Page 110 of Of Skulls Of Shackles

I nicked his skin, and he cursed low.

“Not as calm as you wish to be,” I smugly said.

“Never as calm as I wish you to believe,” See said roughly. “Never as collected! Never as all-seeing. Never as sure or capable or strong.”

His kingdom was in an uproar. So was I.

Iwouldhave my answer.

He cupped my face in his shaking hands. They were so huge that my head must have seemed small within them and very crushable. I did not care what we looked like and never had. I cared that he was mine and that I was his.

I searched his milky gaze and waited. He was close. He was so close, and I longed for the words that I might cling to. “Just tonight. Just for tonight.”

I love you.

Say it. I silently urged him with my gaze and my body that was frozen and strained with waiting for his confession. I reversed the pressure of my finger to press against his balls. “I might need your cock, but these are disposable.”

A smile flickered on his lips before it faded. “You ask too much, my queen. I have been clear on my views of love from the outset. If you have fooled yourself otherwise, then I am sorry for it. We must go on.”

A breath away from having his balls sliced off, but he would not speak three words. I closed my eyes, then withdrew my slicing threat to shove his hands off my face.

I whirled away. I was no fool. He did love me—the monster who caught my tears in a glass vial. The monster who threw a royal gala and then ignored his guests to ravish me. The king who could not recall the location of his chambers.

He was the monster who had helped me and twisted us and warned me and claimed me. Only See had explored me and held me as we shared amusements and sat beside me on a rooftop to speak of matters.

He loved me, and he would not give me three words.

I had hoped. The glowing moon must weep for she had known how much I still hoped.Why did you hope, you fool.Hehadbeen clear from the outset. And yet.

I was spun away from the window I had stormed to.

“Enough!” I shouted up in his face.

See was shoved back a few feet by my power, but he did not release my hand, so I was dragged with him.

“Enough!” I shouted again.

See was forced to his knees, and made sure to drag me with him.

I gathered my breath to shout again. I would not stay in his palace. What expectations I had formed. What foolish, dreaming, pitiful dreams. He who had warned me many times that he would…

My gaze flew to his. “Break my heart. You are breaking my heart.”

“But I cannot do that either, as it transpires. So what will become of us,” he said darkly and so hopelessly that my breath was stolen.

His palace shook with it. The chandelier rattled and clinked. He was furious. Despairing. He was undone.

“I love you,” he said simply. Three words were uttered.

I love you.

My lips trembled. They trembled, and I did not smile.

I lowered my head into my hands and wept. Three words. I had them, and I was happy for them and only felt despair otherwise. “Sir, you have broken my heart anyway.”

“Good,” he said coldly.

I supposed that it was. I lifted my head. “Do you not wish to catch these tears?”

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