I should catch her. I should kill her. I should hunt her down.
I should feel rage.
But as soon as she’s fled, all I feel is a rush of crushing sadness more painful than any wound. Because those few moments of bliss revealed the misery I’ve been living in.
She showed me ecstasy, and then ripped it away. Her aura is gone, as if it was never here to begin with.
The only red she left behind is the blood dripping down my chest.
An hour later, once my momentary insanity passes, fury overtakes everything.
Fury for myself. For being so foolish. For being sotaken in.
Fury ather.
It boils beneath my skin as I sit on my throne, shirt in tatters. It takes five healers and a half bottle of Moonling healing liquid to stop the blood and stitch the skin back together. With every press of their fingers to my chest, I imagine my hands around her throat. Watching her emerald eyes bulge as I steal the breath from her. Slowly.
She kissed me.
She kissed me, and then shestabbed me.
My shadows sharpen, shredding the obsidian floor, sending everyone scattering. “Out,” I growl. “I’ll wrap it myself.”
I didn’t let the healers stay long enough to banish the scar.Good. This will be a reminder of what happened when I dared open up to my emotions for the first time in centuries. When I daredwantanything.
The fortress around myself closes again. This scar will be a reminder of her.
Of how much I hate her.
I’m still thinking about her days later. My fury has not diminished at all. If anything, it’s grown.
Because it all makes sense now. The uncontrollable urges. The rush offeeling. It’s almost arelief.
The guards found the red clothing, and I knew at once. She’s a Wildling.
Of course. It was all a trick. Their temptress enchantments at play.
My fingers tremble against the hilt of my blade the way they trembled against her skin. But this time, it’s in white-hot anger. How dare she trick me?
How dare she enter my castle?
How dare she masquerade as one of my consorts?
How dare she stab a blade into my chest, while I was hard and aching, pressed against her warm—
I growl, shaking the wretched image away.
And the witch wakes up.
I sink back into the shadows. I’ve been visiting her room every night, waiting for her to reveal how she traveled into my realm. How shetrickedme.
It took mere days to track her down. I started here, at the Wildling castle, and ... there she was. Training with a sword outside, her hair tied up, and wearing far more clothing than when I last saw her.
Seeing her crown in her hair was almost like a cruel joke.
She isn’t just any Wildling, no. She is their cursed ruler. I should have known. She was sent to beguile me. Tokillme. I fell for her tricks.
Never again.
