Chapter 47
Elariya
“Say It With Your Touch”
Icouldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't process how things had taken such a vicious turn.
Wolfe was being promised to another woman while I stood frozen like a fool in the crowd.
My hands trembled at my sides as Princess Seraphina glided toward him with that serene, practiced smile. Only then did Wolfe look away from me and back at her.
Watching her now, I understood why Dreynthor had been so confident in his cruelty. He’d already chosen a bride for his nephew. Someone who was perfection incarnate, and looked like she'd been born to wear a crown and stand beside a king to rule with quiet authority.
She was everything I wasn't. Noble. Refined. Appropriate. Everything a future queen should be. I, on the other hand, was a half-blood mage nobody who wasn't even from the magical realm. I had no right to dream of princes. Or him.
I'd been stupid enough to believe I could be anything more to Wolfe than his tracker, his prisoner, his enemy.
The applause grew louder, but all I could hear was the sound of my heart shattering in my ears. A thousand irreparable pieces spasmed throughout my body, leaving me hollow. Then a warm hand covered mine, pulling me from the harrowing haze.
It was Arielle. I'd almost forgotten she stood beside me. Her eyes were wide and bewildered, clouded with disbelief and disappointment.
“I didn't know,” she whispered quickly, squeezing my hand. “No one said anything to me about this.”
“I—”
“The wedding date will be announced in a month's time,” Dreynthor's voice boomed, cutting me off.
A month. Great. Just wonderful. But maybe for once my curse would be a mercy. I had ten days and a few hours left of this reset. In a month, I wouldn't remember any of this. This heartbreak.
“Enjoy your evening, everyone.” Dreynthor looked right at me and smiled, his smug arrogance churning my stomach.
The crowds cheered again, and I realized I couldn't stay here. Not for another second. I turned back to Arielle, her hand still clutching mine.
“I'm... just... gonna go outside.”
She shook her head. “No, don't go. Or at least let me come with you.”
“No. I don't want you to ruin your plans with Bastian for me.”
“Are you kidding? My plans can wait. I'm not going to let you wander off alone upset.”
“I'll be fine. I just made... a mistake. Misread things.”
Her shoulders sagged. “No. Don't say that. We don't know how this came to be. It must be some kind of bizarre...” Her gaze flicked to Dreynthor, bitterness thickening her expression. “A bizarre political plan.”
“It doesn't matter. I'm going back to the carriage for some air. You stay.” I managed a weak smile. “I would feel awful if you didn't get your special night with Bastian. And... I think I kind of need to be alone for a while.”
She took both my hands, holding them tight. For a moment, I thought she’d insist on going with me, but then she nodded, her eyes softening with quiet understanding. “I'll check on you in a little while.”
“Okay. But I'll be fine.”
“I'm so sorry.”
Me too.
She let go, my hands falling to my sides slowly. I gave her a small nod and turned, pushing through the crowd. People shifted out of the way, some whispering as I passed by. No doubt they'd seen me dancing with Wolfe and had a thing or two more to say about me.
The thought made the air feel too thick and suffocating. Like the walls were closing in on me. I needed to escape before I unraveled in front of all these strangers.
I quickened my pace and finally made it to the doors. Cool night air hit my face as I stepped onto the terrace. The carriage was just across the courtyard. Another three to four minutes and I'd be there.
My breath hitched as the first tear slid down my cheek.
Shit. I couldn't cry over this. It was stupid. But another tear followed. And another.
More stupid tears spilled as my foolish heart ached. I shook my head at myself and kept walking, refusing to look back.
I wasn’t like most girls. I had no experience with men, no casual flings to compare this to, no practiced indifference to brush it off.
All I knew was that I was hurt—deeply. I didn’t understand how Wolfe could look me in the eyes, say the things he’d said, dance with me as if I mattered…
while knowing he was bound to another woman.
Why would he do that? Why would he make me believe I was important, only to rip the ground from beneath me?
But... this was my fault. My very foolish mistake, indeed, for forgetting reality.
It wasn’t as if I’d met Wolfe under normal circumstances. Why would I lose my head over him? Why would I lose my heart?
Besides, wasn’t I supposed to marry Thayden? True, it wasn’t the same situation. Wolfe knew I was promised to Thayden to save my family and he knew I had no feelings whatsoever for him. But perhaps I was the pot calling the kettle black. Nevertheless, that didn't ease the pain.
Somewhere in the chaos of madness and reason I’d fallen for my Hades, but he was promised to another woman.
The shadows in the cluster of willows ahead thickened. Wolfe stepped out of them before I could even catch my breath.
I stopped short, startled at first, then the ache returned, pulling me under.
“Elariya.” Wolfe came closer, his face carved with regret and something fiercer, something unrelenting.
“Don't.” I shook my head and raised my hand. “Just... don't.”
The pain in his eyes nearly broke me. Almost. It was the first time I'd seen him look this way, but it didn't change anything.
“You have to let me explain—”
“Explain what? How you made me believe I actually meant something to you while you were promised to marry someone else? Is that what you need to explain?” My voice shook, barely controlled.
“It's complicated.”
“Then there is nothing to explain. You don't owe me anything, and I don't owe you anything, either.”
I tried to push past him, but his hand closed around my arm, dragging me back. “Elariya, I didn't know my uncle was going to announce an engagement.”
The shadows writhed around him, mirroring his storm, but I didn’t care.
“That's not the point. The point is you must have known your uncle was going to marry you off. Don't lie to me and tell me you didn't know.”
“I knew.” His confession pierced straight through me, splitting my wound wider. “But I never agreed to it.”
I narrowed my eyes. “Your uncle seems to think otherwise.”
“I don't fucking care what he thinks.”
“You should care. You’re not even supposed to be with me. I’m practically engaged to Thayden.”
“No, you aren't.” Wolfe’s sneer was lethal. The mention of Thayden snapped something inside him, fracturing his control. “This is not the same thing.”
“How is it not the same?”
“Because it’s not.” He yanked me flush against him, his grip bruising.
My breath faltered as the truth settled heavy in my chest in full clarity.
Wolfe was a prince. The next king of Galaythia. No matter what he said, he couldn't and shouldn't be with someone like me. Not the girl whose father killed his. Not the girl cursed to forget him in ten days.
“Wolfe, you need to go back inside to your princess, and leave me alone.”
His expression shifted, darkening to something dangerous. “You're mine, Elariya.”
“This is—”
“No. You’re mine and I'll burn this fucking kingdom to ash if I can’t have you.”
The conviction in his dark promise seared me, fire locking my body still.
This wasn’t the prince who made my heart flutter and my head spin.
This was the devilish villain who made me burn.
The monster in the shadows who took what he wanted, who stripped me of reason, of control, of breath.
And now he vowed to burn the kingdom to ash to have me.
“Wolfe…” My voice broke, words lost to the wind.
“We’re leaving, now.”
“But we—”
His mouth crashed onto mine before I could finish, desperate and ravenous, in a kiss that tasted of possession and promises.
The kiss was raw. Consuming. The kiss of a villain who'd just declared war on the world for the woman in his arms.
His hand wove through my hair, cradling the back of my head as he devoured me, pouring all his fury and hunger into the fire between us.
And he was kissing me right here in the open courtyard, where anyone could see us. His uncle. The princess. Anyone. He didn't care. Neither did I.
Wolfe tore away, his hand gripping my throat, forcing my eyes to his. “I need you now, Ziyka.” His nose brushed mine, his voice low and wrecked. “I need to be inside you. In my bed. Away from here. Away from them.” His grip tightened. His eyes burned. “It's time to show you who you belong to.”
The promise sent molten heat straight through my core, igniting everything desperate inside me. Wolfe cloaked us in a swarm of shadows black as pitch, then his mouth found mine again, fiercer than before.
He kissed me like he meant to brand his claim onto my soul and I was so consumed with the exhilaration I didn't notice he'd portaled us right into his bedroom—back to the place where this started days ago.
His kiss became hungrier, more demanding, more consuming. Every thought that wasn't him fled my mind, along with their warnings about the impossibility of us.
I kissed him back with equal desperation. If tonight was all we had, then I would make it count. I wanted to feel everything I’d fantasized and believe, even for a heartbeat, that he was mine, too.
His tongue swept against mine, claiming every inch of my mouth like he was starving for the taste of me.
I could feel his fangs grazing my bottom lip, a reminder of the danger he possessed.
When I gasped at the sensation, Wolfe swallowed the sound, his grip tightening in my hair as if he couldn't bear even the smallest distance between us.
His hands wandered over the curves of my body and I felt like I might come apart from his touch alone. Every caress was a promise of what was to come, a declaration that this was happening tonight and nothing would stop us.