A Kingdom of Venom and Vows (Stars and Shadows #3)(24)

I couldn’t hold myself long, and when I sat back down on the bed, Gavril stood and headed toward his closet.

I was silent as I listened to him rummaging through the small room, and I could feel tears clouding my eyes.

He came back holding one of his white shirts, and he dropped it on the bed beside me before gathering my dress in his hands once again. He pulled it over my head without uttering a word, and I pressed my arms against my chest.

I was bare before him, wearing nothing but the undergarments Eletta had put out for me, and the cold night air prickled at my skin as Gavril stared down at me.

“Here,” he said before clearing his throat. He held up the shirt, and I tried to take it from his hands. “Let me help you.”

“I can help myself.”

He scoffed. “You can barely keep yourself upright, Adara. Let me dress you before I put you to bed wearing nothing but what you have on now.”

He arched a brow at me, a challenge, and I slowly let my arms fall away from my chest and lifted them as he held the shirt in my direction. He carefully helped me into the soft fabric, his skin barely touching mine, and I sighed in relief when the shirt swallowed me.

Gavril stepped away from me, and I took a deep breath. But everything around me smelled of him. I attempted to stand up on my own, but I wobbled on my feet and fell back onto the bed.

“Stay,” he commanded before he walked toward the door and turned the lock. The sound rang out through the room, and I could feel the panic rising up inside me.

He pulled the hem of his shirt up and over his head, and I met his gaze. I shouldn’t have. I knew I shouldn’t have. But I couldn’t look away from him. He was cruel, but he was also beautiful.

He kicked his shoes from his feet before he stepped back into his closet and left me alone with my thoughts.

This was the man I had always been meant to marry. This was the monster my mother had so willingly given me away to, and I knew that he had spent his life becoming a master of fooling people.

His mask was ironclad and rarely slipped.

But I could see past it. His mask seemed to slip more frequently with me than with others, and I knew it was because I was the only one fighting him. He tried to hide the man he was deep down from everyone else, but it seemed to pour out of him when he was with me.

He was a monster, and I was his prey.

I didn’t know how much time had passed when Gavril finally returned. But I watched as he walked toward me, and there was something dark in his eyes that hadn’t been there moments before.

His jaw was set and his gaze unflinching. There was desire there, but there was also anger and power.

It was the look of the man I feared.

He walked toward me, and my heart raced. I had no doubt that he could see the fear in my eyes as he raised his hand toward me.

He brushed my hair back behind my ear and rested his hand against my cheek. His eyes searched mine before he leaned forward and pressed his lips to my forehead.

“Sleep,” he demanded of me before crowding my space, his knees pressing against mine. He slipped his hands beneath my arms and lifted me higher in the bed until my head hit the pillow.

He climbed into the bed behind me, crawling past me to get to his side, and he lifted the blankets up until they covered my body.

I stared up at the ceiling as I listened to him breathe. I didn’t dare look over at him, but I could feel him looking at me.

There was a silence between us that weighed on me heavily, and I wondered if Gavril could feel it too.

I tried to stay awake, to stay alert, but that weight dragged me under. I blinked my eyes open, but it was no use. I was so very tired.

“You are mine now, Adara,” I heard Gavril whisper somewhere in the back of my mind, but I was too far gone to care about his words. “No one will ever question that you belong to me ever again.”

I felt the heavy weight of his hand wrap around my middle, then I felt nothing at all.





CHAPTER 10





EVREN





M y chest felt like it was in a vise, squeezing tighter with every inch closer we got to the fae border. We had been inside the Onyx Forest for hours, and I felt desperate to get closer to Adara.

My heart beat faster as I recalled the words her father had said. The fear that had already filled me had only grown more intense now that I knew the true horrors that my brother was willing to do.

I had promised Sorin and Thalia that I wouldn’t storm into the kingdom when we got there, but I could feel mine and Adara’s magic growing within me like a wave about to break on the shoreline, eager to unleash its power.

Her magic felt as desperate for her as I was, but I would have given anything to touch her, to lay my eyes upon her for even a moment to know she was safe.

Thalia cocked her head to the side, and I tracked her gaze into the dark forest. I saw nothing there, but Thalia went stock-still at my side.

She had felt something, and the magic around her body began to spark, to grow. She was taming it, holding it back, but I could feel it just the same.

A snap of a limb sounded through the woods, and everything around us went still. The birds stopped chirping. The wind that had been blowing through the trees stopped. Everything froze.

Thalia dropped from her horse and let out a low growl, the sound rumbling deep in her chest, but the moment it slipped from her mouth, a nymph slipped through the trees and into our line of sight.