4-The twelfth chapter
1564 Words
I did not sleep.
How could I?
Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Tyren with Mira. Marissa on her knees begging for a bigger price. Ronan’s hand around my wrist. The way the bond had hit me so hard I still felt scorched from the inside out.
So I spent the night sitting in a chair by the barred balcony doors, wrapped in a blanket, staring at a moonlit courtyard full of armed guards.
A queen’s suite, they would call this.
But to me, it was just a prettier sort of locked room.
Dawn came faster than it should.
And by then I had learned two things.
First, Ronan had kept his word about guards. Two stood outside my chamber doors all night, and when I asked them why, they bowed and informed me that I could only walk through the gallery and the bath chamber, but nowhere else unless escorted.
This was literally a prison.
Exactly as I had thought.
Secondly, the mate bond was worse in daylight.
It thrummed low in my body, a strange ache and pull that sharpened whenever I tried not to think about him. Which only meant I thought about him more. I hated that even absence could feel like his hands.
By the time breakfast arrived, it was already 8:00 am.
I stared at the tray of food lined up with different delicacies with disgust.
I wanted to throw them away but I knew exactly what that meant.
It meant drawing Ronan’s attention to me and that was the least of what I wanted.
“Please eat, my lady.” the lady ushered assembling the plates before me.
My lady.
The word thundered in my ears.
I almost told her not to call me that, but the girl looked so frightened that I swallowed the words.
“Sit,” I said.
Her eyes widened. “I cannot.”
“You can if I tell you to.”
That made her stare at me strangely, as if I had just failed some unseen test. Still, she perched on the edge of the far chair and kept her hands tight in her lap.
“What's your name and why are you afraid of me?” I asked.
“I am Nessa and I am not afraid of you, my lady.”
“You are.”
She swallowed hard.
“It is safer to fear what the King values.”
The truth of that settled ugly in my stomach.
I pushed the untouched food away. “What does the pack say about me?”
Nessa hesitated.
Then, she cleared her throat and began.
“Rumours have spread that you bewitched him. Everyone is saying that you are a poor, worthless omega and you don't deserve King Ronan. They insisted that Lady Selene should have been chosen if not that your family sold you and signed a contract.”
My head lifted. “Contract?”
Nessa went pale.
“What contract?”
She whispered, “The one your stepmother signed.”
The room spun for half a second.
“There was a contract.” I muttered.
Nessa nodded once.
I laughed under my breath because if I did not laugh I might scream. “Of course there was.”
Marissa had not only begged for payment.
She had signed me away properly.
Just when Nessa was about saying another word, a knock landed on the door.
Nessa jumped up as if struck and hurried to open it.
Prince Lucien walked in carrying a book.
Nothing about him looked threatening. That, more than anything, made me wary.
He bowed, easy and graceful. “Lady Kaelira. I hope I am not intruding.”
“You are.”
His smile deepened slightly. “Good. Then you still have emotions. I was afraid my brother’s guards had frightened it out of you.”
Nessa looked between us nervously. “Should I call His Majesty?”
“No,” Lucien and I said at the same time.
We both paused.
He glanced at me with amused interest. “May we speak alone?”
“No,” I said.
“Yes,” Nessa blurted almost immediately, then clapped her hands over her mouth and ran out.
Lucien laughed softly, fixing his eyes on me.
“I promise I do not bite.”
“I haven’t decided whether that is reassuring.”
He set the book on the table between us.
“ I thought you might like to know the family you have accidentally walked into.”
“So I brought to you the history of Nightbane.”
My curiosity peaked.
“You do not strike me as someone who came here hungry for a crown.”
“So tell me, why did you give in?
“I never gave in.”
“I came here because my family threatened me with my brother.”
Something sharpened in his eyes, though his tone stayed mild. “Then I am sorry for that.”
The apology was so simple it almost pissed me off.
I crossed my arms. “Why are you here, Prince Lucien?”
“To see whether my brother has caged a terrified girl or welcomed a future queen.”
“And which do you think?”
His gaze flicked to the barred balcony, the guarded doors and the untouched breakfast.
He then moved to the window, careful to keep distance between us.
“By now, you should know that Ronan is not a gentle man.” he blurted.
I nodded my head slowly.
“That is the first true thing anyone has said to me since I got here.”
“He protects what is his,” Lucien continues.
“Violently, sometimes spilling blood”
My eyebrows faltered.
He rested one hand on the back of a chair and continued.
“Do you know what happened to the last three women the pack thought might become queen?”
A chill crawled up my spine. “No.”
“One drowned in a bath. One was pushed down from a tower by unidentified persons.One ate poisoned figs during a winter feast.”
I stared at him intently. “Why are you telling me all this?”
“Because Selene Voss wanted that place, and she is not the only one in this palace who thinks a lowborn like you has no place here.”
A pulse of alarm ran through me.
The prince’s voice dropped.
“And Ronan has bigger intentions than your mind can carry.”
“He is far dangerous than you think.”
My throat tightened. “Why do you sound like you’re warning me?”
“Because I am.”
“Someone should.”
For one stupid heartbeat, I wanted to believe him.
Then the doors slammed open.
Ronan entered like a storm.
His gaze found Lucien first. Then me. Then the space between us.
The temperature in the room seemed to drop.
“I told the guards no one enters without my permission.” he thundered.
Lucien turned calmly.
“I just wanted to say hi.”
Ronan’s face turned bloodred.
“Leave here now.”
“I brought her a book.”
“I do not care if you brought her the moon. Leave.”
The brothers stared at each other with a hatred so quiet it felt old.
Lucien lifted both hands in mock surrender, but before he moved he looked at me. “Read chapter twelve first.”
Then he walked out.
Ronan waited until the doors shut behind him.
Only then did he turn to me fully.
“What did he say to you?”
I crossed my arms in defense.
“Maybe he wanted to speak to me like I’m a person, not some sort of prisoner..”
That hit.
I saw the way his expression faltered.
Ronan took a slow breath, and when he spoke again his voice was lower, controlled with effort.
“Kaelira, Lucien is not your friend.”
“Neither are you.”
Something flared in his face, but not rage this time.
It was pure hurt.
He stepped toward the table and saw the book Lucien had left behind. His expression changed instantly.
He snatched it up, flipped it open, and went still.
Every instinct in me tightened. “What is it?”
Ronan looked up.
For the first time since he claimed me, I saw true horror in his eyes.
“Who else has entered this room?” he asked.
“No one.”
His voice turned brutal.
“Think….” he yelled.
“Who else came here?”
Fear crawled down my spine. “Just the maid, Lucian. And the servants who brought food.”
He crossed the room in three strides and seized my hand, not gently this time, turning my palm upward.
At first I did not understand what he was looking for.
Then I saw it.
A faint black dust smeared across the heel of my hand.
My stomach dropped.
Ronan’s head snapped toward the breakfast tray, scattering the whole arrangement.
“Do not touch anything,” he said.
But that was too late.
Because even as he spoke, the tea I had tasted hit my stomach like a blade.
I choked,my throat locking shut, my knees failed me and I collapsed to the ground, unable to breathe as the King roared my name.
- Writer
