Page 23 of Her Dark Promise

She rolled her eyes. “Why do you keep preparing me to leave? I don’t want to leave.”

“You won’t always feel that way. I cannot give you a life here, not one that means anything. One day, you will want to see the world,”

“I don’t like the world,” she said flatly. “The world was cruel to me. I want to be here, with you.”

The urge inside me to fight her eased a bit. Perhaps it was too soon to talk of her future, her life outside here, when she’d only just started to feel safe again—and sleep without nightmares.

“I will find us something else to eat, but you cannot keep the rabbit. Set it free.”

She hesitated, and opened her mouth in protest.

“Emilia,” I said sternly.

She leaned down and freed the rabbit from her arms; it was long gone in minutes.

I was brought back to the present with the thought that if anyone were to come here to try and kill me, then there was a high probability that Emilia would be a casualty. No matter howhard I tried to keep her out of it. Or I could agree and allow her to leave, but would she even be able to make it on her own?

Though her feelings at this moment were the least of my worries. Her feelings wouldn’t matter if more humans came. If there was a fight. If she died…

I had been pacing in my chambers for the last hour, wrestling with myself on what was the best course of action. I could feel my power vibrating right under my skin, just itching to get released. The temptation was intoxicating, but I never allowed it the freedom I knew it craved when my emotions were heightened.

I paused by the large balcony doors and closed my eyes, trying to relax my mind and body. Breathe in. One. Two. Three. Breathe out. One. Two. Three. I walked outside to feel the chill of the air on my heated skin and gripped the railing to hold me steady.

I quieted my mind the best I could. Silence—the lack of sound that had kept me company for far too long and now just a reminder of what I had to lose.

I took a breath before focusing back on the task at hand—finding out the pertinent information from that man. I knew that I should wait a few more hours, leave him to starve a little longer before continuing the interrogation. I growled, opened my eyes, and slammed my fists against the stone surface. It didn’t matter that I fucked Callum a few hours before; that prisoner was the only thing on my mind. The voice had been successfully cast out of my head for the time being, but even as the effects were starting to fade, I knew it was only a matter of time before she came back as well. She never left me alone for long.

This wouldn’t do.

I pushed away from the railing, and stormed out of my room, down the stairs, and straight to the tower’s door. I hurried up the spiraling staircase, taking two at a time. Without needing tocatch my breath, I threw the doors open and found him exactly as I left him.

I waited for his quick wit and was almost disappointed until I heard him say, “So witch, back for more?”

I narrowed my eyes and walked toward him without a word. I could see that he had something in his hand to use against me, but I flicked it away and forced him to kneel on the ground. I stood behind him as he tried to squirm away from my hands, but grabbed a hold of either side of his head and squeezed tightly.

He screamed as I commanded, “You will tell me what I wish to know.”

I closed my eyes and dove back into his mind aggressively, not caring that the sudden intrusion would cause immeasurable pain.

The darkness surrounded me once more as I filtered through his memories, searching for any image that showed him with those two murderers.

Nothing.

I had grown tired of staring at the images and focused my mind on the memories from the past few days. After finding one that looked promising, I dove into the image by mere thought and was immediately transported into it.

The estate was close to town, as I could still hear the noises in the direction of what I assumed to be the town square. I took in the two-story, stone building in front of me. It had two sets of windows in the front that were evenly spaced out on either side of the large, wooden door, with steps leading down to the neatly paved dirt path upon which I stood. The grounds were expansive which made me wonder exactly what family my prisoner came from.

It was nothing to boast about, but then again this was my first time seeing an estate. We didn’t have anything like that in my kingdom. It must have been a modern way of building homes. Ididn’t have to dwell on it long before the prisoner came riding on the back of the horse at such an alarming speed that I jumped out of the way or else he would have rode right through me.

He dismounted and strode up the steps, and I followed along behind him. He hurried through the house and stopped outside of a door. I expected him to knock, but he continued staring at it. He lifted a hand before knocking, and a deep male voice called for him to enter.

I followed closely behind as he opened the door and walked inside. We entered a spacious room that was full of shelves lined with volumes of various types of books, from finances to history. In the middle of the room, a closed window let in some much needed sunlight. The rays made the dust particles in the space much more evident. The room was incredibly stuffy.

“So, have you come to tell me what is on your mind, son?”

I was so preoccupied with looking around the room that I didn’t notice a man standing in the corner, looking at a book on one of the shelves.

The man walked over to the desk and sat in the chair behind it, commanding the room without the need to stand. He had peppered hair, a full beard, and clothes with not one wrinkle. He was immaculate.

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