Page 47 of Ruby Red Sky

“Cassia, listen to me.” His voice deepened and his eyes darkened, causing my heart to stutter in my chest. “There is nothing I won’t do to keep you safe. No one I won’t hurt or kill. If it leaves the two of us as the last people standing, so be it. You will accept this. It is my law.”

He disappeared from the room, and I grabbed the back of the couch to stop myself from falling down. Katarina rushed over to me. “Are you okay? Seriously, none of this is your fault. I’m used to this stuff.”

My chest sank thinking about how I’d screamed at him after we had such a nice day. But whoever heard of pulling someone’s fingernails off because they went shopping? It defied logic.

My maid helped me up despite the sorry shape of her hands, using her forearms and wrists to try and stabilize me. She guided me onto the couch and sat quietly beside me while I stared out the window, my head numb.

I was emotionally depleted and I knew it. The highs and lows of the day had been drastic, and it felt good to just sit with Katarina’s steady presence. As I leaned against her with my head on her shoulder, I told her, “I don’t care what happens, but I won’t let him punish you ever again. I know you wouldn’t do anything to try and hurt me.”

She chuckled softly. “If anyone could keep a promise like that, you would be the one.”

* * *

The next couple weeks went by quietly. The window became my home as I finally took out my drawing supplies and spent hours transforming blank pages into landscapes. I hadn’t yet seen a unicorn, but they graced several canvases.

Lukas was a ghost. Haunting the corners of my mind and my memory, leaving me with alternating visions of the embrace and his kiss, and then his dark and stormy face when I screamed at him.

Guilt prickled my belly and my heart continued to feel heavy. I was slowly accepting that I wouldn’t be leaving this Realm any time soon and that it was inevitable I’d be wed to a vampire lord—of all things.

I had to laugh at my circumstances sometimes, considering the disconnect between the future I’d envisioned and the one I was faced with. Marriage with a boring, distant finance bro or a coupling with a violent, distant, ancient bloodthirsty creature?

The creature intrigued me far more than the Wall Street guy ever had.

Katarina knocked on my door, and I yelled for her to come in, setting down my paint brush. Lately, I preferred colored pencils, but now that I had huge stretches of time to play with, I was working on perfecting my oil technique.

“Oooo,” my maid drawled, “you got the colors perfect. I love it. Looks like you can just jump inside the paper.”

I grinned. “Thank you.”

Kiam strolled in, hands in his pockets and his head jerked, eyeing my art. “You painted that,” he stated.

“I did.” I stood and wiped my hands on a small rag.

He tilted his head slightly as he looked at me. “It is very good.” I may have blushed as self-consciousness trickled through me.

“Queen Annalise is expecting you for your luncheon today,” he remarked.

In the back of my mind, I’d assumed she’d forgotten since so much time had gone by. “Oh? Okay. I should probably get ready.”

He glanced at me. “Do that. Katarina, help her. When you’re done, we’ll go.”

The man settled in an armchair, crossing his legs, and Katarina and I headed to the walk-in closet.

She swiped the hangers back and forth, searching. “You want to be formal, but not too formal. Casual. But casual-formal? And you should show some skin. She loves that.”

Patiently, I waited while she agonized over the options. “We should have gone shopping,” I remarked.

She stopped suddenly and pulled her head out of the rack to level me with a gaze before shoving her face back in.

“Or not...” I muttered.

Katarina popped back out with a dark blue minidress. “This one. It’ll show off your legs and your back,” she flipped the garment around to display the lack of material behind it, “and with the high neckline you’re sending a message.”

“That I’m not drinkable. Got it.”

I took the garment and changed right there in the closet. My maid tugged my hair from the neckline of the dress, arranging it around my shoulders. She didn’t have use of all her fingers, so I ended up assisting.

“Thanks,” I said. “I guess I need to put some makeup on.”