Page 68 of Break Her Heart
“It’s you! It’s all your fault!” he screamed, lunging forward.
August moved faster than I could process. In one blur of motion, he shoved me behind him and slammed Varric back. The feral vampire flew across the cell, crashing against the far wall with a sickening crack.
August didn’t even wait for him to rise. He grabbed my arm, yanked the door open, and we were gone—vanishing from the cell in a gust of cold wind and frayed nerves.
* * *
The music throbbed through the great hall, low and haunting, like it had been conjured from the bones of the castle itself. Crimson and gold light spilled from the chandeliers, dancing offthe high vaulted ceilings and across the sea of guests that filled the room. Vampires, draped in silk and shadows, spun their partners with inhuman grace. Laughter echoed through the air—too sharp, too hollow.
I let myself be pulled into another waltz, my gown sweeping across the marble floor like mist. The vampire leading me had sharp features and a pleasant enough smile, but his eyes were always calculating. All of them were. They never truly looked at me—not like I mattered, not like I was more than a game they couldn’t quite win.
Except for him.
High above us, August sat draped across his throne like a fallen god. One leg slung over the armrest, a goblet of blood cradled in his hand. His face was carved in stone, unreadable.
But his eyes never left me.
Always watching. But never touching. Never showing me anything.
And I was tired of it.
Tired of the coldness. Tired of the silence. Tired of being on display while the man who once burned for me now acted like I was nothing more than a crown he was forced to wear.
The vampire twirled me again, his hand warm and steady at my back. His grip lingered, fingers brushing just a little too possessively against the fabric of my dress.
“You must be very delicious to have the king so smitten with you,” he murmured near my ear, his breath sickly sweet.
I tensed at his words. Smitten wasn’t the word I’d use. Obsessed, maybe. Possessive. But love? Affection? Not lately. Not anymore.
Still, his words gave me an idea.
I needed to see something other than joy in my destruction. It seemed like I was always doing exactly what he wanted me todo. He hated this place. These vampires. Of course he didn’t care if I killed them. He didn’t care at all. I was doing him a favor.
I glanced at August again. He hadn’t moved. He just sipped his blood and stared at me from that throne like he was waiting. Testing. Daring me.
That was going to stop. His pouting, his anger, his—his bastardness—was going to stop. It was just a show. It had to be.
I met his gaze, head tilted just slightly in defiance. I promised him his own hell. I was going to give it to him. We had both done things to each other. It had always been this way. But now the clock was ticking.
“I don’t know.” I turned back to the vampire, my voice lilting as I brushed a lock of hair behind my ear. “Why don’t you have a taste for yourself?”
He blinked, surprised. “I don’t think the king likes to share.”
“I am your queen,” I said, letting the authority slip into my tone. “And I am telling you to do it.”
I tilted my chin, exposing the delicate line of my throat, letting my hair fall back. The pulse beneath my skin fluttered like a dare.
His pupils dilated, the veins beneath his eyes blooming with hunger as he hesitated. His lips parted, breath shallow. He leaned closer, slowly, like a man hypnotized.
Then his mouth hovered just above my skin. His breath brushed against my neck. Just as his lips grazed me—
A blur. A crack.
I was no longer in his arms. A gust of wind whipped around me, and in the space between two heartbeats, August was there.
His hand was around the vampire’s throat, squeezing tight. With a single, fluid motion, he lifted him from the ground like he weighed nothing and slammed him into the marble floor. The stones shattered. The ground cracked. Shards of marble flew into the air as the impact echoed through the hall like athunderclap. A table nearby toppled, goblets of blood shattering across the floor in a wash of red.
The music stopped mid-note.
