Page 69 of A Bond in Blood

His smile grew larger. “I didn’t know we were making proclamations of love. I would have prepared myself for the moment if I’d known.”

I let out an annoyed breath, shoving him away while I made my trek down the stairs to the dungeon. My skin crawled the further I climbed with the sickening smell of mold and rot poisoning my senses.

When I reached the cells, Olen walked in front of me, opening my assigned prison.

With my head high I walked through the bars, pulling them shut myself.

“Sleep well, princess.” He laughed.

“I hope you all die,” I replied, watching him saunter down the hall with his braids dancing against his back as he went.

The late afternoon sun came through the small crack in the cell window above and I stared, waiting for the crimson of the moon to illuminate the space.

I hadn’t slept. Even though my body had grown exhausted, I was too perturbed by that beast of a king to allow my mind to rest.

Footsteps came down the hall. Not footsteps, clinking paws against the stone floor.

I sat up, my dress sticking to the damp beneath me.

“Princess,” Olen growled.

“Olen,” I replied.

A grey-skinned Unseelie with small wings at their back appeared, unlocking the cage. The beast pulled the bars open with one paw, pointing down the hall with his snout.

“Is Ulrich planning on throwing me in the freezing water as punishment?”

Olen was silent, only snarling in response.

“Do I get to change?” I asked.

“No,” he replied. “You get to walk these streets as Ulrich’sStinking Wraith Whore.”

I turned on my heel, my eyes burning with rage. “Do not call me that.”

His canines dragged against his lips. “Touchy, princess. What? Will you throw a knife at me as well?”

I scanned the dungeons. “Unfortunately for you, I have no weapons within reach.”

Olen grunted, the sound deep in his chest. His snout tapped against my legs, forcing me to return my walk down the hall. Toward whatever depraved activity Ulrich had in store for me.

We wove through the city streets. Streets that were eerily empty. Despite noting the lack of bodies, I allowed myself to actually gaze upon the city of Muspell, instead of walking through the pathways with my eyes focused on my steps.

There were a myriad of buildings. Some three to four stories high, some only one story in height. All built in rows beside each other with the occasional single building on its own plot of land.

Vastly different from the small handful of stone buildings at home and the humble wood homes that made up our unpaved streets.

I moved my eyes to the cobbled road, my heart aching for the feeling of gravel beneath my feet. For the sound of it when my boots crunched against the snow. Longing for home over these bumpy roads that hurt my soles.

I knew we were approaching the docks before Olen announced it.

The smell was a familiar one. Fish and game lined the market stalls that all faced out toward the water where the black mist lay in the distance.

I watched the water, my body longing to swim again. To allow the cold to lap around me and wash away my laments.

“Princess.” I stopped, meeting Ulrich’s gaze. My heart sank when I found the same skeletal mask from that day in the courtyard fitted across the upper half of his face.

“Your grace,” I replied.

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