Prison Princess (Paranormal Prison) - CoraLee June Page 0,44

around the room. I couldn’t see Cypress anywhere. And when the prince pulled me back up, my gaze clashed with his ethereal one. “Your parents are already looking to marry you off, you know.”

I gasped at his words and jerked backward, effectively ending our dance. “Excuse me?”

The man simply chuckled before bowing slightly. “Don’t worry, little Druid. I don’t take what’s not mine to have. But you’ll do well to remember that you’re more powerful than all of us.”

I shook my head in disbelief. I had met quite a few Fae men and women over the course of my life, and understood that they liked to speak in riddles, but none of what he was saying made sense. I had only been back for a little while; certainly my parents weren’t already trying to marry me off? Wouldn’t they want to get to know me first?

“You look distressed, Princess.”

I swallowed. Should I tell the truth? I had no idea. “I am. They’ve met me for ten minutes. Then we had this. Then marriage?”

“You weren’t raised in this life, so you don’t know that the purpose of royal children is to continue the line, to procure future children. You are a child they had so that you’d have a child. They were distraught when you died. Or didn’t. But, now, as they don’t know you, they see you as a baby-maker for a child they can know.”

My stomach clenched. “I’m not sure I want children. I don’t have a huge maternal need at this point. I’ve only been out of the bars I looked through my whole life for a week. Or maybe less.”

I really didn’t have a sense of time.

He nodded. “Then I’m glad we talked. If my parents had their way, I’d be married by now, but see...when I was younger, a soothsayer told me my truth. I would marry my soulmate. That’s not you. Yours is...nearby.” He was? How nearby? I would have asked if he hadn’t quickly kept talking. “And so I give you this advice: you have but one chance at this life. Someone has already stolen years from you. If you want this life to not be another kind of captivity, you will have to break your chains.”

The music stopped. He nodded at me and led me to the side of the room where a strong hand yanked me from the Fae prince so fast my head spun. I was practically attached to Cypress a second later.

The prince grinned. “Or having someone else break them works just as well.” He nodded at me one last time before he did the same to Cypress. “Good to see you again, assassin.”

“Jack,” a muscle pulsed in his jaw when he said the name.

“Oh now, when you worked for me, you called me Robin. I think we are past formality. Good luck with all that is to come.”

“You know him?” I hissed as Cypress pulled me through the ballroom.

“Yes. And I’m tired of watching your parents parade you around like a shiny new china set,” Cypress grumbled.

We fast walked toward the door leading out of the ballroom, but a sharp voice stopped both of us in our tracks. “Where are you going? The party has just begun.” I recognized the authority in the tone, though I had only known my father for less than twelve hours. I spun around to face the king just in time to see his subjects laugh at his jokes. It was like everyone in this kingdom was conditioned to kiss his ass.

“The princess has had a long week of traveling. She needs rest,” Cypress replied. The assassin puffed out his chest in a display of stark dominance. My father returned the gesture by rolling his shoulders back. The palace was similar to Nightmare Penitentiary. The biggest, baddest, meanest, strongest prisoner would survive. The same went for the showdown between my father and Cypress. In this case, my father looked away long before Cypress ever did.

My mother rushed up to join her husband. “But we were hoping to spend some time together,” she said in a low, graceful voice. But her eyes slid side to side, as if assessing who was watching and listening in to our first family dispute.

Cypress squeezed my hand harder, making both my parents glare at where our skin touched. “If you wanted to spend time with your daughter, you would have greeted her when she arrived. And you sure as hell wouldn’t have been sending suitors her way when she’s