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“Is this another one of your manipulative games? Scaring me into obedience?”
“I had no way of knowing what would appear for you,” he says, as if that makes it better.
“But you knew it would be something I dread.”
“Rai’s only trying to—” Ken starts, but I don’t let him finish.
“How dare you!” Scooting the chair back with a loud screech, I jump to my feet, ready to put distance between us.
“Wait—Alessia,” Eoin calls to me.
“Now who needs to let her go?” Rainer hisses at Eoin. I have no idea what he’s talking about and I couldn’t care less. “Let her cool down.”
Cool down…
The mild annoyance and embarrassment I felt earlier has been wholly replaced. Rainer made a fool of me. It’s clear that whatever his intentions are, they’re not in my favor. He truly is playing games.
I’m filled with burgeoning fury. My hands clench into fists at my side.
“You might be the Prince of Fear, Rainer, but you are a manipulative coward. I don’t need to know anything else about you to know that is all you will ever be.” I stand, curving around the table to where he sits. Leaning towards him, I meet him eye-to-eye with a hand on his armrest. “If that’s all you have—silly parlor tricks” —I chuckle sarcastically— “then that’s lackluster.”
My hands shake as I grip his chair and a few stray tears stream down my cheeks. But I don’t waver. I keep my eyes trained on Rainer. He can put me through my worst nightmares all he wants. I refuse to let his illusions break me after surviving the real thing.
I lower my voice to a whisper, fighting to keep it steady.
“You will get what’s coming to you,” I grit out. “And so will the lord and lady.”
He tampers down a small smile as his eyes flit to my lips and back up.
He leans forward until there’s practically no air between us.
“And there she is,” he whispers against my lips for only me to hear. “The girl who fights.”
My belly flutters, but I push off his chair, shaking my head.
Without looking back, I stomp out of the room with my head held high and tears staining my cheeks. But Rainer’s words ring in my head: I am the girl who fights.
twenty-five
She Will Always Be Mine
Rainer
I tune out the bottomless brunch chatter as I sit back in my chair. I focus on the doughnut on my plate, tapping my fingers against my leg.
Most beings cower in the face of their fears.
But some blossom.
Alessia?
She blossoms like the little rose she is. Slowly but surely, as her vines snake their way around my heart.
As proud of her as I am, my self-loathing has hit an all time high. If I didn’t already hate myself, I surely would now. Watching Alessia suffer like that took my breath away. It crushed me. After it was over, I wanted nothing more than to taste those tears on her lips.
To wipe them away, telling her how strong she’s become.
She’s not weak. Not at all. I was wrong when I first thought that about her, but I was correct in my assessment that a fire lives behind those beautiful grey eyes of hers—eyes that were so sad, and so tired when she first arrived.
