When the king woke up in the morning, the bright lights came in through the library's windows. Danika was still asleep in his arms.
Gently, he pulled out of her, and his eyes quickly inspected her naked body. He frowned slightly when he saw the red imprints from his fingers the night before. It didn't sit well with him that he bruised her skin because he could not control himself whenever he was with her.
One year and two months. It had been more than fourteen months since Danika became his, yet he still lost his better senses and control whenever he was with her. Why is that?
She had become a part of him. The king hadn't been aware of it until today. Most of his conscious thoughts were about her when they were not about his people. Why couldn't he get enough of her?
He turned and picked up his kingly garment from the table where she'd neatly kept it after folding it. He walked back to her and covered her with it to shield her nakedness.
Walking out of the library, the king went to the bedroom and took a pillow from the bed. Footsteps soundless, he strode back to the inner room towards her and placed the pillow under her head. She sighed and settled back into sleep. Then he got up and left the room, closing it softly.
He'd finished taking his bath. The two seamstresses were dressing him in his garment when a knock came at the door.
"It's Baski, my king," the familiar voice said.
He'd summoned her. "Come in."
She entered and greeted him. He sent the seamstresses away. The older woman automatically walked behind him to finish where the seamstresses stopped, tying the robes of his garment to hold together.
"Danika is still asleep in the library. Tell the cook to make her breakfast, but she has to eat chicken broth and soup before breakfast so that even if she throws up, you could mix it in her breakfast. Tell Zariel to get two more men and stand guard at this door while I'm gone. Under no circumstances will they leave their posts unless Danika wakes up and safely leaves my chambers," he instructed commandingly.
"As you wish, Your Highness," Baski responded automatically.
Several minutes later, the king stood in front of Vetta's dungeon.
etta knew the exact moment she was no longer alone in the dungeon.
Finding herself in this enclosed space again after five good years was like a nightmare to her. She hated dungeons so much. She almost lost her mind in the middle of the night because her days in slavery stood before her at every single turn.
It was a nightmare. Vetta was one step away from losing her mind. Or maybe she already did.
Not to mention the pain in her body. And the one in her heart.
After Angie's treatment of her, she felt better than she's ever felt in some months, and even though her body was still hurting, it was nothing compared to the pain in her heart.
She couldn't unsee it. Watching the king walk away from her without a backward glance. That look of loathing and betrayal in his eyes.
Vetta blinked tightly and slowly rose to sit on the cold hard ground. There was no way she was going down like this. She would try to salvage her situation. But if she couldn't, she would be damned if she went down alone.
"How many were they?" His deep growl forced her to turn towards him—a voice so cold.
"One. I told you, it was just one man. It was just one time," she responded earnestly, desperately trying to reach him.
He palmed his head, shaking it. "How do you expect me to believe that?"
"It's the truth! Why won't you believe me? It was unintentional, and it was just one time!"
"Why? Why would you do it?" The words were thrown at her.
That useless monster Karandy forced me! I never wanted to! It was all that dead bastard's idea! He blackmailed me! It was all at the tip of her tongue, wanting so badly to get out, but she held it in. She couldn't say his name. Calling his name meant buying more trouble.
"I was forced to," she responded instead.
"By whom?"
He didn't believe her. He did not even believe that it was just one time, either. Vetta felt like screaming in frustration. She was angry. Sad. Enraged. All this was so unfair to her.
She’s protecting the identity of her lover, too, King Lucien thought. He lowered his head and closed his eyes. When he opened them, he stared at her—at the woman he thought he knew. “This is very unexpected. It’s not like you, Vetta.”
She lost it. “Why? Why not like me?” She stared up at him. “I’m not your virgin, am I? I’m not Danika, who you favor. Why are you so surprised? You’re not the only man I’ve ever known intimately, Lucien, are you? You know that you’re not. After all, you were there with me in Danika’s kingdom. You were right there with me in her father’s jail houses where I became the whore of the guards.”
The king flinched as if she’d slapped him. Maybe because he remembered all too well, or she was refreshing his memory. Whatever. She was done.
Vetta straightened and rose to her feet. Her hair was unkempt, her clothes dirty, and her eyes red and swollen from crying all night. “You were right there and watched it all happen for years. So why are you so surprised that I’m a whore?”
“We are no longer in slavery. There are some things called commitment. Called trust,” the king stated vehemently. “I made you my mistress, Vetta, and I trusted you. This time around, you gave yourself to another lover willingly, got pregnant for him, and rid yourself of the child. You broke my trust.”
“And you neglected me!” she shot back angrily. “I did everything for you and you neglected me! When was the last time you wanted to come to my bed, Lucien!? You never wanted to anymore, did you?” She met his gaze head-on, unflinchingly. “I lost you to Danika a year ago. She came along and you threw me away like trash! You stopped caring! Stopped thinking of me! It was all Danika, Danika, Danika! Danika this! Danika that! How is that fair to me!? How!?”
King Lucien was taken aback at the naked bitterness and rage in her. He really looked at her then. His anger drained like the wind. Rage wasn’t what he left but sadness. A huge sense of loss and sadness. “I never threw you away, Vetta,” he stated. Did he?
“You did! I am here, and I’m no longer here!” She laughed, but the sound came out empty. “I fought to be with you. To have you for the past five years, but Danika only had months, and she took you from me. Why? Is it because she was one you divirgined and I wasn’t? Because I was the one the guards took turns with? I was the whore slave that got raped several times, so many times she got pregnant twice and lost them...twice! I was the whore slave!”