Chapter 32

Chapter 32

Rhea
I woke to silence. Not the comforting kind that came after a storm, but the hollow kind that hummed with absence,like something you hadn't considered vital until the last minute, was suddenly gone, and the moment you realized you actually needed it. I almost didn't realize what was wrong, but somehow, even as the sunlight pooled into my room, it still didn't feel right. It took me a moment to place what was wrong, and when I did, the realization slammed into me so fast my breath caught.

The bond.

That faint hum that always lingered under my skin, half-annoying, half,addictive, was gone. It wasn’t faint or muted. It was just … gone.

I wasn't sure when I'd fallen asleep last night. I'd been so stuck in between my anger and embarrassment, that I didn't feel my body forcing me to rest. If there was one thing I was sure though, the bond was still there, so where the hell had it gone?

I sat up, palms pressed to my chest, as if I could summon it back through sheer will, but I got nothing. There was no spark, no tug, no whisper of his presence at the edge of my thoughts.

“Unbelievable,” I muttered, swinging my legs off the bed. “He didn’t.”

Of course he did.

Alaric had the power to tamper with it. I didn't know much about the bond and the terms around it, but considering he was the king, I wouldn't put it past him to have tampered with it. He couldn't sever it, that was for sure, so what the fuck had he done to it?

Put a pause to it? How long was that going to last? And if the bond did come back, was it going to come back with another wave of feeling horny and craving him?

Heat rushed to my face immediately and no matter how hard I tried to get myself to calm down, my body refused to cooperate. Now that I'd probably figured out what had happened, it didn't make it any easier.

Alaric had played a typical vampire king move though. Control first, explain never.

I threw on the first thing I could find: a thin, fitted top and shorts. I didn’t bother with shoes. The stone floors were cold beneath my feet as I stormed out, the quiet of the corridors only making my irritation louder.

When I found him, he was doing the most infuriatingly normal thing possible.

Sitting at his desk, and surrounded by neat stacks of parchment, signing documents with that ridiculous, slow precision of his. A tall candle flickered beside him, throwing gold light across his face. His windows were drawn shut, to prevent any hint of sunlight I supposed, but was the candle really necessary? What happened to electricity?

“Did you do something to it?”He didn’t even look up when I entered, but I snapped anyway

His quill didn’t pause. “To what?”

“Don’t play dumb, Alaric.” I crossed the room, the echo of my footsteps sharper than the edge in my voice. “The bond. It’s … quiet.”

“And?”He finally lifted his gaze, calm and unreadable. “Wasn't that what you wanted?”

“And?” I repeated, incredulous. I was well aware that I'd ignored his last question, but I couldn't care less “You can’t just shut me out like that! How do I know you're not doing something and sucking my blood somehow?”

“I can,” he said simply, returning to his papers. “And I did.”

“I'm not sucking your blood though.” He added, like that was supposed to suffice, or make me feel better.

That was it. No explanation, no apology for barging into my room last night. Just that maddening composure that irked me to the point of madness.

“You don’t even care what that feels like, do you?” I stepped closer, close enough that the light from his candle warmed my bare arms. ‘You humiliate me, you disappear, and now you silence the bond like I’m some … some inconvenience?”

“You’ve made it clear that my presence is an inconvenience.” His jaw ticked once, but his eyes stayed on the parchment. “ I assumed you’d appreciate the quiet.”

“That’s not…” I broke off, breath catching and suddenly running out of things to say “You’re impossible.”

He stood then, slow and deliberate, and for a heartbeat I thought he might actually respond, might explain why he’d done it, might even apologize. Instead, he gathered a few papers, brushed past me, and started toward the door.

The brush of his shoulder against mine was accidental. The flicker of his eyes, though, wasn’t.

His gaze dipped, just for a second, to the curve of my chest, to the thin fabric stretched tight across it, and I saw it. Call me crazy or whatever, but I could swear he caught my nipples with his eyes, and me on the other hand, I imagined his mouth on one of my pebbled nipples, with his long fingers flicking the other.

Get a grip on yourself, Rhea.

He must have thought he was sleek, but I caught it. That momentary crack in his composure. The quick, almost imperceptible flare of something darker in his eyes.

Then he looked away, mask snapping back into place.

“Try not to start a fire while I’m gone,” he said dryly, and then he was out the door before I could think of a retort.

I stood there, pulse thundering, staring after him.

For a second, the silence in my mind didn’t feel so empty anymore. It felt charged.

He thought he could cut the bond and walk away. He thought silence would tame me.

Fine.

If he wanted a war of restraint, I’d give him one. I’d use the only weapon I had left, myself. Every glance, every movement, every bit of skin he pretended not to notice, I’d turn it all against him.

Let’s see how long before the great Alaric folds first.

I smiled to myself, slow and deliberate, before turning back toward my room.

He wanted quiet? I’d give him chaos dressed in silk.