, her tangled hair, the way her nightgown clung to her heated skin. I needed to put distance between us before I did something I’d regret. She was too vulnerable, too intriguing to resist.
“Consider your position very carefully, princess. The next time we speak, I expect the truth. If not…” I shrugged.
“Next time?” Her voice dripped with distaste.
“I’ll give you twenty-four hours to imagine the consequences of lying to me again.” I needed to keep my head about me, and she needed rest. It was a wonder she was still standing after expending so much power.
I strode to the door, bracing to block the strike I was almost certain would follow. When nothing came, I leveled her with a final threatening glare. “If you try to escape again, I will hunt you down, and I promise you, I won’t be so kind.”
“Kind?” The fire in her reignited, and the blush of anger that spread along her collarbone caused something feral inside me to rise. She stepped forward as if to slap me. “Nothing you’ve done has been kind. You’re an absolute bastard.”
“I am. Don’t forget that.”
As I started to pull the door closed, she marched to the settee, bent down, lifted one end and began dragging it toward me, despite her human weakness and obvious exhaustion.
What in the gods was she doing?
I stared, uncomprehending, as inch by inch it scraped toward the door. Then a dark laugh escaped my throat as the truth sank in. “If you think that will stop me from coming back in, you’re wrong.”
She straightened, sweat on her brow, but ice in her eyes. “Then I’ll drag every piece of furniture over. Now get out of my bedchamber, Your Highness.”
Her cheeks were flushed from the effort, and my gaze dropped to the flutter at the base of her neck, and then to the swell of her breasts beneath the silk of her nightgown.
Fucking hell.
“Maybe you should use your magic,” I said, my voice thick. “It would be much easier.”
“I don’t—” She glared at me, then shoved the settee forward another pathetic inch. “Get out.”
The order unraveled something dark and savage inside me. I stiffened, and a low growl rumbled from my throat. I yanked the door closed and locked it with the key in my pocket.
The scraping of wood echoed from the room, and a grin cut across my lips. She really was going to try to keep me out.
As infuriating as the treacherous vixen was, the fire burning in her was nearly irresistible.
Beneath her terrified facade, there was something strong.
She’d shown it when she’d shot my dragon with her pathetic bow, and when she’d stood before me in her cell.
And she’d shown it now—the truth of what she was.
Indomitable.
It made me want her even more. Wicked thoughts of my mouth on her, of her begging me not to stop, rose from the recesses of my mind like ghosts conjured by a witch.
Fuck.
The woman was a siren, beguiling me with her beauty and innocence. I couldn’t let it distract me from the truth: this was all Cassius’s doing. Spy or assassin, she was his little pawn.
I braced against the wall as the beast began to take control.
It was time to pay my brother a visit, and if I caught so much as a hint of treachery, I’d crown the new rulers of the Bloodvale with fire.