42

Dedicated to all my wonderful readers. Thanks for all your love and support💜

***

The next few days were the same, the king sent more demeaning notes and watched as Clarissa cracked each time.

Leonard wondered how someone she had never met was able to tear through her so easily.

This king knew what buttons to push and seeing Clarissa get angry because of a man she had never seen was starting to get to him as well.

He desperately wanted to find the man and make him apologize for all he had been doing. But for the few days, they had been here, they hadn't seen or heard from him, other than the insulting notes he left for the princess whenever she asked for something or found something, not to her liking.

Although he knew very well that Clarissa was being too much and he suspected it was in a bid to get the king to appear before her.

But so far none of her plans had worked.

Clarissa was this close to murdering someone. She wished badly for her torture Chambers.

She imagined herself in there with the faceless king as her victim.

And to top it all the stupid maidservant Scarlett was starting to annoy her and demean her and she had of course rewarded the girl with more chores to do. Chores which she did clumsily. This made her believe the girl must have slept her way in to get a position as a maid in the palace. The king must not be competent enough to know what a maid was supposed to do. Or he might have been the one to give her a position as a maid after sleeping with her.

She could hardly care about that but she would make sure to let him know his rakish ways would be stopped when they were married.

To get her mind off the annoying king she decided to help Dante look for his cat who had been going and coming as it pleased the last few days. She didn't want the cat to become a vampire snack. It would hurt the child.

After searching for the cat with no progress made for an hour, she decided it was time for the daily training she had with Leonard.

She dressed in her green training outfit and headed out to the garden at the back of the palace which had enough space for one to train.

Leonard was there waiting for her.

It reminded her of the times she had to wait for him because he had to take care of his other duties in her father's kingdom. One good thing about coming to Shadow's Kiss was the fact that she had enough time to train and spend time with her friend. This brought her mind to her father.

Now more than ever she missed her father and her friend Gabriella as well as Logan.

Her father would have comforted her and given her advice on how to withstand the king's insults and her friend would have come up with a million schemes to take revenge on the disrespectful king. Gabriella's mind was filled with mischief, an attribute she inherited from her father. Logan used to help them out with their schemes only to get scolded by his wife, Serena.

She missed them all. But if anyone were to ask her she would deny it.

If only they were here to stop her from wanting to kill Kieran.

Her sword met that of Leonard, he barely gave her room to attack once more, He pushed her away with his weight immediately and used the momentary surprise to come at her with his sword. She jumped back just in time and came back at him even more ferocious than before. Her temper was heightened. Everything within her was heightened.

She thought of ways to get the vampire king to submit to her but when none came to her mind, she fought Leonard with more anger.

At last, she pushed him to the floor but he was quick to jump back on his feet to counter her attacks.

She felt antsy. She wondered if it was because of the full moon which would rise tonight.

She felt the vampire king had no true desire to help her kingdom and she was merely wasting time here. What if her father and friends all died because of the indifferent king. She wanted to see him to make sure he understood their arrangement and of course to seduce him but so far she was failing woefully.

How? she asked herself would she get his attention?

Then an idea came to her. He asked Dimitri to give her two rules.

Not to step into the East wing especially on a full moon and not to go outside at night.

Perhaps it was time to break a rule. She thought with a smirk.

The next thing she knew, she found herself with her back against the ground.

" You were distracted. " Leonard said, helping her up. " What was on your mind? "

For a moment she pondered on telling him but she knew he would only stop her so she gave him her first real smile in days. " Nothing, I was just thinking of Dad and everyone else back home. "

He smiled as well, knowing that she probably missed them all.

When the training ended with both her and Dante having trained enough to tire themselves out, they headed back into the palace.

They prepared for dinner after having their rest. Clarissa dressed beautifully as she always did. But everyone noticed how quiet she was all through dinner.

Clarissa wondered why the notes the king usually sent to annoy her were not sent today.

Dimitri in particular looked quite nervous.

Raphael watched Clarissa and knew that she was plotting something.

Finally, she went up to her room to sleep, the same as the others who went to their rooms.

When she was sure everyone was asleep, Clarissa snuck out of her room to the hall and hid in a corner on seeing Scarlett dressed in even less clothing than her old maid's uniform.

The girl was climbing up the stairs quietly, trying to make sure she made no sound and no one saw her. She looked towards the East wing with a devious smile on her face.

She planned to seduce the king tonight and perhaps he would see her as more than a maidservant.

Clarissa was deliberating on whether to stop her when Dimitri's voice came from the foot of the stairs.

" What are you doing up here? "

Author's note

Thank you so much for reading. Don't forget to vote, comment, share, rate/review, vote with golden tickets, add to your libraries and reading lists. Don't forget that you can gift the book now. Thanks again💜