“Do you come to this union of your own free will to marry this woman?” he asks Anders.
“Yes,” Anders says quickly.
“Then so be it,” the ‘minister’ says and Anders bends down to kiss me, forcing my lips apart to shove his tongue in my mouth.
“Wait,” he calls out to the retreating minister. “You will be the witness to our consummation. We cannot have any doubt shed upon this union.”
The old Faerie looks vastly uncomfortable, but he stays where he is on orders of his King.
“On the chaise,” Anders instructs me.
I turn around to see a chaise longue has appeared out of nowhere. I walk over to it and I lie down.
“Open your legs,” Anders chides me, as he fumbles with his breeches. He falls on top of me, his mouth attaching itself to my nipple. “For fuck’s sake, act like you want it,” he mutters, his mouth full of my breast.
I wrap my legs around him and grab his backside, pushing him ever closer to entrance.
“Get away from my daughter!” a voice I recognize instantly booms and, in a flash, Anders is being hauled off me by magick and flung against the wall. I am then dragged to my feet and stumble across the room to Drake, where he grabs me by the arm and looks into my eyes. “Shake it off,” he yells at me, shaking me for emphasis.
I gaze at him, but my eyes won’t focus. He waves his hand in front of me and clothes me in a dress that covers me from neck to ankles and then pushes me behind him.
“I killed your father for touching her against her will,” he growls at Anders.
“I am trying to protect her,” Anders says indignantly, pulling up his breeches. “She is to stand trial tomorrow. The Court will not prosecute my Queen.”
“Over my dead body!” Drake roars and lets out a stream of magick that knocks Anders off his feet. He grips me painfully by the arm again and transports us out of that horrible bright light and into a dark entrance hall that relaxes my eyes and makes them droop in relief.
Drake grabs my shoulders and shakes me violently. “Shake it off, dammit.”
I just blink at him, not knowing what he wants me to do. He seems to be shaking me enough for the both of us.
He lifts his hand and he strikes me across the face, causing me to stumble back and for the second time this night, I gasp in horror and hold my hand up to my cheek.
“How dare you?” I spit at him.
“Are you back?” he asks, crossing his arms.
I think about it for all of a second. “Yes,” I say quickly. “Fucking Faeries!” I add with a boom.
Drake gives me a sour look. “You are nothing but trouble, my girl,” he reprimands me. “Do you know what I just saved you from?”
I glare at him defiantly, but then I have to admit defeat. “Yes,” I say lowering my eyes. “Thank you.”
“Pah,” he mumbles and then shouts, “Trystan!”
My Fae half-brother ambles up to us with a smile.
“Take your sister upstairs and see that she is…safe.” He gives me a fierce glare, basically meaning ‘stay where you are or else.’
Trystan takes my arm and leads me away, up the stairs and to the room that is still mine despite everything. He closes the door and leans against it as I take to the bed and start to shudder. Not only was I abducted, I was tortured, however briefly, and spelled into marrying Anders. Nearly marrying Anders. We were millimeters away from consummating the union.
“I’m not…Anders and I aren’t…” I stammer.
“What?” Trystan asks.
Obviously, he doesn’t know what happened, so I shake my head.
“Doesn’t matter,” I mutter. Sebastian told me we had to have sex to make the union whole. This is just a half-union. And a half-union that no one will ever know about as long as I remain on this planet.