Page 69 of Heartless Prince

17

Tatum

A week passed.

I didn’t see Elias.

After the Bonding ceremony the other night, he’d taken me back to my cell and kissed me goodnight, telling me he would be back in a few days. Apparently he had some business to take care of back home.

Home. Something I’d never see again…

Absence is supposed to make the heart grow fonder, but in my case, things were different. Without Elias here, and without our intensely pleasurable sex enveloping my mind, my sanity was starting to return. Like a fog lifting, inch by inch, piece by hazy piece, my logic and reason were slowly coming back to me. The sensual buzz from the ceremony had worn off completely, and I was beginning to arrive at some stark realizations—realizations I probably wouldn’t have had if I was still hypnotized by Elias and his body, falling apart under his touch and the delights of the pain he laid on me.

I’d promised him something the other night, promised my whole life to him, but I was already starting to see how much that promise would cost. I couldn’t be his whore forever, no matter what I said or felt in the past. Simply looking around this place made that fact plain to see.

My punishment from the other week was over, and I was once more allowed out for an hour each day to exercise and bathe. I saw what was happening to the other girls when their masters were here; the same masters they’d promised their lives to during the ceremony. Some of them staggered in each morning, barely able to walk, covered head to toe in bruises and welts. They tried to exercise, but every movement was a struggle for them, and they wound up sobbing in the showers instead.

I could only imagine what might be in store for me when Elias returned to the Finishing School.

In my time here so far, he hadn’t done anything too bad, but I knew it would happen eventually. No matter how good it felt to have him around, it wouldn’t last, and one day, I would be just like the other girls. Bruised, battered, beaten. I saw the look in his eyes when he whipped me all those nights ago, and I knew he loved inflicting pain. Specifically upon me.

Darker brutality was coming my way, and I hated living on the razor’s edge, waiting for it to happen. What I hated even more was the part of me that liked the pain, that twisted part of my mind that actually looked forward to it. It felt like I was in a wrestling match with myself, both sides struggling to win out, neither succeeding.

I knew I liked the pain because I felt as if I deserved it for the things I’d done in the past, but I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to like being hurt. I didn’t want my body to belong to anyone.

Truthfully, I didn’t even want to have feelings for Elias anymore. I was always so clouded with emotion when I was near him that I couldn’t think straight, but now, in the cold hard light of my lonely days, I finally saw it for what it really was. A physical response and nothing more.

It wasn’t like I was in love with him. It wasn’t like we’d get married and have three kids and a dog one day. No, I was just his little slut, his toy, his Doll, and one day, he’d get sick of playing with me and move on to a shiny new model.

The thought of what might happen to me then made me shiver with fear. He couldn’t exactly send me home, could he?

It seemed obvious I would be killed once he was done with me, and I couldn’t believe how far I’d managed to go down the rabbit hole before this horrible idea occurred to me. He might not do it himself (I knew he had a soul deep down below that wicked façade, no matter how broken and twisted it might be) but it had to happen somehow, and he must’ve known that all along.

Just because I occasionally craved darkness and fantasized about being hurt didn’t mean I wanted that. Fantasies were one thing, but when they bled into reality and turned this dark and dangerous, this deadly, there was only one thing left to do: get the hell out, any way I could.

Elias took my virginity, but he wouldn’t take my life. No way.

I was trying my best to go back to my old self—that scrappy, defiant girl who so ardently wanted to be freed—and forget about every last shred of feeling I had for him, so I could concentrate on an escape plan instead. But it was harder than I thought, even with all the realizations I’d come to. His face and voice kept creeping into my mind, whispering at me. You’re mine. You’ll never escape. You can’t leave me.

I knew I just needed a push, something to convince me Elias truly didn’t care for me. Something to spark that old adrenaline in me again.

And finally, it arrived.

I was in my cell chewing on a buttered bread roll I’d been sent for breakfast when Tobias came to visit me. I eyed him warily and sat as far back on the bed as possible. His visits had never gone well.

“What do you want?” I asked.

“That’s not very polite. I really should flog the shit out of you for that attitude, but Elias wouldn’t be pleased if I touched his little doll, would he?”

I scoffed. “One might say kidnapping a girl and holding her hostage isn’t very polite either, but here we are. So what do you want?”

He chuckled and stepped closer. “I came here for two reasons. Firstly, your parents send their regards. I just met with them.”

My heart began to race. “I don’t believe you.”

Even though it all made sense given their sudden influx of money, part of me still held out a tiny fraction of hope that my parents didn’t actually sell me to Crown and Dagger. Perhaps the contract Tobias showed me was fake, and my dad’s company was actually doing well on its own. Tobias was obviously a sociopath, so it wouldn’t surprise me to discover that this was the case, and everything he’d told me was a lie. For all I knew, my parents were out there frantically searching for me.

He held out his phone. “Luckily for you, I like to record or film most conversations I have. It’s always good to have blackmail material on people. Makes business transactions run a lot smoother.”

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