Chapter 22 Aerin
AERIN
Shutting the door on her screaming sister, Aerin thuds her head against it, taking deep breaths. She attempts to dissipate the surge of emotions that rose and fell.
Forgetting Malice altogether, Aerin takes another breath.
For a moment, she grieves. Half of Aerin loathes her sister, the other half pities her, and a very small part, wishes things were different.
It’s their father, always pulling their strings, pitting them against each other, for as long as Aerin has been alive.
No matter how Aerin fights to escape him, his games, his control, he forms another cage around her. Through Bruin. Through Cisera.
Aerin pulls back from the door, glancing over her shoulder. Malice watches her carefully.
“That went well,” he says sarcastically.
Aerin tries for a smile that doesn’t reveal how she’s breaking inside. She isn’t sure if the mask really forms.
“Better Cisera attempting to burn down the building than Royal Guards dragging us to my father.” Aerin shrugs.
“No one will lay a hand on you without your consent,” Malice growls.
She sighs again. It is too much to think about right now.
“Down, boy.” Aerin attempts to be blithe. Rage flashes over his features before he settles again.
His hot and cold is giving her whiplash. One second, he’s pinning her against the nearest surface, setting her body on fire with the simplest touch. The next, he’s glowering at her from across the room. Or obeying her commands in a way that shouldn’t be possible.
As much as Aerin wants to come across as resolute in her decisions, she can admit to herself she has no fucking clue what she is doing. How this is supposed to go.
“Sorry for making it seem like we are sleeping together,” Aerin says with an internal grimace she hopes to keep off her face.
“They believed it easy enough,” Malice grunts in response.
Aerin waves for him to follow her as she starts down the hall. He does. As she moves through the space Aerin feels a new sense of peace, finally hidden from prying eyes after years of constant surveillance.
Shedding her jewelry, it falls like armor. Aerin removes the fake stomach piercing first, letting out a breath of relief. Malice stands close by. Every cell in her body vibrates with his proximity. She reaches for her necklace, breath hitching when Malice’s hand covers hers.
“Let me.” His voice is thick.
Aerin pulls her hair from her neck as Malice takes the delicate chain and unclasps it behind her head. His fingers brush across her nape.
“So, you’re back to the Malice who wants to touch me?” Aerin jokes, turning around to face him. They are standing too close. His eyes are scrutinizing. She wonders, not for the first time, what he’s thinking.
Aerin spent the last six weeks watching Malice as he watched her, wondering. And wondering. And wondering. Now they are bonded for their very long lives, and she isn’t even sure they like each other.
She wishes she had longer to get to know him. Though her guilt doesn’t help her now; whether the choice was right or wrong, it’s the one she made. Her plan is well and truly in motion. That’s what she needs to keep her focus on. She can feel guilty later when all is said and done.
The last of Aerin’s energy depletes rapidly. She leans heavily against her desk. The strain on her magic feels like a tap run dry, every part of her weary with exhaustion.
Aerin slips past Malice to the bathroom. Unsurprisingly, Malice follows.
“Where are you going,” he demands. “You need to answer—” His voice turns thick as Aerin sheds her shirt. He clears his throat. “—my questions.”
The little seed tucked between her ribs feels angry. Even without looking, Aerin can feel his scowl as she turns on the shower.
“Malice,” Aerin sighs, “I’m exhausted. Another day. Tomorrow.” She almost says please.
“No.” He’s firm. “You’ve been ignoring me and my questions for weeks.
Here I am, tied to you in the sickest possible way.
” Aerin’s stomach turns. “Obeying your every fucking command. And you still have the gall to dismiss me?” His voice turns cold, stubborn.
They are so alike, Aerin hates it. “You will not dismiss me.”
Aerin longs to approach him. To kiss him. To reassure him somehow, that this isn’t all for nothing. Instead, she shimmies out of her tight shorts.
“Okay,” is all she says. He’s distracted now, by her nakedness. Aerin turns her back to him and sheds the last of her clothes before stepping into the steam covered shower.
Malice seems to be struck dumb. Aerin would relish in the attention if she didn’t feel so damn worn out.
She lets the hot water run over her, loosening her muscles and relaxing her body.
Malice pauses briefly before he clears his throat again and moves away from the shower.
He positions himself against the counter, leaning back against it, holding on as if his grip will keep him tethered there.
“Are you a Core? Do you have other bond-mates?” It’s not a question she is expecting.
“Yes. Theoden Marrow,” Aerin concedes. She wets her hair under the spray of the shower.
“The Mer-Prince?” Surprise is evident in his voice.
Aerin makes a noise of confirmation.
“Who else?” he prompts. Malice must sense Aerin is holding something back. His instincts about her are getting a bit too sharp.
Aerin works her make up off in slow circles.
“I don’t know yet.” She gives a semi-truthful answer.
“Why did you want me as a bonded-mate?”
Aerin rinses the suds from her face before going in for a second scrub.
“You’re powerful. A Witch once told me I’d need five bonded-mates, but that one would be a blood-bond.
Who better than a Dragon?” It’s a lie, heavy on Aerin’s tongue.
She waits for him to call her on it. Instead, Malice chews on it for a while, letting Aerin rinse her face once more and begin lathering her hair before he speaks again.
“Did the Witch give you the things you needed for the blood-bond?”
“No, I collected those items all on my own,” Aerin answers, rinsing her hair. She can feel the dozens of questions rising in Malice, so Aerin cuts him off quickly. “The Witch told me I would need five bonded-mates, but she died before I could sort out the details.”
The Witch promised Aerin that with bonds established, she could protect her bond-mates always. That with five bonded-mates, Aerin would never have to be lonely again.
“When was this?” Malice’s voice is rough, harsh, and demanding. Begging Aerin to give in. To crack herself open and show him everything.
Taking a long pause, Aerin runs conditioner through the ends of her hair, avoiding the desire to do just that.
“I was only a Faeling,” she says vaguely. She needs to derail him. “I will only answer questions while I’m in this shower, Malice. After that, I need to rest. Are these truly the answers you are looking for?”
He grinds his teeth, tightens his wings, flexes his fists—all evidence of his irritation with her. Aerin only sighs, carefully rinsing the conditioner from her hair.
“How did you sneak past me all those nights?” he finally asks.
“I didn’t.”
“Don’t lie to me, Princess,” he growls.
The seed in Aerin’s side hurts.
She ignores it.
“Malice,” Aerin clucks her tongue, grabbing her body wash. “You’ve seen my magic, what does it do?”
He’s silent, and Aerin knows it’s not because he’s thinking.
Malice’s heated gaze follows the sudsy shower sponge as it drags over her body, lighting Aerin up as if it’s his hand.
Up her stomach, around one breast. Across her chest and around the other breast. Her nipples tighten from the abrasive sponge despite the silkiness of the body wash.
She wonders if he can see them, through the steam.
His ice blue eyes flick up to hers, looking torn. He is torn. Aerin can tell, can feel it herself. He swallows hard, shaking his head a bit, his brain finally catching back up.
“You changed someone into you?” Malice connects the dots.
Aerin nods, dragging the sponge from her neck between her breasts and down her stomach. Lower and lower. He stirs. Leans forward. Lust blooms from their connection. Aerin relishes in it.
She wonders, idly, how long it will take for Malice to crack. Her favorite game to play with him, evidently. How long will it take for him to bed her? To get tired of her teasing and follow through on the rough, possessive, heated sex they both seem to crave?
Aerin’s core tingles and tightens around nothing at the memory of his body against hers. Of his lips, abrasive and biting. His hand gripping her jaw. Aerin lets loose a shaky breath as the sponge brushes against her most sensitive skin.
Malice’s chest is heaving with restraint. He’s holding onto the counter even tighter now, like it’s the only thing keeping him back.
Speaking through his teeth, he says, “All the mornings, when the tabloids had photos of you, it wasn’t you?”
“Yes,” Aerin says softly, almost too quiet to hear over the water, over the ringing in her ears. “Do you forgive me for tricking you Malice? Do you understand that sometimes I must lie?” Aerin is almost begging him to understand.
“I’m not sure,” he says it distractedly, as the sponge travels back up Aerin’s body. She circles it around her sensitive nipple, sighing as she does.
“I can make it up to you,” Aerin all but whispers.
Aerin keeps the sponge at her chest but lets her other hand fall between her thighs.
The smell of her arousal permeates the room as she drags her fingers through her soaked core until they reach her clit.
Even the small brush of pressure has her knees ready to give.
“Let me make it up to you,” Aerin implores, more moan than words. More pleading, than asking.
As if slapped, Malice tears his gaze away. He shakes his head violently, like he could shake out every lustful thought of her.
“No,” he growls.
The coldness in his voice causes Aerin to drop the sponge. It splats against the tiled floor loudly.
“Don’t do this again. Any attraction I have to you is just the bond.”
Aerin knows it’s a lie, but it hurts anyways. She watches him storm out of the bathroom, breathless.
She really hadn’t expected him to reject her. Dropping into a squatting position, holding her head in her hands, Aerin tries to breathe. A rush of emotion she can’t stop washes over her.
Reaching for that seed of Malice inside of her, Aerin walls it off. She doesn’t want to feel any part of him right now. And she sure as hell doesn’t want him to feel just how much that hurt her.