I shook my head. I wouldn’t admit to my feelings for Anton. Surely that would mean the prince’s swift execution. “It’s just—you’re frightening me, Valko. Your aura—”
“Yes.” He lowered himself to eye level, leering closer. “What about my aura, Sonya? Can’t I feel anything passionately? Must I always be restrained as emperor? You see what I do daily to prove myself to my empire, to my councilors, to everyone who pretends to support me at court. What must I do to prove myself to you? I’ve given you wealth.” He lifted the sapphire necklace and pulled me inward by the collar so our noses brushed. “Position.” His lips pressed against my cheek near the corner of my mouth. “I’ve given up Estengarde for you.” He kissed my other cheek, and I bit it on the inside to keep from whimpering in terror. “I’m not sure I’m ready to kill you, Sonya.” His mouth traveled to my ear and wetted it with warmth. “I still have faith you can learn to submit to me in all ways.”
I gasped for air against his suffocating desire. It flowered within him—within me. A sickly fragrance that made my nose burn.
“Your defiance is irresistible, Sonya, and that dark well of passion inside you is what allures me most.” Valko swept my hair behind my shoulder and traced the length of my neck with his fingernail. “I will not share you with my brother. You belong to me. You are an Auraseer of Riaznin, born with a gift for one purpose only—to serve your anointed emperor. When at last you fully abandon yourself to your emotions, I will be the one to taste it.”
I closed my eyes. This time I could not bite back my whimper. Was giving myself over to total abandon the last option remaining to me? Was baring all my darkness what was required to become one with Valko’s aura—to reach that point of empathy where he could inhabit all of me and I could inhabit all of him?
How could I endure it?
“Do you want marriage, Sonya?” he asked. His kisses traveled from one side of my neck to the other above the collar of my necklace, as if trying to sear it to my skin. “Is that why you hold back? The ancient law of Riaznin states an emperor can have three wives. Perhaps after I wed someone of high birth, I can condescend to marry you.”
I shuddered as revulsion soured my gut. The more Valko touched me, the more self-loathing I felt. He didn’t want to commit himself to me, but he did, and not out of anything mirroring love.
“Until then”—he slid my dress from my shoulder and grazed my skin with his teeth—“there is room for you in my bed.”
I wrestled away, no longer able to bear his monstrosity. “Please . . .”
“Please, what?” He straightened, his mood blackening again. “Don’t you understand? It doesn’t matter if you are my Auraseer or my mistress, the truth is you are mine.”
I shifted backward. “Then as your Auraseer I must beg leave of you. I must have my rest if there is to be a trial for both a prince and a poet.” I turned to bolt for the door.
He caught my arm and clucked his tongue. “There will be no trial—for either of them.” His voice grew cold and menacing as he leaned to my ear and whispered, “They will be executed at first light.”
My mouth parted in horror. My heart collided with my rib cage. I couldn’t find my breath. I had to leave—now. Find my way to the dungeons. Find a way to free Anton and Tosya.
“Tonight you will not leave me.” Valko’s grip tightened like manacles. “Tonight, you stay.”
I gasped, a weak and terrible pleading sound as he pulled me closer, taking his time, knowing he could, knowing I was no match for his strength. Tears pooled in my eyes. So many times I had evaded him. But now with the sun lost under the horizon and the night gathering its forces in the sky, with his body silhouetted by the remnants of dying light, I knew I’d reached the breaking point of my war against him—the war I had waged since I first set foot in the palace—to keep my own integrity. To hold sacred that space within myself that was my last fragment of honor, of liberty. The space that was mine to share, and not anyone else’s to take. And now he would strip it from me until all his lies of esteem and high regard would be exposed for the pitiful truth they were. I wasn’t his beloved. In his eyes, I was lower than the ground he trod on. And he would relentlessly trample me into nothing. Until there was no Sonya remaining. Only a possession. Another forgotten treasure he held under lock and key.
As his mouth neared mine, as tears streaked my face, an orange glow framed his hair, different from the dwindling sunset red. It almost looked like . . . fire. I glanced past him to the city, to the wide avenue that cut its long path to the palace. There, in the distance, was a band—no, a battalion—of people. My heart surged with hope. They were mere specks from here, but they were coming. The orange glow must be their torchlight.