CHAPTER 13
THE PRINCESS
The bond pulls like a fishhook lodged in my stomach, dragging me forward through another endless forest. Three weeks.
Three weeks of following this cursed thread that connects me to him, sleeping in ditches and hollow trees, eating whatever I can forage or steal from villages I pass through like a ghost. My feet bleed through my stolen boots.
My dress, the one I put on after killing Benedict, hangs in tatters.
I should have died a dozen times over. Should have frozen in the mountain pass. But I didn't die. I couldn't. Because this thing inside me, this connection I never asked for, won't let me rest until I find him.
Until I kill him.
The thought sustains me as I stumble over another root, catching myself against a tree trunk. The bark bites into my palm. Good. I want to feel it. Want to feel anything other than this hollow, gnawing rage that's been eating me alive since I woke in that tower.
The bond thrums stronger now. Close. He's close.
I push through a thicket of thorns that tear new holes in my dress, that draw fresh blood from my arms. The forest opens suddenly into a clearing, and I stop.
Rubble. Everywhere, rubble.
What was once a castle, his castle, I know it somehow through the bond, lies in ruins. Massive stone blocks scatter like a child's toys. Towers collapsed into themselves. Walls reduced to jagged teeth jutting from the earth
He did this. Or someone did this to him.
I don't care which.
"Come out!" My voice tears from my throat, raw and ragged. I haven't spoken to another soul in weeks. "Come out, you coward! I know you're here!"
The bond pulses. He knows I'm here, too. Has probably known for days, feeling me get closer and closer, and he's been hiding like the monster he is.
"COME OUT!" I scream it this time, and something in my chest burns. "Face me! You owe me that much, you bastard! After everything—after what you did to me—"
My voice breaks. I hate that it breaks. I hate that tears are streaming down my face, hot and furious. I hate that I'm here at all, that I couldn't just let him go, that this bond won't release me even though I want nothing more than to be free of him.
"Stop hiding!" I'm shrieking now, my hands clenched into fists. "You're pathetic! You're a coward and a monster, and I hate you! Do you hear me? I HATE YOU!"
Movement. A shadow detaches itself from the largest pile of rubble. What might have once been the main keep. Wings unfurl, massive and dark against the afternoon sky. My breath catches despite myself.
He's beautiful. He's always been beautiful, even in my dreams, even in my nightmares.
The dragon descends in a controlled glide, landing twenty feet from me.
The ground trembles. Then he shifts, that impossible magic that I still don't understand, and suddenly he's a man-dragon hybrid.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Dark hair falling into eyes so dark I can almost see my reflection in them, even this far away.
Eyes that look at me with such devastating sorrow that I want to claw them out.
He walks toward me slowly, then drops to his knees in front of me. Right there in the dirt and rubble, he kneels before me like a prisoner before an executioner.
"Adelaide." My name on his lips is a prayer. It sounds holy. "I knew you were coming. I felt you through the bond, every step of the way."
"Then why didn't you come to me?" The words are venom. "Why did you make me hunt you down like an animal?"
"Because I'm ready." He looks up at me, and there's no defense in his expression. No excuses. Just acceptance. "I'm ready for your choice. Whatever you decide, I'll accept it."
"My choice?" I laugh, and it sounds unhinged even to my own ears. "What choice? You took every choice from me! You cursed me to sleep for a century! You stole my life!" I’m screaming now.
"I know." His voice is infuriatingly calm. "I know what I did. I know what I am."
"Do you?" I take a step closer, my whole body shaking. "Do you really? Because you left me there. When the prince came, when he took me, when he locked me in another castle like I was a prize to be won—you didn't come for me. You didn't save me."
Something flickers across his face. Pain. Confusion. "Adelaide—"
"Don't." I hold up a hand. "Don't you dare say my name like that. Like you care. Like you love me."
"But I do." The words fall from him like stones. "I love you with all my heart. With everything I am. I have loved you since the moment I first saw you, and I will love you until the stars burn out."
"Liar!" The word explodes from me, and with it comes fire.
Golden and red flames shoot from my mouth, bright and hot and impossible. They arc through the air between us, shooting just above him, scorching his hair. He doesn't even flinch. Just lets them wash over him, his eyes never leaving mine.
I stumble backward, my hand flying to my mouth.
"The bond," he says quietly. "When I reversed the spell, it required that I give you something of me. I chose to give you fire. I thought it might help you protect yourself if ever—"
"No." I shake my head violently. "No, I don't want this. I don't want any of this!"
"I know." He's still kneeling, still looking at me with those terrible, gentle eyes. "I know I'm not worthy of you. I—"
“Why didn’t you come for me? Why? Was it because you didn't want me?" I'm crying again, the words ripping out of me. "Because I was just a possession to you? Something to keep locked away, and when someone else took me, you didn't care enough to—"
"No. Never. I was poisoned." His voice cuts through my tirade, sharp and clear. "The prince. He used arrows tipped with poison. It made me lose my powers for a time. I couldn’t heal. I almost died.”
I freeze. "What?"
"I should have died." He gestures to the ruins around us. "When I finally made it out of the fog, when the poison had worked its way through my system enough that I could fly again, I went to find you. But you were gone. The castle was empty. I tracked you through the bond. I swear to you I went to you the second I could. I went to the castle you were at. Changed into my human form. Found you in a garden.” He’s looking down now, lost in thought.
“And through the bond, I felt... contentment.
Peace. I thought—" His voice breaks. "I thought you had chosen to leave with him. That you wanted to go."
"Contentment?" I stare at him. "I was kidnapped and forced to stay there! My cousin, the king of my old castle, forced me into marriage. He locked me in another castle. He forced me to have sex with him every night because he wanted children. You thought I was content?"
The color drains from his face. "I didn't know. Adelaide, I swear to you, I didn't know. The bond—it can be deceiving. It shows emotions but not context. I felt you calm and resolved and… and I thought..." He closes his eyes. "I thought you had finally found happiness. Away from me. Free of me."
"Free?" The word is a sob. "I've never been free! Not before you stole me. Not in the century I slept, not in the moments I was awake before the prince came, not in the months I spent in his castle! And you—you just gave up on me!"
"I thought it was what you wanted!" He's on his feet now, and there's anguish in every line of his body. "I thought I had finally done something right by letting you go!"
"You don't get to let me go!" I'm against his body now, my fists pounding against his chest. "You don't get to make that choice for me! You don't get to decide what I want!"
He takes it. Every blow. Doesn't even try to defend himself.
"You're right," he says. "You're absolutely right.
I failed you. I failed to protect you. I failed to save you.
I failed in every way that matters." He catches my wrists gently, stopping my assault.
"I am filled with shame, Adelaide. It eats at me every moment.
Punish me. Please. I welcome it. I deserve it. "
"You deserve worse than punishment." I wrench my hands free and pull the knife from my belt. "You deserve to suffer like I've suffered."
"Yes." He doesn't move. Doesn't try to stop me. "Yes, I do."
"I hate you." The knife trembles in my hand. "I hate you for the curse. For stealing a century of my life. For making me sleep while everyone I loved grew old and died. I will always hate you for that. Always."
"I know." His voice is soft. "And you're allowed to. You're allowed to hate me and love me at the same time, Adelaide."
"I don't love you." But the words sound hollow even to me.
"You don't have to." He reaches up slowly, his hand cupping my face with devastating gentleness. "But I will always love you. I will be here for you, protect you, serve you, for as long as you allow me to exist. That is my vow."
The knife plunges into his stomach before I fully realize I've moved.
His breath hitches. Blood blooms around the blade, hot and dark. I pull it out and stab him again. And again. And again.
He doesn't stop me. Doesn't fight back. Just stands there and takes it, his blood soaking into my dress, hot and wet against my skin.
I feel good. I feel terrible. I feel alive.
When I finally stop, my arm aching, he's still standing. Still looking at me with those eyes full of love and pain and acceptance.
"Better?" he asks, and there's no sarcasm in it. Just genuine concern.
"No." I drop the knife. My hands are covered in his blood. "Yes. I don't know."
He sways slightly, and I catch him without thinking. We go down together, kneeling in the dirt and rubble, his blood mixing with the earth.
"You're insane," I whisper. "Letting me do that. You're completely insane."
"Probably. I think I forgot to mention that when one harms their mate, it takes much longer to heal." My eyes widen. His hand comes up to tangle in my hair. "But I meant what I said. I love you. I will always love you."
"I hate you." But I'm leaning into his touch.
"I know."
"I hate what you did to me."
"You should."