Page 65 of War of Her Heart

I constantly reminded myself how less than I was to everyone around me. I didn’t need his help.

“He beds them, you know. His favorites. Are you waiting to be summoned?” he asked as he came closer to me.

“It’s not like that!” I replied, fighting back the tears.

“What else could it be? I’ve seen the way he looks at you, Violet. You are something new for him to toy with.”

I shook my head. “We have developed a friendship.”

“A-a friendship?” Calum scoffed. “When are you ever around him?”

“The night at the bar, the library, the garden,” I mumbled.

“He is an emotionless killer! You can’t have a friendship with him!” If he hadn’t placed a sound ward on my room, everyone in the castle would have heard that.

“He’s not as bad as he puts on to be,” I whispered, hoping it would bring his volume down.

“There is no way he just wants a friendship with you. He chose you as his favorite. Is that what friends do?”

“He did it to get a reaction out of you.” I couldn’t stop myself from saying it. Admitting that there may be more to Sebastian’s feelings would be far worse. Blaming it on a deep-rooted rivalry between Sovereigns seemed like the easier way out.

It was the truth, though. Even if that wasn’t the entire reason Sebastian chose me, I know he enjoyed watching Calum squirm.

“What?” he asked, confused by my confession.

“He knows. About us,” I said as I rubbed a piece of the fabric of my dress between my fingers.

“How?” he asked as his eyes widened.

“A paramic, disguised as you, lured me out of my room and tried to kill me. Sebastian saved me, but he saw what the paramic had shifted into, so he figured it out. He promised he wouldn’t tell Nathara. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but he hates her and he didn’t want our secret to risk the engagement. He wants nothing more than to get rid of Nathara, so our secret is of no use to him.”

“So all this time that I thought you’ve been alone, you’ve been with him? Forming a ‘friendship,’ as you call it?” His emphasis on friendship told me nothing I had said was helping him to calm down.

“I called it a friendship because that is what it is. And I am not always with him, but why does it matter? Can I not have friends? You can spend your time with her, but I’m not allowed to have a friend because he has a penis?”

“I don’t trust him,” he replied.

“You don’t have to trust him. You have to trust me.” I placed my hand on his arm.

He clenched his jaw and had a wild look in his eyes, animalistic almost. “And if he tells you to lie down and spread your legs?”

“Are you serious? Do you think I would just submit and do whatever he says?” I asked.

“That’s what you were taught to do,” he said as he narrowed his eyes.

I slapped him in an instant. I couldn’t believe what he just said to me.

“How dare you,” I said.

He didn’t falter from my slap and deepened his gaze into mine.

“Do not be alone with him again.”

“Get out,” I said between my gritted teeth. I was so angry and hurt but I didn’t want to break down in front of him. I wasn’t backing down.

Not this time.

“As your Sovereign, I command you.”

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