was about to walk back out, when I heard the wolves. And I needed to figure out which direction they were coming from...”
“Every direction,” he said, his voice hard. “You can never let your guard down like that again. Ever. You cannot expose yourself to such dangers, Tinley. I forbid it.”
“I know. But it’s... It’s only a forest, and nothing is cursed. I understand that people have died going into it, but many people have gone into it and not died.”
“It’s only the people who have were my brothers.”
“I know,” she said. “I’m sorry.”
“It will not happen again,” he said, his voice stern.
“No, it won’t. I... I’m sorry. But everything’s okay.” She looked around and saw the picnic that he had brought out for them. “Let’s have dinner.”
“No. There will be no picnic.”
“Why not?”
“You’re not to go in the garden anymore. Not for a while.”
“Are you... You putting me under house arrest?”
“If I must. I will. It concerns me not in the least to cut you off of the outside world if I have to do it to keep you safe.”
“Alex...”
She could have been killed. The idea of coming upon her...her blood staining the ground. For the first time he was tempted to tear the forest apart. Raze it to the ground.
How could he have forgotten?
How could he have let himself slip into this fantasy?
This was not an old-world fairy tale. Where the crows ate your eyes, ships were dashed on the rocks and the dark magic won. This was not happy endings and true love.
Those things did not exist.
“I am the King. I am not... I’m not your boyfriend. We are not on a date. I forgot, for a moment, who I am and what I must do. But I will not forget again. My word is law, Tinley. We will marry next week. You will take your place as my Queen. You will do your duty. And that is all.”
He marched her into the palace, up to her room. “Put the cat away.”
Then he went furiously to his own chamber, slamming the door behind him and pacing the length of it.
He had forgotten himself. He had forgotten himself again. It was unforgivable.
And the exact same thing had nearly happened.
He had nearly lost her. Because of his own selfishness. Because he had taken his eyes off of his duty. And he had given in to temptation. It could not be endured. It could not be.
And it never would be. Never again. He was not a man, he was a king. And he would not forget.
It was only two days till the wedding. Alex had not come to her bed, and she had endured endless days of frost ever since she had gone into the wood. She knew what he was doing. It was all related to those things he’d said to her about not being able to be a man and a king. Not being able to have fun. To ever loosen the hold on his reins.
Because if he did, bad things would happen. And somehow, the picnic, all of that, had combined to create the perfect storm inside of him the other day.
She’d been so stupid going into the wood. She knew she had been. But she had been...
It was difficult to explain the journey she was on in herself, and it was not terribly compatible with the journey he was on.
But she was finding courage. Finding her own feet, and it made him want to lock down and control her.
There had to be a middle ground. Had to be something else. Had to be a path to freedom.
For both of them.
She made sure the animals were fed and happy, Algernon sleeping on the bed, the others in their habitats, and she decided that she was going to do something to breach the silence between them.
She walked down the hall, toward his bedroom. She had always let him determine when they might sleep together, but she was done with that.
She wasn’t afraid to put herself forward. Wasn’t afraid of being rejected.
She didn’t know why.
Because you know now it has nothing to do with you, even if he does tell you to leave.
It was true. She did know that. And she knew it well. She had found a sort of comfort with herself here, in a place she would have said should’ve made her the most uncomfortable.
And it was magic.
She felt magic, even now in this precarious position. She slipped down the hallway and she paused in front of