Page 18 of Bound in Violet Ink

Whether or not hope remains to be an elusive, fickle creature is yet to be determined.

Personally, I think sheer will is ignored more than it otherwise should be.

Hope may have gotten me through the darkest nights, held up by a desperate need to prevent surrendering myself to the courts of someone who loathed me.

The courts that I never belonged to.

Now, standing tall in what was once the sanctum of this Seelie palace, it gives me great pleasure to wear a violet dress adorned with metal.

The fabric flows effortlessly to the hem that stops at my ankles.

A lady’s suit of armor. I spent weeks wondering what to wear upon returning here, as a dress, after all, is what they taught me to wear. Made me perform in.

But Kane, in all the glory of his brilliant heart, persuaded me that I’m allowed to love things I found within these walls without letting them define me.

To not wear an outfit such as this would not be honoring the authentic side of me.

So, I’m honoring myself in my own way with metal plating sewn into the shoulders, corset, and sides.

The corridor leading to Silas’s private quarters is just as I remember, with immaculately polished floors, gold-veined columns, and light spilling like the opulent windows.

How many secrets these walls have silenced.

My heels click with deliberate poise on the marble as I approach the double doors. I had chosen this location, as well. It’s where he first hit me, where he told me I was a healer but my locket would be locked away, and where he had been given the notice that Kane was freed.

Ginger was kind enough to relay that to me, and is now happily my lady’s maid underneath Kane.

Perhaps this place did offer me a few things worth keeping.

As I stand in front of these doors, a lifetime of sorrow, regret, anger, damaged hope, and a longing for just being wanted —my eyes fall to the gilded knobs.

The footsteps that had trailed my shadow stop just behind me.

Kane doesn’t ask why I’ve stopped. Not now, not all these months later, with our bond completed.

The bond between us hums like a tether of heat and strength at my back.

He knows I hesitate because an oddly childish part of me is worried I’ll say the wrong thing. Ruin the moment I’m so eager to claim.

Moment .

No, I’m done having those with Silas.

Opening the doors, I step forward into a room with half the curtains drawn, dust hanging in the sun’s rays.

For once, the pristine High Lord of the Seelie looks small.

His face is bloodied, his clothes ripped apart and barely clinging to his skin.

When his blue eyes lift to meet mine, for once, I believe this really will be the last time I have to look at them. “Hello, Silas.”

He barks a laugh and spits on the antique rug beneath him. “You fucking whore of a betrayer.”

Behind me, I hear Kane’s slow, measured footsteps as he enters. The sound alone shifts Silas’s attention. I watch the flicker of fear cross his features, masked instantly by an arrogance that he will more than likely die with.

“Now now, that’s just your bruised ego speaking,” I murmur. “Don’t worry about Kane. It’s my choice on what happens to you.”

A dozen emotions flash in his eyes—fear, confusion, manipulation. “Victoria. After everything… I did house you. I did give you the clothing, my own children?—”

“You stole me from my family,” I say, my voice quiet but solid as bedrock as I take a step closer. “My Unseelie family.”

His face tightens. “It was the only way Dahlia would be granted children.”

“ And she died in childbirth, ” I say coldly, knowing everything now. “To her firstborn. Perhaps you should’ve vetted your sorceress more carefully.”

He swallows, something in him crumbling like that might have actually hurt him. “What are you going to do with me, your grace ?” He places so much on that word.

I turn the healer’s pendant in my hand, over and over, as I near a window to peer out into the forest I always wanted to roam.

“Nothing I do to you will undo my life.” I dip my head down to look at a vase full of fresh dahlias.

Of course. I only mattered to her because of what a sorceress said I would bring.

“No punishment will make my childhood any better. I’m not sure, then, if revenge in a traditional sense is appropriate.

” I face him, turning around fully to see a scene of armed guards bearing Kane’s crest of intertwining thorns surrounding a bear.

“I am going to give you a gilded prison,” I continue, staring him down as he tilts his head in confusion.

“You will have clothes, food, bedding, and a roof over your head. I’ll give you what you gave me.

” I bend down into a squat, both legs jut to the side to look into his bloodshot eyes.

“And I’ll make you a deal . In ten years, we will accept an offer for your hand in servitude to whoever is willing to pay the highest. I will then receive the offer and decide if I like it or not. ”

Silas pales. “They’ll kill me. Or worse.”

“Well then, you’d best behave,” I say, echoing his favorite threat. The same words he used when leaving me with dangerous strangers, expecting me to survive.

“And if they do kill me?” His voice is hoarse, frantic.

I rise back to a standing stance, looking down at him with finality. “Then I hope it brings them some peace, just as being with my mate has brought me peace.”

His eyes flash with disgust, and I know I could twist him to wring out every last bit of remorse, to taste his tears as he realized how much he failed.

How stealing me from my home was the beginning of the end for him.

But it’s a revenge I know will taste emptier and emptier until I’m starving for something I’ll never achieve.

I’ll never recover my childhood.

Turning to walk out of the room, I don’t meet Kane’s gaze as the Unseelie High Lord stands like a sentinel adorned in his black metal armor.

Staring into that silvery gaze will open my vulnerability.

I want Silas’s last image to be my backside, dressed as perfect and proper as I was raised.

Watching him walk away after deflecting my fears was an image that haunted me for years .

The halls outside are no less haunted once standing within their sunlight. These walls are forever stained with memories of a small girl who once yearned for family.

Kane is not far behind, and when I hear the doors shut, I turn to see the scarred face that has become home for me.

Kane’s eyes reflect a softness only given to me and those within his family.

His roughened hand raises to touch my face, the strength of it something I melt into instantly.

His fingers glide down until they find my hair that’s now past my breasts.

“With your approval, this castle will be turned into a refuge for those who have no home.”

I glance down a hall that I would have to traverse to find my way back to the tower—my body stiffens as if overcome with disease, and I yank my gaze right back to Kane’s chest, to his sigil inlaid on his chest plate.

“Remove the tower,” I mumble. “Or seal it off. No one should have to climb that many stairs just to feel alone.”

The chest plate moves closer to my face as he leans in to press a kiss on my forehead, my eyes closing as some young part of my soul feels as if her savior did come for her.

Maybe all that hope wasn’t for nothing.