"Eat."
My teeth ground at the command. It was one I had heard more than I had cared to over the last day. Now, whenever he spoke the three-lettered demand, it sent a lick of anger down my spine.
"I'm full."
Rowan's eyes snapped towards me, abandoning the papers they had been focused on. They flicked down to the plate sitting on the table before me before returning to meet mine. "Eat," he repeated, finding far too much of the roast dinner that he had brought me on my plate.
If he wanted me to eat, he should have brought back something that wasn't covered in a red sauce.
My hand tightened around the cold metal of the fork as I moved to put it down. Ignoring the insistence in Rowan's tone and his cold eyes, I placed it on the table to emphasize my answer.
"I don't need you to micro-manage every bite I take," I added when he continued to watch me. Or every thought that made its way into my head.
But he seemed to think differently.
Ever since he had found me curled up and traumatized by his mother yesterday, he hadn't left me alone long enough to let a wayward thought slip past him. Not even to sleep. Instead, he forced me to sleep on the uncomfortable sofa in his bedroom that matched the one he currently occupied. I had been too drained to put up a fight and... I appreciated it at first since my mind drifted far too easily to a place that left me locked in place and staring at something that wasn't there, but as his need to dictate my every thought and move grew, his attentive focus left me feeling suffocated. The only moments of solace I had now were when one of us used the bathroom. It had me visiting it more frequently than needed and staying in it for longer than necessary. Rowan was probably under the impression that I had digestive issues, hence the increase in green in the latest meal before me.
It would have been sweet if the circumstances were different. And if Rowan wasn't so strict, cold, and aloof.
As Rowan continued to watch me, his eyes darkened in a manner I had begun to grow accustomed to. Like most of his expressions, the disapproval that had them darkening was barely noticeable. I would have missed it if I hadn't spent hours watching him read papers and took in the minuscule shifts in his features. I also watched him wipe every emotion clean when he pulled out a tablet and began to type. An eerily unreadable mask had firmly taken its place on his face with an ease that was frightening.
Now, as his gaze burrowed under my skin, it was slipping to let his annoyance through.
Just like me, there was only so much unwanted company he could take. It was a shame he insisted on maintaining it. I would much rather curl up and be devoured by my tainted mind than follow another one of Rowan's commands. Especially since he was probably trying to keep me present and fed so I wouldn't break too quickly when he took me back to see the Queen next.
I had to get out of here.
Preferably before Silas decided to come looking for me and got himself caught but after I had a chance to search for the portal key I knew Rowan possessed. I couldn't leave without trying to first. Unfortunately, to search for it I needed him to leave. Something he had shown no sign of doing ever since he had returned to hold me under icy water.
"Eat," he repeated, sticking to one of the few words he cared to share with me when he pulled his eyes away from whatever he had in his hands. The others also consisted of different one-worded commands and instructions.
"No." I put the fork down and pushed the plate away from me. The sound of it moving across the polished wood had the silence that followed growing tense.
