CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: THE KING'S SHIELD
1140 Words
Sienna's POV
Cold bit through the thin fabric of my dress. I rubbed my palms up and down my arms. It did nothing. Warmth wasn't coming back. My breath came out in a thin cloud even this close to the hearth. The fire hadn't caught properly in over an hour.
Pieces of the fight surfaced without invitation. The arena. The roar of the crowd. The smell of blood and sand. Every time my eyes dropped, Damien's face was there, the same look he'd had right before everything went dark. I blinked hard and pushed the images back.
Duke was gone, off to warehouse meetings he'd mentioned in the same flat tone he used for everything. People were dying at the center of whatever he was walking into. Silence should have been a relief. Instead my shoulders climbed toward my ears, the muscles along my spine pulling tight. I checked the door twice before I let myself sit down.
I got up and crossed to the mirror. A pale, hollow-eyed face looked back. Barely mine. I pulled my hair loose and let the strands fall through my fingers, then sat in the golden chair by the vanity. Beautiful to look at. Miserable to sit in.
I picked up the heavy comb and started working through the knots. The sharp pull against my scalp was the one thing that felt real. My arm ached by the third pass, but I kept going. I began to hum under my breath. My mother's song, the notes coming out low and uneven. My fingers moved to the ribbon on instinct, threading over and under in the pattern she'd taught me.
Something changed in the air behind me. Not a sound. A shift in weight. Someone standing close enough now that the room felt smaller.
I didn't turn around. I looked into the mirror instead.
The hair reflected back wasn't brown. The dull, matted mess I knew was gone. Silver ran through every strand now, catching the dim light and throwing it back brighter than it should have. I leaned closer to the glass. I lifted one hand and touched a strand. It was warm. A low hum vibrated against my fingertips. Small points of light flickered at the edges of my vision.
I shoved backward out of the chair. The legs screeched against stone until the bed hit my knees.
I dropped onto my back and stared at the ceiling. A laugh came out of me that I hadn't planned. Wide and breathless. Smiling here was dangerous. I pressed both hands over my mouth to muffle the sound. It leaked through my fingers anyway.
"One," I whispered.
"Two."
"Three," a flat voice said from directly behind me.
I jerked upright. The room tilted. Duke sat on the edge of the bed. Close enough that I should have heard him approach. I hadn't heard a thing. He watched me with no warmth in it at all.
"You look different," he said.
I swallowed. "Do you usually break into rooms to watch people count, or is this a special occasion?"
He didn't react. His gaze moved to the silver in my hair and stayed there. For a fraction of a second his expression flickered. He leaned in slightly and turned his head, catching the strands from a different angle.
"I'm here because you look useful," he said. "More than you were an hour ago. Tell me, Sienna, does it hurt to be that valuable?"
"Useful." I said the word back at him. "You're looking at a person and seeing a battery. How does that not embarrass you?"
"Everyone has a price." He leaned forward. "Most people are too dull to realize they've been bought. But you call me by my name without a tremor. That's rare."
I folded my arms across my chest, digging my nails into my own skin. "I'm already bonded, Duke. Whatever you're calculating, stop. I'm not your pawn."
His gaze moved over me. "You look better angry. It brings the color back. Lucas was a fool. He had something real and threw it away for something easier."
"Don't." I pointed toward his face. My voice cracked. "Don't you dare talk about him."
His hand moved faster than I tracked it. Locking around my fingers and pulling me forward until our faces were inches apart. His grip didn't loosen even when I twisted against it.
"Stop, Duke." I pressed my free hand against his chest. He didn't move.
"Stop struggling." His voice went flat and cold. "You're in my kingdom. Damien may be your mate in your own head, but out here I decide what happens to you. He hasn't marked you yet, Sienna. The bond is a tether. It isn't a shield."
Heat detonated in my chest. The bond answered him before I did. Something inside me tearing open all at once. Energy erupted outward from my skin and hit Duke center-mass, throwing him backward off the bed and across the room. He hit the wall hard enough that I felt it through the floor. A c***k ran up the plaster behind him.
Neither of us moved. Lightning and ozone hung in the air. Warmth drained out of my chest as the bond pulled heat from me.
"What the f**k!" Duke snarled.
He was on the floor, propped on one arm. Blood ran in a thin line down the side of his head. He looked at the blood on his fingers, rubbing it between his thumb and forefinger. "You're going to wish that had killed me, Sienna."
A breathless laugh tore out of me anyway. My chest still ached.
He came off the wall in a blur and drove his fingers toward my face. They stopped dead. He hit the barrier again. A wall of silver light pulsed with the impact, throwing sparks across the floor. He hit it again, and again, harder each time, until he finally stood still, inches away.
"Clever," he said.
The cut on his head had already closed.
"So... sorry." I sat on my own hands because they wouldn't stop shaking.
A sharp knock hit the door. I straightened fast, pulled my hair forward to cover the silver, and arranged my face into something neutral. My pulse hadn't slowed down yet.
"Come in," Duke said, flat and immediate.
The guard stepped in and bowed without looking at either of us. His eyes flicked toward the scorch mark on the wall once, then away. "Lord Duke. Kael is here. He says it's urgent. He claims if you don't pay up, he'll tell his brother exactly who is hiding in your bedroom."
Duke's eyes moved to mine. He leaned back against the wall, fingers tapping once against his thigh, then twice, then stopping.
Silence stretched between us. Thin enough to hear the guard breathing by the door.
Kael was here.
- Writer
