“I had forgotten about the greenhouse gardens until Cross told me you were down here,” he admits, holding his hands behind his back as he walks over to me. “And here you are, with another sharp item. Are you feeling violent today, Ria?”
“Not now I know I can’t kill you with this alone unless I get the strength to cut your head off,” I mutter, lifting the sharp cutters up in the air.
He flashes me one of his deceptively evil smiles. “It would hurt me though. Are we past that?”
I point the cutters at him, touching the middle of his chest with the sharp tips. “Are you past killing humans like they are toys?”
“Never,” he breathes out and clamps a hand over the cutters. Like my grip is nothing but a nuisance, he throws them away from me, and I stumble back into the glass. He keeps moving, slower than he needs to, until he is cornering me into the glass with nowhere for me to go. “I have dinner ready for us in my room.”
“I’m not going to your room, Maddox,” I warn him, narrowing my eyes.
He laughs and places his hands around my waist, harshly pulling me against him. I jolt and try to pull away, but he easily picks me up and throws me over his shoulder. Screaming in frustration, I smack my arms against his back and kick out my legs, but he doesn’t react, not even bothering to use his other arm to clamp my legs down. He carries me through the castle, past the sitting areas and into that corridor behind them, and through the first door on the right. Disoriented, he drops me onto a soft and bouncy bed, and I glare up at him.
“Welcome to my room,” he sarcastically states, walking back to the door and slamming it shut. “Don’t scream in here, you will give my bird a heart attack.”
“Your bird?” I question like a fool, and he nods his head behind him. Next to the door is a huge aviary with a massive eagle inside of it. The eagle is pure white, not a drop of colour to its feathers, and it must be the size of a small child. The eagle watches me as it perches on a long branch that is spread across the aviary that is the size of a room on its own. I pull my eyes from the eagle to the rest of Maddox’s room, and not surprisingly, it’s as grand as you could get. The king-sized, or bigger, bed I’m on has black sheets spread across a mattress that sits on a flat wooden platform. White cushions and pillows line the giant black stone headboard that stretches to the ceiling. In one corner of the room is a door to a bathroom no doubt and a big closet, which has a frosted glass door. One chest of drawers sits under the only window in the room at the back, and it is empty of anything personal.
“So, you paint like a pro, and you have an eagle for a friend-slash-pet. Anything else I should know about you?”
Maddox walks over to me, and I try not to run when he chooses to sit next to me on the bed, his body brushing against mine. My heart beats ridiculously quick, giving away my reaction to him no doubt.
“I want to know about you, Riona Dark,” he murmurs seductively, picking up a strand of my hair. I hold my breath on instinct and force myself to breathe when it becomes clear he isn’t going to drop my hair or move away. “I’ve researched you extensively and found nothing more than a regular human upbringing, and yet, you are so very unique.”
“Have you met other humans who can’t be compelled?” I question.
He meets my eyes. “No. That’s why you are perfect for me. Even if I weren’t extremely attracted to you, I would not let you go. I need a queen at my side who cannot be controlled by magic and can be my true equal.”
“You like the idea of an equal who hates you for who you are?” I ask, almost softly, damn my soft heart.
“It apparently worked well for my parents,” he replies and sharply looks away, dropping my hair. “I will make no apologies for who I am and neither will I change.”
“Then you will never have anything real or true, Prince Maddox,” I angrily reply, narrowing my eyes at him.
He glares right back at me and cups the back of my neck, his touch burning my skin like he is on fire. “I will have you, and that is all I want. Screw the rest.”
Then he kisses me. Every inch of my mind begs myself to fight back, to push him away, to remember that he is a monster, but my body doesn’t react the same way. I kiss him back on instinct, letting his soft lips devour mine with a passion I’ve never experienced, sucking me deep into a world of torment I wasn’t aware existed. His tongue slides into my mouth just as someone knocks on the door.
And I realise what the hell I am doing. I all but fall off the bed, crawling my way backwards as I climb to my feet.
If Maddox looked at me with desire before...it’s nothing like he stares at me now.
My heart pounds as Maddox walks to the door and pulls it open with a scary ass look on his face.
“You are dead unless this is important,” Maddox all but growls at the poor bellboy.
“Cross s-sent me to tell you another issue has come up, and it’s more than one this time. He needs you to urgently come to help as several are bitten and dead,” he sputters out. “They burned from the inside out from one bite, like the others.”
What the hell can do that?
“Fuck.”
Maddox looks back at me, turning his frown into a smile, but I can tell he is still annoyed by the interruption and whatever is going on. I’m thankful for the interruption before I did anything else downright stupid. “Seems like our last night is going to be cut short. I won’t see you tomorrow, but be sure I am waiting for your return.”
Maddox leaves the room without another word, the door hanging open, and the eagle makes an almost coo-like noise. I walk up to the aviary and run my finger over the gold plate on the door, with the name Amity.
Another word for friendship.
I guess I was bang right, the eagle is the only friend to the Mad Prince.
Chapter Seventeen
Blasting music fills the castle behind me as I sit on the steps, my arms crossed tightly against my chest to protect me from the cold. Whatever happened last night between Maddox and me is clearly forgotten, which I’m totally thankful for, as I woke up to some kind of party. The castle is full of drunk women and men, loud music, and blood everywhere. I all but tripped in the blood as I escaped and came to sit here, waiting for Maddox’s brother to come.
“Here,” Cross says as he lays something on my shoulders. I pull the soft red material around me and push my arms through the cloak and clip up the five silver buttons. “Maddox bought you it.”
“Surprised he remembers who I am with his party going on to celebrate that I’m leaving,” I mutter. I don’t know why I’m pissed off, but I can’t deny that I am.
“Is that what you think?” Cross questions with a furrowed brow. “And not because he is wallowing that you have to leave?”
Pulling myself to my feet, I think about Cross’s words as we wait in the snow-ridden ground, watching the city at the base of the mountain. It’s nothing more than lights and shapes, but I can make out a certain structure to the city. It’s five squares, thick walls separating the squares, and a river runs down the left side with one bridge going to big houses on the other side of it. As much as I want to escape, I also want to see this city.
“What is the city like? I mean compared to say London, Edinburgh, Paris or New York?” I question, rambling off the cities I have been in.