Page 95 of The Ballad of the Vampire Prince

His words feel like a slap to my face. Something lodges in my throat. “Oh.”

An overwhelming sadness takes hold of me, accompanied by a sense of loss. I get up and pretend to change the water before he can see the tears prickling my eyes.

“I—I understand. Of course…” I say, my voice strangled with emotions. “I know you never wanted this, never wanted me.”

He heaves a long breath. “That’s not why I sealed him.”

I stop in my tracks over his words and turn to look at him.

“The bond wants me to claim you.” His eyes are dead of emotion when he says that.

What in the heavens is he talking about…?

“Every single ticking second, it’s demanding me to fuck you.”

Svenn doesn’t even breathe differently when he says those words.

A small inaudible ‘What?’ escapes from my lips.

“You see the chains on the bed? It wants me to tie you to the bedpost and fuck you to my heart’s content,” he explains with a sadistic possessiveness that scares me.

The dooming realization takes a long while to settle in my head. Svenn is the one who brought me here.

“Your bond forces you to keep a little box of trinkets? Mine has forced me to create something far worse.” He pauses for a moment, touching his head, and winces.

I wait with anticipation as he continues.

“There’s a dungeon downstairs where the bond wants me to corrupt you. Make you mine, forever and always. You’ll be my plaything, Nel.”

Oh, Svenn.

My gaze falls to the ropes and chains he has in his hand. Why didn’t I see that earlier? An unsettling feeling trickles into my gut.

I should be running, but I can’t move. It’s like he has cast a spell on me and I’m stuck to the floor.

“I may not be a button thief, but I did take this with me.” Svenn raises his hand, showing me one of my favorite blankets. He brings it to his face, inhaling it deeply.

“You see, Nel, I’m just as much as a creep as you. Likely worse. Far worse,” he says. His voice is dark and heady, just like the pair of eyes staring back at me.

He’s changed. Something about him has changed. And it scares me in a whole new way.

My body freezes at the predatory way Svenn is watching my movement. I back a step—or at least try to.

In an instant, the corded muscle of his arms is on each side of me, trapping me against the back wall.

He catches my chin and turns my face to look at him. His eyes have darkened into a shade so terrifying, my body shudders. “I’ve sealed the fucker. You don’t have to be afraid of me.”

“I’m not.” My voice holds steady as I think of a way to escape this.

“Then why are you running away, little fawn?” He tilts his head.

“I just don’t understand.” I shake my head. “Where are we? This is not Windhaven.”

“You’re never going back to that place again, Nel.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m keeping you all to myself.”