Page 65 of Heartless Prince

Every choice I’d made, every action I carried out… it was all leading me down a twisted path, carrying me toward Elias. All this time.

“Where is he?” I croaked. “Elias.”

“Missing him, are you? How sweet,” Tobias said in an acid tone.

I shivered. Yes, I missed him. Missed his voice, his touch. I’d been left here all alone in this room for what felt like an eternity, even though I knew it was only since last night. A well-deserved punishment. I was bad yesterday, and I hit Elias. I needed to be good now, or I would get more punishment. More confinement.

“He’s back at Roden,” Tobias went on crisply. “Had some sort of grad school exam. But don’t worry, he’ll be here tonight.”

“Okay,” I murmured. One last remnant of rationality, a tiny scrap right at the back of my mind, told me I shouldn’t miss Elias. Shouldn’t crave him. Shouldn’t be desperate to see him.

Oh, but I was….

I wanted him to touch me like he did the other day. I wanted him to bring me all those heated pleasures, make me feel better and forget where I was for just a few minutes. When he touched me, it was the only time I felt good in this place. The only time I had any real will to keep going.

I needed more, even if it was bad for me. Even if it destroyed me.

Tobias snapped his fingers at me. “You need to go upstairs and start getting ready.”

“I’m allowed out again?” I asked. I couldn’t quite believe it. Not when I’d been trapped in here for what felt like such a long time.

He glared at me. “You really are stupid, aren’t you? Did you think the ceremony would be in here? Of course it’s not, and of course you’re allowed out. For now, anyway. So hurry up.”

I stood and trailed after him, up to the first floor. He took me into the room with the enormous Roman bath and left me in there, shutting the door behind him with a click.

I wasn’t alone. There were other girls in the water already, washing themselves and splashing around, and three guards slowly patrolled around the room, making sure no one spoke.

I stepped down into the warm azure water. I was already naked; I’d taken off the lingerie Elias gifted me not long after he dragged me back to my cell last night. I didn’t deserve to wear it. Not until he was happy with me again.

When we were all sparkling clean, the guards ordered us out of the water one by one, tossing fluffy white towels at us. “Come with us,” one of them said.

We quickly dried ourselves before wrapping the towels around our bodies and stepping out of the room in single file, silently following the guards down another hall. After that, we were all split up again. I saw Pri being directed into a room at the start of this new hall, and another girl was pushed into the room across from it. I kept heading down the hall until one of the guards told me to stop.

The door opened, and a familiar face peered out. Mellie.

“Hey!” she said, as if we were actually friends. As if she didn’t fake everything and sell me out like the treacherous little witch she was. “I’m going to help you get ready. Are you excited?”

I shrugged. Truthfully, I was excited to see what the Bonding would entail, because it meant I would get to see Elias again, but I didn’t want to tell her that.

“You’re finally going to lose your virginity,” Mellie went on, ignoring my obvious reticence toward her. “You’re lucky. I wish I could lose mine again. I threw it away at some stupid party in high school. But you… you get to lose it to someone special. Someone who wanted you so badly they were willing to do anything to have you.”

I nodded mutely. I was lucky, in a twisted sense. I would get to be with Elias tonight, while so many of the other girls here would be paired with old men with sagging bodies, receding hairlines, and cruel eyes. Like the horrible man from the ball. The thought made me shudder.

“Why is Elias so young compared to most of the other men I’ve seen here so far?” I blurted out, suddenly unable to hold the question in.

Mellie smiled. “Ah, she speaks.”

“I was just curious,” I said softly, averting my eyes.

“Well, it’s a good question. And lucky for you, I know more than most about Crown and Dagger.”

“Yeah, I know. Unfortunately,” I muttered.

She ignored my dig. “Elias is only a second-level member of the society. Technically, any society member from the second or third levels can come here, bid on a virgin, and take care of her training before she goes to the Lodge, but it’s usually more of an older man’s game. The second-level guys are usually still pretty young, so while they don’t mind banging a gorgeous hooker at the Lodge once in a while, they don’t always have half a million dollars to throw away on one girl. Or they do, thanks to their trust funds, but they don’t want to. Better off saving for their future and spending their time establishing their careers and whatnot. Elias is already a multi-billionaire, though, thanks to his family. Paying for you and your innocence is nothing to someone like him.”

“So the other men here are mostly third-level?”

“Uh-huh,” she said breezily. “The youngest a guy can be to obtain consideration for that level is twenty-four. Most of them don’t make it till they’re far older than that, though.”

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