Some part of her wants me, and all I can think of is cracking that part of her open so I can work my way inside.
Not just because I’m used to the challenge of routine sexual conquests.
There’s something so deliciously intriguing about Cinder that I can’t ignore. There is a raw edge to this attraction that’s sparked an interest, a curiosity I’ve only felt once before.
And that was toward a young, skinny human who always hung around the outskirts of my life.
I’d ask why she hates my kind so much now, but I’ve seen the way she’s been treated over the years. A barely tolerated entity that my kind looks down upon with thinly veiled disgust. If I were her, I’d hate me too.
Well, not me particularly. I’m charming, after all.
Before I can say anything else, there is a knock on the door. One of my father’s advisors.
It’s time to face the music and take the next step in my plan.
Overthrow my father and take the crown.
Chapter 10
Can’t Drink Away the Memories
CHARMING
After enduring hours of polite congratulations on my fake engagement, we retire for the night. As my father decreed, Cinder would stay in the castle. She was set up in a room adjoining mine, though no one would be likely to hand me the key to open that door anytime soon.
Like I need a key.Ha!
Turning down a corridor, I nearly run into my father. He’s shed his public persona, his face now mottled with untamed rage.
“I know what you are doing.” He seethes the words, but his eyes are cold and merciless.
“Picking a bride, just as you asked, father?—”
The impact of the blow to my face reverberates through my whole body, sending me stumbling backward. The force of his hit is a cannonball of fiery pain.
My vision blurs as I struggle to regain my balance, frantically reaching for the wall to steady myself. For a moment, I’m sure my eyeball has exploded into jelly.
“You think you can outsmart me?” His words are now as cold as his gaze. “You want to start a pissing contest to see who will win, but I don’t play games, son.”
Unlike Cinder, my father can pack a punch. I already know my skin will darken and bruise, my eyelid will likely swell. Yet another of the precious gifts I receive from dear old dad on the regular.
A bit of blood and it will heal right up. Like it never happened.
I wish I could as easily drink away the memories.
“You really should indulge in a game or two. It might lighten you up.” I can’t help but mouth off.
His fist connects again. My lips cut against my teeth, filling my mouth with the metallic taste of my blood.
I rub my crackling jaw as he bears down on me.
“You’ve created yetanothermess,” he spits the words out with distaste and disappointment, but he’s spoken to me like this since I was a child. “Now you will follow my every order. You will not leave the kingdom, nor leave this castle until further notice. Do you understand me?”
Before I can respond, he grabs the chain around my neck, breaking it away with ease. The opal stone embedded within glints in the dim light as he snatches it, leaving me without my means of traveling between realms.
Fury simmers inside of me, but I’m not surprised by his actions. This is how it’s always been. Still hunched over, nursing my wounds, I find myself at the mercy of this diminutive man who dominates almost every part of my world.
Everyone always comments that I have my father’s eyes and his high cheekbones. They say it as a compliment. The constantreminder of our similarities once drove me to press a sharp pen knife against my skin as I faced my reflection. It took all my willpower to resist the urge to mutilate myself, to erase the resemblance.
