Chapter 8
Chapter
Eight
MAX
Kaden pulls us from the throne room as soon as the Woodland Fae depart.
The energy coming off of him is harsh, biting, and his shadows react like physical whips. They wrap around our joined hands, latching us together as another tendril winds around my waist as if to keep me close.
We hurry through the halls, the guards further back, his siblings behind them.
“So, Fenrir seems great,” I quip, tripping over the heels he forced me to wear. “Very handsome. Charming. He must be fun during parties.”
Kaden curses under his breath, pulling me further, long legs eating up the distance. I can barely keep up.
“Stay away from him,” he commands, eyes searching the corridors. I half expect someone to jump from the dark corners.
Raising an eyebrow, I feel his jealousy like burning match. Is he this worked up over the idea of a Fae, whom I’ve never met before?
“Oh, more demands?” I roll my eyes, my foot slipping. I hear a tear, the edge of my dress ripping under my toes. “I might go see him, just to see what the issue is.” I can’t help but sneer, enjoying the feel of power—finally—over the heir and his emotions.
After weeks of being at his mercy, this is an intoxicating rush to have a way to fight back. Stoke his irritation, fan the flames of his jealousy. Maybe if he feels a small amount of what I do, my conflicting emotions will lessen.
Turning on his heel, he cages me against the wall, hands planted on either side of my head. His nails curve, black claws digging into the mortar. Only his tunic brushes against my torso, igniting a dangerous fire low in my gut.
His eyes are black, possessive as a fang slips over his lip. Swallowing, I stand taller.
“Of all the Fae in this palace, Fenrir is not the one you should taunt me with, kitten.”
Glaring, I jut out my chin. Defiant to the end.
“No? I feel like he’s exactly the one to push the boundaries you’ve set for me against my will.”
Smirking, his thumb rubs my bottom lip. It’s not endearing, but rough. Ownership.
“Go to him, Max. Please. It’ll give me the reason I’ve been looking for to gut him and leave his body for the vultures.” Those black orbs glint with malice. “Please.”
My mouth flaps open at the quiet venom in his words, before he pulls away, dragging me to his bedroom.
He tosses me through the threshold, glancing back to the soldiers who are trying to keep up with him. “No guards. Keep two on their doors.” He points to his siblings. Fee opens her mouth, ready to spew a few curses, but he cuts her off. “No excuses. We all know why.”
Slamming the door, he turns toward me. My torment isn’t helping his short temper but I don’t feel an ounce of guilt. In fact, I’m finding immense pleasure in this.
“So, who’s Sose?”
Kaden stills, the crackle of flames the only sound around us.
“No one.”
I scoff. “Right. Now who’s the terrible liar?”
Huffing, the heir shoves his hands into his pockets. “Follow me.”
I have little choice being confined to the three large rooms. When he passes, I inhale, a subconscious act, breathing in his smoky campfire scent that seems to surround him even now. My heart constricts with pain and longing so intense, I’m ready to fall to my knees.
Stumbling into the bedroom, I see him pulling clothing from the large ornate dresser. He doesn’t look at me.
“Here,” he barks, throwing me a shirt over his shoulder. The soft material flutters to the ground before I can catch it, brow furrowed.
Dumbly, I stare. A shirt? He expects me to wear his shirt?
“You’re not serious.”
Raising an eyebrow, he glances to me, pointing to the discarded rag. “Deadly.”
“I’m not staying here. Not with you.” Not in his clothing.
Crossing his arms, I see a glimmer of his arrogance shining through, battling his foul move. “No? Then where would you stay, Max?”
“Maybe Fenrir is up for sharing?”
He growls, and it snakes around the room like a wolf looking for prey. My heart pounds, adrenaline coursing through my veins with the intent to run. But not to flee from him, to see if he’d make good and catch me.
“Careful. It’s either here or the dungeon.”
I don’t think as I respond, “Dungeon.”
Stepping close, he grabs a fist full of my hair, yanking my head back. I bend, a bow being strung, and gasp, tears welling in my eyes.
“My patience is thin tonight, kitten. From you, from everything. Put on the Godsdamn shirt and go to bed. I will not have my mate—my future queen—sleeping in the dungeon.”
I try to fight him off, pushing at his chest but he’s an immoveable wall of muscle.
“Wasn’t I doing that for the last few weeks?”
“That was different.”
“How’s that?” I tug at his hand, but he doesn’t let go of my hair. “Because this better suits you? Because I’m a pawn for you to use?”
“Nothing about this suits me.” He seethes, shaking me. “You vex me to no end. If you would just listen, understand, then all of this would be easier.”
“Then you should have thought of that before you claimed me—”
“Yes, of course,” he snarls, fangs long. “Blame me for this situation. I’m handing you a kingdom, a throne and still, you fight me. Still, you refuse to see reason.”
“See reason?” My eyes narrow, and I snarl, “I never asked for a throne, for a crown, for any of it! I only wished to help my friends and I’ve woken up tied to you!”
He throws me on to his bed, rage coloring his face.
“And I never asked for you to take my heart, my air, and make me yours.” He leans close, daring me to move.
“Those backwards Witches never trusted you, never believed in you. I gave you that. And I’ve put a crown on your head and would bow at your feet if you would just listen.
” Lifting my chin, his lips twist into an unfriendly smile.
“But here we are. Put on the damn shirt. Go to bed.”
He stalks to the exit, and I call out to him. Not because I need him—or miss him. But I am alone in these rooms without guards and no magic. What if I’m attacked?
I don’t name the loneliness that threatens to drown me with his departure. Nor the heat in my veins and the ache at the apex of my thighs, that begs for his touch after his brutal words.
“Where are you going?”
“As far as I can get from you,” he rages, nails growing longer, sharper. “If I have to stay one more moment beside you, I can’t control what I’ll do next.”
I’m sure he doesn’t mean it romantically. He looks ready to strangle me.
“I’ll never love you,” I spit, nails digging into my palms, so hard I can smell blood. “No matter what you do to me. No matter how much this bond burns. I will never, truly love you.”
He laughs, a broken sound that carves into the empty cavity of my heart. “Good. You shouldn’t.”
The closing of the door is quiet but I feel it in my chest. Inside my heart, I know I meant everything I said, but there’s a deep hole left behind. One that feels foreign, yet similar to the yearning in my soul. A true, despondent fear that I’ll never love him—never be loved in return.
I spent weeks plotting, waiting, judging and learning, that I rarely grieved for what happened. Grieved for my broken heart, for the forced claiming, but for the betrayal of Nessa and the missing of my home. I only wanted to survive and not think of everything else.
With his final departure, my heart splinters until those hastily rebuilt pieces fall, the supports gone. Sinking into the bed, my dress crumples around me and the first tears I’ve cried in weeks slide down my cheeks.
Before long, I’m sobbing, broken cries shaking my entire body. I cry for my past, for my future, and for my current circumstances. I cry for my friends, who I miss but can’t speak to, and I cry from my heart. For all the awful, true things Kaden said.
I thought I was falling in love. I thought I found my Heartbond.
Everything is confusing and nothing makes sense. I cry for that, too.
At some point, I fall asleep. It’s hours later as I peel my dry eyes open, cheeks sticky with spent tears. My fingers drift, pulling the light throw blanket from my body, heels discarded by the end of the bed.
I don’t remember grabbing it in my despair, but I’m too tired to think properly.
Curling back into the bed, my final thoughts are of the torches, flickering in the far corners. More of them are lit, casting a soft glow around the bed like a golden halo.
Sleep claims me once again, the darkness a welcomed escape to flee the pain in my chest.