“Evangeline, Dickie, really?” Jace cuts in, his words a bit mumbled. I look over at him; he’s leaning against the door frame, eating a bowl of popcorn.
“She was the only trade Petre would accept –”
“Atrade?” Fabia spits, enraged. “She’s not somethingto be traded for! She’s a person. She was yourwife.”
“Yeah!” I say, my anger building beneath the pain. “How could you trade me? I thought you loved me.”
“I do.”
“You don’t trade someone you love.”
His jaw clenches tight. His nostrils flare as he glares at Fabia. “Say another word, and I’ll –”
“Don’t you dare threaten her!”
“Fine,” he snaps. “Fabia, Jace, as your fucking king, I’m ordering you to get out.”
“Fabia,” Jace says, and I know she’ll have to leave before she gets into serious trouble.
I gulp, also knowing she’s stubborn enough to stay.
But she surprises me by immediately pushing me off her lap and climbing to her feet. She grabs my arm as she heads for the door. “Fine, but she’s coming with.”
I am?
“The fuck she is.”
“I am!” I decide, absolutely refusing to take any more of his orders right now. Itrustedhim. I trusted him not to ever hurt me, and he went and did this.
“Arienna –”
“No!” I pull out of Fabia’s grasp just so I can spin to face him. “You’re – you’re no better than Karl!” Tears well in my eyes. “You’re worse than Karl,” I correct. My ex-fiance never hurt me like this. That was nothing a bottle of ambrosia and some lovely wasps could fix. But this?
This is like he’s clawed out my fucking heart and torn it to pieces so it can never be put back together.
“My queen,” he says softly, pain in those two words.
“She’s not your queen anymore, remember?” Fabia says, and I flinch at the harsh truth of her words.
My throat closes.
My heart stops.
An overwhelming weight crushes me as I realise I don’t want to be here anymore.
I don’t want to look at him. I don’t want to hear him. I don’t want to fix this yet, where I forgive him just because I am a brownie and he asks. Just because he’s looking at me with a mirrored pain that all I want to do is soothe.
He didn’t stop at my safe word.
He.
Didn’t.
Stop.
Shaking my head, I turn back to my friend. “Please can we just go?”
“Arienna.”
