CHAPTER 3

Ravik’s eyes caressed her body, and Seraphine wished the ground would open and cover her up. But she stood defiantly, staring Ravik squarely in the face.

Lust blanketed Ravik’s eyes as he looked at her hungrily. “Can I touch?” he asked eagerly.

“When I’m done with her.” the king spoke calmly, yet his eyes made the words a promise. A clear display to her that he had control while she held none. Seraphine was his to do as he wished to. Ravik stared at the king again before walking out, and Seraphine discovered that there was a look in the man’s eyes when he was staring at his king. Not hate, no—not hate. But she couldn’t place that look yet.

“Guards!” the king called, but he didn’t have to raise his voice.

Two guards appeared. “Yes, Your Highness.”

His cold eyes didn’t leave Seraphine. “Tell the servants to bathe my slave once I’m done here. Get her clean and have her in my chambers in three hours.”

“Yes, Your Highness.” The guards were reluctant to leave because they were staring at her state of undress.

Seraphine focused on the king with anger and hate in her teary eyes, defiance in her stance.

He released her breast finally. “I will hurt you so much, you will live and crave pain. I will do to you everything you and your father did to me and my people, and so much more. I will share you with as many as I want, and I will train you to be the most obedient of dogs.”

Fear was almost an entity on Seraphine’s tongue, but she didn’t allow it to show on her face. She knew all this would happen even before he came in.

His lips twitched, drawing emphasis to his scarred cheek. “I will break you, Seraphine.”

“You can never break me, you monster!” The words tore from Seraphine’s lips. Yet as her words left her mouth, she knew they were nothing but lies.

Her eyes widened because she had talked back to him. Slaves did not talk back to their masters, or there would be punishment.

He didn’t disappoint. The king grabbed the chain of Seraphine’s collar and yanked on it hard, and Seraphine cried out.

His eyes flashed. He tilted her chin up, his grip strong. “I love seeing so much fire, because I am going to love quenching all of it. You have no idea what I have in store for you—or maybe you do. After all, you once trained slaves.”

My father trained slaves! she almost screamed at him.

Pure hatred dripped from the king’s cold eyes. “Your training starts tonight. You will be in my bed.”

He got up and stalked out of the room like a huge, lethal panther.

Seraphine was finally taken away from her cage immediately after the king’s visit. She saw places again that weren’t her cold, barren cage, and it made her feel better. However, her heart still beat faster whenever she remembered the reason she was taken out of her cell for the first time in one week.

She was put in a tub, and the maids bathed her just as the king instructed. Funny, that maids would bathe a slave. But then again, it was not surprising if the slave’s destination was the king’s bed.

Three maids attended to her. One of them, the oldest, named Maela, was the one in charge.

They loosened her hair and combed out the tangles, leaving it in a long, curly mess. The clothes they had her put on made Seraphine cringe. It was barely any clothing; she might as well be naked. A red leather skirt that barely left her hips and a red leather top that only covered her nipples, stopping just above her belly—this was all she wore.

Then she was given a long robe that covered the clothlessness. They sprayed fragrance on her too.

“All done,” Maela announced.

Seraphine stared at herself in the mirror, and for a moment, she saw herself like she used to be: Princess Seraphine.

“You can go over to the king’s chambers now. It’s not advisable to keep him waiting,” Maela stated curtly.

Seraphine said nothing. She desperately wanted to ask these people how “her people” were. She hadn’t seen any of her people since she was brought here.

Were they slaves too? Had they been sold as sex slaves? Were they shared amongst the privileged rich families of Korvath? After all, that was exactly what her father did to the people of Korvath. She was worried, but she knew she had no right to be.

She had more pressing things to worry about. Like the fact that the king of Korvath, who hated her with every fiber of his being, was about to sleep with her.