Page 148 of Wings of Betrayal

Fires burn in the city. Buildings are literally burning to the ground under his rule. Gods above, what has he done to my Kingdom?

We land on his balcony, and he opens the doors to his quarters and gently kicks them closed behind him. He crosses the room, lays me down on his bed, then he sits next to me andstrokes his fingers across my cheek, brushing my hair off my face.

All I can do is stare at him. I’m finally able to blink, which is an immense relief to my burning eyes. Maybe the paralysis is slowly wearing off. Thank the gods.

“I finally have you, my beautiful Queen. You will never leave this Kingdom again. You are mine now, Zarla. We can finally be together, and nothing and no one is going to prevent it. You may be mated to him, but that is easy enough to break, so don't worry about that.” He leans down and kisses me, and there’s nothing I can do to stop him.

My stomach rolls with disgust, and it’s not just directed at him and what he’s doing, but at myself for ever thinking he was a decent male. He is a ruthless and revolting excuse for a male.

“No,” I say in a strained voice.

He smirks at me. “Pardon me? I didn’t quite catch that.”

I attempt to move my fingers, and I’m sure I can feel them a little.

“No,” I say again, this time a bit clearer.

He gets up, walks across the room, takes a glass from a small tray, and pours some water from a jug into it. He brings it over to me and places it down next to the bed.

“For when you’re able to move again.” He eyes my dress and shakes his head. “Well, that won’t do.”

He grabs the fabric and tears it down the middle, then he yanks it off my body, leaving me naked before him.

Bastard. My insides shrivel as he leers at my body and then traces his fingers between my breasts.

“So beautiful. I don’t like that another male has touched you.” He glides his fingers down my side and over my thigh, and I mentally shudder beneath his touch. “I’ll have the keepers bring you something more suitable to wear.”

“You make…me sick,” I whisper.

He chuckles, as if enjoying my hatred toward him. “In time, you will learn to love me. In fact, I’m sure you still do, deep down. So it won’t take long.”

He takes a blanket from the end of the bed and tosses it next to me.

“Once you can move, you can cover yourself up,” he says. “But for now, I do enjoy the view.”

I glare at him, willing my body to cooperate so I can cover myself up from this disgusting male’s view.

“So, as it turns out, we both harness the power of the orbs. That just won’t do. I can’t risk you creating portals and escaping.” He takes hold of my arms and stares into my eyes.

Then I feel it—the power of the orbs slowly draining from me and into him. His skin glows a subtle blue, shimmering beneath the light.

No, no, no, this is bad. I attempt to pull my arms back, but he’s too strong. He drains the power of the orbs entirely then lets go of my arms. They drop uselessly to my sides.

I’m thankful he doesn’t know that I don’t need the power of the orbs to open portals. The power from the orbs only enhanced it. But the fact he now holds this power, and has the ability to open portals to track me, follow me, or hunt me down if I ever manage to escape, terrifies me.

I can’t help but worry how this is going to affect my truce with the leader of the lost ones. I made him a promise that I would stop this. If Amaros starts summoning lost ones again, it could start a war far worse than anything we’ve seen before.

“Where’s Alaron?” I demand, my voice much clearer this time.

“That is not something you need to concern yourself with,” he says, eying my mother’s locket.

“Don’t you dare touch my locket.”

Ignoring me, he reaches around my neck and undoes the clasp, taking it from me. He slips it into his pocket. He then takes my mother’s daggers and slips them into the holster around his hips.

I grit my teeth. “Those are my mother’s.”

He eyes my ring, which is still glowing red, but he doesn’t touch it. Wise on his part, as I know it would zap him as it did previously to Zalore when he tried to touch it.

---