She knew the famed legend well, but she'd never imagined Camelot looking like this. "Are you one of his knights of the Round Table?"
He laughed coldly at that. "Do I look like such? Nay, woman, I am their scourge. You ran from your blessed knights of the Round Table in town when they would have saved you."
"Saved me from what?"
"Me."
Seren bolted from the bed and ran for the door. Before she could reach it, the knight was before her, blocking her way. "There is no way out of here, little mouse."
"Please," she begged, terrified of what was happening to her. "Please, let me go. I am just a peasant. I am nothing special, nothing out of the ordinary. I want only to go home and become a journeywoman."
A faraway look came into his cold eyes. "And I, too, was once just a peasant. A liar and a thief, I spent my entire youth running from those who would beat me. Now I am king of Camelot. The wheel of fate is ever on the move. Today you are a simple apprentice without prospects, but in the days to come your destiny was to marry and breed with one of Arthur's famed knights."
But that didn't make sense to her. It wasn't possible. "I don't understand. I cannot marry a knight. I am a peasant."
His eyes flashed red as he skimmed his evil gaze over her body.
Kerrigan felt himself growing hard as he watched her standing so courageously before him. She was terrified, he could smell it, and yet she continued to fight even though she knew it was hopeless.
"Have you ever taken a man into your body, little mouse?"
Her face flushed instantly as she sputtered.
"So you are a virgin."
His little mouse straightened her spine as she stared defiantly at him. "And I intend to stay one until the day I marry."
One corner of his mouth turned up at her challenge. "You could hardly stop me if I decided to take you."
And still she gave him no fear, only an unfounded courage met his taunts. "There is no satisfaction in stealing someone's property, my lord. True value only lies when you earn it or the owner gives it to you of her own free will."
Her bold words gave him pause as he considered them. "I know nothing of gifts."
"Then that is a shame. Perhaps if you were to ask instead of take, then you might have knowledge of them."
She was a quick little mouse. Surprisingly intelligent, point of fact, and he found himself intrigued by her argument. "Would you give me your virginity if I asked it?"
"Nay!"
"Then what is the point of asking when the only way to have something is to take it?"
"Then take it if you must," she said bravely, her eyes flashing a vivid shade of green. "but know that by doing so, you are stealing away the only thing I have that is truly mine alone to give. I hope it gives you great satisfaction to leave me with absolutely nothing." She lifted her chin as if readying herself to take his blow.
Take her.
The voice in his head was overwhelming, and normally when it issued a command, he followed it regardless of consequence, and yet he couldn't quite muster the desire to do so now. There was a rare fire in her green eyes that burned away the coldness inside him.
It was her dignity, he realized.
He remembered a time once when he had held such. But those days were past him. His dignity, like his humanity, had been stripped from him, layer by layer, until it left him a hollow, angry shell.
Before he could think better of it, he lifted his hand up to touch her soft, delicate cheek. Her skin was warm, soothing. Sweet.
He lowered his gaze down to her small breasts that would barely fill his palm, then lower to the rest of her body. She was a scrawny woman in need of food and care. He could snap her neck with barely more than a thought.
Even if she tried to fight him, she would have no strength for it. And still he was amazingly curious over her.