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5
Daein dismissed me before the break of the Quiet.
I made a plan to swim with Terry in the clearwater lake, but Elden is meant to meet Daein here before they leave for the race. So—with the rule of having to use the main corridors and staircases—I’m in a rush to move through the castle before Elden arrives.
That dark fae above all else absolutely terrifies me to the chilled bone.
I’m even tempted to go against Daein’s orders and use the slave quarters to get to the rear of the castle, just to avoid the other prince.
But luck and fortune are not on my side, I learn as I reach the main atrium.
Prince Elden has already arrived. He sits on the edge of the pond circle, running his bare fingers over a clump of blue algae.
He looks up as I come down the curved staircase.
I pause under his fierce white stare. After a strangled heartbeat, I dip low with a bow. Though I’m still a slave, my new position as a lover means I have to acknowledge the fae—especially the royals—and show my respect to them with these gestures.
He rises from marble encasing of the pond, his eyes latched onto me like spears ready to be thrown.
My heart is stuck in my throat as I grip the bannister with my sweaty hand and come down the rest of the steps.
As my strappy sandal touches the atrium’s marble floor, Elden lifts his ungloved hand and summons me to him with a creepy curve of his fingers.
A shudder runs through me.
I twist my hands together at the small of my back, my heart throbbing in my tightening throat.
Coming to a stop arm’s reach away from him, I give another bow, this one even lower than the last, and my back aches in protest.
There are four guards in the atrium with us, all four of them with their backs to pillars, and their unreadable eyes on us. They are loyal to Prince Daein, but I doubt how far they would go to protect me if Elden decided to rip out my throat with his bare hand.
Looking me up and down, I can practically taste the revulsion reeking from the prince. “Worthless thing,” he murmurs as he takes me in. “Why my brother has any interest in you is lost on me.”
I flatten my mouth into a slanted line and cast my gaze down to the space of floor between us. I say nothing. It’s not my place.
He could strike me to the ground and beat me bloody, and still, I would not be allowed to speak, not even to beg for mercy. That would only bring on a fiercer beating.
His voice is made up of ice shards; “Your bargain is to end soon, is that right?”
I nod, keeping my stare downwards.
“Should you get any ideas of striking another bargain, I promise you, filthy little human, I personally will see to your demise.”
At my back, my hands squeeze tightly together, my nails cutting into my own flesh. I feel the warmth of blood drawn.
“I will be watching you,” he adds darkly.
In answer, I grimace down at the floor and nod sharply.
It’s just a bargain, I want to say. It’s not me who offered it to begin with.
But of course, I say nothing.
The clocking sound of bootsteps comes down the steps.
Elden’s chin lifts and he looks to the staircase.
I ache to turn and run to that familiar sound—to the prince who means me no harm.
