Previously: Lina learned she had only two weeks until her forced marriage. Meanwhile, Gideon discovered the shocking truth that his lost mother might be the Queen of the Seventh Kingdom, transformed by dark powers stolen from a witch in the far end woods.
The snowy forest stretched before Lina like a frozen dream, each branch weighted with winter’s burden. She walked in a daze, her hands clutching vines and flowers that had no business blooming in this season of death. Her mind wandered through thoughts of escape and impossibility as her feet carried her along familiar paths.
“Where have you been?”
The voice startled her from her reverie. Lina looked up to find Prince Valerian leaning against a tree ahead, watching her with the patient intensity of a hawk observing prey.
She stopped walking. “I was just walking.”
“All day?” he asked, his tone suggesting he knew better.
Lina glanced to the side, unable to meet his gaze. “No...”
Prince Valerian chuckled, a sound devoid of genuine mirth. “And where did you get those?” He gestured toward her hands, which still grasped the impossible flowers. “It’s nearing the dead of winter. Nothing will grow here.”
“You know I could feel you watching me the whole time,” Lina said, her voice steady despite the accusation. “I know that’s why the Queen has you here. To watch me. They wouldn’t have let me off the castle grounds without you close behind.”
Moments passed in silence before Prince Valerian replied, “Your point?”
Lina looked at him coldly, her dark eyes holding his golden ones without flinching. “You know exactly where I went.”
“Yes.” The admission hung in the air between them. After a long pause, he added, “But we might feel some sense of... camaraderie if you open up to me.”
Lina tilted her head to the side and released a weary sigh. “What was your favorite thing to do in the Fifth Kingdom?”
Prince Valerian stiffened at the unexpected question. “I’m a prince. I don’t have any single favorite thing.”
“Because you can do anything?” Lina’s voice carried a bitter edge. “Especially in the Kingdom of Pleasures.”
“And you can’t do anything here, can you?” Prince Valerian began walking toward her with methodical slowness, each step deliberate and predatory. “You’ve been a prisoner your entire life. You have nothing to call your own. Why have you bothered to keep on living?”
He stopped just before her, towering over her smaller frame. His hand rose into the air and moved toward her head, hovering inches away in a gesture that was equal parts threatening and tender.
“I bet you would sell your soul for power,” he continued, his voice dropping to barely above a whisper. “For freedom. To be the one in control of the game. In control of it all. Would you?”
Lina stared up at him, struck silent by the accuracy of his observation—or perhaps by how closely it mirrored desires she had barely dared to acknowledge even to herself.
A smirk crossed his features. “Yes, yes you would.”
Lina swatted his hand away with sudden violence. “You don’t know me.”
“I think I do.”
“Then you are a fool.”
“Or maybe I know you better than you know yourself.”
Lina scoffed. “Said every man, ever.” She paused, then added slowly, deliberately, “And you know what... maybe one day I’ll fool you so well that you’ll believe that completely. You’ll believe you know me better than I know myself, and that’s when you’ll lose everything.”
The prince’s stone-cold expression slowly transformed—first into a smirk, then blooming into a full, menacing grin that made him look almost unhinged.
“I will never trust a living soul.” He paused for effect. “But I do—you do amuse me.”
Prince Valerian folded his hands behind his back and turned to walk toward the castle in the distance. Lina began walking the same direction, but deliberately maintained at least ten feet of distance between them, as if proximity to him might contaminate her with whatever darkness now possessed him.
They continued this way for some time, two figures moving parallel through the snow, together yet utterly separate.
By the time they reached the castle grounds, dusk had fully settled over the Seventh Kingdom. Prince Valerian and Lina passed through the massive gates under the watchful eyes of numerous guards whose presence served as a constant reminder of her captivity.
For a brief moment, the sun broke through the perpetual clouds, and Lina stopped to look up, basking in the rare warmth of its light. When she lowered her gaze, she saw that Prince Valerian had continued walking without her.
“How did it go?”
The voice came from behind her. Lina turned to see Lucius approaching—a studious young man with wire-rimmed glasses that somehow enhanced rather than diminished his handsome features. He carried a stack of books and bound papers in his arms, struggling slightly under their weight.
At the sight of him, Lina smiled with the first genuine warmth she had shown in days. “Did the Queen call upon you?”
“No, your father,” Lucius replied. “He wanted me to gather everything I could on a very old group of mages.”
“What kind of mages?”
“I’m not given permission to speak much on the matter. But it looks like some order that was traced back a thousand years. Your father wanted to know if anyone survived.”
At the castle steps, Prince Valerian turned back to check on Lina, only to discover she was no longer behind him. His eyes scanned back toward the gates where he spotted her engaged in conversation with the young man carrying books. Something dark flickered across his features as he began walking back toward them.
Lina and Lucius stood close together as they continued their discussion, their voices low and conspiratorial.
“Did anyone survive?” Lina asked.
“From what I could find, no. But that’s not to say there aren’t still some of them out there.”
“Why did my father ask about this?”
“I can’t say anything more.”
Disappointment crossed Lina’s face, but she understood the position Lucius was in.
“How did it go?” he asked, changing the subject back to his original question.
“They gave me two weeks.”
“Two weeks until you’re to be married?”
Lina opened her mouth to respond just as Prince Valerian materialized beside them like a shadow given form.
“My dear Lina, who is this?” His tone carried false pleasantness that fooled no one.
Both Lina and Lucius looked at the prince, clearly displeased by both his interruption and the possessive way he had phrased his question. Prince Valerian’s gaze remained fixed on Lucius with predatory focus.
“Were you speaking to me?” Lina asked.
“Of course, dear.” He glanced at Lina with calculated cruelty. “We do share a bed, after all.”
Lucius’s eyes went wide, and he looked at Lina with shock and something that might have been betrayal.
Lina met Prince Valerian’s gaze with a challenging stare. “We do share a suite. Where you stay in the study all night, and I stay in the bed. Alone.”
Prince Valerian chuckled. “Due to my respect for you. We are not yet married.”
“That’s right. We aren’t married.”
“Yet.”
They looked at each other like duelists sizing up their opponent, each waiting for the other to make the next move.
“I must get going,” Lucius interjected, breaking the tension. Both Lina and Prince Valerian refocused their attention on him. “The King is waiting on me.”
Prince Valerian stepped aside with exaggerated courtesy, nodding. “Of course.”
Lucius looked at Lina, and a mixture of sadness and fear crossed his face—emotions that spoke of feelings left unspoken and futures that would never come to pass. He walked between her and the prince, then made his way toward the castle steps.
Lina glared at Prince Valerian, her aggravation barely contained. The prince gestured with his arm, signaling for her to lead the way.
“After you.”
“I won’t be joining you for supper,” Lina announced, beginning to walk ahead.
“Ah, the Queen has already informed me that your presence is mandatory, as is mine.”
Lina forced a smile and looked back at the prince over her shoulder, her expression a masterpiece of false pleasantry. “Well then, the pleasure will be mine.”
She turned back and began ascending the stairs. In the distance, Lucius’s figure grew smaller as he approached the castle entrance, carrying his burden of forbidden knowledge.
The prince smirked as he watched Lina, following behind her like a well-trained predator who had learned to enjoy the hunt almost as much as the kill.