Torn

by Jennifer L. Armentrout

  toward the bed. I caught myself and whipped around.

  His arm shot out, the back of his hand connecting with my jaw. Pain erupted along my mouth. I touched my chin, wincing when red smeared my fingertips.

  “The prince will be displeased with your actions,” the ancient warned, looking like he wanted to knock me upside the head.

  Lip bleeding and aching, I gave him a bloody smile. “Worth it.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  I ate my lunch on day four, even though mustard was not exactly pleasant with a split lip. Faye brought me a sandwich a little bit after one o’clock. She didn’t hang around and chat, which sucked because I was curious about her and what drove her to be so kind to me. Granted, it wasn’t like we were going to go out and get matching “best friend” bracelets, but she wasn’t like the others. But the only thing she said to me on the way out was that I shouldn’t have attacked Breena.

  Maybe I shouldn’t have, but oh well.

  Out of all the things I could regret in life, that wouldn’t even make the top thirty.

  My thoughts went to a strange place, and I thought of Val. How would she treat me if I was here and she was still alive? Would she be kind or spiteful? Part of me wanted to believe she would step up and help me, but it hurt to realize there was very little I knew about Val.

  Thinking of her made every part of me ache.

  I’d just finished my sandwich when the bedroom door opened. I tensed when I saw that it was Drake. He was dressed in linen pants that most men wouldn’t look right in, and his shirt was half-unbuttoned. His feet were bare.

  He was dressed way too casual, and unease stirred in my stomach. Drake had stopped by last night, mostly to yell at me for nearly gouging out Breena’s eyes and to tell me that he was glad I was no longer “filthy.” I was guessing Faye hadn’t told him the razor had gone unused.

  “Miss me?” he asked as he stopped in front of the bed.

  I snorted. “Not even in the slightest.”

  “If I had feelings, I still wouldn’t care.”

  Rolling my eyes, I scooted to the edge of the bed and placed my feet on the floor. I didn’t have a lot of space to move around, but I didn’t like being on the bed with him in the room. I stood like I did whenever he came in.

  “Do you like the dress I picked out for you?”

  He hadn’t asked that question before. “No,” I said, shaking my head.

  “I’m not surprised.” He chuckled, and then moved like lightning, curling his fingers around my chin. He tilted my head back. “You know, Valor could’ve done worse to your face.”

  Valor, ironically named, was the ancient who’d backhanded me yesterday. “We’ve already had this conversation,” I said, jerking my chin out of his grasp, hating that he’d allowed that and that was the one reason he wasn’t doing worse. “And I’ll say it again. I’m going to kill her.”

  “Not likely.”

  My eyes narrowed and my hands closed into fists. “You don’t think I’m capable of it?”

  One side of his mouth curled upward as he tilted his head forward. His dark hair slid over his shoulders. “You’d kill her because she touched your human male?”

  “I’d kill her because what she did to him wasn’t something he wanted,” I shot back. “It wasn’t mutual. If it were mutual, then my problem wouldn’t be with her.”

  “How do you know?” he challenged.

  I sucked in a sharp breath. “Because I know—because this isn’t mutual. Because being fed on isn’t something Ren would’ve wanted. Because—”

  “And you think he truly wants you, even knowing that you’re a halfling?”

  My shoulders tensed. Wondering if Ren still cared for me hadn’t been a priority since I was brought here.

  “Let me ask you a question,” he said as he pulled the key from his pocket. “How do you think we captured your male so easily?”

  “I doubt it was easy.”

  His full lips twisted into a smirk. My muscles locked up as he reached around, scooping my hair up with one hand. “It was last Monday,” he said.

  My chest squeezed. That was when I’d told Ren I was the halfling, which was what I’d expected. Ren had gone missing that night until Tuesday, then Drake had shown up, masquerading as Ren, on Wednesday.

  “It wasn’t me who snatched your human male.” He unlocked the band around my neck and dropped it onto the bed. “It was Breena.”

  I didn’t dare move, even though I now had a small measure of freedom. He still held on to my hair, and he was too close. When he spoke, his cool breath caressed my cheek.

  “She caught his attention and lured him in quite easily,” he told me.

  My hands balled into fists. “He saw past her glamour. It’s our job to go after fae when we see them.”

  “And how do you know he was just doing his duty? Breena is beautiful, and you . . . well, you have this hair.” He lifted it up. “Not sure what to make of it.”

  “Gee. Thanks.”

  He chuckled, dropping the curly mass, but didn’t step back. His hand landed on my shoulder, a heavy, suffocating presence. “She rendered him helpless quite easily,” he continued. “I guess he was distracted.”

  Of course he was, and it wasn’t for the reason Drake was suggesting. “I know what you’re trying to do, and it isn’t going to work.”

  “It isn’t?” His hand moved from my shoulder to the back of my neck, and he forced my head back so I met his gaze. “Do you know when we feed, we can pick up thoughts? See inside someone? Pieces of their personality, their wants and desires?”

  I didn’t know that.

  His eyes were like pools of blue ice. “How do you think I was able to convince you I was Ren for a period of time?”

  “Only for a handful of hours,” I reminded him.

  Drake’s fingers tightened around my neck. “If we hadn’t been interrupted, I would’ve gotten what I came for.”

  Anger and embarrassment flushed my skin. I tried to pull away, but he held me in place.

  “I learned certain things about him when I fed, as I am sure Breena did.” He paused. “One of the things I picked up from your human male was his concern over those two men—Henry and Kyle.”

  Great. But right now that wasn’t one of my biggest problems.

  “You should thank me for removing at least one of those threats,” he said, and I clamped my mouth shut. “I did what your human male couldn’t do.”

  “Murdering someone in cold blood isn’t exactly a desirable trait,” I shot back.

  “We’ll have to disagree on that.” Letting go of my neck, he stepped back. “Do you know what else I learned?”

  I all but darted across the room, putting as much space between us as possible. The bedroom door was closed, and I was smart enough to know I wasn’t going to get past him. I wasn’t sure why he’d let me go, but I wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I needed to keep my cool, because the only chance I had was to earn his trust.

  “What?” I asked.

  Drake smiled tightly. “Your human male isn’t sure how he feels about you. He’s torn. He cares for you, but he loathes half of what you are. He cannot reconcile those two halves.”

  The breath I sucked in burned, and a knot formed in the back of my throat, making my voice hoarse. “Why should I believe what you’re saying?”

  “Because I’ve been inside your head and you share those same fears,” he replied. “You fear that he feels that way, and you would be right. He does.”

  I paced in front of the dresser, folding my arms around my waist. The knot expanded in my throat.

  “Why would you want to be with someone who does not fully accept who you are?” he asked.

  That was a great question, and one that lingered in the back of my thoughts far too often. Frustrated, I started wearing a path in the plush carpet that surrounded the massive bed. Keeping my cool probably wasn’t going to happen. “Do you really think telling me these things is going to he
lp?”

  “Yes.”

  My hands curled into fists. “It’s not.”

  “You made a deal, so in the end, it doesn’t really matter, does it?” he replied. “You have seventeen days left.”

  I shuddered. “I’d rather you kill me than remind me of that.”

  “I thought you didn’t want to die.” Drake dropped into the chair by the window, and he sat like he always did, thighs spread wide and shoulders pressed back. He turned every chair into a throne, and it annoyed me greatly. “When you were on your back and I’d broken some very important things inside you, didn’t you want to live? Has that changed?”

  “Yes.” I made another pass in front of the bed, the stupid dress whispering around my ankles. “Your mere presence makes me wish for a fifty-story window to jump out of and a cement sidewalk below. Or a moat. A moat with a dozen hungry alligators in it.”

  He smirked. “You always paint such lovely pictures with your words, little bird.”

  “I’m going to paint lovely pictures with your intestines,” I shot back.

  Drake laughed.

  I hated him.

  Seriously.

  “Resist all you want.” He dismissively flicked his wrist as he turned his gaze to the window. “We have a deal. In the end, you will be under me and I will plant my seed in your belly.”

  My lip curled with disgust and I stopped pacing. I told myself to shut up, but my mouth moved without my control. “That has to be the most revolting thing I’ve ever heard.”

  He raised one shoulder, managing to make a shrug look elegant.

  Anger rose inside me, my nearly constant companion. “Do you really think I want this?” He opened his mouth. “Don’t answer that question,” I warned. “We made a deal, because you gave me no other option. I don’t want you, and I sure as hell don’t want to bear your child.”

  A smirk graced his perfect lips and his pale gaze centered on me. “Oh, we’ll see about that.”

  I laughed bitterly. “Oh no, me wanting this is never going to happen. Like, the never-ever part is Taylor Swift level of never-ever.”

  A look of confusion appeared on his face.

  “I know I’m no longer of any use to you once I pop out the apocalypse baby—”

  He sighed. “I wish you would stop calling the baby that.”

  I ignored him. “Once I pop out the apocalypse baby, you’re going to kill me. I don’t care how hot you think you are, or how skilled you like to believe your magic cock is, me not wanting this is my life insurance policy.”

  “I thought you wanted a window to jump out of and a moat full of hungry alligators.”

  My eyes narrowed. “Maybe I don’t plan to honor our deal. Unlike the fae, I’m not bound by my promises.”

  He tipped his head back, closing his eyes. My back stiffened. I was insulted. Offended. I was a badass fighter, and he was so not scared of me that he was about to take a freaking nap!

  “You know, little bird,” he said slowly, his fingers tapping along the arm of the black chair. “I plan to keep you afterward. Your mouth amuses me. Perhaps I will have a pretty cage fashioned to hold my pretty red-headed bird.”

  I gaped at him. “You should go update your Match.com profile with that information. The ladies will be lining up outside, because nothing screams romance like being held captive in a cage.”

  Drake chuckled darkly. “Ah, you are amusing.”

  “I am not amusing!” I lifted my chin. “I’m pissed.”

  “Really,” he replied dryly. “I never would’ve guessed that.”

  Heat swept over me as my anger creeped into cut-a-bitch territory. “I’m going to kill you. I will find a way, and I will kill you for everything you have done to Ren, and everything you’re doing to me.”

  The prince tipped his head to the side.

  “And that’s not a warning. It’s a promise I won’t even consider backing out of.”

  His fingers stilled, and that should have been warning enough, but I was too pissed to recognize that I’d gone too far.

  The prince was out of the chair and in front of me in less than half a second. Not even a heartbeat had passed. How fast he could move would never cease to amaze and terrify me.

  He gripped my arm and spun me around. His hand landed in the center of my back, but I didn’t fall forward. Oh no, I flew forward. Like the length of the room. I threw my hands out, and my palms smacked into the paneled wall a second before my face would have.

  The prince was at my back in under a nanosecond, pressing and sealing my body to the wall. “My amusement has its limitations, little bird.” His breath was icy against my ear. “There’s something you haven’t realized, and I am done waiting for it to connect. There are worse things I could do to you than end your life. And it’s time you learned that.”

  Oh. Shit.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  I wasn’t surprised when the metal band was snapped around my neck again, but when he took the chain and dragged me out into the hallway, I had no idea what was about to go down.

  The whole earning his trust thing had belly-flopped out the window.

  Drake didn’t speak as he led me downstairs, and there was no way I was getting away from him at this moment. Not when he was this angry.

  I wasn’t stupid. Running my mouth may have made it appear that way, but I was smart enough to taste fear on the tip of my tongue.

  There was a blur of fae faces as he took me back toward the room full of cots and humans. The ancient guarding the door eyed the chain wrapped around Drake’s fist, smirking as he stepped aside. My cheeks burned with humiliation. Being led around, dragged from one room to the next with a chain in this ridiculous dress went beyond public shame.

  He moved to the center of the room, and I stopped just inside, my toes curling against the cool wood floor. The cots weren’t nearly as full as they had been the last time I was here. Three of them were occupied. One of the humans, a female who looked like she was in her mid-thirties, was awake, staring listlessly at the ceiling. The other two were guys who looked like they were barely in their twenties, and they were asleep or passed out.

  There was only one other fae in the room, a male who was leaning against the wall, his attention focused on the cellphone in his hand. I wondered if he was checking his Facebook account, and I squelched a hysterical giggle.

  Drake looked over his shoulder, brows furrowed. Our gazes met, and a smile formed on his lips, turning cruel. A second later, he jerked the chain.

  I resisted, and pressure clamped down on my neck, making it hard to swallow or breathe. Panic balled in the pit of my stomach, heavy like stones. Reflex took over, and I gripped the chain.

  “You fight me even though you know it’s pointless.” Drake walked toward me, and the tension in the chain eased. Air rushing down my throat pushed back the panic. He stopped in front of me. “It’s either incredibly foolish or courageous. Which is it?”

  I met his stare but refused to answer his question.

  One eyebrow rose as he leaned in. His mouth was next to my cheek. “You’re a fighter, even when it’s useless. I can respect that, but that doesn’t mean I won’t break you.”

  Turning my head from his, I exhaled roughly. “You’re not going to break me.”

  “Is that so? I think I’m already well on my way.” He lifted the chain, rattling it. “You’re in my chains, eating my food, sleeping