“And if you don’t save her, I’ll make sure Father sends an entire army after you. You’ll never know peace for as long as you live. Every day you’re alive will be?—”
“I know,” I say again. “You don’t have to worry, Blossom. The minute I’m out of here I’ll find your sister and make that damned prince suffer.” More than suffer. He won’t leave this palace alive if I have anything to say about it. No one touches what’s mine.
“Are you going to kill him?” she asks quietly. Tears glisten in her dark eyes.
“Almost certainly.”
She nods. “Good. Men like him don’t deserve to live.”
My brow shoots up, but before I can reply a loud click echoes through the hallway, and Eden gasps.
“I did it!” she squeals.
My cell door creaks open.
37
AMARYLLIS
I’m quiet by the time Orion drags me inside his quarters. My vision is blurry from all the tears, and my throat is full of all the words I want to scream, but there’s no point in screaming now.
Not that I’d hear it over the thundering in my ears.
Father knows about Kasimir.
Fatherknows, and now Kasimir is going to die.
This is all my fault.
Orion shoves me through another set of doors that leads to his sleeping chamber. A large bed dominates the dark room, the only other furniture being a lonely armchair, a small nightstand, and a clothes dresser that’s already been cleared out.
I swallow at the sight of it. His clothes are gone, along with his belongings. I don’t have time to figure out if this means I won’t get to say goodbye to my sisters as Orion forces me down onto his bed and takes a seat opposite me.
“You’ve been a very bad girl, Amaryllis.” He leans forward in his chair, his elbows pressing into his knees. “Whatever am I going to do with you?”
My jaw clenches. “There is nothing you can do. You have taken from me the only person who will ever know me betterthan my sisters. Nothing you can do now will hurt me more than that.” Somehow my voice remains steady despite the sob threatening to tear up my throat.
Orion watches me with a glare until his lips twitch cruelly. “Oh, but you see, that’s where you’re wrong,” he chuckles. “There are many ways to torture a person. And what I did to you earlier today was mere child’s play compared to what I can do back home – where your guards cannot hear you scream, nor will your servants be able to tend to your wounds after I’ve had my fun.”
No red flashes in his eyes. Not even a flicker. But I don’t care. “Torture me all you like, I will never submit to you.”
Orion grins. “Then perhaps I do not need to torture you.” With a laugh, he pushes up from the chair. “Perhaps one of your sisters will do?”
“No.” His words suck all the air from my lungs. “No, Orion.”
“That’sSirto you,” he corrects , stepping closer until he towers over me. “You will refer to me asSirorMaster, and you will not speak unless spoken to. Do you understand?”
I grip my skirts to stop my hands from clawing at him. “Yes,” I force out.
Orion raises an eyebrow pointedly.
“Yes, sir.”
“Good,” he purrs. I resist the urge to flinch as he cups my jaw, brushing his thumb over my cheek. “You know, when I bought you at your father’s auction I expected a whore, a beautiful whore, but a whore nonetheless.”
My molars grind together, but somehow I remain silent.
“Imagine my surprise when I finally meet you, and I realise that all twelve princesses have been kept hidden away in your father’s palace all these years. Sol’s pure little doves. Only you’re not a little dove any more, are you, dear Amaryllis?”
