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“Did he touch you in places you have yet to give?”
I clench my teeth so tightly I fear they might crack. With every ounce of willpower I can conjure, I keep my face bored, never showing the growing rage that is igniting within me.
“Of course not,” I say, truthfully. Draven had no chance of touching me once my power wrapped around him. And he doesn’t need to know anything that transpired before; he has no right to that knowledge or to try and taint something I hold close to my heart.
After considering my words, he steps back and waves his hand out for me to enter. I hate the sound of the door clicking shut behind me and the twist of the lock that turns my stomach. I glance over my shoulder with furrowed brows.
“So no one disturbs us,” he answers the silent question. “My father waltzes in as he pleases. Knocking is beneath him.”
All I can do is nod as I make my way farther into his room. At one point, I used to love hanging out here. We’d play chess—even though he’s awful at it. Me teaching him as we lazed on the floor with our heads together, making up ridiculous stories.
But now, this room feels…foreign. Unsettling.
The complete opposite of how I feel in Draven’s room, which is safe and comforting.
I look around the bland space and I feel like our memories in here have been wiped away. My eyes keep scanning until they freeze on a narrow table decorating a single wall. But that’s not what’s holding my attention or making my heart drop to my stomach. It’s the objects lined up over the top.
Seashells.
White…shells.
“Ahh.” Aiden comes to stand beside me, hooking his gaze to the same spot I can’t seem to look away from. “I’ve been collecting them.” He walks over and picks one up, tossing it in his hand and turning it over. “Each day I went to find a single shell while you were gone. It made me feel close to you and I wanted it to be a gift for when you came back.” With a final look, he gently places it back down. “Now, it sounds a bit silly.” He lifts his arm to scratch behind his neck.
Without taking my eye off the shells, I ask, “Did you ever try to find me?”
His eyes never meet mine as they dip to the floor. “I wanted to and regret that I didn’t.” With his head still bent forward, he lifts his eyes to peek at me. “With each day that passed, the regret grew. But I was angry. After the rejection before the battle—you choosing him—and how you disappeared so willingly to the monster who was massacring everyone, the thought of you had made me sick.”
The blackened blood in my veins starts pumping harder from his words, but I keep my composure.
He finally lifts his head to look directly at me, taking a small step closer. “But I realized that you weren’t yourself. That your rejection and leaving was because of the madness placed in your head. The manipulation of that prince and the God of Darkness’s power.” He comes to stand before me, taking both my hands in his as his thumbs rub over the dark veins threading over them. “The three months felt long and excruciating without you, but you came back to me. Even if you aren’t the same Emma, it’s still you.”
I want to sever his hands and pour my shadows down his throat. Whether he searched for me or not, it doesn’t matter. I just wanted to see if there was a decent bone in his body after he let himself fall under the same skewed moral compass as his father and the previous king.
Taking a moment to replay his words, I snag on the two that have my heart sinking to my stomach. Three months. About three full moon cycles. That is how long I was gone. The dose of harsh reality tastes bitter as I try to swallow down the lump in my throat. How did I not manage to break through the black hole that was consuming me?
Realizing my thoughts are drifting, I give a jerk of my head in acknowledgment to Aiden and quickly look away, not being able to stand the sight of his face when all I want to do is take the hilt of my dagger and slam it into his skull. Instead, I take a calming breath to swallow down the lump in my throat. I must have him believe the words that I’m about to say when all my body wants to do is vomit.
“Thank you.” Another steady breath. “They are the perfect gifts to come home to, aside from you.” Bile threatens to surge upward, but I manage to keep it down, burning my throat in the process. Aiden seems oblivious, beaming at me with a look that seems like he won the golden prize.
Once the churning of my stomach settles again, I continue, “You don’t need to worry about Prince Draven.” He tips his head in question. “I took care of him, so he won’t bother us anymore.” The question lining his brows clears as his eyes once again look like they are skipping across a finish line. “But please,” I turn his hands over so I can grab onto them, “don’t mention what you saw of what he is, for I wish to use that secret against him when the time comes.”
“I thought you said he won’t be a bother?”
“He won’t be. This is the information I will use against him shall he dare to do so anyway,” I reply quickly, letting the lie roll off my tongue with ease.
Aiden looks down at our intertwined hands, tightening his fingers around mine. “This is the first time you have initiated touching me.” He pauses, and I take that moment to keep my features lax to hide the disgust begging me to rip my hands away. “But okay. So long as you let me know if he dares to come near you again, because I will happily tear his world apart alongside you.”
My heart jumps but I force my lungs to keep working. “That seems fair.” Lie. He has no idea what happens when he makes a deal with a demon. So, I smile, making it seem like there are hearts floating in the black sea of my eyes while cursing him in the recess of my mind. And in hopes of keeping up the act, I ask, “Will you join me for dinner tonight?”
“I’d be delighted.”
Dinner is uneventful. I listen to him go on and on about what he did when I was away, all the while completely ignoring the fact that his father drove a blade between my ribs the night before. He leans back in his chair with ease, folding his arms behind his head with a huge grin stretching across his face. His voice is light and airy as he rambles on, speaking as if we are on a relaxing trip to the springs beneath the waterfalls in the Court of Abhain, with a glass filled to the brim with wine.
It's strange, sitting here, just the two of us. And the seat he takes residence in is the one I used when King Oren announced I would be attending the masquerade ball to Draven’s court. A night that has altered the path of my life in unforeseen instances. From meeting the Dark Prince, to finding Aiden—the male whom I believed to be kindhearted—groping a random female in the same evening we were showcasing our engagement.
The contents of my stomach churn at what would have been if I never attended that ball. If I would have never met Draven, and instead, be permanently locked in place beside Aiden while living in this hell of a palace. I refuse to go there as I push all those unbidden thoughts away and continue to watch Aiden talk animatedly.
My tongue swipes over my teeth beneath my lips as I give a listening nod. I’m surprised the glass of water in my hand doesn’t shatter, or that the silver utensil never bends between my fingers when he starts voicing his father’s plans to take more coin from the people in order to repair his damn ships. The water in my glass vibrates as I feel the hold on my power grow unstable from the instant surge of anger. But I hold my breath and count to three, reassuring myself to accept my power’s presence, which seems to calm it down.
