Chapter 11
The Walls Close In
Valerius's protectiveness becomes a suffocating cage. He forbids her from venturing out, his desire to keep her safe morphing into a desire to keep her entirely his.
The silken sheets were a mockery, a soft, luxurious prison against my skin. Each morning, the same gilded cage welcomed me, the same opulent despair. Valerius had not loosed me from his sight, not truly. He had merely shifted the boundaries of my confinement, tightening the invisible cords that bound me to his will. The grand chambers, once a curiosity, now felt like the walls of a tomb, each ornate carving a symbol of my slow suffocation.
He called it protection. He spoke of the dangers outside, the shadows that would snatch me away, the foolishness of my slayer’s pride. But his eyes, those ancient, predatory pools, held a different truth. It was not the world he feared for me; it was the world without me. His desire to keep me safe had curdled, festering into a need to keep me entirely his.
This morning, he entered not with his usual measured grace, but with a palpable impatience. The air crackled with it, a storm brewing behind his handsome, impassive features. He was dressed in dark velvet, a stark contrast to the pale silk of my nightgown. He carried no threat in his posture, only an unnerving stillness that spoke volumes.
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