Page 25 of The Dragon King's Curse
I jerked away from him, almost falling backwards on the floor in my haste. “You really are a wretch of a creature, aren’t you? Resorting to hypnotic magicks to force my compliance. You’re everything the stories say you are. Absolutely pathetic.”
A heavy hand met my cheek as Lyre backhanded me across the face. He caught me around the throat, squeezing tight so I couldn’t breathe.
“I can hardly wait until our wedding night. I will fucking ruin you, Feryn. It will be a miracle if you’re able to bear ourchildren when I’m finished with you.” Magick swelled around him. Heavy and suffocating.
He released my throat as the magick hit me, a powerful force that threw me across the room. I lifted off the floor, clearing several feet before landing in a heap. No sooner had I come to a stop than Lyre was on me again.
He dragged me to my feet, pulling me close as he snarled, “You belong to me now, princess. I would advise you to keep that in mind going forward. I won’t stand for a rebellious wife.” Turning back to where his father watched the scene playing out before him, Lyre said, “The sooner we have the wedding the better. We shouldn’t put it off. There’s no need to wait for the Elf King. Once he arrives to find us already wed, he’ll be forced to cooperate.”
No, this couldn’t possibly be happening. Anything but this. A wedding took an agreement from both parties. I would never agree to such blasphemy.
Atlas tilted his head to one side, considering his son’s request. “It will take some time to put everything together. A wedding is a big deal and should be treated as such. We want to invite our closest family and friends. Especially powerful connections. Be patient, son. She’s not going anywhere.”
“Let me keep her in the castle. In my chambers. She seems to need some convincing.” The malice glinting in Lyre’s cold eyes left me trembling.
His hypnotic abilities were perhaps the most frightening thing about him. If he was able to get deep enough in my head, he might be able to change me completely. To make me forget who I am and where I came from. To make me forget anything but him.
I would throw myself from the highest tower in this castle before I allowed that to happen. Silently, I willed my father and his army to hurry. To find me before it was too late.
“She’ll be safer in the prison until we’re ready for the wedding. We don’t want to give her an opportunity to escape us or do something foolish.” Atlas motioned for the guards to take me away.
“Soon,” Lyre called after me as I was abruptly ushered from the throne room. “Soon you will belong to me.”
Did my father really know where I was? Was he on his way? How many days would it take before the king called for me again to seal my fate?
These were the questions that haunted me as I crossed the castle grounds to the prison. Sitting in the prison for years would have been preferable to entering the castle only to become Lyre’s bride. There had to be another way out of here.
I fought back angry tears as I walked along with the guards. Letting them see me fall apart would do no good. I didn’t need word getting back to Lyre. He didn’t need to think that he’d broken me. All he’d done was build my resolve.
I was getting out of here somehow. If I was forced to become his wife in order to do that, then I would take every opportunity given to me to kill the bastard before I fled.
The guards returned me to the prison, shoving me into the cell where Noxx still sat in his corner. His head came up quickly at my arrival, his golden eyes running over me from head to toe. He seemed to forget the guards completely as he leapt to his feet. The iron bars slid closed behind me, and I almost sank to the floor in relief.
Noxx gently touched my face, turning it to examine the bruise forming on my cheek. His gaze dropped to my neck. It still throbbed from Lyre’s tight grasp.
Finally meeting my eyes, Noxx’s voice was gruff with his beast when he said, “Tell me what happened.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
FERYN
For a moment, my voice wouldn’t work. I simply stared at him with wide eyes, shaking in his gentle grasp.
Noxx led me away from the iron door into a far corner. He touched the edge of my lip, his finger coming away stained with blood. I hadn’t even noticed that Lyre had cut me when he hit me so hard.
The shock of what had just happened had my fingers trembling, my chest heaving. Noxx ripped a strip from his shirt, wetting it in the basin of water before carefully wiping the blood from my lip.
“Tell me, princess. I need to know what they did to you. What happened in there?”
I waited for the guards to take up their own conversation before quietly saying, “They’re going to force me to marry Lyre Rein. Atlas seems to think it will force a partnership with my father. I guess when you wouldn’t ally with him, he chose another way to access my father’s realm.”
“And Lyre? Did he do this to you?” Despite his calm demeanor, Noxx’s body thrummed with pent-up rage.
Even as his dragon raged around inside him, he continued to touch me with a tender hand. The heavy weight in my chestbegan to lighten. Tingles in my stomach turned into full blown butterflies.
I nodded, blinking back the tears that welled up. “He used hypnosis to force me to my knees. He promised to ruin me on our wedding night. He wanted to perform the wedding right away, but Atlas told him to wait. That they needed to make a big spectacle of it. I don’t know how much time I have.”
“Fuck,” Noxx muttered beneath his breath. “I don’t think we can hang around long enough to find out. We need to find a way out of here.”
