Evryn closed the door firmly behind him, the wood striking the frame with a sharp, final sound that echoed in the sudden silence of the room.
She turned slowly to meet Auren’s gaze, her eyes flicking involuntarily over the hard, sharp lines of his bare chest before settling, with a forced sternness, on his face.
“At least you could have put your shirt on before coming out,” she muttered, crossing her arms to hide her sudden nervousness.
Auren didn’t look even remotely apologetic.
Instead, a slow, wicked smirk spread across his lips as he took a step closer.
“Why?
What are you afraid of, little bird?
What could that man possibly think?”
“Did you honestly think that just because Steven saw you half-naked, he would think something happened between us?” She leaned forward, her eyes dancing with wicked amusement.
“You are dreaming, Your Highness.
Steven is like a brother to me.
He knows me better than I know myself.
It isn’t guilt, Auren…it’s just that having a shirtless man lurking around is a bit embarrassing before guests.”
She stepped closer, tapping a finger lightly against his bare chest with a playful, powerful smirk.
“Don’t flatter yourself.
Not everyone looks at you and sees a temptation.”
Auren’s jaw tightened at that, a small muscle leaping in his cheek.
Instead of stepping back, he crowded her space even more, leaning down until his lips were brushing against the shell of her ear.
A slow, knowing smile returned to his face, cutting right through her confident armor.
“The sharp tongue speaks one thing, little bird, but the beautiful eyes…
they tell a completely different story.”
She reached into the basket, her movements jerky with frustrated energy, and pulled out the folded clothes.
She slapped the fabric lightly against his bare chest, the sound a soft thud against his skin.
“Just go, Wear it.”
He caught the clothes in one hand without a word, his gaze never leaving hers.
She continued speaking as he stepped back into the bedroom to dress.
“He came this morning to check on me,” she said from the other room.
“I asked him to bring what I needed.
If I went to the market myself, you would feel the pain of distance, so I chose to stay.”
He stepped out of the room, tugging his shirt over his shoulders as he went, smoothing the fabric into place.
“Wise decision,” he said lightly.
“Good girl.” His palm tapped the top of her head, casual, almost teasing.
She immediately slapped his hand away…
sharp enough to make a point.
“Stop it.”
Auren only smiled, clearly amused, the corner of his mouth lifting as if her reaction had been exactly what he’d expected.
His eyes moved to the basket on the table.
In the center sat sealed glass containers filled with deep, crimson liquid.
It was human blood.
Under these laws, the common vampire population survived on the thin taste of animal blood.
Human blood was reserved for the one who pay for it, sold only in the vampire markets where the price of a drop reflected its purity; the more gold one paid, the richer and more potent the blood they could claim.
He looked at her, his voice low and heavy.
“You did not need to buy that, Evryn.”
He knew the cost.
He knew that for a servant, this one meal cost months of hard labor.
Evryn didn’t look up from her plate.
She spoke softly, but her words had a sharp edge.
“Shame on me if I served animal blood for your breakfast.”
“You chose the expensive one.
You are generous,” he replied, his heart tightening.
“Don’t worry,” she said with a small, bitter shrug.
“I have been saving for years, Enjoy my broken future.”
Auren felt a pang of sadness.
“Evryn…”
“To be honest,” she interrupted, her voice gaining a strange, dark strength, “I will enjoy every drop of seeing you well-fed.
If I’m to be part of this mess, I’ll do it properly.”
Auren watched her for a moment.
He realized she was using her pain as a shield.
He decided to change the subject, turning his voice serious.
“Tell me,” he said, leaning forward.
“How did you come to this house so fast?
One moment you were at the farm, and the next, you had vanished.”
Evryn picked up a piece of fruit, thinking as she ate.
“Mmm…
I don’t really know.
I was lying on my bed, crying and thinking of this house.
I wanted to be home so badly.
Then, a magical gate just…
opened.
Right in the middle of the room.
I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“And yet you stepped into it,” Auren remarked, his silver eyes narrowing.
“Most people would have run away from a hole in the air.”
Evryn gave him a small, guilty smile.
“I was desperate.
I just wanted to be away…
from everything.”
Auren went quiet for a second.
He was trying to solve a puzzle.
“Tell me then…was there someone else?
Any other man in your life?
Someone who might have a reason to cast a soul-binding spell on you?”
She shook her head immediately.
“No.
Only Ray.
He was the only man I ever knew, the only one I ever talked to.
And now…
you.”
She looked away, her tone turning sad and distant.
“When my father died, the world went dark.
I was depressed.
I felt like I was drowning.
That’s why I left this house and went to work at the King’s palace.
I was cold to everyone.
I pushed people away.
I made sure they hated me so they wouldn’t get close.”
She took a shaky breath.
“Only Ray broke through.
At that time, I didn’t need love…I needed comfort.
I needed to feel safe and not be alone.
He gave me that.
Or I thought he did.”
She looked at Auren, her eyes honest and raw.
“So, I am sure there is no one else.
No one loves me to cast a spell like that.”
Auren listened, but he didn’t look convinced.
He watched the way the morning light hit her face and thought about the gate that opened for her.
Auren leaned back, his silver eyes watching her over the glass of crimson liquid.
“So,” he said, his voice dropping an octave, “that is why you stayed with him.
Even when you knew he was playing behind your back.”
Evryn didn’t flinch.
She picked at the fruit in front of her, her movements precise.
“Yes.
I wasn’t ready to give up on him.
I never went looking for proof, Auren.
Never.
To be honest, I wasn’t ready to see the truth.”
She looked up at him, a small, weary smile touching her lips.
“I was so happy when the palace transferred me to the farm.
Even if that happiness didn’t last once you showed up.
I thought, finally.
I thought being away from the palace distractions would bring us closer to our future.
I believed that marriage would change him.”
Her smile faded into something sharper.
“But he didn’t choose me.
I don’t even why he wanted to marry me.”
Auren tilted his head, a shadow of a smirk appearing.
“Smart man,” he murmured.
Evryn’s hand stilled.
Her eyes snapped to his, flashing with a sudden, dangerous heat.
“Smart?” she repeated, her voice dropping to a deadly quiet.
“Because he didn’t choose me?
I am that bad, then?”
She let out a short, dry laugh that had no humor in it.
“Ah, no wonder you were so arrogant from the start.
You must think I’m some pathetic prize that even a traitor like Ray didn’t want to keep.”
She leaned forward, her sharp tongue finally lashing out.
Auren took a slow sip of the blood she had bought with her life savings, the rich taste filling his senses while enjoy her.
“Listen to me, Your Majesty,” she said, the title dripping with sarcasm.
” He wanted a girl who would stay quiet and keep her eyes shut, and I am not quiet.
I am loud, I am difficult, and clearly, I am the only person standing between you and a very painful death.”
She gestured to the expensive blood on the table. Follow the newest chapters on novelping.com.
“So don’t sit there with your royal attitude telling me who is ‘smart.’ If you think you’re so much better off without me, feel free to walk out that door and see how far your ‘freedom’ gets you before your heart stops beating.”
She took a bite of the fruit, her gaze never leaving his.
“I might have a broken future, but I still have my teeth.
Don’t test them.”
Auren didn’t look angry.
If anything, the “silver frost” in his eyes seemed to glow with something that looked suspiciously like respect.
Then, he did something she didn’t expect.
He laughed.
It was a deep, rich sound that seemed to vibrate through the small kitchen.
Evryn was caught completely off guard.
She had expected him to snap back, to use his royal authority, or to go cold.
Instead, he seemed genuinely amused by her fire.
Her words hadn’t bothered him at all; they had delighted him.
“I said only one word, and you attacked me like a cornered cat,” he said, his voice warm with lingering laughter.
He reached across the table and took her hands.
His skin was warm now from the blood, his grip firm but not forceful.
He didn’t let go even when she tried to pull back.
“I called him smart for a reason you do not see,” Auren said, his expression turning serious but his eyes remaining soft.
He leaned closer, his voice dropping.
“He is smart because he did not choose you.
If he had chosen you, he would have chosen his own death.
I would have killed him the moment he tried to touch what belongs to me.”
Evryn’s breath caught in her throat.
The “arrogance” was still there, but it felt different now…less like a king looking down and more like a man making a promise.
“And he was smart to want you as a wife,” Auren continued, his thumb grazing over her knuckles.
“Not because you are quiet or easy.
But because you are loyal.
Because you stay when the world burns.
Because you would spend your last coin to feed a ‘guest’ who has done nothing but bring you trouble.”
He looked at the glass containers on the table, then back at her.
“He was smart enough to see your value, Evryn.
He was just too weak to deserve it.”
Evryn stared at him, her sharp tongue finally silenced.
The anger she had been using as a shield began to melt under the heat of his gaze.
She swallowed hard, her heart hammering against her ribs.
She pulled her hand back as if his skin had burned her.
“I do not belong to anyone,” she snapped, though her voice wavered under the intensity of his stare.
“Choose your words carefully, Auren.”
She didn’t wait for him to respond.
She turned on her heel and hurried straight to her room, closing the door firmly behind her.
Once she was completely alone in the quiet space, she leaned her back against the wood and frantically fanned her face with her hands.
Her cheeks were burning hot.
“Damn him,” she whispered to the empty room, her heart hammering against her ribs.
“His confidence…
his words…” She shook her head violently, trying to clear the image of his piercing silver eyes.
“I knew from the very start he wasn’t ordinary.
Stay away from him, Evryn.
He is a storm, and you will get swept away.”
Suddenly, Asric’s warning echoed sharply in her mind: Your neck is perfectly safe for now.
For now, she thought, her eyes widening in a wave of sudden realization.
Oh my god…
you are forgetting that Auren is a king!
A king, not your assistant!
Shut that mouth and swallow your idiot tongue, Evryn!
Panicking at her own boldness, she whipped around and pressed her lips close to the gap in the door.
“Your Highness?” she called out hesitantly.
Silence met her.
Auren didn’t answer.
“My king?” she tried again, her voice dropping to a nervous whisper.
“Auren?”
A beat passed before his deep, rumbling voice drifted through the heavy wood.
“Yes?”
“Is…
is my neck still safe?”
She held her breath, and then she heard it…that low, wicked laugh of his vibrating through the door.
It was a sound that told her exactly how much he enjoyed playing with her.
“Yes,” he murmured, his tone dripping with slow, dangerous amusement.
“It is still safe.”
In the kitchen, Auren didn’t look offended.
Instead, a slow, satisfied smile spread across his face.
He had felt her heart race through the bond.
He liked shaking her feelings.