The King of Serpentis had publicly humiliated her and named her as his war prize.
The dichotomy was not lost on her.
What was shedoing?
She reached for Az’s hand; his skin was warm. "Come with me? I need to be alone, I think."
Az stood without a word, helping her up. The slippers softened her footfalls. They fit nearly perfectly.
"Alone, but you ask me to come?" Az mumbled, hand squeezing hers.
"Alone with you is better than alone with just me," she sighed, knowing if she’d tried to leave wholly alone, they would’ve stopped her.
Still, it seemed just one bodyguard wasn’t enough.
Tharen stood quickly, a glass of dark amber liquor in his hand. "Well then, don’t let me stop you, lamb. Go."
She opened her mouth to say… something, but promptly closed it when amusement flashed over his face. She was nothing but a toy to him. She didn’t care what Emarelia had told her.
Her body may feel safe with the Prima, but neither her mind nor heart ever would.
Tharen stayed a large, imposing shadow at her and Az’s back as they walked to one of the arches. She stopped right outside, slippers scuffing over the stone. The breeze teased her hair around her cheeks. The clouds were so thick overhead, the moon was hidden. They seemed to grow darker in the distance, or perhaps that was the thick shadows seeping through the rocks and trees beyond, tricking her.
She shivered.
Az’s thumb swept over the back of her hand. Tharen moved to stand at her other side, arms crossed and jaw ticking with impatience, as if he found her need for fresh air to be doltish.
Suddenly, she felt uneasy. A sick roiling in her gut, like the sky would fall on top of her. It became hard to breathe. What was happening to her?
The trees and rocky cliff that fell into the sea seemed to yawn before her.
The joyously bright candlelight from the palace at her back made her shadow flicker on the stone before her. She watchedher silhouette, blinking hard when she saw tendrils of darkness undulate around it.
Her heart beat in her chest—a calamitous drum knocking against her breast.
"I feel weird," Luella uttered. "I think we should?—"
The candles went out. Darkness enveloped the halls at her back. A cold, terrifying phantom touch grazed down her spine. Something brushed against her ear. She flinched.
Words were whispered right into her, as if said just for her.
"Hello, conquered Princess."
PART III
NIGHTMARE
54
A VOW MADE
LUELLA
It was so dark Luella couldn’t even see Az or Tharen, but she knew they were there—she suddenly felt their presence right before her, crowding her.Shieldingher.
Tiny shivers rippled down the knobs of her spine and cascaded out through her wings.
The words.
