The King by Jennifer Armentrout

Author:Jennifer Armentrout [Armentrout, Jennifer L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Jennifer L. Armentrout, Wicked, 1001 Dark Nights, paranormal, romance
Publisher: Evil Eye Concepts, Incorporated
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

“I’m amazed. Really, I am.” Aric held the dagger, turning it so the flames reflected off the blade. It was streaked in red. “You’re still alive.”

There was a part of me that also couldn’t believe I was still alive. How long had I been here now? My thoughts were sluggish as I tried to remember how many little nicks I’d carved into the stone. Forty? Forty-five, maybe. There was something about that time frame that seemed important. Something that should’ve happened in that time.

“I must say, it thrills me that you’re still here. You came to me as a little bird I couldn’t wait to break, but now, you’re my pet.” Lowering his head, Aric’s lips brushed the curve of my cheek, sending a wave of revulsion through me. “My most cherished one. How do you feel about that?”

“Like…like my life is now complete,” I rasped.

“Do I detect a hint of sarcasm?” His breath now danced over my lips, so I turned my head away. Lately, he seemed to be…getting way more into this, so much so that I feared he was beginning to change his views on whether he found mortals attractive. “I hope so. It warms my heart to know you still have so much fight left in you.”

Letting my eyes close, I searched for memories to lose myself in. There was the time my mom had taken me to the Gulf. I’d been a teenager, and I knew I’d loved it there, but I couldn’t remember what the sand felt like between my toes. I focused as hard as I could on what the water looked like, but as soon as the picture began to form in my mind, the image scattered like smoke.

It was so hard to remember the details of…of anything.

“You’re obviously incredibly strong, bizarrely so for a mortal.” My muscles clenched as I felt the cool press of the blade’s edge against the skin of my inner thigh. “Unbelievably so, really.”

I kept my eyes closed, my heart thumping as I waited for the sharp, stinging bite of pain to come. At some point, he would run out of skin to carve up, and then what? Would he start on my face? Probably. He’d already covered my stomach with those tiny slices, and now those scars mingled with the ones he’d left behind before, the old, shiny, pale teeth marks and deep grooves that Caden had…worshiped with his lips.

Forty-five days.

Days that sometimes included feeding, sometimes included baths in cold water. Days where I couldn’t recall what exactly occurred, moments that left me feeling that perhaps it was better that I didn’t remember.

“No one has ever lasted as long as you.” The blade moved swiftly across my skin.

A hoarse scream left me as I pulled against my bonds, trying to escape the blade—the pain—even though I knew it was useless.

His pale eyes glowed. “I’ve had men twice your size die within weeks and lose their minds in days, and yet you and I have had weeks together.

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