Sold To The Cruel Pr Chapter 94: The Danger Around Her

Chapter 94: The Danger Around Her

The space between them tightened, as if the air itself had drawn a breath and refused to let it go.

Theron’s hand rested on her pillow, his face hovering far too close, his nose almost brushing hers. Aveline could feel the warmth of his breath, soft and uneven. Even through the bedding, she could sense the thrum of his heartbeat, and as she breathed, her chest rose and fell in the sa small space as his.

Her eyes fluttered open.

For a brief second, she only stared at him.

Then the mont shattered.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

Her voice was edged with annoyance, and rightly so. He ca and went as he pleased, kissed her when he pleased, and now he was even trying to steal another kiss while she was half-asleep.

Who did he think he was?

Her chest rose with a sharper breath. He was still too close, so close that she could feel the force of his heartbeat like a quiet storm against her own.

Theron did not move back.

His hand tightened slightly against the pillow, and he leaned in again, slower this ti, as though he could not quite help himself.

He had wanted to leave without waking her. He had wanted one last kiss, only one, sothing soft and private before he walked back into the world that was already closing around him again.

But then she had opened her eyes.

And there she was—Aveline, looking at him with those clear, crystalline eyes that always seed to strip him of whatever control he had left.

How was he supposed to resist that?

Before he could claim the kiss he was reaching for, Aveline turned her face away, slipped out from beneath him, and put a careful, decisive distance between them.

As if that were not enough, Hamilton sprang up and landed on her shoulder, glaring at him with all the outrage a tiny creature could possibly contain.

Theron closed his eyes for a mont.

His fingers curled into the pillow. His jaw tightened.

Then, with a quiet grunt, he sat up and looked at her.

Aveline looked pale. Tired. Still irritated.

And sohow, despite everything, he smiled.

It was a relief, in its own strange way, that she had no idea what was happening outside this room. He knew. And for now, that had to be enough.

"What do you want?" Aveline asked, her brows drawing together in clear displeasure.

Of course.

What else was he supposed to want? A kiss. Her warmth. Sothing he had no right to ask for and no strength to stop craving.

Sothing in his chest pulled tight—sharp, unfamiliar, and dangerously close to breaking.

He wanted to tell her everything—how suffocating the palace felt, how his family gave him neither peace nor joy, how he felt trapped in obligations that left him with no room to breathe.

But he did not.

He wanted only to sit and look at her, to let the sight of her steady him.

But even that felt like too much to ask.

So instead, he asked the only thing he could say without betraying himself.

"Are you feeling better now?"

Aveline turned her face away.

He had gone to a ball. He had danced in the glittering light of the court with the woman of his heart, stood among the nobles, and now he was here, asking after her as though that was enough.

And it was enough.

That was the terrible thing.

For all her pride, for all her hurt, she could still feel the warmth in the question. His concern ca to her in the smallest ways, in the monts he least intended it to.

She hated how easily she forgave him, and hated even more that she did not really want to stop.

"Hm," she said at last, still refusing to look at him.

She was angry. And she wanted him to know it.

Theron wet his lips, still watching her.

Then his expression hardened.

"Kael will enroll you in the Arcanum in a couple of days. You will receive your paynts weekly. Do not give your real na, and under no circumstances speak of

or my na to anyone."

Aveline’s fingers clenched around the fabric at her side until her knuckles turned white.

So that was it.

For the sake of his beloved, he wanted her hidden. Erased. Kept at a distance, as though she had never existed at all. He did not want to be associated with her. He did not want anyone knowing that she knew him.

Sothing inside her cracked, though she tried—again and again—to tell herself that this was exactly what he had always been. Consistent. Unchanging. She had no right to expect more.

And yet it still hurt.

Because for one foolish mont, she had hoped she might matter to him in so small, secret way. Even now, she believed there might be more to how he acted hot and cold with her.

But... he had proven that she was nothing more than a passing inconvenience. Perhaps... even a plaything.

Her body trembled with exhaustion and blood loss, but she refused to let him see how badly he had wounded her.

"Is that all?" she asked, as though she hadn’t just been waiting for him to say sothing else.

Her voice was quiet. Too quiet.

There was a fire in her chest now, small but stubborn, fed by humiliation and heartbreak alike. Once she earned enough, once she bought herself back, she wanted nothing to do with him.

Theron’s jaw tightened as he looked at her.

"Then I will pay you back through Kael," she said, her tone careful, controlled. "You may leave. I am tired."

With Hamilton pulled close against her chest, she turned onto her side and gave him her back.

Since he didn’t want to be associated with her, then she would not cling to him.

This was the end, then.

The thought made her throat ache.

It was better this way. It had to be. She could not keep letting him trample over her heart again and again.

It was over.

She owed him money. Nothing more.

Behind her, there was a soft click.

He had left.

He had left carrying his pain in his heart, without letting her know, knowing she too was hurt.

——

Back in the study, Rosalyn’s lips curved the mont she saw the report.

"Find whoever she is, wherever she is," she said coolly, setting the parchnt aside. "Announce a bounty of one hundred ducats to anyone who gives us information."

Her eyes turned cold.

"I want her in front of . Now."

The guard bowed and hurried away.

Rosalyn crumpled the parchnt in her hand and tossed it to the floor.

How dare he?

How dare he search for soone else when he already had her?

A crown prince does not look elsewhere.

-----

Aveline lay still, her back to the empty room. The warmth he had given her... gone with him.

Sowhere beyond those walls, unseen and unknowable, her existence had just been priced, and set loose into the world.