Darius Bonus Chapter #5
She didn’t push him away, didn’t snarl or bite at him.
She smiled. It wasn’t radiant or joyful, but it was real, plain as day, pure happiness in his company, amusement unlike I had ever earned from her.
And I knew then that some muttered exchange over crappy Christmases and one arguably pathetic gift were never going to make a difference to her.
Because she had never looked at me like that, her gaze unguarded, her smile easily won.
I couldn’t hear the words they exchanged, but she wasn’t pushing him back and her lips stayed curved into that note of amusement, some secret being shared between them which I held no part in.
Max was saying something about Geraldine Grus, but the Dragon was stirring inside me, and I couldn’t fucking breathe.
I said nothing as I turned from them, putting my back to the dance floor and striding away through the crowd fast enough to draw more than a few mutters of complaint as I knocked Fae aside in my haste to leave.
Cold air swept over me as I made it outside and I drew in a sharp breath of the icy air, enjoying the sting of it as I started walking along the outer wall of the palace.
I dropped my hand into my pocket as I went, my footsteps marking my path through the snow as I ripped the little gift box open.
I was such a fucking fool.
I didn’t know if it was because it was Christmas or maybe I’d just lost my stars-damned mind, but had I seriously thought she’d want some dumbass crystal memento of the time she’d fucked me and ditched me even though she had never so much as mentioned it since?
I pulled the crystal ball from my pocket, my spine prickling with the thought of what she might have said if I’d actually tried to give it to her.
I must have been a glutton for punishment.
Perhaps I’d been hoping her second rejection would be the exact toxin I needed to help break the spell she’d cast on me, because there was no sane reason for me having spent the time I had in creating this piece of shit.
My fist tightened on the crystal ball, the Dragon in me snarling softly as I exerted my strength over it until I was finally rewarded with it shattering.
The glass sliced into my skin, and the little flames I’d trapped within it burned my fingertips, but I welcomed that pain over the twisting, jagged feeling that was slicing through my insides as the vision of her in Caleb’s arms on that dance floor branded itself on the inside of my skull.
There was a decorative pond at the foot of the lawn, and I heaved my arm back before launching the shattered debris that remained of the crystal ball towards it.
I turned away before I even heard it hit the water, blood dripping from my cut hand to mark the snow.
I healed the wounds with half a thought, stalking away from the pathetic reality of that moment, hoping to all the stars and back that there hadn’t been a single witness to Roxanya Vega’s silent annihilation of my heart.
A window stood open, leading back into the palace, and I climbed through it before crossing a dimly lit sitting room and making my way into the palace hallway again.
I turned towards the room I’d been given to sleep in for this stay, knowing that Father would be pissed at me for ditching the ball and wasting the opportunity to garner some extra political support with the powerful Fae in that room, but I just couldn’t spend my evening watching her dance with Caleb, knowing at some point or another the two of them would slip away and I’d be left there, less than half a thought on her radar.
It was fucking pathetic, really, but if I wasn’t allowed to indulge in self-pity and wallowing at Christmas, then when could I?
A glimmer of light caught my attention as I walked down the pristine corridor, and I paused, turning my head at the prospect of treasure and finding a shimmering footprint fading away on the tiled floor instead.
I cocked my head, moving closer and spying a second silvery footprint, then a third. The heavy wooden door to the throne room swung open and they disappeared through it.
My skin was prickling with the heat of my Dragon, the urge to shift so potent that I almost turned and strode back to that window, ready to take off into the sky and fly until dawn rose over the world and this hell of a day was done with.
But even as I considered that, I dismissed the idea.
My father had made it clear on several occasions that he wished the Vegas no end of harm, and I couldn’t just take off into the night while they were all beneath this roof together.
It wasn’t like I really expected him to attack them right in the middle of the Palace of Souls, but I couldn’t bring myself to stray too far from any of them until he had left this place, and them, far behind.
Smoke slid between my teeth, and I headed into the dark throne room, pushing the door closed at my back as I did so to drown out the distant sound of music and people partying at the ball.
There it stood; the black stone monstrosity carved with fifty ferocious Hydra heads illuminated by a single beam of pale blue light.
I shrugged out of my jacket as I prowled around the enormous chair which had caused so much anguish, scowling at the many heads of the Hydra which decorated it.
“So much fuss over a place to rest your fucking ass,” I muttered, tossing the jacket to the floor and placing my foot onto the first of the three steps which led up to the imposing throne.
Maybe if I just sat on it, claimed my place like we had all been promising to do for so long, then I’d feel…something. Clarity would be nice, or even just a little bit of nothing.
I snorted at myself, tugging my bow tie loose as I ascended the final steps and undoing several of my shirt buttons too. I just needed to breathe.
My skin prickled as I stood before the throne, its dark aura wrapping around me like a silken fist, purring in my ear, warning me away, daring me to come closer.
I wetted my lips. So far as I knew, even the Councillors had never sat on this thing, leaving it empty in memory of the Savage King who had perished so many years ago. They served it, and it ruled them.
I turned my back on the throne and exhaled slowly as I sank onto it, the cold stone pressing against my heated skin through my clothes.
A breath of laughter escaped me as I pushed my fingers into the dark strands of my hair, breaking it free of the product that had held it before clasping the back of my head and looking up towards the roof, that blue light falling down over me.
It was utterly…anticlimactic. It wasn’t even all that comfortable. Just a stone chair in a cold room set up to be something so much more than it really was.
I dropped my free arm over the armrest and spread my legs as I relaxed into it, looking out over the room and wondering what the hell I was even doing.
It was Christmas day, and here I was, having a pity party for one on the throne which had dominated every single moment of my life from the second of my conception.
I probably should have just left, gone to find some booze and drowned my sorrows at the bottom of a bottle, or on Orion’s shoulder, but I didn’t make any move to rise. It wasn’t like I had anywhere else to be. And if anyone was missing me, they’d no doubt find me soon enough.
The sound of the door opening behind the throne made my heart thump out of rhythm, and I tensed before the slow click of a pair of high heels sounded on the cool floor at my back.
I stilled, something in the air itself charging around me, and without her so much as saying a word, I knew who had just entered my space.
It was like I was aware of her on a primal level, the beast in me always knowing when she drew close.
I’d known it for a while now, even if I had never admitted it aloud.
My head turned her way whenever she entered a room, my muscles tensed, my pulse picked up.
I was an apex predator, and she was the only prey I desired.
I didn’t move as her footsteps drew closer, waiting there in the shadows for her to either leave or discover me.
No doubt she would have a few choice words to hurl my way once she spotted me lounging on her father’s throne, but I welcomed the sharpness of her tongue.
I welcomed her ire and wrath and hatred, because if it was all I could get, then I’d take it, no matter what that said about me. Ever her villain.
Roxanya Vega rounded the foot of the dais which held the throne, her breath catching as she found sitting me there in the shadows, a monster lying in wait.
Her gaze roamed over me for several seconds, my pulse thumping harder as I studied her in turn. That dress shouldn’t have been legal, the way the fabric hugged her form, nothing more than a temptation designed to drive me insane with want.
Her lips parted as I met her gaze and for a moment, she seemed to be lost for words.
I saw the thoughts and memories all working their way through the darkness in her eyes, the things I’d said and done to hurt her clashing violently with the desperate ache I felt when I looked at her like this.
Like she wasn’t a princess born to unseat everything I had worked my entire life to achieve, but instead, she was a star beyond the reach of a desperate man.
“What are you doing here?” Roxy breathed, her low voice echoing in the stone room.
“I couldn’t watch you dancing with Caleb,” I admitted, holding her eye and simply owning how I felt. This didn’t seem like a time for lies to fall between us anyway.
“Why?” she asked, staying right where she was even though we were alone, even though she knew better.