Page 12 of Prince of Blaze and Embers
Shit… My life was about to get a whole hell of a lot worse…
CHAPTER 5
“Get your clothes back on.” The prince’s words were forceful behind his dark wolf mask. “Sign the paper.” The way he shifted his tone from forceful at me to sinister at Garris made my skin crawl.
This had to be the most dangerous man in the whole world, and he was about to take me with him.
I blinked hard, rubbing the back of my neck.
My world reeled and spun violently. As I pulled up my clothes, letting them settle loosely on the angular bones that jutted across my body, I heard Garris scribble his name on the parchment the prince had ready.
“Undo the shackles.” As soon as the prince finished saying it, I heard the clacking of keys as Garris pulled them from his pocket.
I was going to be free from this wretched man!
My mouth fell open and a warm tingling took every inch of my skin.
But then another troubling thought entered my mind as I felt Bella’s fingertips skirt across my arm. She stood beside me, pulling her clothes up as well, her lips quivering and her eyes welling with tears.
I couldn’t leave without her. I didn’t know why that thought raced through my mind as our eyes locked. Fuck. I knew why—because she was my best friend. Hell, my only friend in this rotten world, and for all I knew, I was about to be taken to the worst place in all of Allovan. But something tugged at my heart, forcing my lips to part. The words left my lips before any real thought pushed them out.
“My friend is coming with me.”
The feeling of the room shifted before the key could slide into the keyhole at my ankles. Like all the air was sucked from the room, leaving us all breathless.
Garris’ mouth flattened hard, and the prince let out a deep growl, his gorgeous sapphire eyes glowering hard at me. But I didn’t shrink. I didn’t relent.
“She’s coming with us. She’s a hard worker, young, and I’m not leaving without her.”
Bella covered her mouth with her trembling hand as tears dripped down her cheeks and onto her collar.
“Absolutely not,” Garris’ words brought back the power-hungry, hellish brute he was. It was as if the prince wasn’t in the room, and it was just the master and his two prisoners again. “That bitch stays here. Right where she belongs.”
“You—you wish for your friend to come to the capital?” There was a hint of confusion littered with curiosity in the prince’s voice. He sounded human for the first time and not a bloodthirsty monster. “You may resent that choice once you see what waits there.”
“I don’t care.” Bella’s hand dropped down to her sides. “I want to go.”
“You wretch!” Garris lunged forward much faster than a man his size should, his palm opened and ready to strike her face. He rushed past me quicker than I realized, his shoulder knocking me over nearly to the floor. I fell to a knee, and as I looked up, I sawthe most powerful thing I think I’d ever seen, and that includes seeing dragons roam the sky.
What I saw sent a hot rush through me—my breath hitched, my legs weakened, and desire bloomed low in my belly.
For as swift as that bastard Garris was, the Blaze Prince was far faster. In his dark gauntlet, the prince caught Garris’ wrist, squeezing so tightly Garris’ face twisted in pain. The prince stood between Bella and Garris, and the heat radiating from the powerful prince made my throat catch. Heat rose from my chest to my ears, and my vision tunneled only onto him.
“I’m taking her, too.” The prince’s words were cold enough to freeze the Infernal Depths. “Five hundred. And don’t even think of trying to barter with me… weak man…”
I swear, I thought Garris was either going to have an aneurysm there or just explode from his frustrating position. But for all his faults, he was smart enough to know he was overpowered, outclassed, and in way over his head against the prince of the Emberveil Empire.
“Fine,” Garris said through clenched teeth. “Take both the bitches far away from my sight. More trouble than they’re fucking worth.”
The prince released his wrist, and Garris pulled his arm back, rubbing it. The keys jingled as they hung from his fingers. He bent down with a groan and slid the key into my shackles. With a click, the metal lock released, and I felt the cool air hit the open wounds underneath. He undid Bella’s next.
I wanted to kick him. I wanted to kick him so badly, right in the fucking temple, but I somehow restrained myself. All the beatings that bastard laid onto me, all the times he touched my sides or my ass—all I wanted to do was shove my knee right into his fat nose. But instead, I came up with something less violent, and more… lasting.
“Someday…” The word was laced with pure hate as it left my lips. “Someday… I’m going to repay you for all your… nastiness… one thousand-fold. Mark my words. You’re going to get yours, and I’m going to watch you squeal like the little piggy you are.”
Garris was about to bark back. The hate in his eyes was unmistakable. But instead, he found a gauntlet holding up five hundred royal coins his way.
“Take it and sign.”
