Chapter 7
CHAPTER SEVEN
AURELIA
My body felt hollowed out, like a wet shirt wrung until there was nothing left but threads. My head throbbed as fragments of the night refused to settle into place.
I tried to open my eyes. Tried to sit up.
Dalek’s hand pressed gently but firmly against my shoulder. “Easy, darling.” His voice was soothing, calm—too calm. “You had food poisoning. Bad seafood. Your body reacted fast, which is a good thing.”
“But your friend, the chef?” My throat felt raw, my words barely a whisper.
He sat on the edge of the bed, taking my hand in his warm grasp, his thumb brushing slow circles over my skin. “He was mortified. He prepared my meal himself. His sous chef handled yours. He can’t explain how expired seafood made it into the kitchen; he bought everything fresh this morning.”
Something about that didn’t sit right.
Coincidence… or intent?
“Promise me you’ll never take me back there,” I murmured weakly. “Unless he prepares both our meals.”
His lips curved into a faint smile as he lifted my hand and kissed my knuckles. “You have my word of honor, love.” His voice softened. “Get some rest. I’ll be right next door if you need me.”
Too exhausted to argue, I nodded. “Love you,” I whispered as my eyes fluttered shut.
His lips brushed my cheek. “You are my world, Aurelia. My love for you is endless.”
Darkness claimed me, but not before I heard something else. A muffled sound. A scuffle. A voice trying, and failing, to speak. I told myself it was the lingering sickness playing tricks on my mind. Sleep dragged me under, but it offered no peace.
My dreams were chaotic—Dalek torn from my grasp again and again, and an elegant, vicious woman laughing as she reminded me I was nothing. A commoner. Unworthy of standing beside him. Certainly unfit to be a duchess. Never a queen.
I woke with a sharp gasp.
Warm breath brushed my ear as a gloved hand clamped over my mouth, forcing my head back. Cold steel pressed against my throat.
“Move,” a man’s voice whispered, “and you’ll slit your throat.”
Terror locked my limbs in place.
The voice was familiar, but distorted, and close enough to make my stomach drop. I strained to see his face, but a dark mask hid his features.
“You’re going to listen very carefully,” he continued, “if you want to live. Do you understand?”
The knife eased just enough for me to nod.
It returned immediately, biting into my skin, causing a couple drops of blood to slide down my neck.
“You’re a nosy little bitch,” he sneered. “Digging into matters that don’t concern you. You will stop investigating Yvanka’s background. Some things are meant to stay buried. Agreed?”
My pulse thundered in my ears. My mind raced, scrambling for any way out.
He lifted his hand slightly, allowing me to speak.
“Yes.”
“Tsk. Tsk.” His head tilted. “Didn’t anyone teach you manners? You’ll address me as sir.”
“Yes, sir,” I forced out, bitterness burning my tongue.
His hand covered my mouth again. “You’ll also begin distancing yourself from Dalek. He doesn’t need distractions. He needs focus…on claiming the crown.” The knife pressed harder. “Any attempt to interfere will result in one or both of your deaths. Am I clear?”
“Yes, sir.”
This time, when his hand returned, I smelled it. Sweet. Chemical. Chloroform. I struggled, panic surging through me, but it was useless.
Darkness swallowed me whole.
Morning brought confusion.
For several disoriented seconds, I laid there wondering if the night before had been nothing more than a fever dream. My limbs felt weak as I climbed out of bed, the memory of food poisoning surfacing with every unsteady step.
It wasn’t until I stood before the bathroom vanity that reality struck. Dried blood stained the curve of my neck. Beneath it, a faint pink line, thin, precise. A knife mark.
I was caught between a rock and hard place and didn’t know how to get us both out alive. I dressed as usual, my movements automatic, then left my quarters and headed for Dalek’s office.
His secretary, who normally barely concealed her disdain, was entirely too cheerful. Too knowing. The sharp glint in her eyes put me on edge before I ever reached the door.
I knocked.
“You may enter, Aurelia.”
Dalek was pacing behind his desk, finishing a phone call. While his back was turned, I retrieved my laptop and case along with a few files.
That’s when I saw his screen. An email marked URGENT from Rick at Titan Security.
CALL US ASAP – NEED TO DISCUSS WHAT WE UNCOVERED. LIFE OR DEATH.
Before I could read the summary of the email, the screen was slammed shut, by Dalek. “This is a private matter that I am looking into, sweetheart. You need not concern yourself with the details.”
My pulse spiked. That made no sense. It was my insistence, my questions, that had led us here in the first place.
He stepped forward, wrapping his arms around me and drawing me into a hug. His warmth was familiar, comforting, but something beneath it felt wrong. He kissed me deeply, urgently.
It wasn’t a kiss meant to ignite. It felt like he was saying goodbye. I pushed against his chest. “What’s going on? Something isn’t right.”
His gaze dropped, not to my face, but to my neck. Then lower.
That’s when I saw them. Two red laser dots, steady and unmoving, centered over my heart.
Dalek closed his eyes and drew a slow, controlled breath—the kind I’d taught him to take when rage threatened to surface.
When he opened them, the man I loved was gone.
His expression hardened. His voice turned cold.
“I’m afraid your services are no longer required.
Your therapies have proven ineffective. Your contract is terminated effective immediately. ”
Each word sounded rehearsed.
“A guard will escort you to your room. He’ll oversee your packing to ensure you take nothing belonging to the castle. You will leave the premises without incident. Failure to comply will result in authorities being contacted.”
He didn’t look at me.
I noticed the faint discoloration beneath his makeup. The shadow of a bruise. My hand instinctively lifted toward him.
He stepped back. “Just do as you’re told, Doctor Ruzika,” he said flatly. “You are dismissed.” His eyes betrayed him—raw, fractured—but his gaze never left the lasers trained on my chest.
The room was bugged. Watched.
I swallowed hard. “You moved me in. You said we’d build a life together. Where am I supposed to go?”
Dalek reached into his coat and handed me a thick envelope. “You’ll find your compensation inside. Consider it severance.”
Inside were a prepaid credit card, cash, and a hastily scrawled note:
Please do as you are asked. Flee far away. Keep yourself safe.
My heart splintered. With shaking hands, I gathered my things and offered my hand. I leaned in just enough to whisper, “You’ll always have a piece of my heart.”
For a fraction of a second, his mask cracked. Then his voice turned cruel. “You’ve wasted enough of my time. Leave.”
A guard I didn’t recognize waited outside. Dalek’s secretary beamed as she introduced him. “This is Sergei. He’ll see you out. You are no longer welcome here.”
Her smile was triumphant.
I lifted my chin. “Sergei, please escort me to my room.”
It took half a day to move in. Forty-five minutes to be erased.
When I insisted on retrieving my notebook from Dalek’s room, Sergei reluctantly allowed it. Several pages had been torn out and shoved beneath the bed. That’s when I noticed it. The pressure plates. The wires. Gone.
“You have five minutes,” Sergei warned.
As I stood, my gaze snagged on the nightstand. Dalek’s book had changed. The Hemingway novel we’d started together was gone. In its place sat a single title: Think Twice. The message chilled me.
Minutes later, my bags were loaded into the car. Sergei watched, hand resting on his holster, until I drove away. The castle gates swung open the moment I reached them and closed as soon as my car passed through. A symbolic gesture to this chapter in my life.
I made the mistake of looking back.
Dalek stood at his study window, his forehead pressed to the glass.
He stepped back momentarily and came forward again with his head held high and his shoulders straight.
His sadness vanished, replaced by something cold, calculated.
A look that sent ice skittering down my spine. Did I mean nothing to him?
And I realized, whatever game had begun, it was far from over.