He was a talker.
I had ignored most of his ramblings, but he didn’t seem to mind.
“Why are you doing this?” I asked once the aching in my head had decreased enough to think past the pain and frozen panic.
“You can speak? I was beginning to think you were slow,” he said mockingly. “I’ve already told you why.”
“I have a head injury. Tell me again,” I said, unable to quell my upset to be polite.
He laughed loudly. “What a spirit. Does Selene like it when you make demands of her?”
“I just want to know why you’re doing this,” I said quietly, leaning my head against the cool window and sighing at the relief it gave me.
“I am quite positive that Selene will give me what I want, in exchange for your life,” he said.
“What do you want?” I asked him. Why go to all this trouble? What did he think I was worth?
“The crown, the kingdom - the whole damn world if I can take it,” he answered, and I heard him shift along the leather seats closer to me.
I trembled, in a mixture of disgust and fear, when he pushed my hair away from my face and grabbed my jaw turning me to face him.
“You, a mere blood slave - a flower witch no less,” he laughed, “are quite possibly the most valuable possession in the entirety of the Borealis Kingdom.” He leaned forward towards me, and I reached for his wrist, trying to push him away. It was useless. He growled, leaning into my neck and sniffed dramatically before pulling back with a look of disgust.
“You certainly don’t smell appetising to me. To each their own, I suppose. Are you wondering why you’re so valuable Percy?” he asked me.
“I’m just a pet,” I answered. I wasn’t valuable. Not in any sense other than I belonged to Selene, the Princess. On my own, without her ownership, I wasn’t worth much.
“Is that what you think?” he mused, releasing my jaw but keeping his seat next to me. “I’ve known my cousin all my life, and I have never known a greater cunt. She’s always been ruthless - the kind of vampire that inspired the monstrous legends of our kind. She fed indiscriminately, killed for minor offences, and fucked like it was how she made her living.
“Then, she arrived at the castle with you in tow. It was quite the surprise to see Selene with a pet. Terribly out of character. She never had much self-control or decency about her, and a pet, well, a pet requires a level of care, of restraint, that I didn’t know her to possess. It’s true, we tend to get a smidge attached to our pets, and we treat them with enough care to not break our toys. But not you.
“I knew you were special, something more than a mere pet, that night we dined together - do you remember? The way she dressed you up and showed you off was unorthodox, but when Sana asked what we were all thinking,” he snapped his fingers, causing me to flinch, and he smiled widely, “my cousin gave herself away. It’s all in the eyes. And how she looked at you, I knew my greatest challenge was not Oskar Halvorsen,” he growled the name, “but you, the pet my cousin is in love with.”
“In love?” I recoiled at the accusation. It was jarring hearing what I longed so badly to be true spoken by a man that physically revolted me. My reaction did not seem to be what he expected.
“You don’t agree?” He asked curiously, his grey eyes glowing, a pale imitation of Selene’s.
“No,” I answered, my throat dry. I wanted it to be true. Sometimes I imagined it was. But she had never said the words. Even if I knew without a doubt that it was true, instinct told me to deny it. A vague memory of Selene explaining that knowledge was power and shouldn’t be given away easily, sprung to my mind.
“I suppose we’ll see, won’t we?” He hummed.
“You think the Princess will just give you whatever you ask for, for me?” I asked incredulously. The kingdom was more important than me, than anyone; Selene had told me so. “And - and the King has the crown, not her,” I added as the thought came to me. “How can you ask her for what she doesn’t have?”
He looked at me silently for a few moments as if deciding whether to answer.
“She will have the crown someday, and whoever has her hand in marriage will inherit it with her,” he explained.
“Lord Halvorsen announced their engagement last night,” I told him. He couldn’t marry someone already engaged to another.
“He did what?” Valen asked angrily, his grey eyes glowing brighter.
“He made an announcement at the ball,” I said again and cowered back as he growled before falling silent.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said after a while. “An engagement is not a marriage.”
I didn’t reply and returned to pressing my sore head against the cool window. We were travelling along mountain roads much narrower and more winding than those that led to the King’s castle.
“Where are we going?” I asked after a while of silence. If Valen wanted to speak, I wanted to know everything I could. Selene would come for me. I hoped. She wouldn’t let him take me. I was hers.