Unlikely Queen (Crystal Castle 1)

“I could take you as my bride. You are beautiful.” My breath hitches at his words. “And you are not a virgin. I do get lonely…”

“I…”

He waves me off, stopping me from speaking. “Sleep. And tomorrow I will decide your fate.” He clicks his fingers, and before I can even argue with him, my eyes drop closed and I’m falling.

Chapter Fifteen

My hands are feeling something I’m unfamiliar with. What is that? Opening my eyes, I feel the bedsheets beneath my fingers, and it’s the softest material I have ever felt.

“It’s silk, in case you were wondering.”

I sit quickly and see him shirtless, standing at the end of a bed.

Did I sleep here?

Am I in his room?

How did I even get here?

What am I even wearing?

Looking down, I’m dressed in something close to the same material I’m sleeping between. It’s a nightdress with a slit up the side of my leg. Anger starts to rear its ugly head, and as I look up at him, he starts to speak, “One day, you will be strong enough to use those powers of yours in this forest, and I will not be able to stop you.”

I take a deep breath. “Did we…”

He laughs, and I feel it’s the first real emotion he has shown me since I got here.

“No. I may be a lot of things, but a rapist, I am not.”

Letting go of the breath I was holding, I check around the room. It’s nothing like my small box of a bedroom at home. This place would be fit for the queen’s palace. Except everything is made of wood, with different earthy tones filling the space. Dark wood makes up the bed, yet the window bay is in a lighter wood. I sit up and slide my feet to the wooden floor, which is smooth beneath my soles, and turn to face him. He is watching me with interest, those white eyes studying me fervently.

“Your sister sure is a troublemaker.” I wriggle my nose up at his words. “She is turning my forest over to find you. You must be special.”

“Clearly, you don’t have family,” I snap back at him.

Looking around the room, my eyes search for my clothes but don’t find them. My body is warm now, unlike how cold I felt in the forest.

“No, the family I did have was all killed many years ago.” I pause at his words and try not to look his way. “I can feel your emotions, Talia. No need to hide that face from me, too.”

Turning now, I stand at the end of his bed. He slides his shirt on, and I watch as it glides over his smooth abs.

“How can you feel my emotions?” I ask.

“I know a lot of things. More than the average person.” I stare at him, confused. “I’m the last of my kind, and the queen, with her black heart, would do absolutely anything to get rid of me. But you see, she can’t. While she made deals with demons, so did I.”

“Demons?” I ask, and he nods.

“We aren’t all blessed with power like yours, but I was not going to let her win. Where do you think she got the idea to bargain with a demon in the first place? She knew I had,” he finishes.

“You knew her?”

“Very much so. She was my lover,” he admits.

Well, holy hell, I did not expect that answer.

“But you are…” I cringe at the word before I say it, “…old.”

Viper starts laughing. “I may be older than you, sweet girl, but time means nothing.” Viper is said to be older than most people but he never really ages. I didn’t believe it until I saw him. He looks young, but his age has been hidden from most. We just know he is older than all of us, older than my parents, older than…

“Where is my sister?” I ask as I watch him go through a door that wasn’t there a minute ago. When I follow, I walk into a bathroom. The floor is black, the walls are black, and the only thing that’s white is the bathtub. Even the shower is black with a dark-frosted glass door.

“Shower, and when you are done, we can talk about your sister.” I know I have to listen to him, that he has the upper hand here, but it isn’t right. My hands start to clench and my eyes look around for something, anything, I can use to hurt him. “I would lose that thought. I know what you plan to do before you do it. If you want to see her, I would suggest that you not piss me off. Just listen.”

“I bet all the girls listen to you and none tell you no.”

His eyes snap to me, the whites so white that it makes you want to instantly look away. “Tell me… if I made you bleed right now, do you think your Angel of Death would save you?”