Page 33 of Brutal Fae King
I keep staring out the window at the destruction. We’re now passing a fire, a blaze in the process of swallowing up an entire building. It’s so hot that I feel like I can feel the heat through the door.
“Is there any way for me to leave and see my sister?” I ask, turning back to him. “Is there no way for me to get safely back to her? Ever?”
But I see that gleam in his eye—the one I’m learning to despise—and he answers:
“There is a way we can attempt to make your travels safer.”
“What is it?” I ask suspiciously.
He leans forward, elbows on his knees and fingers linked.
“Marry me,” he says.
My heart drops into my shoes. My throat becomes thick as I swallow a few times.
“Wh-what?!” I choke. “What do you mean?!”
“If you form an alliance with me in the form of a marriage of convenience, then the situation changes,” he says. “It means that the lost queen will finally be restored to her throne, and all the magic that unlocks—and you will be bound to me and no one else. That means it’ll be harder for anyone else to claim you and your powers to use for evil. I will also be the rightful ruler alongside you, and we shall share the power of the throne equally. In return for you agreeing, I shall teach you how to use your powers.”
I feel my lips purse as I think.
Learn to use my powers…?I’ve never even thought about it. My powers were nothing more than a burden and an excuse for the other villagers not to like me back in Thawallow. Lightning hardly helped with most farmland tasks. It was too volatile to even use for the more destructive tasks, and it only seemed to set fires whenever I tried. Obviously, that didn’t help to make them like me anymore. It didn’t occur to me even in the slightest that they could be wielded for my own means…
I suppose here… theycouldbe useful.
He notices my hesitation, and he adds: “And I will ensure that there are extra protections around Thawallow. There will always be extra guards in place to make sure the village is the safest in the human settlements. In your absence, your sister will be safe—you have my word.”
My eyes sting, and I try to look away so he doesn’t see me almost cry.
“I… think what Maribelle really needs is a healer,” I say. “We could never afford to send out anybody to help her.”
He nods.
“Not a problem for me,” he says. “Marry me, and I will send the best healer in the land directly to Thawallow. Your sister will be cured of the Weeping Fever in no time.”
He's got this smirk on his face—he knows he’s got me now.
He knows that he’s making an offer I can’t refuse, and I can see it in his eyes. I shouldn’t have told him that I couldn’t afford a healer for Maribelle.
I mean, on the one hand, the important thing is that she’s going to get better. But on the other hand,marryinghim…Marryingthis man…
I’d do so much to keep Maribelle safe, but would I bind myself to this man forever to make sure she gets better?
Well… I have to stay in the castle anyway, possibly forever, and it’d just be a marriage of convenience. We wouldn’t have to… consummate the marriage.
Thoughts suddenly spark over my mind—his warm body, the peaks and valleys of his chest under my hand… how warm his skin is… the scent that always brushes across my face when he gets close, except this time, I’m tasting it… His scent, his taste, rolling over my tongue as I—
Wait! Wait, I was just thinking about how Iwouldn’thave to consummate the marriage!
I don’t want to consummate the marriage! Definitely not! Absolutely not!
I shake my head.
“Is that a no?” he asks. “To the marriage?”
I look back at him. His gaze is burning into me.
The way he’s looking at me is beyond intense. I can tell that he is not letting this matter drop. My decision needs to come now.
