Page 103 of Fake Fae-Ancée

"Shut up," I groaned.

There was movement on the screen. A black shadow flowed across the room, a tall man with long arms and dark hair.

Dread of the coldest sort coursed through me, tightening my chest. Sankta Polina! That bastard Nox!

"We will come to an agreement," Yegor said nonchalantly. "Either that, or Nox will slash the little bitch open and extract her Anima."

My mind was racing. Yegor had to have some kind of hold on the assassin. However he thought he could blackmail a member of the Dark Guild — but obviously Yegor could. Otherwise, Kai would have been dead long ago, and Nox wouldn't be sitting soulfully next to her cage.

"Here's what we're going to do." Yegor stepped forward.

"There is no duel. Instead, you will follow me to the royal chapel. There, within the next half hour, your true bride will arrive, my dearest niece Anastasia, whom you should have simply married, back after your father's death."

"After you treacherously murdered him," I growled, but Yegor waved it off.

"Details," he said. "All that matters is what the subjects believe. And the subjects currently believe that the king has returned. I will prove to them that your prophecy was patently false by marrying you off. Do it and your little bitch can leave her cage in one piece."

"Why should I believe you?"

"You have no choice." King Yegor grinned.

Kai

The Witch-iron burnedagainst my skin even without me touching the bars. The cage I found myself in was narrow. The floor was concrete, or stone, or something equally cold and hard, uncomfortable enough to keep me awake. Otherwise I would have passed out again long ago.

A princess in a cage, I thought fleetingly. At least the clichés in the mock-up fairy tale proved to be consistent.

Nox's dark figure squatted on a chair against the opposite wall in front of the cage, his long legs folded in front of him, making him look like a giant spider. His dull, white eyes had been resting on me since I had woken up. I was pretty sure he hadn't blinked once.

I saved myself the dungeon conversation with my captor as to where I was and what he was planning and so on. The place didn’t really matter. And for the rest, I had already figured out what must have happened. My suspicions were confirmed, however, when the heavy steel door next to Nox swung open and Bates entered.

"Let me guess," I said — and every word cost me strength that the Witch-iron bars drained from me. "You didn't intend for it to happen this way."

Bates lowered his eyes. "I didn't intend for you to be treated in such a barbaric manner," he said pointedly. "I deeply regret the circumstances."

"I guess you have your reasons," I continued, gritting my teeth and bracing myself.

Bates was not looking at me. "I only did it for the good name of the Kalinin family," he said. "It would have been a scandal should your divorce become public. But a Fae being married to the king of Bears is also unthinkable."

I tried to ignore the sting. I had liked the old butler. But he obviously had his objections to a Fae sullying the good name of the royal family.

"Thank you, Bates," I groaned. "Coming from you, that means a lot."

He had at least the decency to wince. But I knew two things now: this hadn’t been Yuri’s idea. This would have been reassuring, if I hadn’t been sitting in a cage.

The other thing wasn’t as reassuring.

Considering that there was a killer sitting right in front of me eyeballing me, I could be fairly certain that Bates would make sure no one ever found out about Yuri’s and my divorce.

Dread churned in my belly.

The door to the prison opened once more with a squeak, and in rushed, like a yellow flowerstorm, the very person who’s idea this actually had been. The lady Anastasia, in all her perfection, looked down on me with a smile.

"Much better."

"Isn’t it always nice when you run into people you know when you’re held against your will in a dungeon," I managed. She blinked at that, but then paid me no further mind and went for Bates.

"The papers?"

---