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“And what are the consequences of telling you to fuck off and die?” I hissed.

Theron bared his teeth in a venomous grin. “Perhaps we should see how all this fire and spark may be used to please me in my bed, madam.”

“Go on then.” I leaned against him, lifting my chin defiantly. “Defile me again if you so please. Do not think for one moment that I will ever give myself to you willingly.”

He gripped my hair, his nails raking at my scalp. “Then I will take what I wish.”

I bit back tears, hoping he did not see the trembling of my lips. I tried to wrench out of his grasp, but his fingers held firm. His eyes remained locked on mine, his lips curling into a smirk.

“Was he such a good lover?” He asked slowly.

“That’s all you can think of, isn’t it?” I spat at him. “That is the singular thought in your mind, that he had my body.”

“He took what was mine to possess.”

“He didn’ttakeanything.” My lips twisted into a smile as tears ran down my cheeks. “I begged for him. I begged him to fuck me.”

Theron’s eyes narrowed. “Oh you did, did you? Begged like a hungry little whore, hmm?” He yanked my hair harder. “Rook was only too happy to oblige, of course.”

“It wasbliss.” I sneered at him as his eyes blazed. “Youhad to force yourself on me in a fucking cave, where no one could hear me, where I was completely at your mercy. Do not for one moment everdreamof comparing yourself to him. You willneverhave what he had.”

Theron released me roughly, stepping back from me with a swish of his wings. He clasped his hands behind his back and gazed out the window, a slow smile spreading across his face.

“But I do not need to have what he had, dear one. For now I shall have what he will never know again, and in plain sight too.” He turned back to gaze at me, tilting his head slightly. “He will watch you marry me. He will watch your belly grow with my child. He will be forced to see all of it. Andthatwill give me more satisfaction than if you opened those legs of yours willingly.”

Nausea washed over me as I turned away from him, clutching a hand to my stomach. “You’re a fucking vile monster.”

“I have organized a celebration, tomorrow night,” Theron went on, ignoring me entirely. “An engagement party, if you will. I expect you to dry those pathetic tears by then, and show the kingdom what a pretty face you can have when you’re not moping.”

“Fuck off.” I crossed the room and climbed into bed, pulling the covers over my head.

“You will be ready,” he said, and his footsteps moved across the hardwood floor, coming to a stop beside me. “Perhaps I shall visit you tonight, dear one. First I have some business to attend to.”

I buried my face in the pillow to muffle my sobs. Finally, his footsteps retreated, and the door closed behind him. I was alone in this ridiculously ornate room, crying so hard I couldn’t breathe.

I didn’t know what to do. I was so overwhelmed with hopelessness, with crushing defeat, I felt faint.

Elara. Rook’s voice brushed against my mind, soft like silk.My love. I cannot bear this.

I pushed him away, and cried until I made myself sick, stumbling from the bed to retch in the basin again. My throat was raw and my eyes burned. There was nothing,nothingI could do. I could not even keep my body from Theron. Everything I had was his. Everything I was and had ever been was now his. He’d laid claim to it all - Keir’s life and indeed his death, my home, my parents, my love for Rook, all of it. Nothing now belonged to me. It all merely existed for him to cause more pain, to twist and torture in whatever way he saw fit.

Still I felt Rook in my chest, like a fire storm, raging in a sea of despair. The Bond between us was no longer pulled taut - it threatened to tear me apart, straining at my rib cage.

Perhaps this is what it would feel like to die of a broken heart.

Chapter37

Rook

Abreeze blew in through the shattered window, reminding me that I’d smashed it sometime in the night. The chair I’d hurled in my rage lay in three pieces on the stone floor. Thunder rumbled as the sky darkened.

Elara’s despair thumped in my chest, but every time I reached out to her, she slipped through my fingers, like sand, like mist. She was trying to protect me. Trying to shield me from her anguish.

As though that could ever work. I felt her tears like they were my own, a hot, steady stream down my face. I clutched a hand to my chest, as though she would be able to feel it, feel my hand reaching out to comfort her.

Fucking Gods, I just wanted to hold her.

My head fell back against the bed, and from my position on the floor I could see the approaching storm, gathering outside the broken window. I’d been locked in my chambers since I’d stormed Elara’s room, since I’d seen her beautiful face peppered with bruises, her eyes filled with terror and sadness. Since I’d discovered exactly what had stolen my breath that night when I had run from room to room, trying to find her. When pain had flooded my body, and her screams had been so loud I couldn’t hear anything else.