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The wall opened to reveal the throne room, and I tightened my hold on the guard as I made my way into the light. But it wasn’t the crowned prince who waited on the other side.
It was worse.
“What the fuck happened to you?” Evren growled as he marched toward me, but the pain in my leg was almost too much for me to care.
“Nothing.” I shook my head and pressed my hand against my thigh. Blood had seeped through my fingers, and I clamped them together so he couldn’t see the damage.
“Like hell.” He reached for me, and I backed away until my heels hit the edge of the dais we were now standing in front of. “Let me see, princess.”
“No.” I stepped backward again, this time onto the dais that normally held his family higher than everyone else. The guard let me go, and I hated that he so quickly walked away and left me in the hands of the prince. “I want to go back to my room.”
“A room you were trying to escape from?” His anger seeped through his words as he moved toward me still.
He was staring at me with so much fury, and when I looked down at his dark-stained fingers, I remembered that this man was capable of so much more than I knew. My fear hammered in my chest, but I still winced when the back of my legs hit the throne behind me.
“Please, Evren. Just let me go back to my room.”
“Sit,” he said the word like a command, and I obeyed him instantly.
The air around him crackled as he knelt before me and pushed my knees apart with more force than necessary. His gaze darkened as he stared ahead at my bloodied hand, but I didn’t dare move it away from the wound.
“You are lucky,” he hissed the words between his teeth, and I winced at the venom they held.
“To be attacked?”
“To still be alive.” He lifted my trembling fingers away from my leg before letting out a curse. He pressed his own hand to my wound before reaching behind him with his other and pulling his dark shirt over his head. “You are lucky that my guards are loyal to their captain and came to me instead of the queen.”
He was kneeled before me with his chest bare, and even as his hand caused pain against the cut on my leg, I couldn’t stop myself from looking at him.
His body was sculpted in a way that could only be accomplished by years of work that wasn’t done inside this castle.
“What are you doing?” I tensed as he pulled his shirt down his arms and reached out for my hand to replace his.
He ripped at the fabric of his shirt, tearing a strip off entirely. His abs bunched and tensed as he worked methodically on the task at hand, and I straightened in the throne as I stared at his muscles.
He had a long scar across his chest, and I wondered if he had gotten it defending the throne at which I now sat.
“I need to get this on to stop the bleeding. Then I’ll take you back to my room, and we’ll clean the wound.” He slid the fabric under my leg and back around until he tied it in a tight knot.
“That’s not happening.”
His shoulders stiffened, and when he looked up at me, fear and lust mixed together and rushed through every part of me.
“Would you prefer that I take you to Gavril? To the queen? Would you like to explain to them how you were stupid enough to try to run from a palace filled with fae and managed to get yourself hurt by someone who craves the power in your blood more than they do the favor of the crown?”
“It doesn’t matter.” I squared my shoulders.
“The fuck it doesn’t matter, Adara.” He stood before reaching out for me and pulling me to my feet. He was angry, but he was still careful not to hurt my leg. “They wouldn’t be tending to your leg if they were the ones that found you. They would already have you locked up, and Gavril would be lapping at the blood seeping from your wound.”
“But you’re not going to?” I asked, and I could see the frustration eating at him.
“Does it look like I’m going to do either of those things? You may be a traitor to the crown, but I know what it’s like to feel trapped. I don’t blame you for trying.”
I looked away from him as my chest ached. I didn’t know what he wanted me to say. He could call me a traitor all he wanted, but being right here with him felt like the most traitorous act of all.
“Don’t fucking do it again.” He shook his head. “I’m already forced to watch you belong to my brother. I don’t want to watch them torture you as well.”
He bent down and gently slid his arm beneath my knees. He lifted me against his chest easily, and I quickly wrapped my arms around his neck before he dropped me. He started down the dais, and I tightened my hold on him.
