Page 2 of A Heart of Crimson Flames
That brought me up short. It felt like a knife to my side just thinking of them. I hoped Calla was okay—too far for me to sense them.
But that reminded me that I should’ve been able to still feelmy mate. Yet even in my shifted form, I couldn’t feel Maez anywhere, no connection to her or the rest of the pack. Like a puppet with its strings cut, I was free-falling, reaching out but unable to feel her anywhere. What did it mean? Where was she? If she was dead, I’d be dead, too. At least that gave me hope. If she was alive, we’d find a way back to each other.
Sweet Moon, I missed Maez. Missed her scent and her warm soothing words and the way she’d kiss my temple when I was concerned. I missed her jokes and her cavalier confidence and the feeling of being so safe in her arms...
I permitted myself one single whimper as I curled into a ball against the dungeon wall.
At least when Sawyn had cursed me, I’d been asleep. At least I was laid on a bed in a high tower and not in a cold cell. At least I was somehow nourished in that magical dream state. It was a paradise compared to this—at least for me.
I thought of Maez, of how she had endured this for weeks under Sawyn’s imprisonment. But even then, in some small ways it was a blessing she’d been captured by someone other than a king or prince, even then it was safer. I knew Evres planned to take my body by force, a vessel for his future offspring. And I wondered, too, how much of my soul I’d have to give just to remain alive.
Bile rose up my throat, and I was somewhat thankful to have no food in my belly. It was foolish of me to think I could’ve ever escaped this fate, to not be a pawn in a world ruled by men.
To simply be happy with my mate.
I swallowed and lifted my chin skyward, howling at the Moon Goddess even though she, like everyone else I loved, felt so far from me here.
I just have to survive until Maez comes for me. Whatever it takes.
I would not die here, not in body or spirit. I wouldn’t let them crush me like they had so many Wolf queens before. I wasa Golden Wolf, I was the twin of the Golden Court Queen, I was the mate of the most gorgeous and fearsome warrior in all of Aotreas. I wouldn’t be leashed by some stuck-up prince.
He will not win.
With my newfound resolve, I cried for the last time, buried my nose into my tail, and fell asleep.
Briar
MY GROWLING STOMACH WOKE ME. I KNEW THERE WAS NO POINTtrying Evres for a second time. Let him think one hungry night would break me—maybe he would decide that’s all it took.
When the dungeon door opened the following day, I was ready. I’d put on the heavy bloodred dress, the diamond necklace choking me like the collar it was around my neck. I finger-combed my ratted and tangled hair to the best of my abilities and braided it off my face with practiced hands. Prettying myself up for a monster, donning the appearance of someone braver than myself. I even pinched my cheeks, pinking them up as I waited.
Evres’s expression was more than a little smug when he saw me sitting at the back of my cell, carefully avoiding the rivulets of suspicious liquid dripping from the ceiling. My very life depended on how good an actress I could be. Luckily, much of my young life had been exactly that: pretending to be something else. That had been to keep me safe, too. Except then, I’d had my sister. I’d had Vellia. Now it was just me, and so it took a greater force of will to pretend alone. But ultimately I conjured an image in my mind that I projected outward—pretending I was sitting eagerly at the edges of a ball, waiting for an invitation to dance, and not a prisoner in a cell.
“You’re going to be good for me now, aren’t you, Briar?”Evres asked, though we both knew it was more command than question.
I fought the urge to shudder at his poisoned tone and softly said, “Yes, Your Highness.”
Evres seemed to like the sound of his newly appointed title on my timid lips. He studied the way I moved to stand with a practiced poise as if rising from a moon prayer. I folded my hands and bowed my head, waiting for him to speak, the picture of subservience.
“I was there the night of your failed wedding, you know?” That was not what I was expecting him to say. “Look at me.” His command was soft yet threatening as he casually leaned against the bars.
My eyes were the hardest part of me to control. Too wide, and I was surprised. Too narrow, and I was angry. I pulled my senses further inward, far from the surface.Be the porcelain doll, expressionless, unruffled.
“You looked so beautiful in that dress,” Evres continued, “though I think we can do better for our own wedding. Something that will catch the moonlight and make those blue eyes sing.” He pursed his lips, considering me. “I remember the way your eyes drifted over the crowd the last time. Did you even see me then? You looked right through me.”
It was a testament to my training that I managed to hide my surprise. Was he... jealous? What an incredibly arrogant and petty thing to say to me while I was trapped behind bars. Evres really thoughtheshould be a memorable part of my wedding ceremony to someone else? Yet we’d had no introductions. Not a single handshake or exchange the last time I was here. He wasn’t even royalty until this year. This man really thought the Moon Goddess shined out of his ass, didn’t he?
I thought back to my almost wedding day. I remembered the maid with the raven hair bringing my breakfast. I remembered the seamstress with her full lips and freckled cheeks fixing my hem. I remembered searching for Maez’s dark eyes and mischievoussmirk in every room I entered... but the only men I ever took notice of were the ones I was trying to protect myself against. And Evres wasn’t important enough to be a threat to me back then.
Instead of voicing my disdain for his jealous sentiments, I said meekly, “I was frightened, Your Highness. I was trying to do as was expected of me.”
I kept my gaze averted, but from my periphery, I could see Evres cock his head like a predator locking in on his prey. “Expectations.” His chin dipped. “I willexpectmore from you, Briar Marriel, daughter of the last King of Olmdere. Perhaps now with better instruction, you will rise to the task,” he mused. He tossed something at me, a small object that bounced off my dress and clattered onto the ground at my feet: a ring. “Put that on.”
I stooped and picked up the golden band—two rubies sat on either side of a giant crescent-shaped diamond that matched the one around my neck. I slid the ring over my finger without hesitation, the weight of the heavy stone making it wobble on my slender finger. “It’s beautiful; thank you, Your Highness,” I said, masking that—to me—it was one of the most heinous sights I’d ever seen.
Hisring onmyfinger. Hispromiseof subjugation, and not honor and cherishment.
Maybe he felt what I’d been trying to hide, but either way, Evres didn’t seem to care for that level of gratitude, ignoring me.Heexpectsme to be grateful. Me saying such things is redundant to him.
