And there she was, gulping in air. Naked as the day she was born. Her panic was receding but her eyes filled with tears.
“I’ll never wear that thing again,” she whispered.
“Yes, hatchling, you will. You’ll have to wear it every time you see him.”
The tears overflowed her eyes. “How did this happen to me?”
He’d never remember exactly how, but somehow he was kneeling on the ground next to her. Hugging her tightly, one hand drawing circles on her back. The evening light of the setting sun slanted in through the thin windows that lined the very top of her room. The orange sunset across her light blue eyes made his heart constrict. Tears clung to her eyelashes and she was liquid and warm in his arms. He could feel the burn of her smooth skin through his clothes.
He had to leave now. Fuck, he had to go back in time and leave yesterday. That’s how badly he had to leave. He needed to run back to the King and say something, anything, to get him to switch bodyguards back. He needed to go down to the village and find somebody to fuck. Get this out of his system. But first, he needed to get the hell out of this room.
He jerkily unhanded her and stood up. He took one step, two steps, backwards. She rose and stumbled away from him. She whipped on a red silk robe that hung in the wardrobe. He was both grateful and dismayed that she was covering herself up.
“I had a good life in Brooklyn,” she said suddenly. “I had a good job, friends. I even had a boyfriend.”
Amos scoffed at the memory of Dale. The blond dipshit who hadn’t treated her well. But Lucy barreled on.
“I went to shows, watched TV whenever I wanted, and drank beer. I read books and met people in bars. I went to museums and took in art exhibitions that deeply moved me. I could have lived and died happily there.” Tears rolled freely down her face and Amos couldn’t look away from her.
She was talking about her humanity. Something that he’d helped the King steal from her. Something they’d completely disregarded in King Dalyer’s desperate search for power. For the first time he saw King Dalyer through someone else’s eyes. He saw an old man who would do morally questionable things to keep a title he might not deserve. He saw someone who pushed a woman to the ground. He saw someone who viewed Lucy as his possession. And not as the vivid, complicated person who was standing in front of him.
He knew then that he’d made his choice. The Oracle had already seen it. Why would Amos even pretend to fight it anymore. His DNA wouldn’t allow him to ever cause harm to the King, but his heart was pledging its allegiance to Lucy.
He took a step toward her. Wanting to calm her. Wanting to hold her beautiful body in his arms. She stood in a shaft of the setting sun, dust motes floated around her, illuminating the air that had the honor of mingling with her scent.
“You did this to me,” she said to him and he froze, halfway across the room. “You kidnapped me from my home, you monster. You planned it,” she continued.
He didn’t deny it. He couldn’t look away from her. Anger colored her cheeks, brightened her eyes. Her hair hung in a messy wave down her back. The silk of the robe lovingly cradled her curves. His feet wouldn’t move. He was immobilized by the truth of her words.
“You knew what the King was going to do to me. How he was going to treat me,” she pointed at the collar on the floor. “And you dragged me here anyway.”
“And now, I have to just wait here. Wait here for that disgusting piece of shit to come and get me pregnant.” She crossed her arms under her chest and glared at him. Daring him to deny it.
“I won’t let him.” The words were out of Amos’s mouth before he could swallow them back. What the fuck had he just said?
“What?” Lucy took a step back from him. “What did you just say?”
“I’m saying that I won’t let the King touch you, hatchling.” This time, Amos was saying the words with his whole self. He really meant them. His future was sealed the second he watched the King cuff her throat.
Amos started pacing back and forth. Combing his hand through his hair. “The portal doesn’t open up again until the harvest moon in two months. Which, by the way,” Amos looked up at her. “Is the same time he’s gonna try to mate with you. He can’t mate until the harvest moon.”
Lucy shook her head at that bizarre piece of information. “I’ll ask about that in a minute, but did you just say-,”
He cut her off, pacing and making plans. “So you’re gonna have to endure it for two months. We can’t let him know that we’re trying to get you out. In the meantime the Oracle can keep searching for a replacement for you or maybe some sort of, I don’t know…”