Starkeeper of the Fractured Crown

I brushed his hand off my knee nonchalantly and slid from the table. “Maybe.” What had I done? Testing a High King? Of all the stupid, idiotic things to do. I needed to stay alive long enough to get Mark settled and testing the patience of the most dangerous man in the world was not going to help me do that.

What now? What was going to happen now?

“I’m going to clean up and then I have to go to town,” I told him, already heading towards my room. “You read, get your information.”

I shut the door behind me before he could reply.

My heart was slamming, my hands shaking, as I ran into the bathroom, shutting the door.

What thefuckwas wrong with me? I shouldn’t have…I shouldn’t have enjoyed that.

I ripped off my veil and tore back my hood, getting to the toilet just in time for me to eject everything that was in my stomach. Water. A few berries.

My stomach convulsed, trying to force more out of me, but there was nothing left.

When it finally realized that I had nothing left to give, I was able to force myself to standand clean myself up, keeping the tears back.

“You sick fuck,”an unknown male spat in my ear.

“No sane woman is into this,”another hissed.

“Disgusting bitch.”

“Fucking horrifying.”

“Pathetic.”

I shook my head, gripped the sink counter, heart racing. I tried. I had really tried this time.

I sniffed, finding my eyes in the mirror. My eyes were red, my cheeks blotchy, my lip split apart again.

The bruises around my eyes looked angry, so dark purple, they almost looked black. Cole had had his eyes closed the entire time, but his High King?

He had to have seen them.

I straightened, my brunette hair, lighter than Cole’s, fell back as I looked down. With trembling hands, I unzipped my jacket and pulled up my shirt, tears filling my eyes as I saw that this time, his shadows had left their mark.

Deep purple bruises resembling hickies surrounded my breasts, my nipples.

And part of me liked that. Part of me loved being claimed like that.

My eyes filled again and I angrily jerked my shirt down. “I fucking hate you,” I said to the void, hoping he heard me. “Ifuckinghate you,” I snarled through my teeth.

The chuckle sounded through my bones, the cackle of a demon.“We’ll see.”

I spun around, searching the room, but he wasn’t there. He was nowhere to be found.

I turned back to the mirror, eyes falling to the collar around my neck. Almost as black as his shadows. A permanent reminder of him.

That’s when I realized something. He was one of the more powerful beings in the world and that voice I had been hearing, it was no demon. It was him. It had to be him.

Which meant that he…he was in my head.

He was in myfuckinghead.

7

My Bible, Chapter 18, Verse 3,