Chapter Seven #2
“Lovely.” Daphne claps. “Now to try them out. Alaya, for now so that I can see how you do, you will partner with Xavier. Prince Kiernan would make the worst dancer look good, and I need to ensure you have the steps right yourself.”
I freeze as she points towards the Fae that assaulted me.
Terror sweeps through me. I don’t want to be anywhere near Xavier, let alone close enough to dance. My feet instinctively attempt to flee. Then I feel his dominating bulk in front of me, and his hand comes up to my waist to pull me closer.
A shiver of revulsion sweeps me. I shudder, his hand on my waist feeling like a burning grip.
I look up. He’s leering down at me, his tongue licking his lower lip as if he can taste me.
, and every part of me is screaming to run.
I try to pull away, but his grip tightens, his other hand grabbing my free hand, which is clammy with sweat.
“We meet again, Princess,” he drawls, his voice low and husky.
That night flashes in my head: the taste of him on my lips, the feel of his hand cupping my breast, his strong grip on my thigh. And my body’s involuntary reaction to him.
I can’t breathe.
I start to tremble, and I can’t see straight.
The Fae at the piano starts to play, the music rings out and Xavier starts to lead us around the floor.
I am stiff and uncoordinated. I hear Daphne shouting instructions, but it’s as if she’s miles away, muffled behind the roaring in my head as I just try to stay upright.
I’m not even sure what steps I’ve made when Xavier suddenly stops and mercifully drops my hand and his grip on my waist.
Though once he isn’t holding me up, my legs give way.
I puddle to the floor in an undignified heap.
The cool marble presses against my palms. I focus on breathing—in, out, in, out—until the roaring in my head subsides to a dull hum. When I finally look up, Daphne is staring at me with pity in her eyes.
And Prince Kiernan?
Oh Gods. His jaw clenches, a vein pulsing at his temple.
The promise I made to him echoes in my head—pretend in public, don’t embarrass him, keep up appearances.
Heat floods my cheeks as I replay the moment, that bastard Xavier’s words and touch cutting through my composure like a blade.
My vision blurs, and I blink rapidly, willing the tears back before they can fall.
Prince Kiernan strides over and grabs my arm, pulling me roughly to my feet.
“Alaya will dance with me,” he says, seething.
Daphne looks flustered but composes herself and signals to the Fae playing the grand piano to continue.
“May I?” Prince Kiernan asks, motioning with his hand towards my waist.
I’m taken aback, but I nod. His hand comes up and lightly sits on my waist. As he takes my other hand, I can feel the tension from him, his muscles taut.
He takes the lead stiffly, and I try to follow his flowing steps, but I am so shaky and confused I stumble, trip, and misstep the whole way through.
“I’m sorry. He—”
“Shut up,“ he snarls into the inches between us, his voice a white-knuckled grip on a temper about to snap. “Don’t say anything, or I might do something I regret.”
I bite my tongue.
The music stops. He instantly pulls away, so fast I stumble and nearly fall again.
“We are done!” he shouts.
As he throws a menacing look over his shoulder towards Daphne and Xavier and strides purposefully towards the door, I catch the mumble under his breath.
“Never again.”
Prince Kiernan
I tear out of the room, my fury a living thing. The wooden doors hit the stone walls with a bone-jarring crack, the sound chasing me into the hall. As they slam shut with a final, violent thud, I stand in the hall, my chest heaving, eyes scanning the shadows for an escape—anywhere that isn’t here.
There—a door to a private lounge.
I throw it open, quickly scanning for any occupants, but it’s thankfully empty, and I slam the door shut behind me.
I pace the room, trying to release the pent-up anger.
I can feel my Amplifier Gift buzzing like lightning beneath my skin, and as my fist pounds into a glass cabinet, the whole thing explodes around me, wood and glass splintering into fragments.
Then I lash out again: a kick to the sideboard, a vase flies across the room and shatters against the opposite wall, and a chair breaks into hundreds of pieces as I pick it up and hurl it against the door.
It has been ages since I allowed my Gift to affect my strength, but my head is such a riot of jagged thoughts that the release of my power is instinctive and primal.
I take deep breaths, my chest heaving, standing silently amongst the chaos I’ve created. I can feel the rage slowly dripping from my body, the blood running down my fingers, the rhythmic drops as it falls and pools on the floor.
Her face when he touched her.
His hands on her body.
Her face when I told her to ‘shut up’, when it was taking everything I had not to tear him to pieces right there and then.
How could I’ve allowed her to be in that situation after what he had done? What I had allowed him to do?
What is happening to me?
This unwelcome need to protect her, a jealousy that slithers through my veins like a snake I know can bite me.
I shouldn’t care; I’ve mastered not caring into an art form.
I’ve kept her at a distance with my well-calculated cruelty and disinterest. Encased my heart against her sweet smiles and those damn violet eyes that seem to bore into me, that try to see beyond the masks I wear.
I can’t let him have her. My father is cruel and vicious; he is the epitome of everything rotten and decaying in this kingdom—The Corruption itself made flesh.
I have tried so desperately to keep him away from her, to make her small and insignificant to his gaze.
I believed if I could make her invisible by denying her, I could protect her.
Lately, my resolve is crumbling to ash, the closer we get to the wedding.
It’s so close now—my ability as her husband to keep her safe from him—that I can almost feel it at my fingertips.
Yet my heart calls to her, stretches out with longing to finally feel the softness of her body, to feel her hair slide through my fingers, and to taste and feel that first kiss I imagine being like sunlight.
I finally admit to myself what I have known all along:
I have loved her forever; I will love her for eternity.