Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
I glanced at his hands, then doubled back. There was no doubt. His claws were shorter than they were the day before. Had he trimmed them? Did he do that... for me?
So it wouldn’t hurt when he mounted me—
I cut the thought off at the knees, put it in a box, set it on fire, then buried the ashes. In no reality—alternate or otherwise—would this man enter me.
“Take me back.”
Alisdair didn’t move. He didn’t speak.
“Take me back now,” I repeated, raising my voice.
Nothing.
I swallowed hard, absentmindedly tugging on the symbol of my oppression—the charm bracelet. Once, a hungry, ragged wolf wandered into the Gutter Galley and cornered me in an alley—growling and salivating for the coming meal that was me.
I’d have given anything right then to be back in that alley.
I was being assessed by another predator, and this one was more terrifying than a starving wolf would ever be.
Stop it, I snapped at myself. Stories and legends are just that. Whatever he’s done, Alisdair Shadowsoul is not invincible. He’s flesh, blood, and fae like the rest of us. A very powerful faeman, but still, just a man.
You’ve been around enough men to know what they want, and what they don’t.
Straightening, I wiped my tears on my sleeve and set my jaw. I was done crying. Crying never solved anything. The only way to get home was to go through him, and I was more than up to the task.
I cleared my throat. “You should, you know. Take me back, that is.” My tone was even. Almost cordial. “It’s in your best interest to end this sham of a marriage now.”
His only reaction was a slightly raised brow.
“Come now. Didn’t you wonder why King Salman offered his daughter and only child to his worst enemy? Did you really think it was to get you to sign that silly little peace treaty? Aww, you did, didn’t you?” I clicked my tongue, mock-pouting. “So cute.”
His brow rose higher. One thing men like Shadowsoul didn’t like—being made to seem naïve and clueless.
“It wasn’t about you,” I went on. “It was about me. My father”—my throat burned to call him that—“knew he’d never be able to arrange a real match for me, so pawning me off to you was his last hope of getting something out of the deal.”
I took a deep, exaggerated breath and released it slow. “You see, I was born with a tragic condition. Very rare. Very real. You can learn about it yourself.”
“I am on the edge of my seat,” he drawled, startling me. Would I ever get used to his unnaturally deep, honeyed tone. “What is this condition?”
“My pussy,” I dropped, raising that brow as high as it could go. “It has teeth. Rows of them all up my walls. Very sharp.”
A strange noise came from his side of the carriage. Was he...? Was he laughing?
“It’s true.” Laughter pealed from his lips. “It is! This is no laughing matter. Any attempt to consummate the marriage will result in your cock being horribly mangled. See for yourself.” I held up my hands. “I got these cuts from my unwise attempts to play with myself.”
I revealed the many slash marks on Emiana’s fingers. They were from my escape attempt. The lone day Fiona went too long between administering the tea, and I cut myself trying to hop through a broken window.
“And of course, since nothing can go in, nothing can come out.” I had to raise my voice to be heard over him. “That means no children. None. So, do you see? Do you see how King Salman tricked you? He saddled his enemy with a wife that will never fuck him or bear his children. You might as well take me back now because— Stop laughing!”
If anything, Shadowsoul laughed harder.
“Oh, my queen. When that odd, foolish little man”—he described the king of the most powerful fae nation in the land—“told me he had a little bird he wanted to give me, I was skeptical. Especially when all reports declared you a meek, decorative, pointless creature.”
I bristled, and he wasn’t even talking about me.
“But alas, I shall have to slaughter every one of my Lyrican spies. You are far from meek or decorative, my crude, court jester of a bride. You are what no one has been to me for a very long time.” He smiled, revealing true rows of sharpened, lethal teeth. “Entertaining.
“So, bite me, little bird. Mangle me.” His eyes flashed. “I dare you.”
The conversation had taken a strange and terrible turn. I did not understand this man. It seemed everything I did to repel him, only increased his fascination of me. What would it take to make him open the cage and let the little bird fly free?
“You needn’t be afraid of me, little queen.”
“No?” I straightened, pushing down my fear. “So all the stories weren’t true? About your cruelty? About your palace being a den of nightmares? About the things your people do to their mates on their wedding night?”