Chapter 59
It’s dark down here. Therefore, it heightens my senses until every sound sends me on edge—the scurrying of rats, a cough from someone close to where I am caged. The flame flickering on the torch flickers, causing sounds when the cinders burn and crackle.
I am also confused. Tethering to Reen should have been the best outcome for me. For one, I don’t die—we don’t die. But when I looked into his eyes, it hurt. I knew what he was thinking and realised that he wouldn’t ever let me out of his sight.
I’m no princess who needs coddling, and to see him see me as someone he needs to protect consistently irritated me. We spent too much time together for him to start treating me as if I were fragile.
An exasperated sigh escapes parted lips. Wrapping my arms around my legs, I dip my head and rest my chin on my knees.
I wish to return to the careless days on the ship a few days ago.
The days were calm, and his hands moved across my body, nurturing me when he slathered lotion on the burns plaguing me.
Please take me back to when we were in the pool or in the mornings, playing a different game and getting to know each other.
I hate this.
Tears streak down my cheeks. Sniffing, I wipe at them, and across my vision, a shadowed figure creeps toward my cell.
As I lift my head, he comes into focus with his hands behind his back.
His red eyes glow, but there’s now a wall between us since tethering, and I am scared it is something we can’t fix.
“Prince Reen,” I say.
He twitches a smile. A flutter of lightness hits my heart before his smile falters because we don’t know whose emotions are whose. This is a complex situation I need to learn more about, or I may need to start it from now on.
“I came to let you out,” he says.
I arch a brow. “Aren’t you nice? Did King Walkyer grill you?”
He crouches by the bars. “I was always going to let you out, but I needed to calm you down first.”
“I am calm.”
Reen gives me a level look. “Before I let you out, I need you to agree to my terms.”
And here it is. An endless list of shit I can’t do anymore. “What?”
“And if you agree, you can have this,” Reen reveals what he had behind his back, causing my brow to arch at the slice of chocolate cake.
He’s fucking with me, right? Fucking cake?
No, Reen’s not screwing with me. His eyes narrow, and weird swirling emotions I can’t pinpoint move through me. I don’t know what, but it’s there, sickly and a strange funk.
“And if I refuse?”
“You won’t leave the cell until you do.” He smirks.
“What then?”
“Three years. You are to stay here for three years, train, learn, and understand how to protect yourself with your elemny abilities. You can leave when not only Walkyer but also Alad, I, Astin, Ziri, Ri, and Alek deem you powerful enough to defend yourself.”
Three years. It sounds like a damn lifetime, especially if I’m trapped in these walls and can’t do anything.
I eye the cake in his hands and then at him. “Whatever. Get me the fuck out of here.”
Reen puts the cake down on my side of the cell. “Eat it first so that I know you agree.”
Pushing up from the wall, I stand on the other side of the bars, grab the plate, sink the fork in and shove the—fuck, that tastes good. Sweet, bitter, silky, grainy, and moist. Is this what cake tastes like?
My eyes widen, and I stare at Reen, who is staring at me with a softened look on his face.
He goes into his pants, hooks the key around his finger and slides it into the door.
Once it’s unlocked and moves to the right, I take a deep breath.
Counting my steps, when I pass him, I spin rapidly, rip the keys from him, shove Reen until he stumbles into the cell and then slide it until it locks. “Fuck you, Reen!” I spit.
He rests his arms above his head and on the iron bars and sighs. “You are really getting on my last nerve, Pandora.”
“Your last nerve!” I shout. “You locked me in a cell for two days like a fucking animal!” A giggle escapes my lips.
“I’d like to see you get the fuck out of there now.
Suffer like I had suffered all…” Flames coil around Reen, and he moves through the iron bars in a flurry of black fire with a brush of wind.
A sinister, downright grin broadens on his face, and the hunger glows in his eyes when they settle on me. My eyes widen. “Oh, fuck me dead.”
I drop the plate with the cake and run down the darkly lit hall.
Deep laughter echoes from behind me, and the manic episode of Reen comes to life as the hunter.
But for some sick and twisted reason, a flutter, either mine or his, stirs in my chest as he chases me.
It reminds me of sneaking through the corridors at the function.
Light seeps near the stairs leading up. A wide smile reaches my face at the thought of escaping when heat swarms me like a hive of wasps, and I slam against the wall.
Reen comes into focus, grabbing my hands, lifting them over my head and pinning them against the stone wall.
His knee presses between my legs, and I gasp when he lifts me off my feet until I am at eye level with the devil.
My breath hitches when he leans into me. A stir of lust squirms between my legs, and I have to suppress the urge to wiggle and let the friction of his knee rub against my clit.
“I felt your excitement,” he says, a breath away from my lips. “At least, I hope it is yours.”
I stare longingly at his lips. “Yes.”
A smirk settles across his mouth. “Then I have another deal for you. One that will entice you not to fucking run every second of the day.”
“Go on…”
His hands tighten on my wrists, keeping them high above my head.
“You have one day out of the week to escape. Any day you choose. You have a minute when the bell rings high in the tower.” He leans in closer, sucking the breath out of me and breathing ashen death into my lungs.
“Windows and doors are unlocked, and the guards can only watch.”
I squirm, and the throbbing of my clit shudders when the creases on his jeans rub against it. “The catch?”
“When that minute is up, anyone who saw you can send me the information about your location. Then, I will hunt you—only me. Anyone who tries will die. And if you can escape the Kingdom of Flesh without me catching you, you’re free. You won’t see me ever again.”
“Is that all?”
“Agree to these terms, and you can go wherever you want, and your door will always be open for you to roam with at least Astin watching over you. It’s better than any other offer I will give you, Pandora.”
If I escape, I will never see Reen again. My throat tightens at the thought. However, the idea of spending three years in a room and only seeing sunlight during training regimens makes his deal sound like an oasis.
“Do you have any more cake left?” I say.
He smiles, and his eyes crinkle. “I can get you some more when we leave here.”
Reen releases his hold and moves his knee down until I’m planted on the ground.
“One more thing,” I say.
He arches a brow. “What?”
I grab his jacket and pull him toward me until his lips find mine. Tasting him, a new sense of excitement burns through me, and a moan I never thought would come out does, and my breath hitches as I feel how much the kiss means to him.
“Oh fuck, Reen,” I say as he lifts me until my legs settle against his hips, wrapping around him. “You’re an addiction.”
His hand moves between us, slipping through my underwear and clamping my clit. Reen presses his hand on the stone wall, a sharp breath hissing out of his mouth. It causes a smile on my face knowing that he’s feeling how fucking good he’s making me.
“You’re going to come undone so fucking fast it’s going to make me want to fucking strangle you, isn’t it?” he says.
My tongue swipes against his. “Then slow. Fuck the cake. This is what’s going to make me agree to your terms, so let me salivate in it.”
Reen stares daggers down at me. “You’re the one who fucking orgasms in under a minute. I’m the one who needs you to keep your shit together.”
I wrap my arms around his shoulders and tighten my legs around him until his fingers are wholly inside my pussy. Leaning to the side, I kiss him, my teeth grazing his lower lip. I bite harder, tasting crimson while his fingers move inside me, gliding across the walls.
“Pandora?”
My eyes widen, and I look down the hallway at Xavier. He leaves the room to the right, blatantly staring at me while I am pinned against the wall and Reen with his fingers inside me.
“Oh, fuck me,” I hiss.
Reen pinches my chin with his thumb and forefinger, guiding me back until I gaze at him. “Eyes on me.”
A wicked grin spreads across my face. I bury my head into his shoulder, closing my eyes so I don’t see Xavier.
“What the fuck, Pandora!”
Heat blazes from the right of me, throbbing against my cheek. I sit up, my eyes on Reen and the feeling of his fingers pumping in and out of me. But in the corner of my eye, a wall of fire blocks Xavier from leaving.
“You, kid,” Reen says, his red eyes rolling in his direction, and with an unsettling look on his face, he stares at Xavier, “are going to watch me pleasure Pandora until you fucking realise that how you treated her was unacceptable.”
“She wanted it as much as I!” Xavier says.
I glare at him, wanting to tell him all the times I told him “no,” when Reen lures my focus back onto him. He silently tells me it doesn’t matter, which causes me to lean in and give in to Reen.
His fingers pump in and out while our mouths go to war. A tongue so delicate, hot and fucking wet gets me going as I grind up against him. The taste of him tasting me, fuck me, it’s a novel experience. I feel how much I turn him on. It’s delicious as honey, but hot, raw and emotionally connected.
I thrust against his fingers, imagining what it would feel like if he were actually inside him. Fuck. I can’t fucking take it anymore.
“I’m going to come,” I say breathlessly.
“I feel it,” Reen says.
Cupping my hands on his cheeks, my mouth moves with his as his fingers slip out of me and rub hard against my clit. I moan through intense kisses, my legs buckling until I lean against the wall, hitching breaths while I come undone.
Sweat slips down my forehead from the heat of Reen and the flames. As I wipe it away, I notice Xavier. Fuck. I forgot he was there and watching.
Reen’s hands move to my hips, and I slide down until I am planted on the ground. He leans into me, his hot breath brushing against my ear as he says, “Did you want me to kill him?”
“No,” I say as I touch his waist, unclip the buckle and glide the dagger out, “I've got this.”
A wicked grin spreads across his face as he steps away.
I move to Xavier and touch his shoulder until he looks at me. “You’re so fucked in the head, Pandora.”
My eyes widen, and I tilt my head to the side in bewilderment. “Me? The girl you raped repeatedly.”
“I didn’t fucking ra—” His nostrils flare. “You were so fucking wet when I was inside you. Even if you said ‘no’, your body wanted it.”
“Okay,” I breathe. “If you’re basing it on what I want from body language, I guess you shouldn’t get mad when I do this, right?”
“What?”
I grip Xavier between the legs and slice the dagger across the fabric.
His limp dick grips tight in my hand as it cuts away from his body.
As he cries out, I slam my palm into his face, forcing it down his throat.
Leaning up to his ear, I tilt my head to the side and say in a voice lacking any form of emotion, “Choke on this.”
Xavier stumbles back, hitting the wall and sinking to the ground with his member sticking out of his mouth.
Tears spring to his eyes when I stand over him with the dagger clenched in my hand.
“When someone says ‘no’, no matter how fucking wet they are, listen to their fucking words, not their body,” I say.
Reen chuckles darkly. “Come, let him bleed out while I show you to your room.”
Stepping away from Xavier, I reach for my captor’s hand, excited about what will come next on this journey with him and where we will end up. I still want my freedom. That motive is set in stone. And as much as it pains me, I will find a way out of this castle, with or without Reen.