Page 66 of Ash and Roses
“Quinn—”
“Don’t,” he cuts me off as he moves for the door. “I’ll be back.”
Before I can stop him, he slips out of the room and shuts the door behind him. A lock clicks in place, and when I try to follow him, the door won’t budge. I slam my hands against it. “Quinn! Let me out!”
I pound on the door until my fists grow sore, and then slide to the floor, hugging my knees close to my chest. Just last night, he’d promised that I’d never be a prisoner again. I may have stabbed him in the heart, but I think this makes us even.
CHAPTERTHIRTY-FIVE
QUINN
She can’t leave me. Not now. Not after everything. Did last night mean nothing to her? I suppose this is my fault, too. I dared to hope, and she tore into me just as I always knew she would.
I could kill him. It’s well within my rights. This is my land, and he killed one of my people. No one would blame me. Except for Abby, of course. I never wanted it to come down to a choice between the safety of my people and the feelings I have for her, but what can I do? If I kill him, I’ll lose her for sure. And if I allow him to live? She’ll leave me. I’m a man who hates to lose, faced with a situation I can’t win.
This is bigger than she realizes. Maybe I should have told her the truth, but then we never would have gotten this far. If she’d just left when I told her to, none of this would have happened. She would be home, Rosewood would be safe, and I wouldn’t have to stop myself from ripping the throat out of her huntsman.
What Abby doesn’t realize is that if there was no curse, her fate would be the same as it is now. She would be locked away here, or perhaps in Lunae, the prisoner wife of my brother. Memories of my father’s plans flood back to me, years of training and preparation resurfacing after five long years of being buried deep within myself. Abby can’t know what should have been her fate, just as I can’t allow this stranger to leave so long as he means to report back to Lunae. I did all of this to prevent a war. I can’t let him inadvertently start one now.
I storm down the hall, following the strange scent in the air that I know will lead me to whichever room Tess put him in. By the time I reach it, the anger and torment swirling inside me has grown into a raging storm that won’t easily be quelled. I can’t even bring myself to knock, so I thrust the door open. The bang is loud and echoes down the hall, but the huntsman seems unbothered. He sits in one of two chairs at the small table by the window, grinning up at me as if this was his home and I was the guest.
“What a pleasant surprise,” he says, and his tone makes the rage inside me bubble like the lava pits of Dragoria. “Would you care to join me, Your Highness?”
Who does he think he is? In the throne room, he’d been courtly and respectful, but now? He didn’t even stand when I entered the room. “What did you say your name was?”
“I didn’t. Where is Abby?”
My jaw tightens. “Not here.”
“So she’s dead?” I can tell by his tone that he doesn’t believe me.
“That’s a safe assumption, yes.”
The huntsman sighs. “Well, that’s too bad. There’s no telling what her father will do when he hears about all of this.” I get the sense that his words are little more than a thinly veiled threat.
Come on Quinn. Remember your training.This should be nothing. It’s all word games and manipulations. It might have been years since I needed to war in this way, but I still know the rules—or lack thereof. I take the chair across from him, turning it slightly so that I can put my feet up on the bed next to us. It isn’t exactly comfortable, and I have to stretch farther than I’d like, but appearances are the first step.
“I’m sure he wouldn’t be happy,” I agree. “Though it seems to me that you’re overlooking a key piece of information.”
His eyebrows raise in feigned curiosity. “Do tell.”
“You wish to slay the beast, but doing so would have irrevocable consequences on Lunae and her people.”
He leans forward, arms stretching across the table as he moves. “Can I tell you a secret,prince? I don’t give a fuck what happens to Lunae or her people.”
I fight to keep my features emotionless, but feel my forehead crease for just a second. It’s enough for him to know he has me. Realization hits, and my feet slip off the bed and I lean in to match his stance. “You’re a Sealander.” I should have known it by his accent. It’s faint, but it’s there, and that mixed with his golden skin and sandy hair…
Shit.
“How’s Roald and your traitorous mother?”
I almost lunge across the table at the mention of my parents. He already knows. If he’s from Marein, of course he would. But why is he still alive? Lunae wiped out Marein near twenty years ago. “Dead. Just like you will be unless you tell me exactly who the fuck you are.”
He laughs, and he’s lucky I can still feel Abby pounding on the barrier I’ve put around my thoughts. She’s convinced I’ll kill him, and oh how I’d love to prove her right—prove to her I’m the monster she fails to see.
“Just an orphan. Something we have in common, it seems.”
I. Could. Kill. Him. “What do you want?”