Page 25 of Empire of Dark

My hand lifted, ready to pound on the heavy oak door dotted with black iron studs, but my arm froze in midair.

No. If the man couldn’t respect his own daughter, I wouldn’t respect him.

My hand clasped onto the heavy silver knob and I pushed the door open with infuriated fortitude.

A bit too much fortitude, and the door flew wide, the heavy mass of it hitting the inside wall.

Dramatic, but I wasn’t about to back down from it now.

I charged into the room, stopping three steps in when Damen’s look shot up to me from behind his desk and his guest sitting opposite him turned in his chair to me.

Damen didn’t stand, but his eyes narrowed at me.

His top lip curled. Livid.

But then he forced a smile and his look dropped to the man sitting in front of his desk who had already disregarded me, turning back to Damen. “Alesander, you must excuse me. I think you need to check with your concerned parties on the suggested resolution and whether it will be acceptable to them. We will reconvene after dinner.”

The man nodded, smoothing the front of his dark suit coat as he stood. “I doubt it will be acceptable to them, but I will put it forth.”

“See that you do.”

The man moved to the door, stepping around me and he left the room.

Benign, Damen watched the man’s back until he left the study and closed the door behind him.

The second the door clicked shut, his glare swung to me, livid, venom seeping from his eyes.

“Don’t you ever dare to burst into one of my rooms like that again. I have been more than accommodating with your petulant ass during the last two weeks, but this goes too far.” His fisted knuckles pounded down onto the desk as he stood. “You don’t own this castle. You don’t own me. You are a bloody guest in my home and you will act as such.”

My legs shifted into a solid stance in case he rushed me and my arms crossed over my chest. “Your home? I thought you said to treat this place as my own home while I was here.”

He sucked in a breath, his eyes pinpricks on me as he rounded the desk. “You are treading on generosity that I’mseeing quite quickly shouldn’t have been extended to you for you’re a spoiled, privileged brat—just like most of the panthenites.”

He looked ready to slaughter me. But neither of his arms lifted to strike me as he bore down on me. And I’d lived long enough to know that the instinct to strike was married to the look on his face.

But no. He didn’t get to turn this onto me.

“Brat?” I stepped toward him before he stopped, fire searing through my veins. “Well, I’d rather be a brat than a Neanderthal like you. I met your daughter and was disgusted to learn you refuse to teach her to read.”

He stopped in his tracks, his intake of breath at my words unmistakable. “You met my daughter? How?”

“It doesn’t matter. Reading is a basic, Damen. A bloody basic and you haven’t bothered to teach her that. How old is she? Fifteen? Sixteen? And she doesn’t know how to read?To read.What the hell are you doing here? Why isn’t she in school? Or why doesn’t she have a tutor? Is this what your grand plan is with the next generation—to keep them ignorant and under your fucking control?”

“You don’t know what you speak of.” His hands curled into fists.

“I don’t need to know anything to recognize you’ve damn well failed her.”

He darted toward me before I could blink, his hand clasping around my throat and shoving me back against the wall, his seething breath filling my face. “Who do you think you are to come into my home and judge me?”

Terror spiked through me. The very specific terror I’d spent a hundred years trying to forget.

My hand went to his wrist, gripping it, trying to wedge his hold off me. He didn’t budge.

“You swore you wouldn’t touch me,” I hissed out.

“I swore I wouldn’t rape you. That was the only promise I made to Triaten. You walked into this place knowing full well who and what you were dealing with. And this”—his look dropped down my body and then back up to my eyes—“this is nothing compared to how I should break you right now for your insolence.”

“Insolence? I’m not yours to fucking control. That—Idoknow—was part of the deal.”

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