Chapter 19 The Shadowblood’s Blade #4
Caramyn whirled around. “To what? Your problems? How can you expect me to trust you—to risk my life for you? You wanted freedom? From what exactly? Living in a castle being waited on, hand and foot while the rest of us had to fight to survive? That’s why you think I should be grateful that you dragged me out of my—out of those Woods—and brought me to your sparkling palace.
You are just another spoiled, arrogant ass born into royalty, trying to manipulate your way into more power at someone else’s expense.
You are no different from the countless men before you.
” Caramyn looked away, swallowing a lump in her throat.
“I heard the things Wyran said about me in the Woods. You listen to him. How do I know you don’t really feel the same way?
How do I know you wouldn’t kill me once you got what you want? ”
The prince's bewildered silence haunted her.
“Exactly. Those are the questions you can’t—or won’t—answer.” She turned again and marched toward the door, ignoring his footsteps behind her.
As she reached for the door handle, a hand clasped around hers and yanked her back. She whipped around, seething, and with her unrestrained hand, smacked the prince across the face.
Asterious released her and glared at her, his eyes ignited against the torchlight.
Something in his eyes shifted. A feral, devilish glimmer.
He seized both her wrists and pinned her back against the door, his muscular arms like stone walls on either side of her.
His chest heaved with each breath, his face inches from hers.
“Let go of me, you bastard! Or is this the part where you finally kill me?” Caramyn spat through her teeth as she struggled against his grip. “Go on. Get it over with! Show me what it is that makes you so ruthless!”
Her eyes met his for a moment, and he blinked, dropping his gaze to her shoulder. It was then she noticed that the top of her sleeve had been pulled down when he grabbed her, exposing the top of her collarbone and bare skin below it.
He blinked again. “What are those scars from?” The prince’s voice darkened like a shadow, growling out the question as his eyes narrowed in on the faded claw marks that Caramyn had never meant for him to see.
Four deep red lines that had begun to scab over against bruised flesh that betrayed evidence of her attempted escape.
Caramyn bristled as she felt the prince’s grip tighten. “Whatever that thing you have guarding the castle is...it attacked me. It’s quite a damn good way to keep me from leaving. But you could’ve at least warned me about it!”
The prince went pale, his widening eyes never leaving the scars. “That monster is supposed to be dead. It’s not supposed to be out there. It could have killed you.” His entire demeanor had changed, and the rage in his voice was now riddled with shakiness.
“And how terrible if it had, because you would’ve lost the chance to do it yourself, right?
Or worse, lost the only person who can lead you through those Woods to get what you want?
” Caramyn shouted the question louder than she meant to, shoving him off her the second his hold eased.
She yanked her sleeve back up, moments away from grabbing the dagger at her thigh and plunging it into his neck, but his stunned, glassy-eyed expression was enough to make her hesitate.
“No...no!” The cries came through desperate breaths.
Asterious’ voice had never sounded so frantic, but his eyes hardened like stone as he stepped forward.
“You cannot leave this castle if that thing is out there. Promise me you won’t try to leave again.
Promise me!” He reached forward with both hands as if to grasp her face between them, and then dropped them down to her shoulders, but stopped, trembling, his open palms hovering a hair’s breadth over her skin.
She made a move for the dagger, but stopped when he didn’t touch her. “It seems I don’t have a choice. I don’t understand what—”
“You don’t have to understand, you just have to promise!” His voice trembled, and he took a step back, as if he suddenly realized how threateningly close he was to her. “I’m...I’m sorry...”
“I was right. You are like all the rest. You take what you want. You think you can force me to your will, whether it’s dragging me to this court, demanding that I lead you through the Shadows, or stopping me from walking out this door.
” Hot tears stung Caramyn’s cheeks. "And here I was actually starting to think you saw me for something more than just a pawn in your game. "
“No, Caramyn!” Asterious pushed a clenched fist against the doorframe, hanging his head as if trying to collect his thoughts. "You don’t realize what’s at stake. This...this is not what I wanted...”
Caramyn stood with her back to the door, watching him stumble through his words. The room, his voice—everything about this moment felt like iron bars closing around her. All she wanted to do was run.
She wiped away a tear on her sleeve, ashamed to have been seen like this.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d cried, yet now it felt as though every tear she had swallowed over the years was fighting to burst through now.
He had stirred fears and doubts she thought she’d learned to shut out long ago, muddling the conflicts already raging in her heart.
She couldn’t decide what to think—not here, not now.
She only knew she had to get away from him.
“It's not what I wanted either.” She managed to choke out the words, and then slipped out the door.