All That Matters Read Online Free PDF Page A

inside.
    Kerstan was sitting in a grand leather chair by the window, one leg crossed atop the other, while he held a glass of wine in one hand, still in his exquisite clothing from the Feast of the New Flesh. Of course he didn’t call it that, but I did. I had been through enough new girls here that I just started making names up for certain things. I could see from his gaze that something outside had caught his attention, but I didn’t care enough to allow myself to become curious.
    He took a sip of wine before he spoke, “What took so long?”
    My inner fear gave way to annoyance almost immediately.
    “Apologies, your Highness, I didn’t realize we were under a time crunch here,” I replied sarcastically.
    A laugh escaped from somewhere inside of him; the first I ever heard from Kerstan. I rolled my eyes nonetheless, and pulled my panties off. I tossed them to the side and went to his lush king sized bed and climbed on. I made myself comfortable somewhere in the middle of it and cleared my throat.
    “Lieve, may I ask you something?”
    “You promised to call me Amity when we were alone,” I reminded him in a cold tone.
    “Amity. So, may I?” He took another sip of wine and never tore his eyes off of whatever he was looking at outside.
    “Sure.”
    “Was Betje your lover?”
    “What? No! Why would you think that?” I asked in shock.
    “Because you tried to bargain for her return. I simply assumed you to be lovers,” he replied setting his now empty glass down on the floor next to him.
    “She was my friend, ” I replied, emphasizing the word.
    He nodded. I pushed my hair behind my ears and sighed. I wondered how long it would take for him to do something I had no desire to do.
    “And Margit?”
    “We were getting there. To being friends I mean,” I replied.
    “What of Minikin? She seemed a bit distraught when I excused you yesterday,” he said conversationally.
    “Because she’s scared, Kerstan. She doesn’t want to be here anymore than the rest of us do. We’re not friends though. I already told her not to even attempt to be my friend because I have zero interest.”
    Kerstan chuckled and finally got to his feet. I closed my eyes tightly for a moment and told myself not to fight him; to let him do whatever he wanted to me. But when the bed didn’t creak and when I didn’t hear the sound of his pants unzipping, I cracked one eye open and glanced over at him. He had his hands pressed firmly on the windowsill and he was looking at something almost directly below him.
    “Come here,” he said without looking at me.
    I took a deep breath and shimmied toward the end of the bed. I quickly walked over to Kerstan’s side and he finally turned to glance at me. His smile gave me chills, because it was the sinister smile he would almost always get when he was going to say or do something completely fucked up.
    He turned slightly and sat on the windowsill keeping his eyes glued to my face. I raised an eyebrow at his intent stare and wondered how high up we really were and if a jump would kill or just maim me.
    “So, Minikin is of no consequence to you, then?” he asked.
    “None,” I lied, licking my lips nervously.
    With a nod, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a cell phone. I watched as he pressed a button, held the phone to his ear, and after a short moment, said something in Dutch. No sooner did he hang up his phone than I heard a scream from outside. Curiously, I got as close as I could to Kerstan so that I could look outside. And when I looked down, my heart broke and tears sprang to my eyes.
    It was Minikin. Sweet virginal Minikin, surrounded by a small group of men. Instinctively, I tried to push past Kerstan because I reasoned there had to be some way to get down into the gardens that I now knew sat below his window, and save her from what was about to happen. But he gripped my wrists tightly in his arms, and sat me down on the small sliver of space next to him.
    “Watch.”
    That was