Page 22 of A Dance of Water

The moments grew longer, and she knew what his answer would be before he even opened his mouth and spoke: "No."

She looked down, blinking away the few traitorous tears that lingered on her lashline. Apleasewelled within her, but dare she beg?

The King cupped her jaw and forced her face up to his. The call sang loudly at his touch.

"I might be inclined if you beg."

She loathed him—this male, herenemy.

It was at that moment Luella realized she would forgive Az, butnever the King. Their differences were palpable. Az held remorse, but she wondered if King Vale was even capable of such a feeling.

She stared up at him, and the rain pounded against the glass dome. She wondered if it were possible for the glass to shatter under the force of the water.

His mind was made up, but so was hers.

Luella’s knees thudded as she fell to the ground, kneeling, bowing before him. Her captor and her Vincire. What should have been sacred and precious was warped with cruelty.

She knelt, staring up at him. Her chin brushed the clothed skin of his warm thighs from how close she was to him.

"Please," she begged.

Her softness made her weak, but it made her heart large. She would let this softness free Az.

She traced the line of the King’s neck with her eyes as she stared up at him, watching as his throat bobbed with a rough swallow. He cupped her jaw once more, and she leaned into him, eyes fluttering shut briefly from how demeaning this was—how her head swam with feeling, and her stomach clenched with strangeness as she was forced to her knees in the very throne room she had been damned to the dungeons below their feet.

"Say my name," he implored.

"Vale," she quickly obeyed, whispering up at him.

And then he nodded. "Grant me a tryst."

"We are not l-lovers." Luella’s heart thundered in her ears; she knew he could hear.

"Not yet." His voice held mirth. "A tryst and I will free your demon."

She had no choice. "I agree."

He forced her to stand with a hand still cupping her face. "A tryst," he repeated. "And continue to call me by name."

She swallowed. "Why are you so insistent upon me saying your name without a title?"

"I seek to own everything about you, including my name on your lips." He huffed a short, sardonic laugh. Thin tendrils of smoke wafted from his nostrils.

Thunder shook the walls.

"A blood vow?" she inquired softly, all while praying she would not be forced to have another mark on her skin from one of her captors.

He was shaking his head before she could even finish her question. "We will not make this deal in blood. I am only as good as my word, after all."

"Your word… It is nothing to be proud of."

"My name," he prompted, ignoring her barbed words.

"V-Vale," she addressed him.

And the deal between them was done, outlined with words alone. Az was freed, and her fate was marked in the very room she was first cursed.

9

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