Page 29 of Brutal Fae King
A deep shiver tremors up my spine.
“I’m not scared of you,” I answer quietly.
He gives a light purr at the back of his throat. Those sharp eyes survey me, moving slowly from my eyes… down my nose…my mouth. His own lips part for a second—I realize I’m staring at his mouth.
“You shouldn’t underestimate me,” he breathes. “You aren’t the first to try manipulating me.”
I don’t reply—my heart is pounding hard in my chest. I’m breathing hard, and every breath is filled with his earthy scent.
He suddenly pulls away from me and sits back down into his own chair—there’s a certain unsettled haste to the motion.
“I am within my right,” I reply. “And it won’t take much to make me satisfied. This doesn’t have to be so uncomfortable for both of us. You just do not have any right to dominate the way you have been doing.”
He stares at me for a moment, then he half smirks.
“We’ll see,” he says. “I’ll concede at least that this can be easy, or this can be difficult. If you are going to be agreeable, then this doesn’t have to be uncomfortable.”
I sneer.
“IfIam agreeable?” I snap. “I’m the one who hasn’t been agreeable in your mind?!”
He fully smirks—triumphantly.
He’s trying to get under your skin! Don’t let him!
“Fine,” I growl. “I shall beagreeableif you will also beagreeable.”
He chuckles.
“I am not going back to the dungeon,” I say firmly.
“Very well,” he replies. “We shall have a room set up.”
“I expect better food, and to be allowed to eat at a table.”
“I can agree to that,” he says.
“And I want to see my sister back in Thawallow.”
“No,” he says firmly.
It's so sudden, so firm, that it strikes me dumb for a moment.
“Wh-what?!” I demand. “Why not?!”
The smirk has fallen from his face. The eyes are sharp again.
“You leaving the castle is not an option; it’s non-negotiable.”
“Why not?!” I repeat.
“If you are not aiming to sweep the kingdom out from under me and rule it in my stead, then you have no need to know such things,” he replies sharply.
I feel my nose crinkle in disgust.
“All I want to do is see my sister!” I reply. “This has nothing to do with politics of any kind!”
“It does. You are the lost queen—as you continue to remind me,” he says. “Do you have the slightest idea what the world is like out there? What ne’er-do-wells and other scum would do with the lost queen if they found her?”
