Page 142 of A War of Three Kings

Isicken myself. For days I try to refuse the food and water they offer me, but I cannot handle the hunger. The headaches and the thirst. The first day, I lasted until the early afternoon before I shoved pastries into my face while tears ran down my cheeks.

Then, I lasted the entirety of the second day, and the smallest trickle of my power returned to me, but I woke in the middle of the night famished and with a burning throat. I promised myself as I ate the tray of cookies they left on my table that I would do better the following day.

Self-control around food has never been a strength for me.

It has been two days since I have eaten anything. I take all the food and toss it down the privy chute before I lose my nerve. The only water I drink is what I save from my bath before getting into it, dismissing my servants when they want to help me wash.

Drop by drop, my power is returning to me as the poison leaves my system. It is a small mercy, given my situation. I don’t know if Finan is angry with me or if he tires of my protests, because I haven’t seen him since the day we wed.

The room spins around me as I sit on one of the velvet recliners, reading the same line in a book, again and again. Ineed to get out of here, but I don’t know how. These apartments are as secure as a dungeon. Even if I escaped them, the palace is practically in lockdown with the war and me as their prisoner.

A familiar warmth creeps into the edge of my awareness and my heart leaps with joy. It is the sensation of falling into bed after a long day. Of stepping into a steaming bath after being chilled to the bone. It is a loving embrace, one of masculine strength and endurance, of the first tulips poking through snow and apple blossoms budding and opening.

It is the string tied to my heart.

The sensation of Aldrin fused to my soul.

I relax as I sigh into that growing connection. At first, it forms the vaguest notions: love, protectiveness, fear. Then they evolve into half-thoughts. My name being called, the tone longing, then desperate.

Words finally reach my mind, the voice soft. Distant.

Please tell me it isn’t true, Keira.

Aldrin’s voice breaks my heart all over again. So many emotions bleed into it, and I can feel the echo of each one. The pain.

I will kill him if he has touched you. I will kill him regardless.

A sob claws its way up my throat and spills out of me.I am so sorry,I try to say back.Oh gods, Aldrin, I am so sorry. I had no choice. Diarmuid…

I can’t finish the thought. Even the mental image of my brother with a knife at his throat is too much. The thin slice marks across his skin from when he moved too much and the mottled black and blue bruises across his face. The fear in his wide eyes. More sobs shake my body.

I didn’t let him touch me, Aldrin,I send back, but thick shame rolls through me that I am now married to that monster. Somehow, I feel like I have failed Aldrin.

A rage boils into me, heavy and potent and ready to murder. It is a black thing, a wicked beast thrashing at its cage, but it does not belong to me. It is an impression of Aldrin’s emotions, I am sure of it.

None of this is your fault.His voice is little more than a growl.

I almost lose my connection with him at the intensity of his anger.

My soul reaches for him, more and more, until I find that liquid warmth at the edges of my being and grasp it with every bit of my willpower. I need this connection to him. It has never been so strong before.

I can almost feel Aldrin’s hand stroking my hair tenderly. When I close my eyes, his breath brushes my ear as he whispers in it.I am coming for you with an entire army. We are going to free you and put Prince Niall on the throne. Hold tight.

I will,I promise him.

Keira, my heart, he murmurs,you need to eat something.

Pure panic explodes within me.I will lose you, Aldrin. I will be defenseless.

You need your physical strength for what we have planned.Those words drift away, stroking down my very soul and soothing me.

When a platter of roast beef arrives with tendrils of steam curling from it and potatoes and peas swimming in its gravy, I devour the entire thing greedily. My chest constricts from the sheer dread that fills me as the wisps of my magic disappear, along with the steady reassurance of Aldrin’s presence. I struggle for a long time to drag breath in and out of a throat too tight as my heart rages.

It is on the fifth day after the mockery of a wedding that servants stream into my apartment again, bathing me, shavingmy body and dressing me in finery befitting a queen. I guess that is what I am now.

This time, I don’t allow them to clothe me in anything with corsets, hoops or frivolous embellishments that don’t allow me to move. If Finan plans to lay a single finger on me, I will fight him off with everything I have. I will kill him before I allow him to take me.

I am shaking by the time the guards funnel into my apartment again, and I don’t truly know if it is from fear or rage. Armed men surround me as I back away from them.

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