Rosalina
LUCAS’S EYES GLEAM AS he takes me in, gaze sharpening, like I’m a frightened doe he’s lining up
in his crosshairs.
But he will not take me down. Not today. Not when I finally have a lead on how to get back to
where I belong.
“We’re busy right now,” I tell him, hating the shake in my voice. The quirk of his smile when he
hears it.
“There she is. Finally.” Lucas runs a hand through his dark red hair.
My heartbeat quickens and nausea roils in my gut. I wish Kel, Ezryn, Dayton, or Farron were here.
“It’s rude to avoid your fiancé.” Lucas moves closer. My father tries to step in front of me, but
Lucas pushes him.
I shove my free hand into my pocket, feeling the ring. This is it. I pull it out and stare down at the
golden band, the gaudy diamond. “My answer is no.”
He snorts a laugh, but there’s no humor in his eyes. It’s hard for me to believe I ever thought he was
attractive. “Don’t you see, Pumpkin? That’s not a choice you get to make.” He grabs my wrist, holding
tight over my long sleeve, atop my scar. I cry out in pain as the pressure of his grip forces my hand
open. My moonstone necklace falls to the ground, tinkling against the wood.
“Let her go!” Papa reaches for us.
Lucas ignores him and tugs me closer. “Ring or not, you’ve belonged to me since the moment I
pulled you out of that frozen lake.”
Saving someone’s life does not grant them ownership over it. Keldarion told me that. After we
saved each other. After my mate bond awakened.
“You know nothing of belonging to someone!” I snarl, yanking my arm away.
And maybe I don’t either. But I am going to do everything in my power to find out. And that means
returning to Castletree. To my princes.
I step back and throw the ring at Lucas’s face.
He blinks, stumbling, but before he can regain his composure, Papa winds his fist, then delivers a
sharp blow across his cheek. “Stay away from my daughter, you insufferable cur!”
“Fuck you, old man.” Lucas slams my father so hard he falls across the table.
But Lucas never takes his eyes off me. His pupils darken with hunger and desire, a hunter stalking
his prize. I will never give in to him again. He approaches me relentlessly until the sharp crunch of
glass sounds across the room. He pauses for a moment and looks down at the broken necklace before
kicking it away, sending pieces of moonstone skittering across the floor.
My hope destroyed under the heel of Lucas’s boot.
“Come now, Pumpkin. This is getting ridiculous,” Lucas says.
As I look from the broken necklace on the ground up to the face of a man I once thought I loved,
something shatters inside me too.
No...
Ignites.
Warmth floods my chest. Call it fire. Call it power. Call it a wild beast, even. But with the power
of a tempest, I look Lucas in the eyes and say: “Leave. Get out of my house. Get out of my life.”
He flinches. “W-what’s wrong with you...”
Cold sweat covers me as my body shakes, fear writhing inside my chest like a trapped animal. But
it will not consume me today. I prowl forward. “I don’t want to see you again.”
He backs up onto the porch, blinking wildly, unsure what to say. A cold wind whips inside,
wrapping around me like an embrace.
“Goodbye, Lucas.” I pick up the ring from the ground and toss it right at his chest. “And I hate the
name Pumpkin.”