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“Let him go.” My voice sounded brittle in my ears. I knew that was the reaction Preston and Nerissa wanted from me, but I couldn’t help it. The sight broke something in my chest. My earlier promise to myself echoed in my ears:They won’t touch him again.
I let my emotions scream through me, releasing the building storm in my soul. Ice crackled, materializing in a shimmering rain of fatally sharp icicles. They soared through the air, flying toward Nerissa in a relentless assault.
But before they could touch her, one of the guards stepped forward, taking me by surprise as the fierce pain inflicted by forget-me-not shackles pummeled into me. The instant the cuffs clicked around my wrists and agony ignited in my veins, the ice I’d conjured crashed to the dungeon floor and melted into harmless puddles.
Nerissa laughed aloud, turning so I could more clearly see her blade and the mixture of blood and something tinted green shimmering on its edge. My stomach churned. What was she doing to Garrick? “He knows the price he must pay for disobedience.” Her deep red eyes gleamed with brutal delight. “And now, so do you.”
I gasped for air as both resignation and self-loathing washed over me. I had no other choice—not now, anyway. My pain was mounting, making it difficult to even think clearly. “Very well.” Sweat beading on my brow, I faced Preston, shoving my disgust deep down. “I accept your proposal. I’ll marry you.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Iprotested the entire time Preston dragged me out of the dungeons and back to my room.
“Release him! You have what you wanted: my agreement!”
“And he must pay for defying us by slipping you that knife,” Preston hissed in my ear when we stopped outside my door. Once he’d ordered the guards who’d trailed us to unshackle me, he opened the door and shoved me in unceremoniously. “We’ll make an official announcement tomorrow. Sleep well, Fiancée.” He sneered before slamming the door in my face.
Motionless, I waited several seconds for his footsteps and those of our escort guards to fade away. Blood pounded in my ears. Yet just as I’d feared, when I tried the door, I found it locked.
I lost track of time as I slid to the floor, burying my face in my arms and dissolving into tears. Helplessness consumed me, and I hated it. Hated that I was trapped in this room while Garrick suffered. Hated that I couldn’t stop it. Hated that I was a prisoner to these fae, forced to obey their cruel whims. Hated that I’d been powerful enough to defend Garrick and slay Isolde, only for Preston and Nerissa to force me back into a corner where I was weak and trapped again.
They won’t win,I promised myself, curling my fingers into fists. Though I wasn’t sure how when they’d all but stripped me of my power, I would find a way to win my freedom.
Wiping my face, I stood, seizing one of the blankets from the bed and wrapping it around myself as I sank into the chair before the fire. After facing the underworld creature, I knew in my bones I was meant to be in Silverfrost, meant to protect this kingdom—and the rest of the world—from those demons slipping into our realm and harming us.
That meant running was no longer an option.
My mind whirled, but in this unfamiliar place, where I was surrounded by magical fae who’d been wielding their power far longer than I had, I wasn’t sure how I could fight back. I’d have to bide my time, patient and observant as I awaited an opportunity.
At some point, exhaustion from my earlier fight and my tears took over and I nodded off. The creak of the door and then a slam jolted me awake. Startling, I jerked upright in my chair, blinking against the dim light of the low-burning fire.
Garrick leaned against the door, his shoulders slumped. His loose shirt was only half buttoned, giving me a glimpse of countless bandages stretching across his chest. He stared at me with glazed eyes, appearing as bleary as I felt, but neither were swollen shut, so a healer must have tended to him since he’d been released from his cell. But that realization was only a small relief.
“Garrick,” I whispered, abandoning my chair to run to him. “Are you all right?”
I reached for his arm, but he wrenched away, hissing like he expected my touch to burn. Biting back my frown, I pulled away.
“You can’t touch me,” he said, his voice a low rumble, his golden eyes fixed on the floor. “They’ll know.”
“I don’t understand.”
Garrick lifted his face to meet my gaze, his expression pained. “They prey on weaknesses. They’ll always use us against each other, Starlight. If you touch my skin, Nerissa will smell you on me. The scent will be too strong that way. And then she’ll punish me by hurting you.” He barely resisted a shudder. “And if I touch your skin? The same.”
“Why?”
