Page 30 of The Stars are Dying

“The reigning lord’s daughter,” he said with mocking disbelief. “You can imagine my surprise.” He entered my peripheral, his movements slow like a snake primed to strike.

Breathe. Breathe.

He laid the dagger on the desk in front of him. “Where did you get this?”

I didn’t answer. There was no point when nothing would soften the strike to his pride that I’d defied him.Eludedhim.

By now I knew his impulsive triggers by a shift of energy. I braced.

His hand wrapped around my nape, pushing me forward, and my lips tightened against a cry as my palms met the wood to stop the force. His mouth met my ear as he said, “You know what your silence does to me when I expect answers.”

“I found it.”

It wasn’t a lie. I’d always figured it had been left by one of Hektor’s men, or perhaps a guest, when I’d come across it while wandering surreptitiously one night three years ago after spying on an inspiring training session below the manor, but I’d never seen the likes of the purple metal on them since. I’d stolen the dagger brazenly and spent the weeks following on a razor’s edge of anticipation that I’d be caught when it was declared missing.

“What displeases me more are your lies.” His grip tightened a fraction, and I prepared for what he might do…

A knock made the air shudder out of me. Hektor paused with a deep breath of anger, releasing me, but I whimpered at the fist he slammed that rattled everything on the desk before he called for the person to enter.

I didn’t know who it was, but, catching words but not whole phrases, I concluded it required his attention and he would unleash his wrath toward me on everyone else until he got the chance to come back.

As they continued to talk, I despised my cowardly submission and reflected on the hand still imprinted around the back of my neck. I wanted to tear it off. I wanted to hurt him back, to make himfear, and my dark thoughts…I didn’t feel shame for them.

My eyes were pulled by compulsion to the wavy purple steel, the image of driving it straight to its beautiful black wings into Hektor’s chest filling my mind. Could I really do it? My fingers subconsciously reached for the hilt, my grip already firm as I calculated the steps I would take to plunge it to where I wanted before he could stop me.

Hektor’s hand lashed around my raised wrist, and I yelped. “Does it make you feel brave, darling?” he cooed.

I despised him. Idespisedhim.

“I might let you keep it if you tell me everything. How long you have been sneaking away from this manor without my knowledge? It must be some time, and I amfascinatedto know how.”

His mockery slammed my teeth together. Hektor spun me around. An arm around my waist brought our bodies flush, and I wanted tokillhim.

“I want to know everyone you met. Everyone who knows your name and about me. Everything you’ve told them.” He took my jaw in a painful grip that stung my eyes. His green irises burned through me as I prepared for something to finallysnap.

Like the flip of a switch, his face relaxed all at once. I had to blink at the contrast. He stroked my cheek with false love, and I feared this more than his true wrath.

“Come with me.”

He took my hand, and I had no choice but to follow. A creeping unease settled, and my breathing quickened at the thought of where he would lead me to. It put a strain on our joined fingers. His grip tightened with the warning glare he shot me over his shoulder.

“Hektor, please,” I tried, but I didn’t stop walking. “You don’t have to do this. I’ll stay locked in my rooms.”

“Now I know you’ve found a cunning way out, I cannot trust you’ll stay in there until I have the balcony doors looked at.”

My eyes scrunched shut.I will not cry. I will not break.

We came to the door, and everything in me dropped at the sight of the thick iron bars from wall to wall at the end of the room. I choked a dry sob as he continued to lead me to it, straining against his hold again, but with his groan of frustration all I could do was brace. My back hit the wall and my head followed with the hand that wrapped around my throat. Pain shot through my skull, but I pressed my lips tight together. His frightening expression was made even more monstrous by the light pooling in from only the entrance. Hektor seethed in silence, and I held still.

“Look what you did,” he said as though he cared. His hand uncurled from my neck, smoothing down the back of my hair where it throbbed. “You moved too fast and hit your head.”

I nodded vacantly. Hektor sighed deeply, planting a kiss on my cheek.

“You don’t have to do this,” I whispered.

There were no windows in this room, and when the door was sealed, the darkness that would devour was not of wonder and beauty. It taunted abandonment.

He didn’t listen. The high pitch of the cell door opening rattled every bone in my body, and I stopped before it.

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