“Let me make one thing very clear, pet,” High King Edgar of the House of Irriel said as he stood in the doorway of my room. His long brown hair hung down to his waist as red magic sparked from his fingertips. The horrid scent of sandalwood drifted off him, and it took everything within me not to wrinkle my nose.
“Your Majesty?” I asked quietly.
He snarled, “You belong to me. The only reason you aren’t dead right now with the rest of your horrible people is because I have a need for you.”
“What did I do, my king?”
The words croaked out of my hoarse throat. I had been lying on my stomach for the past two days, unable to move after the last punishment I had received. Punishment for a crime I didn’t commit.
As usual.
“You existed,” he snapped at me before stalking away.
Not wanting to watch him, I buried my face in the pillow. Every movement sent shards of shooting pain through me. The door slammed behind the king, taking the scent of sandalwood with him. He didn’t leave, though.
I could hear his horrid voice as he spoke to someone I couldn’t see. “… I want an example made of her tutor. Tell Remington to take care of him.”
Holding my breath, my eyes watered as I pictured Orvyn’s kind face. The old male, a human, had been my tutor for the past eight years. My mind raced as I tried to remember what we had last been learning. Orvyn had been teaching me to do sums in my head and…
My stomach plummeted.
Three days ago, Orvyn had mentioned something about the War of the Four Kingdoms in passing. That was the last time I had ever seen him.
The guard outside my door cleared his throat. “Yes, Your Majesty.”
“The next time someone decides that my future breeder should learn how to do something other than reading poetry, looking pretty, and spreading her legs, I want them to remember the tutor’s death. Remington is to make it last and make it hurt.”
Future breeder.
That’s all I was to him. A shudder of revulsion passed through me as I struggled to continue to listen.
“What shall we do about the girl?”
No.
Please, no.
Not another punishment. Not yet. It was too soon.
I whimpered into the pillow. If there was any good in the world, the king would walk away. I didn’t think I could handle another punishment right now. Not when my back was still so raw.
“I don’t want anyone talking to her,” the king snapped. “She is not to have any more outside influences. That tutor was the last straw. I won’t have anyone corrupting her. She can read and write. That’s good enough. No one except guards and servants are to visit her without my permission.”
My eyes burned as the king’s footsteps retreated. I counted to a thousand in my head before I buried my face in my pillow. As soon as I was certain he had left, I screamed.
I screamed and screamed and screamed.
I screamed until my throat was raw. Until the pain in my back was overshadowed by the breaking of my heart. Until I had nothing left in me at all.
And still, no one came.
* * *
“Penny for your thoughts?”
Jo’s voice pulled me out of the fog of my memories as her hand landed lightly on my arm. I jumped, drawing my dagger from its scabbard before I realized she meant me no harm.
“Sorry,” I mumbled as I slid my weapon back into place. Ahead of me, I could see the males talking. “I’m a little jumpy.”