Page 72 of Eternal Captive

I couldn’t tell what was worse—the anger and helplessness the prince had invoked in me since the gala or how easy it was becoming to accept my death.

I didn’t know how fast the prince’s plan would work. Maybe his father would try to keep me safe from my father for some time. Maybe I would live there with them for months—years—before my father enacted his revenge for stealing from him.

Or,in order to save themselves from war, they might just give me up entirely once he found out.

“Get the guards to bring the car,” I ordered her.

She shifted behind me, her pause calling my attention to her. She was looking at her hands as they wrung the cloth of her dress.

“They will kill you even sooner if you try to leave,” she whispered.

I couldn’t stop the smirk from pulling at my lips.Is she done acting now?

“I’m not leaving,” I said. “I have a party tonight. One last one before I get married. Father and the others must know how important keeping these relationships is, no?”

She didn’t fight me on it, even if it looked like she wanted to. Probably remembering what I was going to do to her the other night before Vesper walked in.

Her gift weighed heavily on my chest, hidden under my clothes.

I wasn’t truly mad that there was a witch in my palace. It would have been stupid to think there weren’t any. But Vesper knew them, and if she knew them…

I almost wish she’d just grow some balls and end me herself.

It would be much more entertaining than waiting for the others to do it. But every time she was near me, she kept giving methat face. The one that told me she didn’t actually want to bethere. That she longed to do something other than sink a knife into my chest.

And then she had to go and give me that fucking present.

It was probably the most thoughtful thing anyone has ever given me. Maybe even more so than the animal it came from.

It made me want to keep her. Made me wish that somehow I could stay in the palace with Vesper at my side, keeping her tied to me until the end of her short human life.

She was so…uncontrollable.

I thought I prided myself on being the uncontrollable one, playing my father while truly doing whatever I wanted.

But it was her. I might have been able to order her around on occasion, but there was no telling what she would do.

And I love it.I wanted to control that side of her.

My hand wrapped around the feather that heated softly against my skin.

One more try. One more try, and maybe I’ll still have the chance to bind her to me forever.

I was surprised they even let me leave the compound. With the little mouse, especially.

I half expected them to stop me right before I got into the car, but I guess all of them knew just how important it was that I kept up appearances.

“Don’t assume that I’ll give you a repeat performance,” Vesper said, crossing her arms over her chest and sending me a look.

She had been cautious since that night, never letting her words hold too much venom, her eyes always watching for my reaction.

How much does she know?

Apparently enough to ask me if I truly was going to die…but could she tell how close I was to utterly failing?

I had been able to pull myself out of almost every problem I’d had up until the moment the prince cornered me at the gala. But I was floundering and desperately trying to hold on to whatever sanity I had, even though it was hanging by a very thin, worn thread.

“Oh come on,” I said, dropping my voice into a low purr. “Don’t try and pretend like you aren’t salivating at the idea of tasting my cunt again.”

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