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Yet terrified I’ve made the wrong choice.
Now that I’m here, doubt fills my pores, every cell screaming,What if Cam was right?
Unable to help myself, I gawk at the richness of the space we’re in, the entryway rising up three stories, the ceiling half skylight, panes of glass cut and colored to depict something The Mother told me people call Heaven.
“Paigelynn,” Makiah says firmly, angry eyes pummeling me with questions. His hair is swept back off his face, and his Nordic jaw is like a blade. With high cheekbones and a prominent brow, he is the epitome of perfection, according to The Mother.
Something in me wavers. Wobbles a bit.
But I walk into the room.
He closes – then locks – the door.
“I want you to feel safe here,” he begins.
“Thank you.” Preparing myself to tell him everything that’s just happened, I feel my mind start to splinter. In regular life, I’m rarely asked to tell stories or sequences of events. Most of my spoken words are playacting with neighbors or reciting lessons and truths.
“First, I must know you are truly the princess.”
I halt, halfway toward a chair, my thoughts interrupted by this unexpected turn of events. “Know?”
“Your mark.”
My hand goes to the spot below my hipbone. “Ah. I see.” Instantly nervous, I look around. “But I can only show this when in the presence of two or more trusted men.”
“The Prophecy above all, Princess.”
“The Prophecy above all,” I reply, healed already by the familiar words.
His gaze narrows. “I have taken a vow to protect you, and the prophecy. I am the light. You are the light. We cannot succumb to darkness. My hand was ordained by your husband – your king – to put that very mark on you. You do not need to quote policy to me, Princess. I helped to write it.”
“Yes.” Our eyes lock, his filled with a zeal I welcome.
But then it turns to something more. Something carnal. Something that makes me freeze.
I have made a terrible mistake.
The words rip through me like a knife through flesh as he closes the distance between us, looking down with menace.
“Disrobe, Princess. Prove your identity to me.”
And then he takes two steps back, crosses his arms over his broad chest, and waits.
Unblinking.
CHAPTERFOUR
Cam
Damn it.
She’s smarter than I thought.
Or I’m stupider than I should be.
Both are likely true.
“Is the dog okay?”
