Page 252 of The Nightmare Bride
I jumped to my feet, ready to go join the stewards’ lawn war, if necessary, so immense was my relief. “Of course. I’ll go grab some from downstairs. Be right back.”
She lay down, her shoulder blades jutting beneath her dress like wings. I strode into the hallway, then dug for my keyring and locked her door, just in case Vick was prowling around nearby.
But in the end, I shouldn’t have worried, because Vick didn’t come for Amryssa.
He came for me.
25.
Iwas nearing the stairs, my steps whispering against the tatty carpets, when a shadow darkened the corridor behind me. I glanced back, and...shit. Vick was headed my way, clearly on a mission.
My stomach sank. Goddess, Ky had asked me to do one thing today.One thing.
I veered into a side hallway and chose a random corner to turn, then another. After ducking through a door, I found myself in what had once been a nursery, complete with pastel curtains and a cradle with a bug net draped over the top.
I leaned against the wall, my chest heaving. Had I lost him? A minute ticked by, then another, and I allowed myself to hope.
But then the knob turned. When the door opened, Vick slipped inside.
Dread flash-boiled in my stomach. As usual, he wore his shortsword. A disembodied section of my mind calculated whether anyone would hear me if I screamed.
Probably not.
Vick smiled, a slow bleed that sharpened to a wolf’s grin. A few carroty curls had escaped the tie at his nape and frizzed in the heat.
I sidled away. “Don’t mind me. I was just on my way downstairs.”
He was on me in a flash, barring me from retreat with a hand planted against the wall. He leaned close, one hand rested casually atop his sword pommel.
I froze, eyeing his weapon. If he drew, I could go for my dagger, but I had no illusions about howthatwould go. I wasn’t a fighter. The best I could do was lure unarmed princes into sucking on my neck before catching them off-guard with a blade to the throat.
Vick, unfortunately, was not an unarmed prince. Nor was I about to offer him my neck.
“Just the person I wanted to see,” he said. “You’re a tough one to get alone.”
“Yep. Great to see you, but I’ll be going now.” I made an attempt for the door, but he pinned my shoulder to the wall.
“Ah, ah,” he tutted. “It’s past time for us to have a chat,Princess.”
My skin writhed in his sweat-dampened grip. “Is it? Because I’m pretty sure I’d prefer we never speak again.”
His fingers dug into my arm. “You think you’re so clever, don’t you? Talking like that. Marrying Ky like you did. Trying to get yourself a title.”
A laugh knifed its way up my throat. “You think I married him for atitle?”
“Of course I do.”
I almost guffawed in his face. This conversation was even less amusing the second time than it had been the first.
But then the sparkling accusation in Vick’s eyes sobered me. Sweat beaded his upper lip where a few blond hairs had escapedthe razor, and...goddess, he looked so young. Younger than Ky, but also harder and grimmer, enough that arguing while trapped in a room with him seemed like an incredibly stupid thing to do.
So I didn’t. “You know what? You’re right. I’m a double-crossing gold-digger who just wanted to be royalty. Sucks that it didn’t work out the way I planned.”
Vick’s nose twitched, making him look more foxlike than ever. “Oh, I know. I know all about people like you. You don’t care if others go hungry while you hole up in your little castle, eating sausage every day. You’re the kind that thinks you deserve everything even though you contribute nothing.”
Well, then. Don’t hold back, or anything. Though I supposed this was the liberator in him talking. “Yep. You’ve got me pegged. Well done.”
His eyes flashed. “Are you mocking me?”
