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“Stop it,” I warn her, catching her by the narrow shoulders and setting her back a step. “I’ve told you I’m not interested.”
Fury flits across her face before she masters it. “I will have you,” she coos. “One way or another, you’ll give me what I want.”
She’s not even being subtle any longer.
“Never,” I say, curling my upper lip in disgust. Even entertaining such a notion is a repugnant thought, now that she’s boasting about one day winning me over in the middle of the city. For my reputation, I can’t give in. “If you don’t quit, I will have trolvor guards watch your every move. You won’t be able to sneeze without me knowing.”
Her smile widens. “I like the sound of that.
“You, having me watched. Every dirty little thing I do, being whispered in your ear?” She passes her hands down her front in a seductive gesture, so that even her entourage can’t hide their obvious desire. “You know how to make a demon sweat, Rej.”
I grit my teeth.
Everything I say, she turns around for her own benefit. I may just have to live with the fact that she’ll never leave me alone, so long as we both still live. Instead of engaging her, I storm in the direction of my home.
But I cannot shake her so easily.
“Rej’thorek,” she says more sharply than before. “You will be mine.”
Good luck, I think, ignoring the impulse to snap back at her. She gets under my skin, that one, never letting up, never leaving me alone. Whenever I turn around, she’s right there, ready to make my life a living hell.
Even as my entourage breaks up, several volvath trail behind me, glancing back occasionally to see if Yedina is following. “My Prince?”
“What is it?”
“Maybe you should give her what she wants,” he murmurs so as not to embarrass me. He knows better than that, but not well enough to avoid my ire. “Would it be so awful to just-”
I catch him by the throat, lifting him off his feet. I want to crush his neck in my grip and watch the light go out of his eyes. Instead, I’ll leave him with a warning. “Yedina,” I say slowly, enjoying how he struggles for air, wide eyed. “Is a creature I want nothing to do with.”
When I release him, he hits the ground hard, gasping for air.
I look down at the servant and bare my teeth. “If you know what’s good for you, don’t ever suggest such a thing again.”
33
LAURA
A violent clang jerks me out of sleep. “Wake up, little human,” comes an unfamiliar snarl. Another one of those metal plates hits the ground again. “It’s your big day.”
I’m curled up in a dank corner of the cell, shivering from a sleepless, frigid night. My eyes are heavy as I stare at the demon, who seems to grow irritable and runs his bludgeon along the bars again to make an awful racket.
“I said ‘wake up’,” he repeats. “Some of us bet a lot on you. So, you’d better eat.”
I say nothing.
He snarls, then spits in my direction before storming out. Once the door is shut, I can barely make out my surroundings again. The soz’garoth’s magic has faded, leaving a dull ache in my limbs, but it’s the food that got me last night.
I couldn’t keep it down.
Now, the smell of it is rancid to my nose, threatening to make me hurl again. I feel like an empty husk, clinging to sanity by my fingernails, the guilt always threatening to drag me under.
This is my fault. It’s all my fault, I realize for the thousandth time. My thoughts are my only companion down here, save for the occasional demon sent to check on me.
It’s difficult to tell time.
The trolvor claimed it was daytime already, but I have no way to tell on my own. Except for their wretched food that seems to be delivered at regular intervals. My eyes stray to the plate, and I nearly gag again.
My mouth is parched and my tongue is stuck to the roof of my mouth.
