Page 44 of Owned

Horrifying.

“And Lucian?”

Valen’s expression shifted and I couldn’t mistake the bitterness. “What about him? He’d already acknowledged me as his son. But my brothers will never let me forget that I’m not really one of them.”

“That’s awful.”

“Is it? I don’t want to be like them.”

He started walking again, and his long strides left me behind. I bit down hard on my lip and jogged to catch up with him. My satin flats slipped on the wet grass, but I managed to keep my balance as I reached his side. He didn’t look at me, and he didn’t say anything else.

We moved past the edge of the garden and across the estate. Past the garage where Valen spent most of his time and I looked back over my shoulder as the imposing outline of Withermarsh shrank behind us, wreathed in darkened clouds.

It was going to rain again.

Valen led me into the forest at the edge of the clearing and I hesitated, but only for a moment, before I plunged into the trees.

I wasn’t dressed for this.

The tangled roots were like clutching fingers around my feet. I had to fight my way forward, but Valen barely seemed to notice. He moved with the ease of a forest spirit, as if he belonged in this place, and I was the intruder.

Everything was muffled here, and only the sound of our steps broke the stillness. Valen looked back at me from time to time, his expression unreadable. I shivered and gripped the hem of my sleeves in frustration as another root caught my foot.

“Where are we going?”

“Not far—”

The silence grew heavy, and the trees seemed to close around me.

The whispers in my mind rose behind my thoughts and amplified every question I’d been trying to avoid.

Why had my mother given up so much to be with Lucian?

Had she loved my father at all?

What else had she traded away to be Lucian’s bride?

And she had ended up dead… Just like all the women unlucky enough to come between Lucian and his lust for power…

I knew he didn’t love me.

But had he loved any of them?

I looked at Valen’s back as he walked ahead of me, trying to gauge the answer. Was he using me the same way his father had used all the women in his life? Was that what he had learned at Lucian’s feet as a child?

A sharp pain blossomed at my ankle, a throb, a piercing, quick and hot, and I let out a cry of surprise. I stumbled but didn’t fall. My foot had caught on something sharp and unyielding. Valen turned, his eyes catching mine.

“Do you need help?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” I snapped, but I grimaced at the sight of dark blood on my ankle as it trickled down my foot and disappeared into my shoe, staining the silk. “The damned roots— Where are you taking me?”

“We’re almost there.”

As promised, the forest thinned and then opened to reveal a small clearing—and a ravine.

Valen walked to the edge, but I stayed a few steps behind. The ground fell away sharply in front of us and I felt dizzy just being there—where Valen stood looked as though it might fall away at any minute.

“Be careful—” I said in a voice that sounded far too small.

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