Chapter 3 – Behind the Thorns

The mansion swallowed Seraphine whole.

Tall ceilings, gilded chandeliers, and corridors lined with portraits that stared down with lifeless eyes. Every inch of the house reeked of wealth and power, yet beneath the polish lurked something… darker. The shadows stretched too long. The silence was too sharp.

The guards left her in a candlelit hall, her bare feet sinking into the plush crimson carpet. At the far end stood a pair of black double doors, carved with roses and thorns.

He appeared behind her before she heard him.

The Thorn King.

His presence was a weight, pulling the air from her lungs. She turned slowly, her breath catching when she found him closer than she expected, his mask gleaming in the candlelight.

“This will be your cage,” he said, voice low, steady. “Until you learn what it means to belong.”

Seraphine’s chin lifted. “I don’t belong to anyone.”

He stepped nearer, the scent of smoke and roses wrapping around her. “Not yet.”

Her skin prickled as his gloved hand brushed a strand of hair from her face. It wasn’t tender. It was possessive—like a sculptor touching clay he already owned.

She shoved his hand away. “Don’t touch me.”

His laugh was soft, dangerous. “Defiance suits you. But in time, little flower, even thorns soften.”

He gestured to the doors. They opened with a groan, revealing a room that stole her breath.

It was not a prison. It was a garden.

Inside stretched an indoor sanctuary—a greenhouse beneath a glass dome. Roses of every color climbed trellises, their petals glowing under lantern light. A fountain trickled in the center, its water tinted red by floating petals. Vines curled around marble statues—statues of women. Beautiful, tragic, eternal.

Seraphine’s stomach twisted. Were they art… or warnings?

She stepped inside cautiously. The perfume of roses was overwhelming, intoxicating. She hated that it was beautiful.

“This is where my flowers bloom,” he said, entering behind her. His voice filled the chamber like smoke. “And this is where you will bloom.”

Her fists clenched. “I will never bloom for you.”

He circled her slowly, predator watching prey. “Every flower says the same. Until they discover how sweet it feels to surrender.”

Seraphine forced herself to meet his eyes through the mask. “You may own this place. You may hold the chains. But you will never own me.”

The silence stretched. Then he stopped in front of her, so close she could see his breath fog against the mask.

“I already do.”

Her pulse thundered, fury and fear warring with something far more dangerous—curiosity.

Why did his words burn? Why did her body betray her, trembling not just from fear but from heat?

He reached into his coat, drawing out a single rose, black as midnight. Its stem was lined with thorns.

He held it out to her. “Take it.”

She stared at the rose, her chest tightening. “No.”

His gloved hand extended further, patience fraying. “Take it, Seraphine.”

Her name on his lips struck like a brand. She had never told him her name.

Her throat went dry. “How do you—”

“I know everything about you,” he interrupted, voice velvet and steel. “The night you were taken. The life you lost. The secrets you keep even from yourself.”

Her blood ran cold. “You’re lying.”

“Am I?” His eyes glimmered beneath the mask, sharp, knowing. “You will take this rose. If not tonight… then soon. Because no matter how you resist me, you were always meant to be mine.”

Seraphine’s hand trembled, hovering inches from the rose. Every instinct screamed to refuse. To spit in his face. To run.

But the pull was undeniable. As if the flower itself whispered to her, tempting, dangerous.

At the last second, she ripped her gaze away and stepped back. “Never.”

His hand closed around the rose, crushing the stem until blood bloomed through his glove. He didn’t flinch.

Instead, he leaned close, his voice a dark promise against her ear.

“Every thorn will cut you, little flower. And every cut will remind you—you are mine.”

Then he turned, leaving her trembling among the roses, her defiance burning… but her body betraying her with heat she could not smother.

***Download NovelToon to enjoy a better reading experience!***