Page 16 of The Princes of Stone and Steel

No. No, no, no. This could not be happening. My feet remained glued to the spot as I gripped my hands in my hair, watching my aunt blow away on the wind, whipping and twirling the way a kite whips and twirls on a breezy day. I had to be seeing things, I had to be. My aunt, she was still alive and waiting for me inside the house. And I was willing to take any punishment she doled out to make that true.

When I turned to start running again, I felt it, the force of something hard and blunt hitting my cheek.

Nine

His Royal Highness, Prince Aereus

SLOWLY, I BECAME AWARE OF MY SURROUNDINGS through fuzzy eyes, sharp pain slicing up the back of my skull. The room was dark, and definitely not my room. Only a flimsy blanket covered me. No pillow. My clothing had been replaced by a shapeless nightgown and someone had taken my shoes.Not my Docs.

“H-Hello?” I croaked. No one answered. Using what little moonlight shown in from the window slit, I moved cautiously to the door. Sleek and metal, it felt cool to the touch. “Hello?” I called again, stumbling back when a face suddenly appeared in front of me through the door window.

“Step away from the door. Place your hands on the wall above your head.”

What? This situation couldn’t get any crazier. But I did as ordered because whoever he was, he held the power at the moment. The lock clicked and the door swung open. It was him. The burly man from the club, I’d never forget that face. He wore an eyepatch now. Korrigan really got him. But now he had me, pulling one hand down behind my back and slapping a cuff on my wrist. Then doing the same to the other.

“My orders were to bring you as soon as you woke.”

“Bring me where?” It wasn’t too surprising that he didn’t or wouldn’t answer as we walked. The slick walls shined and the whole place smelled of minerals, like ore.

The burly man opened a door, shoving me inside an office with this throne room feel to it. I looked around, noticing for the first time a tall, lithe man sitting behind an elaborately embellished desk. As he stood up, he gestured me forward to him. I complied without hesitation, but once in front of the desk, instead of offering me a chair, the burly man shoved me down to my knees so I had to look up at the lithe man.

“We were beginning to wonder if you’d ever resurface.” I’d never been in the presence of royalty, but the lithe man gave that air. His burnished copper hair glinted in the light seeping through the window as did the pretentious glare of his mercury eyes. This was the kind of man you didn’t let your guard down around. Of that, I felt it with one hundred percent surety down to my gut. Then realizing he waited for a reaction I cleared my throat, eyeing him carefully.

“We?” I asked. Not sure why that word stuck out to me. A second later, a door toward the back of the office opened and a man stepped inside. Blond hair the color of rose gold.Silver-grayeyes that reminded me of brushed aluminum. “Steele?”

“How dare you?” The lithe man scolded. “My son is the crown prince of this land. You will address him as Your Royal Highness Aereus.”

Aereus?

Oddly enough, his words felt like a punch straight to the gut. I glanced between Steele and his father and made a split-second decision. As it didn’t seem anyone else in this room had my best interests in mind, my survival instinct finally kicked in. Whatever game they had going here, I needed to play by their rules.

“My apologies, Your Royal Highness,” I said with mock-sweetness, forcing myself to bow even lower. “I’ve recently suffered a minor head injury and mistook him for someone else. If I may, why am I being kept here?” I asked my captors. I could’ve been mistaken, but it appeared as if the prince gave a subtle wince even as his lips remained puckered in that angry pursed thing people do when they’re trying to convey distain. I’d been on the receiving end of such a look on more than one occasion back at school. Jock boys and cheer girls didn’t much care for my dismissal of their attempted bullying tactics. Bullying had never set well with me and for as long as I could remember, I’d never stuck around to take it. Although I’d always kicked myself afterword for not standing and fighting, the nonchalant, unaffected way I removed myself tended to piss them off enough to move on to another target. I itched to run now. To turn unaffectedly away from the king and not show how His Royal Highness had hurt me. But he did hurt me because he’d given me my first kiss. That meant something to me. Clearly it didn’t to him.

I blinked my eyes several times, shaking my head. Far back as I could remember? Even as I thought the words it all felt as if my stuffy brain cleared for me more—I didn’t know what to do with it, either. Those memories, the ones from my childhood that should’ve been the most potent started to feel like more of a dream than the ones from my actual dreams. Like they weren’t actually mine to begin with. How hard did Stipator hit me?

“Because we won you,” the king continued. “Forfex beat Papyrus every time, my dear.”

“What beats Forfex?” Evidently not me, if the sharp blow to my jaw was any indication. Keeping my eyes trained ahead of me, I never even saw the blow coming. How stupid was I to let myself momentarily forget the one-eyed goon to my side? The man looked incredibly pleased with himself as he ran his finger through the blood trickling down my now-cut lip from the ring he wore. I flinched, not only because I didn’t want that horrid man touching any part of his skin to mine, but also because it hurt—like unbelievably hurt—where my lip split.

I licked at it with my tongue, paying more attention to the sting than the king when he demanded, in what was probably his most commanding tone. “I would not speak so brazenly if I were you, my dear.”

Uh, I think I got that. Thanks for the heads up.

Cynthia never slapped me. Never in my entire life did I remember being slapped, let alone punched. Fighting back tears as pain radiated throughout my face quickly became my top priority which unfortunately made me let my guard down with everything else.

“Why do you want me here?” I asked and heard a weak wobble in my voice. The king apparently caught the wobble too, as he raised an eyebrow in my direction and smirked. Oh, no. He didn’t get to smirk at me, lording his smugness over the room. I cleared my throat, then, finding my bravery. It might have shown up late to the party, but at least it showed up. I could live with myself knowing I’d done something to stand up for myself. Although, admittedly, I still just really wanted to run. “Just let me go home.” Even though I wanted desperately to cry, my voice remained steady this time, steady to the point of boredom exactly as with the bullies back home, since any emotion showed weakness. “After all, I can’t imagine what Your Royal Highness would want with a simple high school student.”

“She’s no good to us if she cannot remember who she is. Maybe we should just dispose of her and wait for the new flesh to be revealed.” The king ignored me and instead addressed his son.

“Flesh?” I asked at the same time Aereus said, “She’s only just returned to us, Father. Maybe we ought to allow time for the effects to wear off. How long has she been away?”

The Forfex King chose to ignore me yet again, but thankfully, he agreed with the prince for the time being. Waving his hand to dismiss me. “Take her back to her cell.”

“Maybe a walk around the grounds would help,” Aereus offered.

“I’ll consider it, my son. Stipator, you will escort her back now.” Stipator had to be the burly man’s name as he stepped forward, yanking me up by the handcuffs.

We walked back down the same corridor with the same ore smell permeating the air. And even though more sunlight than moonlight trickled in through the slit in the wall, my cell remained just as dark as it had been when I’d woken up. Stipator removed my handcuffs, shoving me inside the small room. He slammed the door as I stumbled, falling on my hands and knees.

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