Page 78 of The Vespertine Treaty
“Do not make me change the terms of our arrangement, wife,” I stated, my voice vibrating with restrained violence. “Or you will soon find yourself no longer sleeping in separate chambers, but in my private quarters. Do not test my control. My core is starving, and if you push me, I will keep you where I can feed on your stability all night long."
"I won't do it," Ophelia choked out, trembling but defiant, her voice strained. "I won't sleep in your room. I will not sleep where your whore just lay, smelling of that cheap filth. I won't."
I turned back to her, my breath ragged, my eyes flashing with the cold fury of necessary dominance. “Little Aenite, you will do precisely what is commanded, when commanded. Do you think you have a choice in where you reside? You are not here to pass judgment on my methods of control.”
"Then control yourself!" Ophelia challenged, her voice low and dangerous. "If I am to be your prisoner, Cain, I want to know what I am locked in with. Give me the library. Give me something other than your cruelty and your whore's perfume."
I stopped, my eyes meeting hers. She was leveraging my weakness. She saw the cracks in the armour and she was shoving her fingers into them.
“The library? You know enough. You know I am the law in my home, and that law forbids entry. If you step one foot past my perimeter, Ophelia, you will find out precisely what my Pain-Eater core is capable of without its filter."
I turned away from her before the urge to taste her defiance overwhelmed me. I walked back toward my study, not looking at the stunned female, my voice a low, final rasp over my shoulder.
"You taste sweeter than Rosette, Ophelia. But you are far more dangerous."
CHAPTER 29
OPHELIA
Ididn't watch him walk away.
The moment Cain’s broad back disappeared around the corner, the paralysis of the confrontation shattered, replaced by a violent, heaving need to escape.
I scrubbed the back of my hand across my mouth, trying to wipe away the phantom taste of his words.“You taste sweeter than Rosette.”
The comparison was a physical blow. The air in the corridor was thick with the cloying, toxic scent of the female who had probably just been on her knees for him. It coated my tongue. It clung to my hair. It was the scent of my humiliation.
I turned and ran.
I didn't run to the library. I ran to the sanctuary of my chambers, my breath tearing from my throat in ragged gasps. I slammed the heavy oak door and leaned against it, sliding down until I hit the floor, my hands tangling in my hair.
"Don't vomit,"Poppy whispered, her voice tight with shared nausea."Do not give him the satisfaction of making you sick."
"He is disgusting,"I choked out, squeezing my eyes shut."He touches me with the same hands... he looks at me with the same eyes..."
"He is a male," Poppy countered, though she sounded unconvinced."A biological machine. Friedrik told us. It's maintenance."
"It's betrayal!"I snapped, the word ringing true in the empty room. It wasn't just about Caspian anymore. It was about the way Cain had looked at me in the sunroom—like I was a revelation—only to immediately summon a replacement to hollow himself out.
My eyes fell on the mantle clock.
Fifteen minutes until midnight.
The rage instantly crystallised into ice.
Caspian.
The letter burned in my mind. While I was here, drowning in the toxic sludge of Cain’s lust and self-loathing, Caspian was out there, broken and suicidal, waiting in the ruins.
"We have to go," I whispered, pushing myself up from the floor. The disgust was still there, but now it had a purpose. I needed to leave this house. I needed to breathe air that didn't taste of Cain Alistair.
I didn't change my dress. I grabbed my heavy cloak, fastening it with trembling fingers, and retrieved the small, silver dagger I had stolen from the dinner table days ago. It was a patheticweapon against high-level magic, but the weight of it in my palm was grounding.
"This is reckless, Oph,” Poppy warned, hopping onto my shoulder. "Malathor is a snake."
"Malathor is a politician," I corrected, moving toward the servants' passage Friedrik had shown me. "And right now, I would rather deal with a snake than a monster."
The Eastern Garden was a place of beautiful ruin, exactly as Malathor had promised.
