If you say it in my mind, he replies, we’ll know.
Another pause. Deeper now. The space between heartbeats.
When word gets passed to Sira of him using me so publicly, she’ll never believe we took the rose. Not to mention the fae will be too preoccupied to keep their eyes on an object.
I exhale. The rose. The plan. The risk.
The monsters around us don’t know. They drink and cheer and leer at me like I’m already ruined. Like I’m already his.
And I am, in ways they’ll never understand.
Caspian turns from the crowd. Shadows peel off his frame, casting long claws across the courtyard. His voice rings out, loud, cruel, and laced with triumph.
“Behold,” he snarls, gesturing, “the heir to the Vale. My whore.”
A cheer goes up, vicious and wild.
“She was once meant for light, for honor, for thrones of virtue.” He circles me, letting the onlookers drink in the sight of me on my knees, barely clothed, silent. “But now she kneels to me. As all the Vale will.”
The crowd howls, hungry.
“I will use her,” Caspian says. “And destroy her as her husband watches from above.”
Keldarion growls, grasping the bars, shaking them. Convincing performance, though I’m sure a true part of his jealousy is leaking through. It won’t be easy for him to watch this, even knowing most of the fae will forget.
“I’ll use her as I’ll use the realms,” Caspian yells. “We’ll tear down Spring, burn Winter to ash, drown Summer in shadow, and grind Autumn into dust.”
The monsters scream for it: violence, power, sex, blood. And I let my eyes lift to Caspian’s, just for a moment.
They’re burning with fury. Not at me but at this. At all of it. He hates that he was so close to becoming a part. His voicecomes again, low and private, where only I can hear:I’m with you. Every breath. Every second. We’ll do this together.
The cheers grow louder.
I don’t know what I expect him to do next. Kiss me, claim me, drag me up into his lap and ravage me before the entire revel. I don’t expect this.
Caspian grips the thin fabric on my shoulder.
And rips.
The sound is brutal.
And then I’m bare.
“Since you belong to me,” Caspian purrs, “I’ll choose to do whatever I wish with you.”
The cool air hits my skin first, sending a shiver racing down my spine. My dress lies in tatters around me. My body, pale and flushed, gleams in the torchlight. Hundreds of eyes lock on to me. Hungry and leering.
I thought I’d feel vulnerable.
Instead, I feel?—
Power.
A pulse of heat coils in my belly. A thrill, sharp and unexpected. I should be terrified. But Caspian’s eyes are on me now, and they aren’t vicious. They’re mine.
Caspian steps in close behind me, his breath brushing my ear.
“So beautiful, Rose,” he murmurs, so low only I can hear. “You steal their attention. You make them weak.”
