Chapter 27 Tarek
TAREK
The ballroom cage is a gilded mockery of my captivity. Unlike the honest iron bars of the menagerie, this prison is designed for display, its golden bars twisted into decorative vines that catch the light from the crystal chandeliers above.
I pace the confines of my new prison, testing the chains that bind me to the floor. They’re shorter here, more restrictive—a deliberate humiliation for the wedding guests who will soon fill this hall.
Soft footsteps on marble draw my attention.
Annelise approaches through the shadows, and I feel a familiar surge of protective fury at the sight of her in this place.
But as she draws closer, I notice a change.
Her steps are sure, confident, free of the trembling uncertainty that once marked her every movement.
“You’re not shaking,” I observe as she kneels beside the bars.
She glances at her hands, seeming surprised. “I’m not, am I?”
“You were terrified the first night you came to me. Every muscle in your body screamed with fear.” I move closer to the bars, studying her face in the dim light. “Now you move like a warrior preparing for battle.”
A flush of pride colors her cheeks. “I don’t feel like a warrior.”
“That’s because you don’t yet recognize your own strength.” I reach through the bars to touch her hand. “But I do. You’re already free, Annelise. Not in body, perhaps, but in spirit. They can chain your flesh, but they cannot cage what you’ve become.”
Her eyes widen at my words, and her beautiful blush deepens. She’s not accustomed to praise, I realize. Years of being treated as an ornament have convinced her she has no worth beyond her beauty.
“You really see that in me?” she whispers.
“I see a woman who risks everything to tend a wounded beast. I see someone who steals from her captors to heal her enemies. I see courage that puts seasoned warriors to shame.”
She leans closer to the bars, her eyes bright with unshed tears. “Sometimes I feel like I’m just pretending. Like I’ll wake up tomorrow and be that frightened girl again.”
“Never,” I growl, the word fierce and absolute. “I swear to you, Annelise, once we’re free of this place, I will never let anyone cage you again—not in iron, not in silk, not in expectations or duties.”
“Tarek—”
“I mean it.” I capture her hand in mine, holding her gaze. “When you become my mate, it won’t be as my possession or my ornament. It will be as my equal. My queen.”
Tears spill over, tracking silver paths down her cheeks, but she’s smiling, radiant in her emotion.
“I’ve never had anyone fight for me before,” she says, her voice thick with feeling. “My parents loved me, but they couldn’t protect me. The elves… they see me as property. But you…”
“I see you as you are. And what you are is magnificent.”
She closes her eyes, taking a shuddering breath. When she opens them again, they’re clear and determined.
“I trust you,” she whispers. “More than anyone alive. More than I’ve ever trusted anyone.”
Her simple declaration hits me like a physical blow. Trust is not given lightly in her world—it’s been beaten out of her, betrayed, used as a weapon against her.
“And I trust you,” I reply, meaning it completely. “With my life. With my mission. With everything I am.”
“Tomorrow night, when this all begins…” She pauses, gathering her courage. “I know there will be violence. I know people might die.”
“Does that frighten you?”
She considers the question seriously. “It should. But all I feel is… relief. That finally, finally, we’re going to fight back.”
“You were born for this, Annelise. Not the pretty dresses and empty smiles. This. The fight. The rebellion.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because I’ve seen you transform. I’ve watched you go from captive to captor, from victim to warrior.” I bring her hand to my lips, pressing a gentle kiss to her knuckles. “They created their own destruction when they caged us together.”
She laughs, and the sound is different now—not the careful, practiced laugh of a courtly lady, but something wild and free.
“I used to dream of rescue,” she admits. “Some prince or knight who would save me from all this.”
“And now?”
“Now I dream of saving myself.” She meets my eyes, and in them I see the fire that will burn this place to the ground. “With you beside me.”
“Always beside you,” I promise. “Never above you, never controlling you. Beside you.”
She leans forward, pressing her face close to the bars. I mirror the movement, and for a moment we simply breathe the same air, sharing the same space despite the gold that separates us.
“Tomorrow night,” she whispers.
“Tomorrow night,” I agree. “Are you ready?”
Her smile is sharp as a blade. “I’ve been ready my whole life. I just didn’t know it yet.”
As she slips away into the darkness, I feel a surge of anticipation that has nothing to do with escape and everything to do with witnessing her transformation complete itself.
Tomorrow night, the world will see what I already know: Annelise is no one’s captive anymore.