57. Chapter 57
Arwen
My eyelids peel apart slowly, revealing a blurred mix of muted colors. I try to lift my head from my chest with a groan, but the weight is too much.
My head throbs with a dull ache that pulses behind my eyes, and for several long seconds I sit there blinking at nothing, trying to remember where I am. It’s like my thoughts are trying to wade through deep water.
Who… who am I again?
I try to shift my weight and my shoulders pull back against something. My arms won’t follow. I glance down at my lap, where my hands should be, and they aren’t there. I try again, twisting at the waist, and coarse fibers scrape across the skin of my wrists.
Rope.
At least I think that’s the word for it?
My wrists feel bound tightly behind the chair. I look to my feet to find my ankles, also bound in rope and tied to the legs of the chair I’m sitting in.
Why am I not scared? This doesn’t seem like a normal situation… I just feel confused.
Why am I tied up? What happened?
I try to pull at fragmented memories, but every thought slips through my fingers like sand. A school, yes. There was a school. I think. There was... someone.
Someone I should remember.
The harder I push, the more my head hurts. I groan in pain and let my eyes wander around the room instead. For some reason, I’m tied up in a fancy-looking office.
It looks expensive, but I’m not sure how I know that. Sleek white furniture. Floor-to-ceiling windows. I’ve never been here before.
At least... I don’t think I have?
Why can’t I remember? I squeeze my eyes shut and try again. The click of a door opening captures my attention, and every concern disappears.
The entire world narrows to a single point.
It’s him.
The most beautiful man in the universe walks through the doorway, and the room seems smaller the moment he enters it. His presence fills every corner. Power rolls off him in invisible waves, demanding attention. Confidence clings to his gorgeous body covered in colorful tattoos.
Everyone should bow before him.
My chest aches with affection so intense it almost hurts. The love of my life…
My Vex.
Relief floods me. I can’t understand why I felt confused just a moment ago. There’s nothing to question. Nothing to search for. Everything I need is right here.
I stare at him, hoping he can see the absolute devotion I feel written across my face. My need for him. The absolute certainty that he is the most important thing that has ever existed.
“I’ve missed you, my love,” I say, and my voice comes out rough, like I haven’t used it in days. For a brief second, something twists uncomfortably inside me.
But then Vex steps farther into the room, and the discomfort disappears beneath the warmth that follows him everywhere. One corner of his mouth lifts.
“Did you?” The amusement in his voice makes me smile.
Of course I did. How could I not? Every moment without him is torture. Doesn’t he know that?
For a moment, his expression shifts—something like curiosity cutting through his amusement—but it disappears as he steps closer. My attention locks onto him, unable to drift anywhere else.
His fingers slide into my hair, gentle at first, and I lean into it without thinking.
The touch sends a shiver through me. His hand moves, soft and affectionate, through my strands.
Then his hand tightens on my scalp painfully, and he jerks my face back with enough force that my breath catches.
The movement forces me to look up at him.
A flicker of confusion tries to rise in me at the edge of the pain.
Why does that feel… wrong?
But it dissolves the moment I look at him again. His golden eyes narrow as suspicion flickers across his face.
“Why?” he asks with distrust.
The question unsettles me more than his grip does. Why would he ask me that?
Why wouldn’t he know everything I feel?
Fear rushes in. Not because I’m afraid of him, but I fear disappointing him. What if he doesn’t understand how much I love him?
“Because you’re mine. And I’m yours,” I blurt. I struggle against the ropes, desperate to reach out to him. Desperate to make him understand. “It’s only you. Everything begins and ends with you. I can prove it. I can show you—just tell me how I can prove it.”
My chest aches with how much I mean it, and emotion clogs my throat. The words feel like truth carved into me, undeniable and absolute. His eyes never leave mine.
I lean forward as much as the restraints allow. “You are my entire world.”
Vex studies me as his suspicion melts away, and a smile spreads across his face that makes me feel like spiders are crawling across my skin. His thumb brushes across my cheek.
“So you are weak enough to fall under my spell,” he murmurs to himself.
Confusion presses at the edges of my thoughts again, like something trying to push its way through fog.
A spell?
The word echoes around my head, catching on something jagged and uncomfortable. What is he talking about?
There’s no spell. There’s nothing artificial or wrong here… Only certainty that he’s mine. Right?
That certainty wavers for the briefest moment. Something flickers. A small, uneasy sensation I can’t quite name. It doesn’t belong in the shape of how I feel, and yet it’s there anyway, scratching lightly at the inside of my mind.
Then he leans closer, his hand resting on the arm of my chair as his face moves toward mine.
Everything dissolves into a distant haze until it’s only the shape of him, just the space between us collapsing inch by inch. The universe pulling us together like magnets.
Yes.
Yes, this is right. This is what everything has been moving toward. His lips are so close now I can almost feel the moment before they touch mine…
A sharp, sickening rejection floods through me as I jerk my head to the side instinctively, right before our lips touch. My cheek presses against the back of the chair as I pull away from him, and revulsion crashes through me.
My mouth goes dry.
What?
My gaze drops to my lap, searching my own form for some clue, some sign of what just happened. But there is only the familiar shape of my legs in their bindings, the chair’s unyielding frame, the room’s sterile perfection holding its breath around me.
Why did I do that? I love him. My hands tremble.
He exhales like I’ve disappointed him, and my stomach twists into dread and sorrow.
“Looks like we have a little more work to do yet,” he murmurs, annoyed.
Then his tone shifts, smoothing out again as if the moment of resistance never mattered.
“For now, I’ll have you join me for a meal.”
He moves without urgency, unfastening the binds on my wrists. Relief floods through my aching shoulders as circulation returns to my hands. I rub them to get the blood flowing.
I wonder why he is leaving my ankles secured to the chair? I question the nature of it internally before remembering I have no right to question him. He knows everything. So that means this is how it’s supposed to be.
My eyes follow his every move as he walks around the room. A beacon I can’t look away from. Perfection.
He settles into the chair opposite mine and rings a small silver bell sitting on the desk. The sound is sharp in the quiet room, and soon after, strangers enter.
They move efficiently, heads lowered, carrying platters of rich smelling food. They don’t look at me or linger in the room. Just set everything down with practiced obedience before slipping back again, like this is routine.
He prepares a plate and places it in front of me. My gaze drops to it, uncertain for a moment.
“Eat,” he says. “You’ll need your strength. We’ll be working on plans tomorrow.”
The word slips past me. It can’t hold my attention, not when everything else keeps circling back to him. Somehow, my body knows to obey, despite my mind not connecting.
I pick up the fork without hesitation, thankfully. It would be unthinkable not to follow his orders.
The food is warm, but it tastes like ash in my mouth compared to the perfect being eating across from me.