King of Fire and Flames (Courts of the Star Fae Realms #2)

Chapter 8

Leaf

His glittering lashes dropped, and he closed his eyes for three ragged beats of my heart, drawing a sharp breath as he opened them. “Take care what you say, Leaf,” he whispered, barely moving his lips. “I’m sure the Fire Court has ways to discern our words.”

Leaf .

Did he have no shame? How dared he address me by the pet name that was once all I possessed. The identity he gave me before he sold me to the Sun Realm.

“That’s fine,” I hissed. “I’ll happily stop speaking. I have no desire to talk to a betrayer. Also, I forbid you from calling me by the ridiculous name you gave to a slave. I am not that lost girl anymore. I know who I am. Prisoner or not, one day, I’ll wear the crown of my ancestors. So from this night onward, to you, my name shall be Vengeance. Or Heart Stopper. Take your pick. Both have a lovely ring to them.”

“I think I’ll stick with Zali. Or Princess, if I must.”

“Still irks you, doesn’t it? My royal status.”

He sighed through gritted teeth, his breath rustling my hair. “It saddens me how little you know me.”

“That’s true. I don’t know you at all. I never did, because while you were selling me to the highest bidder, like a love-sick fool, I was rushing to your bed when Esen captured me.”

His steps faltered. “You were what ?” His golden skin blanched, and he spun us around the dance floor at an alarming pace, my hair streaming behind me and his wings spread out like sails. “Esen arrested you?”

“Under your name, of course.”

His lips formed a thin line, a storm flashing in his eyes. “There’s your fucking betrayer, then. It’s Esen, not me.”

A combination of fury and doubt washed over me. I shrugged a shoulder, feigning indifference. “No matter how Esen altered your plans by interrupting my travels, the result is the same. Here I am in the Sun Realm, property of King Azarn, just as you wanted.”

A muscle ticked in his jaw. “Oh, yes. That’s exactly what I wanted. Of course I longed to see you enslaved again. How could you possibly think that I—”

“Still, I would bet my life you can’t bear to see another man take what was once yours, even if you don’t want it anymore.”

Rage sparked in his gaze, followed by an unhinged emotion that made me flinch away from him.

“That’s right, human . Even after everything you’ve said tonight, I’d love nothing more than to bend you over that banquet table and fuck the insolence out of you, and I wouldn’t give a damn who witnessed it.”

My entire body flashed hot. Then ice cold.

“Wish for it all you like, King of Slaves, but I will never ever lie beneath you again.”

His lips quirked at my insult. “Never is a long time, Princess of Little Faith . A lot can happen between now and the end of time.”

I shrugged. “Well, at least you still have one devotee here in Taln. The dead girl, Ruhh. Killed her, did you? Tell me how and why.”

“Wouldn’t you love to know. What will you give me for the tale of it?”

“I don’t need to hear it that badly. I already know enough disgusting things about you to curdle my stomach until I die.”

He leaned close and whispered against my lips. “Do you now?”

“ Yes . And as I said, you sicken me.”

“I predict you’ll live to regret those words, Princess ,” he said, hissing the title like a curse, a promise. A husky threat that slid along my spine and dampened the skin between my thighs.

Self-disgust rose, hot bile scalding my throat. How could I find anything that faithless wolf said remotely exciting? Habit, I guessed. My body was used to responding to him. Used to reacting to his voice, his touch, remembering them as sources of pleasure and joy.

But no more.

I’d rather die than let him touch me like that again.

And he could threaten all he liked, but it wouldn’t change a thing. My face would still be the last thing he saw as he drew a final breath, and I tore his entrails from his gut.

“Enough dancing.” Azarn rose, clapping his hands together once. “It bores me.” He nodded at Esen. “Take the human away. I have much to discuss with King Arrowyn before I allow him to rest from his travels.”

Arrow bristled at the king’s words, his hands falling away from my body. He cut me a bow, facing away from the dais as he whispered, “Have they hurt you? Tell me now, Leaf.” His gaze tracked over the gore on my tunic.

Ignoring his question, I dropped my gaze to the dark marble.

“ Arrowyn ,” barked the Fire King.

Arrow spun on his heel and stalked away, the weight of his fury enveloping me, as if he’d wrapped his brand-new cloak around my shoulders. A prickly burden I neither wanted to feel nor would let affect me.

As he mounted the dais, the hand by his side flexed twice. Two spasms of either disgust or anger. Disgust that he’d had to touch me? Or fury that Azarn wielded some kind of power over him?

As Esen led me past the flame-lit faces of the tittering crowd, I felt Arrow’s gaze on my back, my Aldara mark pulsing in response. An answer to a question neither one of us wanted asked.

Thanks for marking me, fuck face , I thought, and for ruining both our lives .

My limbs weak with exhaustion and shock, I leaned on Esen as I walked through the corridors of the palace, feeling Arrow’s presence all the way back to the tower room.

“Get some sleep,” Esen said as she locked the door, leaving me to scrub the blood from my skin in a hot bath before climbing into bed, every bone in my body aching.

I’d been asleep for a while when the sound of clicking locks woke me. As the door creaked open, I bolted out of bed, then crouched beside it, ready to leap onto my assailant’s back and claw their eyes out.

Silence followed. No steps. No movement.

Who could it be?

Arrow stalking toward me through the shadows? My inactive Aldara mark told me it wasn’t. Perhaps Esen had decided to finish what she’d started back in Coridon. But that didn’t make sense. Her sharp personality had lost so much of its edge since I’d been in Taln, I was beginning to suspect she liked me.

“Where are you hiding, little murderess?” said a tall slender shadow with a silky-smooth voice. “I’m not here to kill you. I promise. Hurry and show yourself.”

With a sigh, I got to my feet. “Prince Bakhur, what could be so urgent that you must disturb my sleep?” I asked, even though I was certain I knew the answer.

At the flick of his wrist, a wall sconce burst to life, and he prowled toward me. Refusing to cower, I kept my bare feet planted wide and raised my chin as if I were dressed in Mydorian armor, rather than a too-thin nightgown.

“I found your fight with Dorn rather… stimulating, Princess of Dust.”

I laughed. “You couldn’t have seen much through the flames.”

“In Taln, we are fae of the sun. Flames illuminate all things to our vision. I saw you clearly. I witnessed your fierceness, your determination, and I longed to congratulate you on your win. So here I am.”

“Congratulations could have waited until morning.”

His amber eyes glittered as he gripped my chin, tilting my face up. “Congratulations could wait, yes. But this required immediate attention,” he said, seizing my wrist and guiding my palm to the hard bulge in the front of his trousers.

Something sizzled, the scent of burning flesh watering my eyes as Bakhur spat out a curse, stepping backward and away from me. “Fuck the Storm King and his mark.”

“Does it hurt to touch me?” I asked, unable to hide the joy in my voice.

Bakhur grimaced and glanced at his groin. “Depends what I’m thinking about at the time.”

How interesting. How perfect.

Gratitude for the Aldara mark flowed through me. Whatever magic made it impossible for Bakhur to assault me, right now, I was extremely glad of its existence.

“The mark makes our marriage impossible,” I said, my thoughts racing.

A dark brow rose. “Oh? Why so?”

“It would allow no intimacy. You couldn’t get heirs or even pleasure from the union.”

His low laugh prickled over my skin. “There are other pleasures than full consummation and many ways to get a babe inside a womb, Zali.”

Revulsion turned my stomach, his smile growing as I shivered.

Bakhur was an odd one—charming at times—but beneath his smooth veneer lay a cruel, calculating nature. Fairly typical of his species, I supposed. And I knew from experience fae couldn’t be trusted to treat humans well. Not even the one I’d given my heart to understood the true value of possessing a human’s love, given in faith to a much more powerful being.

“Let’s try an experiment, shall we?” Bakhur asked.

I said nothing as he turned me away and pressed my hands against the cool glass of the bay window, terror weakening my limbs.

He muttered a spell, and my nightgown fell to my elbows, exposing my back. His fingertip slowly traced the skin over my spine.

Hissing in a breath, I tried to swing around and elbow him, but found I couldn’t move. My muscles had seized—frozen by dark magic. His nail traced patterns over my back, red-hot pain searing. The Fire Prince was burning my flesh.

Sweat dripped between my breasts, and my blood boiled with useless fury. Trapped and rendered immobile by his spell, I stared through the tower window at the moon, its bright light mocking me.

“ Let me go ,” I thought, unable to push any sound through my lips. “ Let me go. Let me go .”

Out of nowhere a growl sounded, and Ruhh appeared, her tattered slippers hovering above the floor. “Nephew, the girl wants you to stop. So stop. Now .”

“Oh, Ruhh dear, you always were a wet blanket. The only time you had any real life in you, was when Father announced that he would ask Arrowyn to marry you.”

Ruhh snarled, lank hair hanging around a gaunt face, her pale eyes large above prominent cheekbones. Water dripped from her gown onto the wooden floor. She had the look of a drowned rat, her clothes damp, the remaining skin wrinkled and puffy. Perhaps she had died in water.

A chill skittered down my spine as I pictured Arrow drowning her with ease. He was callous enough to do it.

“Go now, Bakhur, or I shall tell your father you’ve burned runes into his valuable guest.”

Runes ? My suspicions were confirmed. Bakhur was an evil prick. And the last person I wished to be wed to.

Mentally, I added him to my list of targets.

One day, he would pay, too.

The prince watched as I reached my hand as far as I could and ran my fingers over my back, feeling the raised patterns on my skin. He snickered in delight, and then left my room without a word.

“You should stay away from my nephew,” said Ruhh, perching in the air above the edge of the bed. “He was working magic into your skin, attempting to get the Aldara mark off and also testing how much he could hurt you while it remained.” She flew a circle around my chamber. “Take care. Inflicting pain is Bakhur’s greatest passion.”

I collapsed on the window seat, hugging my knees to my chest as I contemplated the dead girl hovering in front of me. “How did you die, Ruhh?”

She pointed out the window. “See that tower in the distance?”

I nodded.

“It is Taln’s tallest. Arrowyn rejected my father’s marriage proposal, so poor Ruhh was tumbled from it and fell a very long way down.”

An odd way to phrase it. Not to mention how weird it was to refer to herself in the third person. A massive red flag, in fact.

Preparing to tease her, I kept a straight face and arched a brow. “Really? I had no idea Azarn felt that way about the Storm King.”

She gave me a gray-toothed smile. “The offer was for my hand, obviously.”

“Oh, I see. And so your life was ruined, ended , because that asshole didn’t want you.”

“Something like that.” Ruhh’s smile twisted. “Which makes me the perfect person to help you end him .”

“Who said I wanted to kill Arrow?” I asked.

“What woman betrayed by a male doesn’t at least wish to rip his eyes from his sockets or slice his cock from his pants?”

“Likely none,” I replied.

Ruhh clapped her hands. “Then it’s settled. We will talk more soon. I’m certain you’ll find my plan appealing.”

“Plan?” I asked, leaving the window seat and heading toward the bathroom to pour water over my stinging back. “What plan?”

Without answering my question, Ruhh’s gray gown burst into flames, and she disappeared, leaving me to wonder if her hatred for Arrow was good news or bad news.

Knowing my luck, likely the latter.