Chapter 29
Belle
When Loreli arrived the next morning, I stopped her before she served my breakfast. “Wait a minute, and watch this.”
I focused my mind and linked with the small teapot sitting on my breakfast tray. My fingers grew cold as magic flowed through the connection. “Would you please pour us a cup of tea? Not too full, mind you, leave room for milk.”
The teapot gently lifted, then tipped, filling the porcelain cup until it was half an inch short.
Loreli drew in her breath and went still.
I released my connection with the teapot as soon as it settled back on the tray. Since the kitchen incident, I’d been very careful to focus on one connection at a time. Two objects were exponentially more difficult to maintain and control.
“A little milk, please,” I asked the creamer. It tipped up and added a dollop, which formed an inviting swirl in the dark tea.
“Oh, very good, my lady,” Loreli exclaimed, clapping her hands together.
I bowed low with a flourish, then gestured to the cup. “Would you please serve Lady Loreli?”
The cup rose and floated gently through the air into her outstretched hands. Her face lit up with excitement, and perhaps a hint of fear, as she gingerly plucked it from the air. She sipped it, and her lips parted in a broad grin. “Perfect.”
“I thought I told you never to use your magic around my staff,” a deep voice rumbled behind us. It was low and as cold as the granite mountains.
Loreli and I shot to our feet in surprise. The porcelain cup shattered against the floor, hot tea splattering across our feet. How had he opened the door without either of us hearing?
I pulled my shawl around me, glaring at the king. “How dare you enter my rooms unannounced?”
Immortals were too damned quiet.
Something sharp and knowing glinted in his eyes as he advanced, his hands clasped behind his back and a single white rose dangling from his fingers. “You have a lot of nerve, disregarding my orders after what you did.”
Loreli shrank back and curtsied low. “Apologies, my lord, the fault is mine. I asked—”
I stepped between them, fists clenched and chin raised in challenge. “She didn’t ask anything. I wanted to show her what I’ve learned.”
“I don’t care what you want,” the king said in a voice that made me feel impossibly small. He stepped close, so that the great shadow of his form loomed over me, the heat of his body warming my skin. “You could’ve burned her if you fumbled the cup or pot.”
His spicy masculine scent hit me somewhere inconvenient.
“You’re the reason she dropped the cup,” I said, inching closer when all I wanted to do was run. “I had it under control.”
“Control.” The word dripped with sarcasm, his mouth twisting with contempt. “When I give an order, it is to be obeyed. Is that understood, Lady Marquette?”
We stood a breath apart, the air between us crackling with a wild energy that felt combustible.
“Yes,” I gritted through clenched teeth, hating that my eyes kept drifting to his mouth.
He inclined his head to Loreli, then to the door. “Go.”
Loreli glanced at me nervously. Appreciating her solidarity, I nodded, and she slipped out, pulling the door shut behind her.
A faint trace of a smile tugged at the king’s lips. “At least someone knows her place.”
I wanted to slap that smile off his gorgeous face.
“Apparently, my place is that of an exotic bird, to be kept in a cage and never allowed to fly.”
He made an amused chuff. “That’s because you would fly away.”
“No. I would not. You still have my companion under lock and key, or have you forgotten him, as you’ve forgotten me?”
“Is that why you are so upset? You think I’ve forgotten you?” He stepped close and tucked a wayward lock of hair behind my ear, his touch stirring something treacherous inside me. “I could never forget you, princess. You’re like an ice pick boring into my skull.”
“What a beautiful image. I would gladly assist with that.”
He plucked the strand of hair he’d just straightened. I yelped, slapping my hand to my scalp. “Why did you do that?”
The bastard was a sadist.
Amusement danced across his features. “Your friend is still alive, and will remain so, as long as you behave.”
“Behave.” I laughed at that, though it was a bitter, humorless noise.
“You kept Gregoire as a hostage to ensure that I stayed in line, and yet, aside from dangling me like a succulent morsel in front of your bloodthirsty court, you’ve offered me no freedom of any kind.
If you intend to keep me caged here, fine, but let him go free. ”
“No.”
It was as if the gods had crafted him simply to delight my eyes and grate on my nerves. “Then give him a room like mine. Anything but the dungeon. It’s cruel.”
“It’s fitting.”
I stared at him flatly. “You’re a heartless beast.”
“I am.”
His callous disregard for all those around him left me seething, and before I knew what I was doing, I forged a connection with the teapot. “Douse the asshole!”
The teapot leapt in the air and hurled its piping hot contents at the king. He moved impossibly fast, and the steaming tea splashed harmlessly across the carpet.
He seemed to take a wicked pleasure in my failure and glanced from the spreading stain to Loreli’s shattered cup. “So far, it seems your magic is only useful for making messes. Pitiful.”
The jab fueled the flames in me, and I reached my arm toward the fire iron beside the hearth. “Protect me.” The object leapt into my open hand, and I leveled my gaze at the king. “Care to test the limits of my power, Your Highness?”
It was a futile gesture, and I knew it. If he was fast enough to dodge the tea, or even the knife I’d hurled in his study, he was fast enough to dodge any attempt I made to strike him—but it felt good holding the cold iron. Powerful.
The king gave an approving nod. “Apparently you no longer need the magister’s instruction. Perhaps there’s some hope for progress after all.”
“It’s far easier to concentrate when neither of you is breathing down my neck.”
Hands behind his back, he circled me slowly, the rose still in his hand. “The fire iron is a nice trick, but I liked the dancing dress better. Maybe you could show me that one—” He paused and shot me a wicked grin. “—better yet, if you perform it yourself.”
I froze.
He knew. No, somehow he’d seen.
My gods. I’d been practically naked. I’d traipsed around the room like a damned fool. I wanted to curl up and die. No. I wanted to gut him.
The king continued his slow circuit around me, the contours of his face now etched with warning. “I’m watching you, Belle,” he said, as if reading my thoughts. “I will always be watching you. There is nothing you can do in this castle that will escape my attention.”
“How…?” It was as if the breath had been sucked from my lungs.
“I have eyes and ears everywhere.”
My skin heated. Every moment I’d thought was mine, he’d been there.
I glanced around the room, searching for cracks in the stone or gaps in the wooden panels, anything that would allow him to peer in on me, unobserved.
My gaze landed on the leering gargoyles and demons carved in the corners of my room.
Their eyes were stone, but it felt like they were still watching me. Laughing at what a fool I’d been.
My fists tightened around the iron. “You do not have my permission to watch me.”
My challenge drew anger and—if I wasn’t mistaken, something far more dangerous. “As long as you are a threat, princess, I will never take my eyes off you, never let you go.”
I channeled the rising current of magic into the fire iron. “Stab him through the heart!”