My chest rose and fell with rapid breaths as years of pain and anguish broke through the carefully constructed dam I’d placed on my emotions.
He clucked his tongue, wiping his sword off on Gabriel’s body before sheathing it. “Well, if you consider this your prison, I suppose I shouldtreatyou as a prisoner then,” he mused as he ran his hand over his beard. “Here I thought I treated you well, providing you a private room and protection from those that wished to hurt you. I heal you whenever you’re hurt. But I suppose if you don’t appreciate that, then I shouldn’t provide them to you anymore.”
With a snap of his fingers, a new guard appeared.
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
Flicking his fingers towards me, he announced, “You are Kyella’s new personal guard. Take her to the dungeon. It is to be her new living quarters.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the sniveling guard answered with a bow, making me roll my eyes.
I began walking towards the dungeon as the guard approached me. I didn’t want his hands on me, and I knew he would shove me down there if I fought him. I tensed my body to keep myself from shaking at the cold and the hunger that gnawed at my stomach. I was sure it would only get worse in the dungeon, but this was the path I had decided to take.
Keeping my head held high, I refused to cower.
“Oh, Kyella?” Malakai called out, a twinge of humor infused in his tone as if he had a joke to share.
Pausing where I was, I turned to look over my shoulder at him.
The corners of his lips tugged into a sadistic grin, the first sign of the real him glimmering through. “I’m hosting a party in a few nights for all of the Lords and their Thralls. You weren’t originally on the menu—but that was when you had my protection. Since you no longer do, you’ll get your first taste of what it means to truly be a prisoner.” Then he tacked on, “Well, I guess you won’t be the one getting a taste,” before bellowing in laughter.
He wouldn’t let anyone feed from me…Would he?
He had to be bluffing. Trying to get me to bow at his feet and ask for forgiveness. In my four years here, never had he wavered in his law that the Emperor’s Thrall is not to be touched.
Schooling my expression, I kept my face devoid of any response. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of making me squirm. He wanted me to be fearful of him. He wanted my compliance, and he would try to get it by whatever means he had at his disposal.
The ability to strike fear into others was what he had in spades.
Refusing to play his game, I turned back towards the door to get the hell out of his presence.
His voice echoed through the room, following me into the corridor. “You think I won’t follow through on my threats? You’ll see just how wrong you are.”
He could take his threats and shove them so far up his ass that he’d taste the shit he spewed.
I would never bow to him again. The safety of the submissive facade I had donned had served me well throughout my life here so far, but as I lay awake in my bed last night, I realized I hadn’t truly been living. I’d been a shell of the woman I was deep down.
I had my father’s fire and my mother’s beauty. Both were weapons—and I intended on using them.
ChapterTwo
Kyella
“Move it,” my new stalker demanded, pushing me roughly as we descended to the dungeon.
Tripping on my skirt and stumbling down two steps, I threw out my hand to the rough stone wall for balance, then finally found my footing and muttered, “Fucking asshole.”
He closed the distance between us, his shadow looming as he scolded me. “I’m not going to deal with your bullshit. If you have a problem with him, that’s fine, but don’t make it my problem too.”
I untangled my foot from the material it was caught in. “At least you willingly decide to be here,” I grumbled under my breath. “If you were in my position, you wouldn’t be all sunshine and rainbows either.”
That was the one thing I would never understand—Why would they willingly want to serve as guards when Malakai’s rage was known throughout the entire empire?
Not just his rage, though… No, there was so much more he was known for.
Memories flashed through my mind, women moaning as blood dribbled down their exposed necks and breasts, sometimes extending all the way to public sex in the castle. I’d be a liar if I said I wasn’t intrigued by the raw desire routinely on display. I’d been to my share of parties and walked with the Emperor through his castle countless times. There were ample rooms in which one could have a little snack and screw.
Maybe that was the answer to why they put themselves within reach of the Emperor—the copious supply of humans to do with as they wished. Within this castle, the guards were able to choose from a grouping of Thralls that were kept on staff for their needs.
