Page 135 of Bitter Prince

A woman slid her hand into his and he looked away from me. I wasn’t even worth looking at anymore. Hand in hand, they made their way to the floor and started to dance. To our song.

And they danced like one. Two souls always meant to be together. And what hurt most was how they fit. Her hair was as dark as raven silk, matching his own. She was beautiful. Everything I wasn’t. Graceful. Confident.

As they moved across the floor, dancing effortlessly like they’d done this a million times, I realized he’d forgotten me. Our song was no longer ours. It was theirs. He was looking at her like she was his entire world. Likeshewas meant to be something to him.

The feeling brought tears to my eyes. I’d forever been linked to the boy with stars in his dark eyes, but I made a mistake. They didn’t shine for me. Maybe they never did. Or maybe I’d been a star all along, and he was the moon. There was only one of those while there were billions of stars out there… and he didn’t choose me. So now, I’d burn out, knowing the taste of him and forever missing it.

My heart hammering in my chest, I tried to force myself to take another step. I couldn’t. Instead, I stood frozen, loving him silently. Blindly. But then he bent his head and kissed her—softly, reverently.

The sound of my heart breaking was so loud, it deafened me.

I couldn’t look away, my eyes telling me what my heart couldn’t. It was breaking all over the marble floor around me, burning to ashes.

My star had fizzled and been reduced to dust, leaving me alone.

He was the best part of my heart. The darkest part of my heart. The lightest part. My whole heart. He owned it, even in its shattered state. It was always his to break.

My chest ached like someone had stuffed it through a grinding machine. The pain spread through every corner of my body, turning physical and growing with each passing second.

As my nails dug into my palms and my throat thickened with a lump that suffocated me, a tear rolled down my cheek. I turned around, my vision blurry, and I bumped into a tall, hard body.

“Excuse me,” I muttered, not looking up.

“Reina.” Another familiar voice. “What are you doing here?”

I raised my eyes, my vision blurry, making it hard to see. “Mr. Konstantin?”

“Are you all right?”

I had to get out of here before I broke down and embarrassed myself. Before Amon could see me like this.

Forcing a smile, I said, “Yes. Excuse me.”

Without waiting for his reply, I rushed out of there like the devil and his horses were at my heels. I could feel my eyes burning, threatening to release a flood of tears.

I was such a fucking idiot. Pain pierced my chest as the image of Amon kissing another woman played in my mind, mocking me. I couldn’t drag enough air into my lungs. Everything hurt.

I made it out of the venue, wiping my face dry, only to step out onto the sidewalk as thunder erupted in the sky. A downpour followed, drowning out my sobs and hiding my tears.

Heaven and hell wept with me. He was part of every one of my plans for the future, and I was barely a blip in his past. That expression on his face as he watched his dance partner told me everything I needed to know.

He never loved me. The thought mocked, screaming in my skull.

I wandered around Paris, lost while each step away from him numbed me. Slowly but surely. By the time I was across the street from my apartment, I was drenched and blissfully numb. Even my chest no longer ached. I just felt… nothing.

I crossed the street, listening to the pitter-patter of the rain on pavement. I was so focused on it that I didn’t hear the truck until it was too late. I saw the blinding headlights a second before I flew through the air. It felt like hours, yet it was only a second or two. I landed with a thud that barely registered. There was no pain. No more tears.

My eyes closed, relishing in the darkness that crept through me. I wanted it to swallow me, but a voice pierced through it instead. “Don’t you fucking die.”

I don’t want to die. I just want to stop feeling.My mouth didn’t move. Or maybe it did and I couldn’t feel it.

Every breath that I took since he stopped loving me felt like a waste of time. The bruises he left behind refused to heal. A part of me clung to them so I’d never forget him, so I’d never forgetus.

“Reina, keep breathing.” The demand was clear. I couldn’t follow it. “Or I’ll have to resort to drastic measures.”

Drastic measures.Someone had issued a similar threat before, but I couldn’t remember who. My skull hurt, each thought sending echoes of pain through every cell of me.

There was only one thought before I let darkness overtake me.

Nobody would ever get the chance to know me the wayhedid. Love me—or fool me—the way he did. Amon Leone was my ruin.

And I hated that I still loved him.

TO BE CONTINUED…

The story continues in Unforgiving Queen