18. Present Day
18
PRESENT DAY
Caly
M endax was inside the castle.
Alive.
And he loved me. Still.
My heart knocked against my chest in tandem with the pounding of my bare feet down the stairs. I needed to put as much distance between Mendax and Eli as possible. For all our safety.
What was I supposed to do now?
I should find Queen Saracen. Certainly she was powerful enough to get rid of Mendax without getting Eli involved and killed.
Fuck! What if she hurt Mendax? Did I want to get rid of him?
The sound of unhurried footsteps stalked me—I needed to decide what to do, and fast.
The castle was eerily quiet. The sun that cast from the ceiling was now as dim as a reading light. There were no signs of life in any of the rooms I ran past.
Even the staff were asleep.
I stole a glance over my shoulder to see Mendax confidently striding after me. His mouth was set in a hard, determined line, his ice-blue eyes stabbing into mine.
Anger surged through me as my stomach fluttered. I hated how much it got to me when I heard him tell Walter he loved me and that he’d come to take me back. No one had ever wanted to take me with them.
Why could nothing ever work out right for me?
I shouldn’t have even been the one to have to kill Mendax. I shouldn’t have ever even been trained as Saracen’s assassin. I should have never let them trick me into giving up my heart.
I was tired of being controlled with lies and manipulation. Maybe all of them should learn what it felt like to die inside.
I stopped running.
Maybe they should all just die.
My smoke flared to life, pouring off my arms the instant I glanced back to lock eyes with Mendax again. A cruel smile pulled at the dimple on his handsome face.
I continued to walk, taking a right down the hallway and barreling through the large doors of the throne room. I looked around at all of the barbaric art surrounding me. The people of the wall murals began to mumble quietly.
My hand went to pull the door shut just as I felt him shadow behind me. My eyes shut at the feel of his body so close. I pretended to be preoccupied with closing the door, as if it was possible for me not to feel how close he was.
My grip tightened around the karambit. Slowly, I moved the sharp point of the blade in the direction of his stomach. A small, controlled breath silently left my mouth. Widening my stance slightly, I leaned my body closer to the door and acted as if I were listening for him on the other side.
As the queen’s assassin, it had been my job to end him, and I had failed. He couldn’t be here. If she found out he wasn’t dead, it meant I would die. And if I died, Eli died—the only person I cared about saving.
“You will leave tonight and return to Unseelie with Walter,” he stated. “I will retrieve your heart and bring it with me after I finish killing each of them for what they’ve done to you.”
Icy breath caught in my lungs, chilling my heated body with a new fear. “You will not hurt them. I still need them. You hurt them, and I will spend every second of the rest of my life trying to kill you,” I promised through clenched teeth.
Mendax stepped toward me with a grin. “What part of that threat was supposed to dissuade me?”
In theory, the Unseelie prince was more powerful than me in every respect, but so was everybody else. I wouldn’t let that stop me. It was kill or be killed, and I would use everything I had.
Knowing the rotation of my torso would have an effective mass far greater than my arms would, I turned quickly. With the proper rotation, I was capable of imparting up to four hundred percent more force into my strike.
Letting out a loud grunt, I slammed the double-edged karambit deep into his shoulder.
The prince fell back as I pulled my weapon free from his body, his blood speckling the floor with black dots and lines.
“I can’t leave with you. I-I won’t. I don’t want you. It’s my heart, and I will get it on my own, and then?—”
The dark silhouette of his body stepped toward me, unfazed by the fresh wound on his shoulder. “And then what, pet? You will be the smoking puppet of the Seelie court? Don’t be so gullible,” he growled.
“Gullible! I am their family. They?—”
He stepped nearly flush against me, but I refused to move back. Focusing on his cold eyes was significantly harder when his midsternal line was staring me in the face. Tiny grooves of striations in between his pectoral muscles tormented me. The devil—Kaohs, whatever they called him here—knew exactly what he was doing when he made Mendax so alluring.
“They are using you,” he said with a twitch to his brow. He reached for my shoulder, but I shoved his hand away with my forearm.
Our tussle continued further into the throne room.
“Using me for what?” I asked. “I can’t do anything. I have been nothing but a burden to them. Queen Saracen looked out for me when my mother and sister died. What have you done for me? Manipulate me,” I said. “Try to kill me. Forced a bond that was unwanted. If it hadn’t been for Aurelius?—”
He fisted my hair, yanking my head back to press his face over mine. “Aurelius will be a pile of debris within the hour, you have my assurance of that.”
I struck Mendax in the face so hard, two of my knuckles split. The shot felt good—at least until I saw something wild crackle to life in his icy eyes.
His wings widened and grew with the same wavelike motion a snake would make if it coiled around your neck. With a violent yet graceful sweep of his leg, mine were knocked out from under me. The throne’s armrest was the only thing that stopped my fall. The dark prince shoved his fingers against my chest, and I fell back to sit on the queen’s extravagant throne.
Placing one hand on each armrest, he trapped me.
“Go on then, take your place on the Seelie throne. Is that what you want? In this realm, you are only wanted as a weapon, my love.” He blocked my knees in, stopping my move to knee him in the dick.
“I’ve been her weapon in the human world nearly all of my life. At least this way I get a crown, and my family along with it. What’s the difference?” My voice trembled with emotion.
For a moment, neither of us spoke. His eyes darted around my face. “The difference is, with your heart and powers restored, you will be a full-blooded Artemi at her disposal—tied to the Seelie realm, knocked up by her tree stump of a son, and therefore unable to ascend with the Ancients. Combine all that with the powers you’ve gained from me, and you will be the most powerful weapon the realms have ever seen, surpassing even me. Convenient how all that worked out for her, don’t you think?”
He stepped back, giving me a bit of space to breathe.
I opened my mouth to retort, but nothing came. The truth was, I didn’t know anything about Artemi, or really much of anything. It was impossible to think of myself as anything but human. I felt human.
“And what is it you want with me then? You want me to be your weapon too?” I snarled.
Since arriving in Seelie, I hadn’t understood much of anything that was happening. I didn’t know who I could trust. I had no understanding of their magic, customs, or what was actually expected of me.
One thing I did know was that Mendax saw things in me I thought were invisible to everyone else. Just being near him sparked something inside I’d tried so hard to fight.
Every cell in my body had exploded with relief—and fear—when I had found out he was alive. I was helplessly drawn to him. Telling myself not to be didn’t change a thing.
“I don’t need a weapon. The Seelie do. I want you as my lover and queen.”
I stood, my bare legs brushing against his. Both of us were breathing heavily as we waited to block or strike whatever the other’s next move might be.
Fuck! He was loathsome and horrible, and I wouldn’t be foolish enough to let him ruin everything I’d worked so hard for.
I would not have a weakness. Not now, with everything at stake. I took a step back before I struck out to kick him in the liver. Before I could register that my kick didn’t land, my back slammed against the painted wall behind the thrones.
Mendax pinned both of my wrists above my head and pressed his body against mine.
The painted figures of the wall mumbled in shock.
At least seven of the white-robed figures started running from across the room, turning the corner and racing up the wall to where I was pinned. Black movement caught my attention in time to see several of the huge, shadowy figures of the painting glide toward us from another section. Several of the others, including most of the more plain-looking ones, began to climb the walls in a grotesque rhythm I’d never seen before.
Sweat beaded across my skin as I watched all of the creatures climb to the top of the domed ceiling, where they each gave me one final, hollow look before jumping out the sun-filled window in the most morosely terrifying way.
I gasped, looking around at the white walls with unease. Mendax and I were all alone now.
“I was going to be gentle with you, pet, but I’m starting to think that’s not what you really like. Do you want me to be rough, Caly?” His deep whisper felt like a threat.
We were breathing heavily, blood smeared all over the both of us. I would have been scared witless from the mural had a bigger, more dangerous monster not been pressed so close against my body.
Danger and power rolled off him while he held me in place. The adrenaline and fear in my system mingled with his closeness, creating dangerous arousal. The prince of night’s wings were spread wide in a commanding span of black smoke.
My body pushed into him. His words might as well have been an incantation that turned my insides to jelly.
I swore under my breath, realizing I was staring at the shape of his lips. “I-I have to kill you,” I stuttered, bursting forward to fight against my feelings as much as to fight him.
He pushed me back, slamming my wrists back against the wall so hard, my blade clanged onto the marble floor at my feet. My mind marked where it had landed as Mendax pressed against me, sending all of the air out of my lungs.
“I knew what you were the moment I saw that fire ignite in your eyes in the Unseelie forest. I knew when I showed you where to stab me. You’re the only one who doesn’t understand what you are,” he said, kicking my legs farther apart.
It felt like he was looking straight into me. I had no fucking clue what I was anymore. How could he?
“And what exactly am I?” I bit out.
His hands dropped from my wrists to cup my face, the tip of his nose brushing mine. “You are an alluring rose with secret thorns. A droplet of rain fighting to quench and to drown,” he said, looking deranged and enthralled all at the same time. “You are my only care in life.”
I was so tempted to give in and taste him one last time. The adrenaline and temptations were so intertwined. Instead, the need to protect Eli flared, and my fight-or-flight instincts overtook my lust. Fight won.
I wrapped my arm around his waist, two fingers digging into the open wound on his shoulder and rotating him so his back hit the wall, freeing myself.
He groaned, pushing forward to grab me, but I anticipated his move and ducked out of his reach. I grabbed my karambit off the floor.
Smoke shot from him and wrapped around my arm to pull me back. His smoke seemed to awaken my own, and it began to pour from my sides and mingle with his. But the tendrils attached to me slithered and widened the smoke from Mendax that gripped my arm, allowing me to slip free and back away.
“You made it. You’re alive. Go home then! Why are you here?” I shouted at the top of my lungs.
He watched our smoke spiral and mingle together. “You know why I’m here,” he stated.
“You don’t love me! What don’t you understand? You are the monster of death that lurks in their nightmares, and I was the fool tasked with destroying you.”
“If I’m the monster and you the knight, then Aurelius must be the damsel in distress. Tell me, do you ever grow tired of letting him think you are the princess in the tower and not the dragon that guards it?”
I charged at him as anger flooded my system, overriding any rational thoughts or training I had. Once again, Mendax had seen through parts of me no one else did, and it infuriated me. How could he possibly understand me so well? He didn’t even know me.
This was nothing more than feelings fighting now.
He launched toward me at the same time, easily blocking every disorganized blow I threw.
Onyx blood smeared across his sweaty torso, and bags were under his eyes. I had never seen him look so worn down. I knew now it was from spending every moment stalking me. The familiar burn of anger pushed me, and my hits grew more strategic, smoother. I wrapped my arms around his waist, shoved my chin into his chest, and upset his center of gravity, knocking him to the ground.
I went to kick him in the ribs, but he grabbed my ankle and pulled me down. I grunted in pain as the hard marble floor cracked against my knees.
Rolling backward, I looped my thumb into the hole at the handle of my blade. Mendax was already on his feet with a lustful look dancing across his stupidly handsome face.
I was about to make that face a lot less handsome.
“You continue to call me the villain, but what of the golden prince? You want him to be your hero, Caly?” He grinned and wiped the blood from his lip with the back of his hand.
“Hero, maybe not, but he will be my king,” I bit out. “And I am to be his queen.”
Seemingly unbothered by my taunts, he shadowed in front of Saracen’s ornate throne and causally leaned against the side of it. “You are the keeper of my soul, no matter what castle you choose to reign over,” he said calmly.
I stormed toward him with my blade raised high. “It is not reciprocated. I hate you!” I screamed as I felt all of my buried emotions slither to the surface.
A war thundered inside of me with the constant push and pull of what was good and what was bad—it cut into my soul. Every inkling of doubt and deceit I had ignored were brushed from the corners of my anguished mind to lay as a pile of kindling. Rage and heartache lit the tinder.
I lunged.
Mendax grabbed my wrists and stepped into my body before I could slice into his neck. Our bodies pressed together, smoke and heat coiling around us. Even his fastest movements were executed with a calm confidence.
Frustrated, I panted, aiming daggers at his eyes with my glower. The three shades of his blue irises watched as I grappled with all the feelings I didn’t want to bear.
Malum Mendax dropped his hold on my wrists—including the one that still held the karambit.
“I am nothing more than a soul without residence since you left me, and I refuse to bear a life without you. Should I die, let it be by your hand, so that your touch is what I remember when I haunt every single dwelling you inhabit. Soon enough, you will meet with me again in Tartarus.” His voice softened while his eyes steeled. “Go on, Calypso, make your life better and finish me off. For good this time.” His right dimple popped. “It makes no difference to me if I’m dead or alive when I chase you.”
I moved the curve of my blade to the side of his neck defiantly. He didn’t think I could do it.
I pushed it into his flesh, feeling the blade break through.
Unrelenting calm came from his eyes. He was serious.
Mendax loved me.
I could have cut his throat right then. It would have taken two and a half seconds of pressure to have him dead and out of my life for good—to sever his carotid artery and saw his head off. All of my problems would be fixed. Well, at least the ones that involved him.
My blade was sharp enough. I knew that for a fact.
Both our chests heaved to opposite beats as the blood and sweat from his chest painted my front. A clang echoed through the empty throne room as I dropped my weapon and pressed my mouth hard against his.
I had tried so hard to fight it, but I could try no longer. The last drop of self-preserving willpower left through my mouth as I opened it to allow Mendax’s tongue in.
My moan was muffled as Mendax consumed me. Electricity sparkled through me while my hands fumbled, pulling him closer.
His hands matched mine in our frenzied battle for control, hungrily wrapping his fingers around my neck and pulling me tighter against him. Nothing could have separated us as we kissed each other in a way only our souls could understand. Flesh and bones tangled as we each fought to touch more.
A new battle had begun.
His tongue teased mine, forcing entry while he grabbed a fistful of hair at the base of my neck. The sting only added gasoline to my fire, and I bit his lower lip savagely.
Never had I been so turned on. I couldn’t think—only feel.
Roughly, I shoved him against the hard back of the throne, tugging his neck down, closer to me. Even the warm, muscled softness of his neck was sexy. My other hand plundered the hard ridges of his chest, devouring the way his warm, dirty skin felt against my fingers.
Spinning us and taking back control, he slammed my back against the cold gold throne with a force that should have frightened me.
I moaned, and I swear I felt it come out of my pores. I was anything but frightened.
Mendax let out a snakelike hiss when I raked my fingernails down his chest, leaving marks beaded with blood. He pressed his body harder against mine, trapping me between him and the large throne. I could feel how hard he was. The tip of his substantial length threatened to peek out of his waistband. My own sex clenched in response to seeing the teasing outline.
Strong hands found my waist and hoisted me up, wrapping my legs around him as he bent down. The domineering fae set my head on the back of the throne, while my butt rested on the front edge, never once removing his lips from mine until my back was fully on the seat. Only then did he pull back slightly, still holding each of my thighs around him.
“I will not be gentle, so do not expect it,” he stated, hovering just above my mouth.
Then he kissed me so deeply, my lower stomach clenched and quivered while my hands tangled in his black hair.
His grip on my thighs dropped, but I stayed in place, hooking my legs around him. He stood to his full height and traced over me with wild eyes.
Every part of my body wanted to sprout more limbs to pull him closer to me.
His large, rough hands moved to grip each side of my night shorts. Instead of trying to pull them down, a sharp tear cut into the silence as he trailed his palms down my legs, the remaining fabric falling off me and leaving me completely vulnerable and at his mercy on the throne.
He leaned over once more to push the pad of his thumb into my mouth. His pupils were almost completely blown. I locked hungry eyes with him and swirled my tongue around his thumb, tasting the smoky saltiness of his skin as I bit down eagerly.
The intense look that had been plastered to his face cracked, and a small grin pulled one side of his mouth up, causing that dangerous dimple to show when his eyes ravaged my exposed body. My hands tightened on his forearms as I took in his muscled chest and stomach, still filthy with his Unseelie blood and sweat.
His hand not in my mouth moved to press between my legs. A low, gravelly moan rumbled as he pushed his body against mine. More of his fingers found my wetness, and I thrust forward impatiently.
Watching him as he towered over me was too much to take.
“This cunt is dripping wet, Caly. Am I supposed to believe you don’t need me after feeling this? You’re a liar.” He said it with cocky grin as he pressed two fingers inside of me and dragged the other hand down my outer thigh, leaving scratches in his wake. “My filthy , fucking liar.”
I could see in his wild eyes that he was struggling to control himself.
A shiver wracked my body as the hand not inside me reached up and pinched one of my hardened nipples. I gasped, but it somehow turned into a moan. I needed to touch him so badly, but it was impossible. At this angle, he stood with full access to me, but I was only able to reach him when he bent down to me.
Long fingers slowed their thrusts to an agonizingly slow tempo. He continued to circle and massage my clit with his thumb, applying just enough pressure that I thought I might combust if he didn’t move faster.
I strained to pull myself up with quivering stomach muscles but was quickly stopped with a large hand on my throat.
“Fuck! Then do it already,” I growled at him.
Darkness flared in his eyes, and his hands dropped away from me completely. He took a few steps back and dropped my legs with a broody expression.
Furious, I stood from the throne. What the fuck had happened? And what was I even doing? Frustrated and slightly embarrassed, I shoved his unmoving chest and got in his face.
“What’s the matter?” I bit out. My eyes watered from anger. “I’m not an innocent, pushover human anymore, so you don’t want it? Is that it? Or you only want it when they’re scared of you? Afraid of someone dishing it back?”
He let out a slow, ragged breath. Before my eyes caught his movement, I had already been thrown back down on the seat of the throne. The towering shadow tightened my thighs around his waist, leaving my ass raised above the seat.
“I was trying not to break you. Remember that. Now, be a good pet and sit.”
The smoke of his wings shadowed me almost completely, giving his figure a spine-chilling look.
Mendax undid his pants, letting them hit to the floor with a rustle as his large cock sprung free. For a moment, I began to rethink things. He was huge. The pink tip of his cock strained in his grip as he fisted himself. He was malevolent and intimidating as he stared down at me—a predator who’s just overpowered his prey.
“Grip the throne, and don’t let go,” he rumbled.
I reached behind my head and clutched on to each side of the queen’s throne as commanded. He could have asked me to juggle, and I would have found a way.
The smooth tip of his warm cock glided over the seam of my entrance. Slowly, he rubbed his tip along the lips of my pussy, swiping the beaded drops of pre-cum against my tingling center.
I was panting now, trying to push myself onto him.
He froze and moved his length away from where it touched me. “What if I hurt you, Caly?” his deep voice whispered. “What if I lose control? I don’t want to hurt you.”
His words startled me. Malum Mendax did not worry about hurting anyone. Ever. In fact, he enjoyed hurting others. Craved it.
The feelings threatened to cut me in two. So I responded like I always did when I felt things I didn’t want to feel. I got pissed off.
“Have you turned soft, Mendax? Afraid to fuck me?” I grumbled, a new level of frustration possessing me.
His eyes smoldered. “Inside and out, there isn’t a single part of me that’s soft. Especially when you are involved. You really should remember that.”
He slammed into me.
A pleasure-filled gasp tore from my throat as I clenched myself around him.
“So fucking wet, Caly,” he mumbled. He slowly pulled out of me before he pressed himself inside again. Deeper and deeper with every heavy thrust.
Every single millimeter of my body lit up with sensations as waves of pleasure rippled through me. I could feel how it felt for him. The explosion of carnality when inch by inch he slid into me.
The bond—it was ecstasy.
His thrusts were pounding into me so hard, I would be bruised, and still I wanted more. Rougher.
“Get up,” he growled, pulling out of me and taking a step back.
I stood up, confused, and stared hungrily at his glistening cock as it throbbed under the sunlight.
He flipped me over, and a strong hand pressed the back of my neck down so my face smashed against the velvet cushion of the throne.
The Unseelie prince pushed into me from behind, letting my neck go to grip my hips savagely. Our skin clapped loudly as he slid himself out of me to drive into me harder and harder with every thrust that followed.
Oh my suns. I could feel all of his feelings as well as my own.
It was too much. My skin was going to implode and come on its own if I took one more thrust.
A wild scream tore out of me as I arched my back and ground against him like an animal.
“I’m going to come! Oh, Mendax!”
Mendax swore in response, slamming into me slower as trembles prickled over my skin with the building of both our orgasms.
The dark prince collected my hair in a bunch at the base of my neck and pulled, lifting my head up off the seat as he slammed into me. Delicious pain tore into the flesh of my shoulder and neck as he peppered my body with feral bites and licks, thrusting so deep that his black wings pulsed against the air, stabilizing his body and helping to fill me completely.
Still pressed against my back, he yanked on my thighs in search of a way to get deeper inside of me. I bit the cushion, feeling the overwhelming climax rise as his thrusts slowed.
“Fuck!” I shouted as he spanked my ass cheek, the sting and tingle the exact amount of pain and pleasure to push me over the edge.
I exploded with an orgasm, shouting out incoherent words into the velvet cushion I bit down on.
“That’s it, my love, squeeze this cock. I can feel every part of you,” his deep voice rasped against the shell of my ear.
“Oh my suns” was all I could mumble as he slowly moved in and out the smallest bit.
As soon as my orgasm ended, he pulled out of me and bundled me up into his arms, turning me around and pulling my dirty shirt off. The fire relit inside of my hungry body when he pulled my nipple into his hot mouth. The sensation of our bare chests touching felt like it expanded my cracked heart somehow.
Still holding me in his arms, he sat on the throne, leaving only enough room on either side of his legs for my feet.
“Sit on my cock, hellhound. I want to watch you take me,” he commanded with a whisper.
I needed no encouragement—I grabbed ahold of his huge cock and angled it at my entrance, slowly lowering myself all the way down until he was fully inside of me again. It stung slightly, but quickly tipped into euphoria while I watched his face contort with pleasure. Pleasure that I was giving him.
I planted my hands on his muscular shoulders and used my legs to bounce, setting my own pace and rhythm.
“That’s it. You’re in control,” he whispered, biting his lower lip as his hands roamed across my breasts and stomach.
“Malum!” I cried out, feeling the surging tension in my belly tighten again.
At the sound of his first name, his hands flew to my hips, slamming me down deeper. My head rolled backward, and I let the pleasure consume me as he continued his deep thrusts.
“Keep taking me, Caly. I want to watch your face when you feel me inside of you, filling up every part of this lying cunt with cum. Then I want to watch it drip from this decadent pussy. Come for me, my goddess. Come on my cock,” his gravelly voice pleaded.
I continued rolling my hips, our eyes locked on to one another’s.
Trembling took hold of my body, and I fell forward, onto his chest, muffling my scream into his shoulder with a bite. He held me firmly against his chest, letting out low groans into my messy hair as his nails dug into my back and hip as he continued to buck into me. I felt his thick cock pulse as he spilled, filling me so full, hot liquid had already drizzled down to my inner thigh.
I gave a silent shout-out to Fate that I had been taking my contraceptive teas the last few nights.
Then something akin to shame and embarrassment flooded me. I had been taking it because I thought something might happen with Eli. I had wanted it to.
The doors of the throne room slammed open. We both jumped up, ready to fight.
“Stars above, where the fuck are your clothes? Blood and iron, not on the throne? You didn’t. Oh, come on.” Walter shook his head, taking a second to turn around when Mendax growled at him.
“It’s in here. The other half of your heart is in here. I can feel it,” Walter said, ignoring us standing naked to walk to an empty corner and pace back and forth.
Mendax and I looked at each other.
“I’m taking Caly to her room. Shift into your rat form so no one sees you. I’ll return in a moment,” Mendax said. “We will find the heart.”
He scooped me into his arms, ignoring my protests about leaving and shadowing me back to my room.
I opened my eyes in my dim bathroom, ready to yell at him.
“It’s my heart. You can’t just ignore me and do whatever you want,” I barked at him. “You will ruin all of this for me. You’re a prick, you know that?”
He set me on the vanity and proceeded to wet a washcloth, ignoring me completely.
“You can’t just show up, alive suddenly, and think you can change everything. You can’t. I’m not leaving to go with you. I-I have to stay here.”
He pushed my legs apart, stepping between them and pressing his lips softly against mine, tender and gentle, unlike the bruising kisses in the throne room.
I felt the warm washcloth run over my scratches and wounds while he cleaned the blood off of my skin.
“Fine. You don’t want to go with me?” he whispered against my lips but not moving away. “Then I’ll stay here and unleash death and destruction on this castle and realm until you are ready to leave with me.”
Then he vanished in a puff of black smoke.
Oh no. What had I just done?