Chapter Three: Caged

These are the darkest clouds
That have surrounded me
Now I find myself alone
Caught in a cage
There's no flower I can find in here
Not withering, not pale to me

Everyone with a friendly face
Seems to hide some secret inside

He told me he loved me
While he laughed in my face
He just led me astray

~'Caged' by Within Temptation ~

Last chapter: The princess finally comes to understand the fact that Niklaus will never let her leave.

"What is the matter with you, Niklaus?" His elder brother, Elijah, turns to him, his voice tired.

He sits in his chair, looking below as people dance and laugh. Looking, but not seeing. He couldn't see anything but her face, couldn't hear anything but her angered voice as she spat those words at him.

"I don't love you."

"I would rather die than ever care about something as low and as vile a creature as you."

It's all he hears. The sounds of the party slowing down and quieting to his ears. All he sees are flaming golden eyes, and beautiful, full lips, refusing him. Hating him. Disgusted by him. He remembered the feel of her warm body pressed up against his own. Her hands soft, splayed on his chest as he ravished her mouth. That mouth he so desperately he wanted to call out for him. To say his name in happiness, or pleasure or softness.

She refused him that, too.

He knew she would want him. She knew he needed her. So, why was she toying with him? How could she do this? Be so cruel? Not his sweet princess, not when he could make the entire world stoop at her feet and crawl for her, like they should. Why didn't she want him? Why, when he could do all this for her? He could give her anything she desired! Be anything she wanted! Do anything she fancied! Why wouldn't she just love him like he loved her?

His grip tightens on the glass in his hand, the amber liquor shaking just so. As usual, he had sent a servant up to her room, with his request that she join them for dinner and the dance. The servant, as always, came back with no answer from her. His sister and brothers had come home a few days ago, their return the reason for his celebrating.

"Nothing is the matter, dear brother." He whispers back.

The older man doesn't believe him, but wouldn't say anything, as of yet.

"Calm yourself, then."

Why?

"I can't." He says again, this time his teeth grinding. He wanted to be able to. He wanted to let her go. He needed it. But heaven help him, he needed her more.

It was something he couldn't explain, like a thread between the two, but he was always dragged back to her, on hands and knees begging, pleading for her. But the answer was always the same.

He couldn't have her.

Why?!

He growled low in his throat, his grip tightening even more so, his knuckles turning an aching white. The glass cracks.

And in that moment, Niklaus wanted nothing more than to break the girl. Warp her mind into caring for only him. And then, he would deny her. Just as she had denied him. If he couldn't have his happiness, neither could she.

Elijah doesn't even spare him a look.

"Niklaus, I would suggest you quiet yourself and be grateful that this cacophony drowns out that noise."

The party soon would be over and with everyone returning to their homes, he saw no reason to stay. He could reminisce with his siblings later. Without hesitation, he stands from his chair and ventures across the room, leaving his home, he walks off into the night.

It seemed to her now, that all she did was sleep. She would hardly eat. During the week she had been there, she had hardly left her room at all. She was already beginning to lose weight.

She would sleep all day, sporadically getting up to bathe in what the servant she was given had called a 'bathroom', which was conveniently located in her room.

But most days she would just lie in her bed. Not even thinking as guilt and sadness rushed over her in waves.

A knock on her door wakes her just so from her sleep-laden reverie.

"My lady? Might I come in?"

It was a mans' voice, husky and deep.

She doesn't answer.

Instead, the princess found herself staring at a blank, white wall. She was fixated on it. She couldn't tear her eyes away from it and she didn't want to. She doesn't even notice when the door opens.

"So, you must be the girl my brother is so enthralled with."

She doesn't move. Dragging her eyes over in his direction, she gazed at the man who had just entered her chambers.

She says nothing.

He gazed at the young girl, sprawled on the bed. Dark, thickly curled hair, full lips and glimmering eyes. A warm brown skin tone. He had only heard tales of woman who looked like this but had never seen it with his own eyes. She was beautiful, no doubt. He could see why Niklaus would be attracted to her, especially when she sat up and he caught a glimpse of the fabled wide, rounded hips and full cleavage.

He had caught a faint glance at her, when Niklaus first brought her to the estate, as he sped past him and into an empty room on a higher floor.

Niklaus told his brother that he had full intentions of wedding the young girl, whom he knew would love him and would make an excellent addition to their family. A smile tugging his lips, and his scent filled with elation and fondness, he informed his brother that he saved her from a home she didn't need, and how glad she would be when he asked for her to be his.

But if all this was so, why did this room reek of sorrow and pain?

"Why is it, that he wants you? What have you done to make Niklaus so completely infatuated that he forgets himself so easily?"

Curiosity swelled deep in his tone, Elijah was not only questioning but concerned for his brother. Niklaus had always been erratic, but this was something completely different.

"Niklaus." She says his name slowly, full lips wrapping around each syllable, tongue caressing each letter.

"Is that his name?"

She spoke with a heavy, foreign lilt, he noticed. Her eyes scan him once, from head to toe, her own faint curiosity lighting dim, honey-colored eyes.

His eyebrows furrow.

"You did not-. Surely, you know who you're to be wed to?"

She blinks, once, twice.

"Wed?" A new word. A term she wasn't familiar with.

"Yes, he wants you for his wife."

Her own eyebrows raise and she takes a deep breath, trying to stave off tears.

"No."

That's what he meant? He wanted her to bind herself to him?

She feels like she's drowning. Unable to catch her breath, air leaves her shakily. Panting, she scrambles up the bed, until her back hits the wall. She curls up into herself, knees going to her chest, and her forehead touching them. Her hands fly into her hair as she tries to catch her breath.

"No, no, no, no."

She rocks back and forth, not having the strength to stop the tears from flowing. All her energy in her denial and struggle to calm herself.

Brown eyes widen, watching as the girl mumbles and cries. She didn't seem to be taking the news of her engagement very well. His hands look over her small figure, bruised and scraped arms, and slightly blistered hands. His eyes catch on to the bracelet around her wrist, it gives off a dim glow. Faint recognition swirls through his head.

"Magic." He mumbles to himself.

He walks over to her, slowly lowering himself to sit on her bed. If she notices him there, he can't tell. The girl continues to sob and shake and mutter to herself. He reaches out a pale hand, hovering right in front of her slim wrist. Hot an invisible, sparks of energy shoot through his hand.

The girl was trapped.

"You're a prisoner here, aren't you?"

By then, she had seemed to cry herself out. She slumped heavily against the wall now, her legs sliding down the bedding until they were flat. Glazed over eyes look up at the ceiling.

"Yes."

For the first time, she looks at him, truly looks. Those golden eyes gaze deep into warm, dark brown. As if searching for something urgent and necessary. She leans closer to the man, seemingly satisfied by what she finds. Her small hands reach out, grabbing his own, and bringing them close to her chest.

"Please, please. I have to get away." Her voice is earnest, her warm hands tighten around his.

Not even knowing his name, or he, hers, the girl looks as if she trusts him completely. Elijah speeds out the room, a blur, the door slamming shut behind him.

'When I saw you, I fell in love. And you smiled at me because you knew. You knew then, that I loved you. And you know now. Tell me then, little princess, why do you turn from me so?'

It's a note, written on tanned paper in black ink. His name, 'Niklaus' is scrawled at the bottom of it.

She had found it when she walked back into her room after being escorted downstairs by a servant and getting something to eat. She was watched the entire time. It didn't matter, she thought.

She couldn't leave anyway. It had been half moon cycle since she had tried and since she had seen that man. Niklaus' brother.

She twirls the flower between her slim fingers as she read it over again.

Her door opens, and without looking she knows it's him. She doesn't spare him a glance.

"I think you're completely mad."

"Only for you, princess."

A snort of derision passes from her.

"You claim to love me. You say you want me as yours."

She turns to him. Deep blue-green eyes look over her small form, noting that her arms are healing well, if slowly.

"I want you to desire me, as I desire you. Wholly, eternally."

A soft smile lights his face. All those feelings and desires of inflicting pain and torment on the girl, gone from his mind as soon as she saw her. He couldn't do that to his sweet princess. He loved her.

"I don't love you."

A grimace tugs his lips. He swallows roughly, quieting those thoughts and the flashes of hot, blinding anger that came with them. He sweeps a pale hand through his blonde hair, his eyes softening as he hears the sweet voice directed at him.

"I met your brother."

His eyes snap to hers'. "Elijah didn't tell me he went to see you."

Elijah. Elijah was the man's name.

"Hmm. He seemed quite shocked when he found you to be keeping me here, against my will."

"I keep you here, because I love you, princess. And in any case, you have nowhere else to go. There's nothing left of your kingdom but rubble. I saved you from perishing."

Unknown to either of the two, Elijah stood outside the door of the girls' room. He closes his eyes in pity. For the girl, or his brother, or himself, he didn't know. He walks away without a word.

A/N: So, another chapter! Finally. This is going to be a sort of slow burn story. Not too slow, though. What do you guys think so far? Don't be afraid to leave a review!