Page 39 of The Ruthless Fae King
Marcelle’s eyes glowered at me and the use of his name without title.
“PrinceMarcelle…” My dad stood and stepped away from his desk. “…is here to offer his hand in marriage so you don’t have to marry thatmonsterKing Thorne, as you put it so aptly last week.”
Hand in marriage?What?His words drew my eye to the contents of his desk. There was a small treasure chest like that you would use to pay a dowry standing on top of a signed document.
My heart hammered in my throat. “I’m already promised, Father. I just rode around the entire realm announcing my betrothal to King Thorne, who I am happy to report isnota monster.”
Marcelle moved out of the way, behind me as my father approached me from the front.
“King Thorne has not paid the dowry yet,” my father said, unable to meet my gaze. “So I am well within my rights to take another offer.”
“Of course he hasn’t, because you pay on the day of the wedding!” I shrieked, pulling wind from the cracked open window in my father’s study.
Marcelle grasped my wrists from behind suddenly and then something pinched them, biting the skin. I gasped as a painful burning worked its way from my hands to my chest and the wind I’d pulled turned into stagnant, unmovable air. When I yanked my hands before me to see what he’d done, I whimpered.
“Castrationcuffs? Marcelle, no.” I pulled for my magic but was met with resistance and then nothing, as if reaching into an open void. “Daddy!” I screamed in panic.
A sob ripped from my throat. Castration cuffs were for those convicted of crimes. It inverted their magic so that they were rendered powerless.
My father stared at the Summer prince wide-eyed. “Marcelle, what the Hades are you doing cuffing my daughter like a criminal!?”
“She attacked me once before, only days ago. I could not afford it again. She’sverypowerful. I will take them off once she calms. You have my word.” He used a syrupy sweet voice and I snapped out of my shock and fell to my knees before my father.
“No, please, Daddy. Don’t do this. I love Lucien. There is war coming and siding with him is the only way!” I clung to his leg like I used to as a little girl when he would get home from a long week away.
Reaching down, he tipped my chin up to look him in the eyes. When I did, I was frightened beyond repair. He wasn’t going to change his mind. I knew that look, that finality. “Marcelle has gone to the Nightfall queen and brokered a deal. She will leave Fall, Spring, and Summer Court out of the upcoming war if we separate from Winter and do not join the fight to come,” he said. “I have to think of our people. Of your mother and sister.”
I gasped, standing to my feet so fast that I nearly knocked him over. “Traitor!” I screamed in his face. “Coward!” I yelled as tears streamed down my cheeks. “You’ve sold us to the queen! You’ve sold me to Marcelle!”
My father winced with each word and I was glad for it. I hoped it stung like Hades and he never slept again.
Marcelle’s arm hooked under my armpit and he yanked me backwards. “I will keep her safe. She will want for nothing. She will be a cherished wife for as long as I live,” he told my father.
Lies.The lies coming from his mouth were enough to drive me insane. I bucked against him but it only made his hold tighter. My father had checked out. He was just staring at the wall in defeat. I wanted to smack him in the face.
“Where is Mother?” I demanded. “She would never stand for this.”
Marcelle pulled me from the doorway. “I arranged for your mother and sister to have tea in town while I spoke to your father. They are with my most trusted housemaid.”
“Father, I beg you, do not accept this. I choose Lucien. He can pay double whatever Marcelle is asking.”
My father sighed, again not meeting my eyes. “It’s not about the money, Madelynn.” His voice was broken and I didn’t understand until Marcelle spoke: “Good man, you’re doing what is right for your family and people.”
I glanced up at Marcelle then, my mouth agape. “You told my father you wouldn’t sign the deal with the Nightfall queen unless it included me as your wife.”
Marcelle smiled then, a sickening smile that made my stomach roil. “You always were so smart.”
My father was so afraid of war that he sold his own daughter to avoid it. Little did he know that war would come for him eventually. It would just be on a day not of his choosing.
“I forgive you, Daddy.” It was the last thing I said to him before Marcelle dragged me out the door, then my father wailed like a little boy. I didn’t want to leave him on bad terms. I hated him right now, but I also still loved him. He was hoodwinked and confused and he would regret this, I knew it.
As Marcelle marched me through my home, my brain was running a mile a minute. How could I get out of this? With my powers bound I couldn’t fight. Could I talk my way out of it?
“This isn’t legal,” I told him calmly.
“It certainly is. Your father can negotiate many dowries, and only until it is paid is the deal done,” Marcelle stated.
Was that true? I’d never bothered to read dowry paperwork. But it wasn’t done like this. “Lucien and I have already paraded our courtship around the entire realm. The people will wonder—”
