Glow (The Plated Prisoner, #4)

by Raven Kennedy

He lifts a bulky shoulder, and I try not to stare when he crosses his arms in front of him, making his muscles bulge. I shouldn’t have let him give me his coat. Then his physique wouldn’t be so visible.

“If you’re just going to be an ass—” He taps his foot against my shin, making me pause. “Sit down, Rissa.” My butt hits the bucket. Hearing the gravelly tone of his voice say my name sends an odd thrill down my spine. What the hell is wrong with me? I absolutely refuse to be attracted to this man. I refuse. I have been with countless beautiful men—men that looked like sculptures, they were so pretty. Men that...bathed regularly. So why, every time I leave my tent, are my eyes looking around for him? It doesn’t make any sense.

can’t deny that there is something in the air that charges between us like lightning caught in the belly of a cloud. And I’m…curious. Curious about what would happen if we did clash together. Maybe it could be a perfect, raging storm. With all of this anger and worry churning around inside of me, the thought that I could take it out on him sounds sublime. That we could come together in a violent flare where I didn’t hold back. Where I wouldn’t have to be the perfect, most beautiful seductress. But that I could take instead of give, make him work to give me pleasure. He’s the only man I think could handle the real me like that, and that’s why I can’t stop thinking about him. He’s not a client.

“You could stay.” I frown over at him. “What?” “In Fourth Kingdom. You could stay.” “Why would I stay there?” “It only snows near the border at the mountains, so you wouldn’t have that in the capital. Plus, I’ll be there. So will Gildy.” “And you think those are incentives?” I ask sharply. He only shrugs. “Could be. If you let them be.”

“It won’t matter if I leave,” I say, my voice sounding far too fragile for my liking. What is it about this man that leaves me so upside-down? Somehow, his glowering eyes soften. I didn’t even know he was capable of such a look, or why he’s giving it to me. “It would matter to me, Yellow Bell.” I swallow hard. “Why?” Why would you care? Why do I keep watching you? Why are you trying to help me? Why does my heart quicken every time you’re near? “I like your peppery attitude,” he says with a smirk. “I’ve always enjoyed a little bite.”

“I have a plan, and you’re not in it,”

“Change your plan,” he murmurs, eyes dropping down to my lips. My breath catches, but I shove it away and pull up a sneer. “Men just want to conquer. I’m not playing hard to get so that you work extra hard. I don’t want you, Captain.” Instead of getting pissed off, he gives me a crooked smile that nearly curls my toes. “You don’t want me?” I sniff and lift my chin. “That’s right.” “So then...you don’t sit awake in your pallet at night, thinking about arguing with me just enough to get our blood heated, and then wrapping those long legs of yours around my hips and fucking me till you see stars?”

I can’t deny it. I can’t, because I’m breathing way too hard and I know I’m blushing, and I realize that all of a sudden, I don’t want to deny it. How the hell did I crumble so quickly? Then, I do the stupidest thing I have ever done. I lean up and kiss him.

“That was a mistake,” I sputter out. He laughs. Doesn’t let go of my waist. Keeps holding me there in a far softer touch than I ever would’ve expected from him. It makes me wonder what kind of lover he really is. If he’s the rough or the gentle. “That was a damn good mistake. We should do it again sometime.”

“Leaving the fire so soon?” he calls, his rough voice somehow teasing. “I’m hot enough.” He laughs. I blush harder. As I scurry away through the snow, inwardly kicking myself, he says, “When you’re ready for another mistake, you know where my tent is. Right next to yours.”

That was a stupid, horrible, ridiculous mistake. And yet, all I can think is, we should do it again sometime.

“I can’t even stand,” I spit out, but my tone isn’t directed at him or Judd, it’s directed at me. “Because I keep losing my balance. Because I let him…I let him…” My words choke off. Strangled, like a fist around my throat. I let him. For ten Divine-damned years, I let him. Let him silence me. Let him lead me. Let him fool me. Let him cage me. Let him hurt me. I let him drug me and hold me against that cold wall, let him take another part of me that I’ll never get back.

I miss the way they trailed behind me. I miss being able to lift them to help me comb my hair or wrap around my waist like a layer of armor. I miss the way they snaked around Slade’s leg.

You never notice what’s keeping you balanced until you realize you’re not standing straight anymore.

“I could’ve retired years ago,” he tells me, making my brows shoot up in surprise. “Stayed for you.” Shock pools at my chest, lapping in warm waves against my heart. “You did?” He nods, running a hand through his thick gray beard. “You needed someone watching your back. Didn’t trust anyone else to do it.” His mouth twists in disgust. “I should’ve just let you out of that fucking cage. Thought about it. Many times. But I should’ve fucking done it.” “If you’d done that, you would’ve been tortured and killed. Head on a spike that I would’ve been forced to gild.” “Or I would’ve gotten you out,” he says stubbornly. “Gotten you free. That’s what matters.” The fact that he’d even considered it speaks volumes.

“So, what do you say we finally play that drinking game?” He blinks at me, letting out a husk of a laugh as he drags his cup toward him. “Alright, Lady Auren. You can have your drinking game.” My lips curve up, and I hold up the bottle in a toast. “No longer live the king.” His mouth curves in a rare smile that I’m not sure I’ve ever seen. “No longer live the fucking king. And may you kick anyone’s ass who ever tries to hurt you again.”

If this marriage contract actually goes through, I can have a husband who can come to love me. I can actually have some power here in my own kingdom, even though I have no magic to speak of. I can have some control. I can be happy. I can have a child of my own and raise another Colier heir worthy of the throne, who will have enough magic to keep it. Tyndall Midas feels like the answer to my unspoken hope. So I close my eyes, deciding I’m actually going to voice them. Great Divine, hear my prayers...

I’ve never felt so safe as I do when he’s holding me. When my body is against his. It’s not safety with strings attached, it’s not comfort with conditions. He holds me like he wants nothing else in return, and it’s so foreign that I still find myself in awe at how this can be for me.

“I was thinking...that this is still very new. That there’s so much we don’t know about each other.” He doesn’t answer right away, instead letting his thoughts percolate in the air. “That’s true,”

“But I think that’s what I’m looking forward to the most,” he confesses, his voice sounding sensually low. “Peeling you back, layer by layer. Learning you inside and out.” His hands squeeze my thighs, and even though he’s not talking about anything sexual, my body still responds like he is, my mind imagining him peeling off the layers of my clothes and laying me bare in a completely different way. “I’m looking forward to every edge of you that you’ll reveal to me.”

“Where are we going?” I ask him again. “Such impatience.” I roll my eyes. “Like you’d let me lead you somewhere without telling you where it was.” “Oh, Goldfinch, I’d follow you to the end of the world and tip right off the edge, all because of a crook of your finger.” My stomach does a flip. “Oh.” “Oh, indeed.”

“But I will tell you this now, Goldfinch, and you will hear it. When it comes to your life, when it comes to the option between you living and dying, I will always step in. I will always choose to do whatever needs to be done to ensure that you fucking live.” My inhale gets snagged against the rungs of my ribs, banging against it with hollow uselessness. “I hate that I had to use my power against you, but don’t mistake my guilt for regret, because you will be sorely mistaken. I would do it again in a fucking heartbeat.”

“You are not indebted to anyone, Goldfinch, least of all me,” he murmurs as he continues to release the tension and the pain, like the real magic is in his touch. “You are priceless. You are worth more than gold. And the world owes you so much more than what you’ve been given.”

Then his masterful hands move up to my calves, his firm touch pressing into the knots, rubbing every tender part. Because that’s what he always does for me. He finds every aching part and helps me work through it. Even when I don’t want to.

With a spike of my fear, I tried to turn and run away. But my gold didn’t. It streamed out of me, poured from Milly’s doorway, gushing down the street like a flash flood, swallowing up the village in its wake. It didn’t even take long for the gold to inundate the cluster of houses. For it to stream into every doorway and window, and drop from the rooftops. For the screams to rend the air. And then choked gurgles and running feet to abruptly halt. It should’ve taken longer to murder an entire village.

What did you do? The gold didn’t dry up until my tears did. And by then, everyone was dead. Men, women, children. Milly. Not even poor old Sal was spared.

I killed everyone in Carnith.

“This is where your map ends, Your Majesty,” he tells me, just as a grin widens over his face. “So let’s go find your heart’s desire.”

“How is that possible? No one can live here. This place is utterly desolate.” “Ah, yes,” Fassa replies brightly. “Brother, if you could...?” “Of course.” With a nod, Friano lifts a finger in the air and spins it around, and like a wave rippling through our surroundings, the castle transforms. Within moments, gone are the ruins, and in its place is Seventh Kingdom’s castle restored. Slick gray walls, dazzling blue windows, and black marble that’s whole and polished beneath our feet. What was the stripped off bones of a cavern is now a revived and elegant entry hall.

“How...?” “We have been waiting for you, Your Majesty.”

“You are the answer to our prayers, Your Majesty. You are the queen this land needs. You coming here proves it.” “Proves what?” “Isn’t it obvious?” he asks, his dark eyes sparkling with hope. “You’re going to be the queen who saves Seventh Kingdom.”

“There was another,” Lu says, taking a long drink, a dabble of red wine blotting her bottom lip before her tongue sweeps it away. “You met him, actually.” “I did?” “Yep. Twig.” I immediately remember the little boy who was in the army camp. He brought me my meal when I first met with Rip and Osrik. “He was born in Drollard?” Lu nods. “Every child who’s been born here—though it hasn’t been many—they’ve all gone into the army.” “Why?” She sends me a sidelong glance. I blow out a frustrated breath. The list of things I need to ask Slade is growing by the minute.

“What do you expect me to do?” Slade’s voice suddenly snarls. “I expect you to protect Drollard. I expect you to not bring in a threat. To go be a fucking king.” “Stop insinuating that I don’t protect Drollard. I do everything I can to ensure its safety,”

“If that were true, then you wouldn’t have brought her here.” I freeze. He’s talking about me? “Auren is not a threat,” Slade all but growls. My heartbeat begins to drum heavily in my chest. “We all saw her in that ballroom. If that’s not a threat—” “She won’t do that here.” Slade sounds so sure, but my entire body goes slick with anxious sweat. “You don’t know that,” Ryatt counters. Slade starts to reply, but Ryatt cuts him off. “You don’t. And I want her gone.”

“Auren,” he begins, and my heart feels like it’s going to either burst or break, I’m not sure which. “I’d like you to meet my mother.”

“I want you to understand something, Goldfinch. I am not good. I will rot every person in my way, will bring a blight to every corner of the world if I have to.” I shake my head. “No, you wouldn’t. You’re good. You’re—” “No, Goldfinch,” he interrupts. “I’m good to you. But I am every bit the villain that I warned you I was.”

I’ll be the villain for you. Not to you.

I told him I wanted everything, and when you ask for everything from a person, you don’t get to pick and choose. You take them as they are. Even King Rot.

“If you’re a villain...then I’ll be a villain with you.” A slow, sexy grin rises from the grounds of his grim lips. “But…” I go on. “I still want you to put that man out of his misery now. There has to be a limit to your villainy.” He laughs, stroking a finger over my hand. “Alright, Goldfinch.”

“You’re going to show her...that? Right now?” At his tone, I feel my body fill with uncertain tension. “What exactly are you going to show me?”

“I’m finally going to tell you why they really call me Rip.”

“In my head, I’d pretty much narrowed the reason for your nickname down to having ripped abs. Or making women want to rip their clothes off. Something like that.”

“Very good to know where your head has been. But to be extra clear, I have no desire for anyone to rip their clothes off except for you.” “Clarity is really good.” I nod firmly. “We should keep doing it.” “We should keep doing it,”

“What...what is that?” I ask breathlessly. There’s an exhale hewn from the depths of his lungs. “This is where I tore a rip into the world.”

“What did your mother do when she thought I wasn’t going to be home for the night? She invited another into her bed. Spread her legs like an Orean whore.”

I can’t believe I didn’t put it together before. All the times he brought in fresh flowers for her or made sure to serve her first. The small smiles exchanged between them.

“How long, Elore?”

“For eleven years.”

“This is what you get for choosing Orean trash,” my father seethes. “I want you to remember this, Elore. Remember that this is what you get for betraying me.” She goes stiff in my arms. The whole room seems to suck in a breath of air. And then, my father lifts his hand and snaps. And Jak’s neck breaks.

“Ryatt...” my mother cries. He hesitates, eyes bouncing from the break down the middle of the house to my mother’s crumpled face. But then, his eyes land on Jak’s unmoving body. “Father!” The word yanks out of his little voice, and he rushes forward, pushing past the servants that try to protect him.