13. Chapter 13

Chapter thirteen

Now

I used my shadows to form into a makeshift cock.

“Open your mouth,” I commanded, guiding it to Callum’s mouth.

He was on his hands and knees, hard and naked, begging for me to fuck him. After what happened with Bastian and the nightmare last night, I needed a brief respite from my bleak reality.

I found Callum in his study. A room on the lower floor that wasn’t used for anything from what I could remember. He had his nose in a book in another language. He loved learning, having come from a poor family that didn’t have the resources that I did. As outdated as those resources they were.

Callum was too happy to oblige and licked my pussy, getting it nice and wet for him.

I brushed the hair away from his face, grabbed a handful of it, and guided him at a slow pace, his eyes never leaving mine.

Fuck. I don’t know why it was so hot, but I loved seeing Callum in this position—this vulnerable. I pushed his head further along the shadowy shaft and held his head there until tears started to slide down his face. Only then did I let go.

I did that a few more times, which left both of us dripping when the doors flew open and Bastian said, “Callum, I—”

He stopped when he realized what he walked in on.

I lowered my eyes and gave him a lazy smile. I shoved Callum’s face back onto my length and held him there. I stared at Bastian and said, “My little bird is busy right now. We are playing a game. How long can he hold his breath before he dies?.” I looked down, and cocked my head, and asked, “Should we see if you can beat your record of sixty seconds?”

I could tell that Bastian was still slightly intoxicated; had been since I effectively crushed his spirit a few nights ago. Since then, he has clung to Callum.

“Get off him.”

I could tell that Callum was running low on breath, but wouldn’t move until I let him go. He would die right there if I wished for it.

“I promise you he would die a happy male if I chose this to be the moment he left us.”

Red crept up Bastian’s beautiful face, and I could tell that he didn’t like what I was doing to his new friend. I rolled my eyes and pushed Callum a little further until I knew I was at the back of his throat. Once Callum gagged, I let go.

He coughed and sucked in copious amounts of air as he leaned on his heels, not embarrassed at being exposed to Bastian. There was nothing left to hide as he had already seen everything.

“Are you going to keep allowing her to degrade you?”

Callum dipped his head and then looked back up at Bastian. “Bast, you don’t understand. I would let her trample over my dick if it made her happy. I would even fuck you if it brought her joy. Everything I do is for her.”

He took another breath and stood, walking to Bastian, his cock swinging between his legs. I eyed Bastian and swore I saw his eyes dip down and his throat bob, but he diverted his gaze fast enough that I couldn’t be sure.

“I do not desire men,” Bastian tensed.

Callum put his hand hesitantly on Bastian’s shoulder as I said, “You don’t have to desire men to have fun with us.”

It was easy to tell that Bastian was struggling to respond to Callum.

When he didn’t say anything, I piped up. “We could have fun together.”

Bastian glanced back down at Callum, who was looking at him, breath shortening. I brought my hand up my body, needing the friction as flames ignited inside of me. I had often fantasized about the three of us together, but I never imagined that Bastian would agree. The thought was almost enough to make me combust.

Whatever spell had come over the room was broken when Bastian knocked Callum’s hand off his shoulder aggressively, stepped back, and then retreated from the room.

“He will come around when he’s ready. Now, come here and bend over the desk.” Callum obliged. He bent his body over, widened his legs, and spread his cheeks with each hand. “If you move your hands, then everything stops. Do you understand?”

He nodded vigorously.

I said not one word as I guided the shaft to his ass, slowly rubbing it around his opening until I sank slowly inside of him. Callum hissed in pain, and I paused to let him get used to the size.

He held on, begging, “Please keep going, your grace. Don’t stop.”

I smirked as I continued to ease into him at an achingly slow pace until I was buried in him all the way, and my hips were flat against his ass.

“Tell me, who owns you?” I asked, teasing him by grabbing his balls with my shadows.

He tensed under my powers, not wanting to cum so soon, and said immediately, “You, your grace. Always you.”

I moaned at hearing his response. “Say it again.” Squeezing tightly.

“You own me.”

When hearing those words, I pounded into him while squeezing him at the same time, my other hand on his shoulder for added stability.

“You own me. Only you. Always you.” Callum repeated over and over again.

Fuck. Yes.

I was relentless, and every time I pulled out, I would widen the girth of my shadow cock and watch as it disappeared back inside of him. I loved feeling his walls tighten around my length, able to feel what my shadows felt. They were always calm after fucking Callum, so I was never afraid to use them around him.

It didn’t take long until I felt him engorge and then tense as he came. I didn’t stop until his entire body had stopped shaking from the orgasm. I let my powers disappear while inside of him, and grabbed his hair from behind, forcing him to arch his back.

“Tell me.”

“I am yours.”

I let go of his head and conjured a wooden chair to the middle of the room. It was a normal chair with a hole in the seat, a contraption that I heard about from a far-off kingdom and had to try. Callum scurried over to the chair and laid beneath it ready and waiting. I could feel myself dripping down my leg with how wet I was.

I sat down and Callum didn’t wait a moment before his mouth was on me. Licking. Sucking. I had to grip the arms of the chair to keep myself from moving too much. I threw my head back and moaned as his tongue penetrated me and had me squirting all over his face.

I stood and got rid of the chair with a wave of my hand and looked down at him. It was a work of art, and he was mine.

“Look at you, little bird, covered in me.”

He gave me one of those smiles that would melt anyone else. How would it have melted me before all of this? He stared at me, eyes wicked with excitement as he wiped a finger against his face and then brought it to his lips, sucking.

Fuck.

My eyes darkened, and I was on him in a flash, and we fucked and fucked…then fucked some more.

I made my way to the library. It was cold and empty. I conjured a ball of light in my hands as I made my way through the stacks of books. I walked to the back of the room, touching a panel that opened a hidden room next to our family portrait.

Every year on the anniversary of Belle’s death I would come into this room and write her a letter about what had been going on in my life. This year I had much to tell her. Though I wanted to leave out all of the darker details: how the nightmares had come on stronger, Circe was speaking to me more often, Emilia seemed to be on the edge of a mental breakdown, Mariam was murdered, and vivid memories had begun to play themselves for me in my waking hours.

It was all too much. And I didn’t think she needed to be privy to that information.

Do you ever think that maybe she doesn’t want to hear from you?

I couldn’t talk about her, not to Circe. Instead, I opened the book to the next blank page, dipped the quill into the ink, and got ready to start writing.

It is all your fault.

I ignored her and put the quill to the parchment.

November 1761,

Hello dear sister,

Much has changed the past week. Two males have decided to stay in the castle with Callum, Emilia, and me. The transition has been smooth—well, as smooth as it could be. I will admit that it did not start out on the best of terms, but

I stopped writing. It was all the same. I never talked about anything of substance, nothing that truly mattered. I thought that if I shared my thoughts with her, she would see me as she did in life—a monster.

All I had ever done in my life was lie to everyone I loved. Everyone who once mattered. I didn’t want to lie anymore.

I started anew.

Dear Belle,

I have been lost for centuries. I am still here in this castle because of my curse, a curse that I don’t believe I deserve to have broken. You were right. I am the animal Father wanted to purge from this world.

This was how I would pay my penance. And even if I did find a way to break the curse… What would I do?

The thought was once exhilarating but had lost its luster when it wouldn’t be with her. When we were younger, we begged Father to allow us to visit neighboring kingdoms, but he outright refused for fear of the magic-born people possibly harming us. He always said that he could protect us from within these lands. So we would lay in bed at night and make a game out of telling each other where we wished to go if given the chance. Belle always said that she wished to try out all the different flavors and spices around the world. I chuckled to myself, remembering how her little face lit up whenever she talked about a new food that she read about.

Then she would look up at me as I told her all about my desire to immerse myself with people of different cultures and live a life free from the pressures of being royal.

But was that still something I craved?

I was still sitting as I looked around the room that was still coated in dust: two chairs, two candles, and two stacks of books. Books that were useless in helping me find a way to break the curse and venture outside of these lands.

The stack to my left were the books that I had already gone through multiple times. The middle stack was books that I had given up on. My eyes slid over to the stack of books I couldn’t decipher anything useful either, as they were written in a language that I had no idea how to read, an ancient language long forgotten. Circe could read them, but never taught me.

You never earned the right , she scolded. You had so much promise.

I continued staring at nothing when I heard a shuffling sound from the other side of the door. I hesitantly peeked into the nook, not knowing what I would find when Soren’s face appeared inches from mine.

I screamed and threw my fist out, hitting him directly in the nose, and heard a loud crack.

“What the hell!” Soren landed hard on the ground as his hands went up to his face.

“What the fuck are you doing here?” I looked toward the windows and saw that it was still dark. It would be hours until sunrise. “You should have retired to your room hours ago.”

He looked at me over the top of his hands that were holding onto his now-injured nose.

“I couldn’t sleep, and you never forbid us from the library.” He moved his hands which were now covered in blood to look down and found the front of his shirt drenched in the cold, sticky substance. I could see his eyes roll into the back of his head, and he fell back with a thud.

I stared at him, mouth agape, confused at this entire situation. Would he ever stop surprising me? I knelt down and assessed him: his nose was obviously broken, and with the sound his head made when it connected with the ground, I was sure it had some damage.

He started coming to and blinked up at me slowly as I hovered over him.

“Are you an angel?”

“Far from it.”

“What happened?”

I didn’t respond as I cut my wrist open and held it over his mouth. He was about to say something else, but I used my shadows to enter his mind and assist him in drinking a few mouthfuls. I smiled at him as I grabbed his nose, and before he had time to overthink, I readjusted the bones of his nose back into place.

I stood up, continuing to smile sweetly down at him. The shadows faded from the control on his mind, and as he came to his senses he winced, the pain now apparent.

He breathed through the pain as he looked up at me, still on his back, and said, “You know you are a little sadistic, right?”

I shrugged, dropping the smile.

“So I’ve been told. I must live up to everyone’s high expectations of me, should I not?”

He stood up, now completely healed. He touched his nose and the back of his head, seemingly checking himself for the injuries he thought he had, and asked, “Did you just give me your blood? And did I voluntarily drink it?”

I ignored those questions and instead focused back on the matter at hand.

“I don’t care for the reason why you are awake at such an hour. What I care about is that you stay out of places that are of no concern to you.”

He threw his hands up, exasperated.

“It’s a library! I like to read when I can’t sleep.” His eyes went wide as he peeked over my shoulder. “Wait! What is that room?” He pushed past me, and his eyes quickly roved over every inch of the room before I could move fast enough to pull him from it.

I could see the excitement in his eyes, hear it in his voice. Another part of the mystery that is the Everhart legacy. A part that I would never allow him to be privy to.

I pushed him back with my magic and shut the door.

“I highly recommend you leave now before I do good on my promise and kill you.”

He sighed. “You know, that threat is getting rather old.”

“Doesn’t make it any less true.”

He knew this was a losing battle and walked away, then paused, looking up at the portrait of my family. I readied myself for another fight before he said the one thing that I never thought I would hear uttered on another’s lips. A word that was as foreign to me as emotions were. A part of me that was dead.

“Calathea?” He said it while looking at me through his peripheral. Wanting to see my reaction to it. As if he already knew the answer, but just wanted confirmation of his hunch.

I stilled. “How do you know that name?”

“So, it’s true? You are Calathea Rose Everhart.”

I swallowed. “That girl is dead.”

And she was. She died when her human life ended.

“Why aren’t you in any of the texts that I have read, but you are in every book that mentions your family in this castle? You have been completely erased from the history of this kingdom. I was shocked when I read that they had another daughter and didn’t fathom that it was you.” He was getting too excited over this revelation. “I only just now realized it because of this,” he said, pointing toward the portrait.

That was part of the curse. I would be forgotten, cursed to be alone. I didn't know how she did it, but she succeeded.

“Scholar, I would recommend that you get away from me right now before I do something neither of us wants.”

He swallowed, thankfully realizing that it was not the moment to press the subject. He turned and hurried out of the room without another word.

The audacity of this boy never ceased to amaze me. How had my speech earlier not shaken him enough to leave all this be? What did the past have such control over him? Nearly as much as it did myself?

I leaned against the wall of books and slowly slid to the ground, suddenly exhausted. More than I had been. If I hadn’t been so transfixed by what Soren had just said, I could have fallen asleep right there on the ground.

Was he going to tell Bastian my name? Did it even matter?

It doesn’t matter what they call you, you are still a monster. La bête.

I needed to know what he planned to do with this information; he looked too excited to not share my name. I lifted my hand, focusing my energy as shadows licked the skin over my hand, creating a ball of swirling violet light. When my father closed off the tunnels under the suspicion they were being used, Circe taught me this trick to spy on the people within the castle.

The moment the ball of light fully formed, Soren burst through Bastian’s chamber doors.

Bastian startled awake. “Ren?”

I could see Soren striding toward the window, throwing the curtains open, letting in the natural light from the moon’s rays that were able to penetrate the fog.

Bastian rubbed the sleepiness from his eyes, and when he finally looked at his brother, he jumped from the bed. “What happened!”

Bastian hurried over to Soren, grabbed his face between his hands, and moved it around to get a good look at him.

“I am going to kill her,” he seethed.

Soren seemed to be annoyed by this as he rolled his eyes and swatted his brother’s hands away. He then pulled something from the waistband of his trousers. A book.

I stiffened. That little snake.

He held it up in front of Bastian’s face and began his rambling, unable to hide the excitement now that he had someone to share it with.

“Calathea Rose Everhart, born on December 21, 1391. Her parents, King Jean and Queen Angela Everhart, along with ninety-seven percent of the kingdom, were killed due to a mysterious plague. The only ones to have survived were people who were away on holiday, at university or work. Annabelle Paige Everhart died before the plague and had been rumored to be the first to fall ill from it, infecting everyone else. Though others say that she was murdered. Because no one had dared to enter the kingdom for many years after, not even to claim the bodies in fear of contracting the disease, no one can say for certain what is the truth. Not to mention the myth of la bête .”

Soren looked mad, out of his mind, at all of these new revelations. Overcome with intrigue and filled with even more questions than before. His eyes bulged out of his head as he opened the book and flipped carefully through the worn pages. Even in this erratic state, he knew to be careful with the ancient texts.

He was pacing, unable to keep himself still, running his hands through his hair as he continued, “She has been eradicated from every single text except for the ones in her library. And she has this room—”

“Soren, you need to slow down, I don’t understand a word you’re saying. And tell me why the fuck you have blood on your face and clothes.”

Soren took a breath and snapped, “Let me explain this in a way you’ll understand. The queen punched me, broke my nose, and I passed out from looking at the blood. I think I may be hemophobic, but I can test that theory at a later date.”

Bastian looked enraged, whether it was at his brother’s comment, my actions, or a mixture of both.

“She punched you? I am going to kill her.”

Bastian walked past him, but Soren grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop.

“Brother, are you not listening? Yes, she punched me, but that isn’t the point. Look, I am fine, she fixed it. Her blood heals!”

He was too wrapped up in the revelation that had his entire attention. A little broken nose was of no significance. I was sure that he would allow me to break his nose a hundred times over if it meant that he could get his hands on more information.

“Now, our very own queen is the missing princess. She isn’t technically missing because no one knows she exists.”

Soren was too intelligent for his own good.

Leave it to the most annoying scholar in human history to stick his nose in business that didn’t concern him. No one had ever looked through my books, so I didn’t even think to hide them.

I wasn’t annoyed that they knew the truth. I was annoyed because I knew what it meant; the bookworm would stop at nothing to find out the truth of my past. More questions. Just thinking about it made my head pound.

Bastian stared at him briefly before dropping his head and walking back over to his bed.

“If that is all then could you please take your leave before I—”

“Are you serious? Do you know what this means?”

“It means that you have officially gone mad, and I will have to put you out of your misery, but that can wait until the morning.”

He brushed past his brother's words and continued, “I was walking around in the library, merely looking around, and I found this.” He showed Bastian a book of my family tree, with all the gritty details of my past. “I swear, it's her. I now know why she refused to tell us her name.”

Bastian took the book from Soren’s outstretched hands, taking a moment to digest everything his brother said, still groggy from sleep.

“And you know this for a fact?”

“I just saw her and called out her name to test the theory and you should have seen the look on her face. She paled, you could almost hear her heartbeat from how fast her chest was rising and falling. If I hadn't left she was going to kill me just to make me stop talking about it.”

Bastian’s face paled, the same color as my own despite our difference in skin tone, after reading over a certain section of the page and said, in a haunted tone, “If what you are saying is true and this date is correct then that would make her—”

He couldn’t even finish the sentence as he gulped.

Soren finished for him with a huge grin on his face, so big that I could see deep dimples forming. “Precisely three hundred and seventy years old.” He was giddy.

“You are infatuated with her. Have you fucked her yet? Does she have a magical cunt or something?”

“You’re out of line.” The grin on Soren’s face immediately vanished.

They stared at each other. What they were trying to find I was unsure, but I couldn’t look away.

“Nevermind.” Bastian turned from Soren and headed toward the closet, grabbed his satchel, and silently threw his belongings into it.

“Bast. Bast.” Bastian was ignoring him. “Bast!”

Bastian stopped once he was satisfied and said over his shoulder, “She must still be in the library, so now is the perfect time to go. It’ll be hours before dawn and we will be long gone by then.”

Soren looked at him confused. “What?”

“We need to get the fuck out!” Bastian hissed, took a few steps to his brother, grabbed his wrist, and yanked him toward the door.

Soren pulled his hand from his brother’s grasp and said, “I am not leaving.”

“Oh yes, you are.”

“You made a deal with her! You—” He pulled his shirt down exposing the scar on his chest. “We—can’t escape even if we wanted to, and I am telling you, that is the last thing I want to do.”

“We don’t need her deals! We escape, tell everyone, and then come back and kill her to ensure that she doesn’t come after our family. No more sacrifices. Problem solved.”

“If you think I am going to leave after finding out that we are living under the same roof as a woman who has lived for almost four hundred years then you are sorely mistaken.” He looked away and mumbled to himself, “Is that why she keeps calling us boys? Because if so then that makes so much sense!”

He removed the quill from behind his ear and scribbled notes down in that damned notebook.

“I am responsible for your well-being, Soren!”

“Since when?” He was now staring at his brother, quill in hand. “You have never cared enough to take any interest in my life before, so why now?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Bast, you didn’t even know that my entire academic career has been centered around the three hundred and seventy-year-old woman who is alive and breathing in another room in this very castle.”

Alright, he could stop mentioning my age now, I didn’t need any more reminders.

“How was I supposed to take interest when you were always stuck in your room reading? Or off somewhere traveling and studying? You took any chance you could get to escape home.”

“You were always Father’s favorite; there was never any room for me.”

“You are an entitled bastard!” He spat. “You never had any pressure, Soren. You were allowed to be exactly who you wanted to be. Don’t you see that? The family, the legacy, all the rules, that was on me. Forgive me if I didn’t ask whatever the fuck you were drawing in your sketchbook from day to day.”

“You sound just like her,” he said evenly, and I knew he was referring to me and my lecture to him earlier. “You are right—I have had the privilege and freedom to escape home, but the cost of that was a disappointed father. I was a stain to him, one he couldn’t scrub off. Perhaps I do not understand your pressure, but you do not understand what it is like to be nothing to a man who brought you into the world.”

My heart hammered in my chest—all the words I threw at him in anger, about him not understanding me or Emilia, all the while he’d been living with his own loneliness and pain.

There was silence between the brothers. They just stood staring at each other until Bastian turned away, running his hands through his hair, unsure of how to proceed.

He whispered to himself, “It wasn’t fucking worth it. This is all my fault.”

Soren asked, “What wasn’t worth it?”

“Not killing her when I had the chance,” Bastian seethed.

Soren sighed, seeming to want to put his brother at ease.

“Bast, nothing you did would have stopped me from coming here. I was already planning on coming the moment I got home from university. What is happening to me is not your fault.”

“Why do you care about her?”

Soren lifted his round glasses from his face and rubbed the back of his hand across his forehead, taking a minute to gather his thoughts.

“Do you remember my friend, Léna?” When Bastian shook his head, Soren continued, “She was my best friend when I was younger, and then she was one of the chosen when I turned ten.”

Bastian lowered his head. “I didn’t know. I’m sorry.”

“I vowed to save her. I promised her that we would run away together, but Father caught me and hit me, knocked me out, and by the time I had awoken, it was too late to meet her. I followed her path and saw Léna standing before the queen and another woman. Anyway, that’s not the point.” He chastised himself. “I have been obsessed not just with this castle, but with this queen from the moment that I laid eyes on her. And this is the first time I have had a chance to return, and you will not keep me away.”

“If you think so highly of her, why hasn’t she ended the Reapings? She’s had several hundred years to find a way, yet she’s sat back and allowed it to continue.” Bastian gave Soren a moment to answer but continued when his brother stayed silent. “I’ll tell you why, brother. The Reapings protect her. She’ll let hundreds of children be torn from their families if it means nobody finds out who—what— she is.” Bastian slammed his fist into the bedpost. “All of the fucking sacrifices were pointless, and she knows it. She even kept one for herself! That girl, Emilia. She could have had a new life somewhere with a good family, but instead, she’s trapped in these walls so that monster can have another pet. She’s sick.”

My stomach began to roll because even if I wanted to fight his words, nothing he said was wrong.

“Perhaps we just do not understand her like we think. Maybe there’s more to all this. Back then, they were burning witches… The famous War on Magic. Maybe it’s all connected to her.”

Bastian scoffed. “It doesn’t matter what you say. My word is final.”

Soren sighed and turned his head, crossing his arms over his chest.

“You sound just like Father.” He missed the horrified look on Bastian’s face, but I didn’t. After seeing what his father was like in the memory, I knew that was a vile comparison.

“Spit your venom, Soren. On this matter, I know I’m right.” He walked up to Soren and hit him on the back of his head with a glass bottle of wine, effectively knocking him unconscious.

I frowned. Poor little scholar.

Bastian hoisted him over his shoulder and then set out into the hallway. He was cautious and stuck to the shadows, not wanting to be caught, not wanting to take any chances in case someone was awake in the castle.

I smiled, suddenly excited. The fool had no idea what he just did, what he just awakened in me. My heart rate increased; the smell of fear potent in the air and the wind whipping around my face was all so invigorating. There was something about stalking my prey and then pouncing on them that made my insides molten. My mind flicked to a memory of chasing Callum in the woods and fucking him right where I found him.

I walked through the opening I created with my shadows and was transported to the same spot where I met this foolish hunter not long ago, waiting for the brothers to arrive. I guessed that it took Bastian a while because he wanted to take his time to ensure that he wouldn’t be caught.

I was leaning against a tree, using the darkness to hide, as I heard rustling down the path. A moment later Bastian came into sight. He stopped at the gate, readjusted the slipping Soren back on his shoulder, and stepped through it. I smiled to myself as he was forced back by my shadows, waiting for the fury that would come when Bastian found that he couldn’t get through.

They were both on the ground as Bastian stood up, clearly confused.

“What the—” He walked to the gate and tried stepping through it again but was thrown back once more.

“How many times are you going to try that before you realize it won’t work?” I asked in a bored tone.

He jumped.

“Goddammit, woman!” He paled when he realized that he had been caught. His ingenious plan to flee was over, and they were seconds away from the repercussions of attempting escape. “I wasn’t… This wasn’t—”

“So, you weren’t just trying to escape before dawn?”

He looked toward the gate, at the vine-covered path ahead.

I tapped my hand against my chin.

“Hm, I wonder whose brilliant idea this was.” I pondered, looking down at Soren’s unconscious body.

He eyed me, furious at his failed attempt.

“Why can’t we step foot over the gate, witch?”

“Are we still name-calling? Rather childish, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Why can’t we leave?”

I walked up to him. “How many times do I need to remind you that your life is no longer yours to do with as you please?”

He pointed to his chest.

“This is keeping us from leaving?”

“No,” I said coyly.

“Then why?” He shouted.

“You’re no fun… It’s just my shadows.” I jutted my bottom lip out, pouting. I released my powers and rolled my eyes. “I told you that the mark binds you to these lands, but that was a lie. The truth? You could leave at any moment; the mark simply brands you as mine. The only one cursed to be here is me. What can I say?” I raised my hands above me and shrugged. “I have a flair for the dramatics.”

“Why lie at all?”

“You wouldn’t have stayed otherwise if you knew the truth, and I wasn’t in the mood to keep watch over you constantly.”

“We are leaving.”

Bastian reached down to hoist Soren over his shoulder. Just as he was about to take a step over the boundary line, I shot my shadows out and clutched onto Soren’s wrist, tugging him out of Bastian’s arms once more, and laid him gently in front of me.

Bastian turned and was about to charge at me when I yelled, “Leave! I told you from the moment your brother came that I didn’t need you. He will take your place.”

I kneeled down next to Soren as Bastian walked over to us.

“Do not touch him.”

I cocked my head to the side and gently swiped my finger over Soren’s injured head, remnants of his bloody nose still prevalent as well as the new welt from his brother. He needed to be healed soon. I was not a doctor, but even I knew that all of these hits to the head couldn’t be good for his health.

I bit into my palm and was about to give him more of my blood when Bastian moved, and grabbed my wrists, pinning them behind me.

My chest pressed against his, back arched.

“Stop.” Bastian’s hot breath fanned my face. “Please, just stop.”

“Oh, the neanderthal knows how to use manners. Who knew?” I paused for a few moments, staring up at him, our faces inches apart.

“What do I need to do for you to grant my brother his freedom?”

“What makes you think he wants to leave? Actually, he has communicated quite clearly with me that he wants nothing more than to get to know me.” Rather my history, but that was neither here nor there.

“I don’t give a fuck what he thinks he wants with his life. I am the eldest, and I know what is best for him. So, I ask you one more time: What. Do. I. Need. To. Do?”

“If I told you that you had to be on your hands and knees every single day without complaint, would you?”

“Yes,” he said without hesitation.

“You would become my whore to save your brother?”

He gripped my hands tighter behind me and leaned down to growl in my ear: “I would lick your pussy until my jaw numbed, from sun up to sun down. I would let you chain me to your bed so that you could have your way with me whenever the fuck you wanted. Whatever twisted, fucked up fantasy was in your mind, I would gladly oblige if you let him go.”

I looked up to the sky to ponder; pretending that the growl didn’t make my toes curl and then met his eyes once more.

“No.”

He hissed. “I will find a way to get out of this hell with my brother.”

My lips thinned into a hard line.

“I promise if you ever attempt to escape again, I will make sure that when your sister is sent into the forest she never finds her way out again.” He didn’t have to know I was bluffing—I just couldn’t think of another way to keep him here.

He was staring at me so intently and for so long that I thought he would call my bluff when he roared, “Fuck!”

He was doomed and he knew it. Soren would never leave willingly, and if he took Soren by force, he would only come back on his own. And even if he did leave with a willing Soren, he would never be able to convince his father to abandon his belief and secretly save his daughter. There was no situation in which he came out on top.

Except staying here—with me.

“You are stuck with me, hunter. Now and forever.” I taunted, “Tell me who owns you.”

I closed the distance between our faces and brushed my tongue lightly against his lips before drawing back enough to catch his reaction.

His eyes narrowed, the words turning over in his mind.

I knew he didn’t want to say it, but he surprised me when he answered: “You own me.”

The light in his eyes dimmed; the thread of hope that he was holding onto had finally snapped. I couldn’t focus on that; the sooner he realized he needed to stop thinking that he could leave, the better off he would be. As much as I didn’t want him here either, there was no other choice.

“That’s right. I fucking own every inch of you.”

We were interrupted by a rustling sound behind us. Soren groaned as he reached up and felt the place where Bastian had hit him.

“Not again.” Then he looked around. “Why are we outside?”

“It doesn’t matter anymore. I won’t be attempting this again.”

“No?” Soren questioned and then smiled, knowing that Bastian’s grand escape was thwarted.

“Nope. Looks like your mysterious queen is a master manipulator and will be getting exactly what she wants. What the queen wants the queen gets, right?”

I narrowed my eyes at him as Bastian helped his brother stand, and he barked out in protest at all the abuse his body was getting that night. Bastian put an arm around his waist and walked slowly with him back to the castle.

I stood there watching their forms slowly slip away and into the darkness until I let out a breath. Bastian was affecting me the more I was around him. My body reacted to him whenever he came into view or whenever I thought about him. It was starting to become a damned nuisance.