Chapter 38: I Am Not Your Prize

Alicia’s POV

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t scream, couldn’t cry, couldn’t even flinch as she leaned in closer to Leo, my body not mine, my voice twisted into something thick with honey and venom.

The Queen smiled through my lips. I watched it happen from some distant corner of myself, like I was sealed behind glass. And on the other side of it, I was performing a play I never agreed to be a part of.

She tossed my hair over one shoulder and purred something flirty. Her laugh was so seductive and filled with honey. I felt the way she tilted my hips, rolled my shoulders, let my fingers trail across the edge of the wine glass like I was drawing maps across it.

Every motion was calculated. Seductive. Dangerous.

Not me.

Not the real me.

And yet, here I was. Inside the performance. Strapped in and powerless.

But the worst part?

They knew.