Page 42 of Beyond Those Gilded Walls

Gray eyes were nearly consumed by black. “Wrong answer, little wolf.”

Hands gripped my waist and then I was upside down, my face level with his lower back and his hands now resting on the backs of my thighs. Outrage rushed through me, blending with the blood pooling in my head to make it throb as I gripped the sides of his waist and pushed myself up, trying to get down. “Put medown.”

The only answer I received was one of his hands moving higher on my thigh, his fingers curling around to my inner thigh and squeezing as he began to walk. Every instinct in my body was coiled to twist out of his grip, even if it meant falling to the ground. The wounds on my face throbbed. Pushing up further, I shifted my hips, ready to throw myself to the side.

His hand tightened even more around my thigh and I barely caught my gasp at the electricity that furled down my spine from his touch. The warmth of his touch, the strength in his grip… I wanted to hate it, but all I could focus on was the heat radiating into my leg. His finger shifted again as he sped up his steps, inching higher again, nearing somewhere far more indecent.

My view of the ground and his back shifted, and the floor beneath his boots transformed to dark dirt and stone. A rush of cold wind speared through me, a counterpoint to the blazing touch on my thigh. A scream echoed and I flinched, closing my eyes. In the next instant, the cold and the scream were gone and I was being set on my feet.

“What—” I looked around, finding myself once again in Tallon’s room, the cat now sprawled across his bed rather than mine. His room was not close enough to the prince’s quarters that he could have gotten us here in only a few steps. I turned back to face him, trying to quell the anger at yet again being manipulated, and once again being taken into my nightmare world. Stomping up, I poked at his chest. “I believe I told you that if you ever touched me without my permission again, there would be consequences.”

Through the skull mask, he smirked at me. “Yes, you did. And there should have been consequences for finding you attempting to enter Prince Eadric’s quarters, yet here you are. Unharmed.”

“Am I? You said before that no harm would come to me under your watch, and yet…” I motioned toward my face. His arrogance only spurred my frustration, but he was right, and had it been anyone else who’d discovered me, I would have already been dead. “You watched as he did this.”

“You are far smarter than that, Odyssa. What did you expect me to do in front of the prince and all those people?” He raised an eyebrow and reached out to trail his fingertips over my arm. “You’ve only been here a short time, yet I think you’d know better than to lose your focus in that setting. What happened? What distracted you, little wolf?”

Some of the fight bled out from my body. I was not ready to reveal what had distracted me, not to him. Not when I still had yet to truly reconcile with it myself. “What do you want with me, my lord?”

“Firstly, you know my name. Use it.” His voice pitched low and his head bent toward me once more. Playfulness tinged his gaze and teased at the corner of his mouth.

I reached to trace my finger along the strap that held the skull mask in place across his face. He still held himself with that regal indifference, the same emotionless statue that stood beside Prince Eadric as he struck me. “When you take off your mask and become Tallon again, my lord, I shall use your name.”

His eyes shuttered, the swirling pools of gray growing still and flat as he stepped away and yanked off the mask. He stepped up closer to me, his breath whispering across my nose and cheeks as his eyes dropped to my mouth for the briefest moment. Anticipation burned in my stomach, twisting it into knots, but he did not move except to reach his fingers up to skim over the cuts on my face. “Let me clean these for you, please?”

The sudden shift left me spinning and confused, so I nodded, following him back to the same chair I’d occupied when he’d cleaned my hand. He looked at me for a moment longer before disappearing into the bathroom.

I blew out a heavy breath, running a hand over my hair to smooth both the strands and my nerves. I wasn’t imagining this. He’d been about to kiss me—and more, I’d wanted him to.

Guilt clawed at my stomach and my cheeks flushed. Once again, I’d lost myself in him, forgetting about what was important and why I was truly here. He was playing a game, one I did not even know the rules to, and even though he’d removed the mask when we were alone together, he was still the prince’s puppet, and I could never forget that.

His return pulled me from my thoughts. “Does it hurt much?”

“No,” I replied honestly. They did not hurt now, not physically at least. They enraged me, embarrassed me, but I suspected that was the point, so that I never forgot my place in that ballroom. “I can care for my own wounds, Tallon.”

He paused, about to dab at my face with the medicine-soaked cotton. His tongue darted out to wet his lips and I could not help but follow the motion as his throat bobbed on a swallow. “I know you are more than capable, Odyssa, and from what our mutual friend has told me, more than stubborn as well. But I told you last night no harm would come to you under my watch, and as you pointed out, I’ve failed.”

I bit my tongue to keep from comforting him and to keep from asking about what else the cat had revealed.

Wounds deemed clean enough, he began dabbing that same thick cream on them that he’d used on my shoulder, keeping his eyes firmly on my skin while I kept mine on him. “Why were you trying to break in, little wolf?”

A small hiss escaped as he touched a still tender edge. It gave me the moment I needed to collect my thoughts. “I have two younger brothers. Did you know that?”

His hand faltered. “No, I did not.”

“Seven days ago, my mother passed from the plague while I held her hand,” I said. I waited for a moment, seeing if he would interrupt, but he did not, just continued cleaning the scratches on my cheeks. “With her dead, we would not have had enough money to live on, with just my job and my brothers’ inheritances. I asked the oldest to try to find work as well, and he refused. Instead, he gave me a flyer about the castle needing new staff. Five days ago, my youngest brother, only eight years old, started coughing. We didn’t know for certain if it was the plague. But it hardly mattered. I volunteered that morning. You know about the letter I received.”

Finally, he looked up at me, putting aside the medicine and pulling both of my hands into his own before settling them into my lap. “Why did your brother refuse?”

I shrugged. “I won’t pretend to understand his reasons. We are only half-siblings, but I raised them, and I would do anything for them.”

“Would they not do anything for you, then, in return?”

My nose itched, tears burning at the back of my eyes. I looked away, fixing my gaze on his boot beside my foot, watching as the end of my dress slipped over it.

“You were after the treatment, then?” Despite the question, I knew he wasn’t looking for an answer. He took my chin in his fingers and made me meet his gaze. “He won’t give it to you. Not now after what happened tonight. He likely wouldn’t have given it to you before either; he has been notoriously stingy with it even amongst his most trusted. And you have no hope of stealing it alone.”

“Then what do I do?” I hated the way my voice cracked and the way my lower lip trembled. This was weakness, utter weakness to fall apart in front of him, yet I was powerless to stop it. He traced his thumb over the curve of my jaw, tipping my face up to look at him.

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