On second thought, I didn’t want her prison anywhere near me. I’d send her to Naenden and have them lock her up and leave her to rot.
“Of course I did,” she said. “It was the only way to be together.”
Tears welled up in her stunning blue eyes. That sultry look was replaced by one of horror as my fingers dug into her flesh, trapping the air above her lungs.
My hands shook, and I thought to end her right then, crush her windpipe and be done with the woman who’d ruined my life, but then I thought of Jerad, of his desire for justice, and I allowed my fingers to loosen, only barely.
She gulped in a gust of air like she might never taste it again.
She might not.
“I promise not to hurt her again. You have to understand, Evander. I’ve been out of my mind thinking of you marrying her. I thought it was the only way. But now that the bond is broken and she’s out of your life, we can finally be together.”
I made no attempt to restrain the scoff that crossed my lips. “You’re delusional if you think I’d ever want to be with you.”
Her blue eyes twitched, almost like she’d caught herself in the middle of a wince. But she regained that haughty smirk soon enough. “Oh, Evander,” she said, the feigned innocence gone now. “I like you when you show your fangs.”
“I’m finding the darkest, dingiest hovel in all of Alondria, and I’m sticking you in it to rot,” I seethed.
Playfulness flashed in her eyes. Was she enjoying this? My threatening of her? “I’m sure you will,” she said. “But I believe that can wait until morning, don’t you think?”
She snaked her finger down my torso and—
“Stop that.” I grasped her hand, yanking it above her head and pinning it there.
She seemed to like that more than I intended her to.
“Just one night, Evander,” she whispered, biting her lip. “Aren’t you the least bit tempted? I know you are.”
I sighed, and she must have thought I was reconsidering her offer, because feral delight broke across her face.
“I can’t do this,” I said, my breathing going ragged.
“But you can. You’re the Heir of Dwellen. You can do anything you want.”
I kept her hands pinned above her head, but I loosened my grip on her throat, allowing my fingers to graze the soft skin of her neck. I traced them up her jaw and ran them through her hair, and she shuddered at my touch.
When I leaned closer to her, her whole body stilled in silent expectation. Wanton desire devoured her blue eyes.
When my lips touched her ear, this time, it was her breath that went ragged.
And when I whispered what exactly I’d given up in the third trial for Ellie, I decided Cinderella’s wail of rage was the best sound I’d heard in a month.
“You fool!” she screamed, any trace of wanting on her face now extinguished by her anger.
“Careful, friend,” I laughed, launching myself to my feet and jerking her to hers as I twisted her arms behind her back. “Defeat isn’t flattering on you. I’m afraid you don’t have the face for it.”
Her scowl had me in a better mood than I’d been in for weeks.
“Do you have any idea what you’ve done? What this means for an heir of Dwellen? You’ve ruined your chance at—”
“Oh, just shut up already. You act like it’s your loss, not mine. But it was never yours, Cinderella. Just like those shoes weren’t yours. You’re just a sad, pathetic girl who has to take from others to distract everyone around you from how insane you actually are.”
It felt good. Talking to her like that. That probably wasn’t for the best, but right now—
Cinderella let out a cry of anger. Pain exploded in my head, and everything went black.
When I woke, my head spinning in pain, there was a note crumpled in my fist.
I opened it, the script scribbled in almost illegible letters, probably in haste.
When I held it under the moonlight, my heart stopped.
My dearest Evander,
So you’d choose Ellie Payne over me after all. Well, then. Let’s see who you choose now.
Meet me at the Payne workshop before the moon reaches its apex. Otherwise, I suppose you’ll have to read in the papers how Ellie and Blaise met their ends.
CHAPTER 51
It had been unlike the parasite to leave the note.
Sloppy even.
The parasite wasn’t used to being sloppy.
