Page 150 of The Forbidden Fae King

“LIES!” He throws his crystal glass and it smashes across the opposite wall. Crimson wine runs down it in rivulets like blood. Finan rears over me, his hands on each of my armrests so he can snarl down into my face. “I just had the most interesting dinner with my cousin. She is also a Mother of Magic. Do you know what she said to me, Keira?” I stare at him, unmoving and wide-eyed, but it only antagonizes him. “DO YOU KNOW what she said?”

I shake my head at him, too afraid to speak.

Finan takes a lock of my hair and tenderly tucks it behind my ear. “She said a Mother of Magic with even a scrap of healing ability can tell if a pilgrim returns pregnant to the magic almost immediately. That they can feel the magic growing in the womb. It doesn’t take a month and a man’s touch won’t hurt the unborn babe. Not even fucking. That this is the typical excuse given by a returned pilgrim who doesn’twantto be touched.”

I draw in a sharp breath and recoil from him.

“My true question, Keira, is why my future bride suddenly doesn’t want to fuck me. Why she has been lying to stay out of my bed.”

I forget to breathe. My brain comes to a jarring halt as rational thought seems to wither up and die. “I don’t want to marry you, Finan. I want to dedicate myself to the temple instead.”

Finan throws back his head and roars with laughter. In a heartbeat, he rears back from the couch, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet.

“What are you doing?” I trip as he drags me through the sitting room, toward the corridor beyond.

“Clearly, you need a good fuck to remember why you want me.” A smile still splits his lips. “I think you spent too much time around those fae monsters in the Otherworld to remember what it’s like to be with a real man.”

His audacity flares up my temper, especially whenhehas never shown me true pleasure. I rip my hand out of his grasp and almost send him flying into one of the long recliners. “I am serious, Finan! I am NOT going to sleep with you. I’m NOT going to marry you.”

He rights himself then stalks to me. The hard glint in his eye and thin twist to his lips has me backing away from him, but I’m too slow. He grabs me and crushes me against his chest. I can hardly breathe from the tight vice of his arms around me.

“Youwillmarry me.” He growls in my ear.

“No.” I sob. “It is not your choice.”

His fingers dig painfully into my flesh. “You don’t get to leaveme. You aremine.My property. My woman. You always have been. The entire kingdom knows it.” His nostrils flare and his eyes are wild with rage. “Wewillmarry in two weeks.”

“It is my right to dedicate myself to the temple,” I struggle against him.

“You don’t understand, Keira.” Finan’s face is inches from mine, his lips pulled into a snarl. “You. Are. Mine.” He shakes me hard, my head whipping back and forwards. “Your place is at my side, whether you want it or not. You will learn to accept this life. It is the only one you will get.”

He finally lets go of his hold on me, to jab a finger painfully into my chest, and I stumble back a step.

An ugly fear unfurls within me at the threat of violence rippling through him. I scurry back from him, around the low central table between the couches, as he stalks me.

I have never seen this side of him, and it terrifies me. It is so much like King Willard.

“Say it,” Finan barks at me. “SAY IT! Say you love me. Say you will marry me.”

I flinch at the aggression rolling off him and begin to cower before him. He has always held dominion over me.

Then I remember the woman I have grown into is so vastly different from that soft, naive girl who thought she loved him. I dared to cross into the fae realm. I fought against high fae and killed an Assassin of Belladonna. I outsmarted and outmaneuvered the king of the Spring Court and gained his respect. Aldrin’s affections.

Oh gods, Aldrin.The very thought of his name gives me courage. If I can find the strength to leave Finan, then maybe I could find a way back to Aldrin.

Fire courses through my veins. How dare Finan demand all of me, my life, my body and my heart, when he has never deserved any of it.

I straighten my spine. “You cannot hold me against my will, Finan. You are not my husband and you have no claim over me. I WILL become a priestess and no one will stop me. Your guards, your armies, and your father will not dare to challenge the Mothers of Magic!”

“I have no claim to you? NO CLAIM?” Finan sweeps his arm across the low table beside us, throwing the decanter and glasses to the ground. I jump at the crashing of the breaking crystal. “You will act like my wife and you will do as I say.”

“No. I deserve more than to be a pretty little accessory on your arm.” I lean into him, and practically spit. “And you are going to have to learn to accept that.”

Finan moves so fast I don’t stand a chance at blocking him, wrapping his hand around my throat and pushing me backward until my back crashes into the wall.

Pain radiates up my spine from the impact and explodes within my shoulders, but it is nothing compared to the vice around my windpipe. My breath wheezes as I drag it in, and those biting fingers bruise the delicate flesh around my neck.

A deep pain slices through me at the betrayal. At my own stupidity for expecting anything else from him.

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