“Hurting you?” Luc questioned, and his hand moved in an instant, his fingers squeezing my forearm, which was currently stretched out between us. Luc’s grip tightened even further, his fingertips digging into my sun-kissed skin, and pain laced across my flesh everywhere his touch was.
“Isthishurting you?” His voice was a dark snarl, a challenge as I choked back a cry of pain, silver rimming my eyes. His fingers continued digging into my flesh, his grip branding and punishing as my skin turned red. “Look around you. I have given you protection. I have kept yoursistersafe, despite her affinity giving her an unfair advantage over others. Despite the fact that she would be vital to the five gods in the temples, foretelling the future. I have even keptyousafe, providing you with a job, ensuring you arepaid.And this is how you repay my generosity? By belittling me, in my own throne room?” He spat the last words, venom laced in his tone as his eyes narrowed in on me, murder filtering through his gaze.
Stars-damn me.
Astara could take me any minute now.
The ground could just open up and swallow me whole.
Why . . . Why did I have to say anything?
“I apologize.” Every part of my body was put on the defensive; my walls raised high, even as the words fell, tasting like bitter acid on my lips. “I don’t know what’s gotten into me tonight. I shouldn’t have—forgive me, Your Majesty.”
Luc’s eyes narrowed on me, his grip unrelenting as he searched my eyes. A million minutes seemed to pass in the blink of an eye, and a tumultuously prolonged silence stretched between us while he contemplated my apology. The musicfaded in the distance, his wings still trapping us together in a tense cocoon of unwanted privacy.
“Your Majesty?” an unknown voice interrupted, and Luc’s wings shifted as he pulled them back, his gaze searching for the voice as he created some space between our bodies, his grip gradually loosening on my skin.
The briefest of glances told me my arm was already beginning to bruise. Deep half-moons had found their way onto my flesh, marring my otherwise pristine skin. A sharp stab of pain radiated from my left wrist, and I glanced down at the spot, expecting to see an angry bruise forming there too, but the expanse of skin was bare—not an injury in sight.
Stars be damned.
I took a shaky breath as the male spoke in urgent tones, the words half-lost with the music. I felt Luc stiffen, his features tightening in frustration, and then his grip released me entirely as he took another step back.
“Very well,” his voice was a menacing growl as he withdrew, focusing his attention entirely on the Royal Solis Guard standing to our side. The guard started to depart, his wings rustling as he exited the dance floor. I watched as Luc’s eyes narrowed further, then he glanced briefly back toward me, brown orbs assessing me as his jaw ticked.
“Oh, and, Raelyna,” he said briefly, his tone tight. “You can tell the others they can go whenever,” he stated, turning more fully to the guard who’d interrupted our dance, now standing by an exit. “I only needyourservices for the remainder of the night. Don’t let me down.”
I ground my teeth, staring at the cruel smirk of the male before me—of a former friend—as I merely nodded my head in submission, forcing myself to remember who I was doing this for.
I said nothing as Lucanus walked away from me, his form towering as he exited the dance floor. Dancers still whirledaround me, mid-dance, yet I was frozen in time, frozen in place.
Trapped.
One day.The reminder rang through my mind as tears rimmed my eyes.Not today. Not tomorrow. But one day. One day, I will be free of him. Free to be me. I just have to survive until that day.
13
RAELYNA
I swipedat a lone tear trickling down my otherwise pristine face, praying to all five gods that no one spotted my momentary lapse of strength.
“Weak men are not worth your tears.” A low voice rumbled from behind me.
I whirled, my dress swaying with the motion as I met darkened amber eyes that fastened on me instantaneously.
“And yet, sometimes, they get them anyway,” I replied as I looked up at the male who caught me in a moment of weakness.
His eyes narrowed, a flash of something unrecognizable in their depths before he spoke again. “Care for a dance?”
My heart stuttered, beating quicker than I’d like as I studied the towering guard.
Standing before me was over six feet of hulking muscle, clad in the dark charcoal gray hues of the RSG uniform. The standard-issue combat pants clung to his legs, a heavy utility belt resting low against his hips. He wore a lightweight tactical vest, which was typically reserved for high-ranking members of the RSG, along with a larger gun strapped to his chest.
By all five gods, it should be a crime for a male to look so stars-damn attractive in uniform.
My eyes trailed back up, meeting piercing gold orbs, and I froze, heat dusting my cheeks as I realized I’d been caught gawking.
Blackwood.
