Chapter 30
CHAPTER THIRTY
The days were tense inside Wrathbane castle and I had more focus on me than ever before as I stalked its corridors.
Even training with my Sinfair Legion drew a crowd now, Fae sizing me up, passing judgements and either trying to win my favour or satisfy themselves that I wasn’t worthy of it everywhere I went. I couldn’t blame them. There was a twenty-five percent chance that I might end up their queen now.
The funniest thing was that I didn’t even mind their stares. In fact, they made no difference to me whatsoever. Aside from making it impossible for my movements to go unnoticed. Which meant hiding my connection to Bastian was more and more difficult.
I found his gaze across the room when I sat at Evard’s side for meals. Our hands brushed against one another if we passed each other in the corridors. They were tiny interactions but they had become the highlights of my days.
I was hopelessly corrupted by him now. And the truth of that filled me with both longing and fear.
Had it been so long since I’d fallen for this kind of trap that my bruised heart had forgotten all about what it had cost me the last time?
I wasn’t his. I’d told him so plainly after waking in his bed that morning.
But I wasn’t anyone else’s either. Defiantly so.
My tolerance for flirtation or insinuations had always been flexible.
Sometimes I’d even coveted the admiration I gained and made good use of the Fae who offered their bodies up to worship mine.
But now I bit and sniped at any who dared so much as compliment me aloud.
There were whispers about it. The court believed me committed to my new husband and I allowed those rumours to flourish.
But it wasn’t for his sake that I now guarded my virtue like a pious little virgin.
I wanted no eyes on me but those shot through with silver.
I wanted no declarations from any lips but those which had worshipped between my thighs and left an ache there which refused to be banished.
I’d resisted the urge to return to his chambers since that night. But I hadn’t once managed to resist thinking about him while I lay alone in the dark, silk sheets kissing my peaked nipples. My hands roaming wildly between my thighs, my orgasms all accompanied by the lingering memory of him.
Denying myself his touch was torture and I wasn’t certain how much longer I could endure it. But I couldn’t offer him what he wanted from me either.
Once again, I strode into the ballroom, walking between the towering statues of Gemini, Aquarius and Libra, my skin prickling as if those great stone monoliths might actually be watching me.
The king surprised me with his presence, though he sagged low in his throne at the royal table now, his breaths coming slowly, his eyes the only part of him which still seemed filled with vitality.
My gaze moved over the royal table, taking in those seated at it. Laurena, Alexandrius and Roarson were in their places. Evard and Dragor were not.
The thought of enduring Laurena’s company for longer than absolutely necessary had me turning aside before I could approach the table.
I was hungry, but I’d sooner starve than choose to subject myself to her barbed comments.
It wasn’t that her words bothered me. It was the fact that I couldn’t be certain I wouldn’t accidentally spear her eyeball with a fork at any given moment.
I found my eyes on Libra’s statue as I turned away from the table and continued straight for it as if it had always been my destination.
For centuries, Fae had brushed their fingers along the base of the statues in this great room, begging for blessings from the stars and smoothing out the stone with a million loving caresses.
Behind the statues gifts were presented to the zodiac symbols too. Auras, tokens, notes, all heaped up and collected occasionally by the Reapers who used anything of value to maintain the astral sanctuaries and such.
I hadn’t meant to actually ask anything of Libra, but as I approached the giant scales and assessed its balanced sides, I found myself scowling.
“If you are the deity who controls fairness, then how do you explain taking them and leaving me here?” I muttered, reaching out to scrape my fingers over the stone. Not in a caress, but a strike filled with accusation. “Where is the balance in that?”
No whisper came in reply to my scorn and for a moment I thought of the two comet pieces Bastian and I had stolen. Would I really be able to converse with the stars if I wielded mine? And what would I ask of them if I could?
Not that it mattered. Dragor had seized Bastian’s pack and everything of worth within it when he’d captured him, so I doubted I’d ever lay eyes on those comet pieces again.
I made to turn away from Libra, my contempt at the symbol making it hard to stomach standing within its shadow, but as I lifted my head, movement beyond it caught my eye.
A dagger found its way to my palm in seconds and I rounded the statue, moving into the darkened space beyond it where the offerings were heaped up, awaiting the Reapers to collect them.
Long tapestries lined the walls back there, forgotten in the shadows and depicting battles long since won.
I stepped towards them, narrowing my eyes as I hunted for the source of the movement I’d seen.
The hairs on the nape of my neck stood on end. A low growl sent a shiver right through me.
I should have been shouting a warning to those who filled the great room behind me, but I said nothing, only moved closer to the danger which had my heart rate climbing beat by beat.
The distant flickering of a flame in one of the sconces near the dining tables illuminated the wall momentarily and I spotted a servant’s passage hidden within the shadows between tapestries.
Nothing else was revealed by the fleeting light but instinct had me moving closer to that passageway.
Still my pulse climbed, still no warning sprung from me.
With my free hand, I took a sprig of rosemary from my pocket, the tip of my dagger grazing my thumb so that I could smear a drop of blood onto the herb.
Ether rushed through me as I opened myself to its current, the soft cry of my name reminding me that I still had work to do in service to this well of immense power.
“It isn’t wise to stalk me in the darkness,” I called softly so that only the creature lurking in that passageway would hear me. “But if you’re keen to play with me, I’ll just warn you that I bite…”
I crept between the tapestries, stepping into the dark passage, a wicked smile spreading on my lips. I did so love the hunt.
A growl called me on into the dark and anyone more foolhardy would have taken that warning to run, cry for help, alert the guards…but not me.
The passage turned a sharp corner ahead of me and I burst into a sprint as I ran for it, meaning to take my prey by surprise, to startle whatever beastie dared to tempt me into the dark.
But as I sped around the corner, dagger in hand and ether pooling at my feet, an arm snapped out of the darkness and banded around my waist.
I was thrown against the wall, my attacker’s hand managing to snare my wrist as I swung my dagger. He slammed my hand against the bricks above my head, caught my knee with his other hand as I aimed it at his manhood and pinned me to the wall in a move so fluid I couldn’t counter it fast enough.
I swung my fist at his jaw, rosemary and blood crushed between my fingers as I sought to make him bleed and claim his body with the dark magic which was burning through my blood.
My fist connected with his jaw and his head snapped aside at the impact, a dark and familiar chuckle escaping him before his mouth took mine hostage and he let me taste the blood I’d drawn from his bottom lip.
“Bastian?” I gasped into his mouth and his laugh only deepened, his hold on my wrist tightening above my head until I released my grip on my dagger.
It clattered to the floor and I broke our kiss, turning to look back towards the ballroom, my heart thundering at how foolish this was.
“If we’re caught–” I hissed but his hand was already beneath my skirt, his fingers pushing my undergarments aside.
“I’d stop if you weren’t so wet, spectre. But it seems like cruelty to leave you wanting like this–” He sank his fingers into me with those words and I barely stifled a cry at how perfectly they filled me, how ruinously the heel of his hand grazed my clit.
I made a noise which should have been a protest but instead became a moan, my fingers fisting in the sleeve of his shirt as I felt the flex of his bicep in synchronicity with the motion of his fingers inside me. Rosemary tumbled to the floor, my blood stained linen, the ether spilled from my grip.
“My husband will be looking for me at breakfast,” I panted, trying to remind us both of the folly of this. Evard might not care if I took lovers, but if we were caught in this position before his father died, so soon after the wedding–
“Don’t call him that,” Bastian snarled, taking his fingers out of me before thrusting them in again roughly. It was punishment and worship all in one.
“Silencing shield,” I panted, biting back a cry.
“No,” he replied with a dark laugh. “I want to watch as you try to stifle your cries. I want to watch you shatter for me in the shadows. I can’t take another wanting look across the room, I can’t spend another night knowing you ache for me like this and are going unfulfilled.
Bite me like you warned you would if you can’t contain the noise any other way. ”
“How do you know I’m aching for you at night?” I gasped as he twisted his fingers within me then used my own wetness to massage my clit expertly.
I bit down on my tongue while he watched me fight the pleasure he was giving me, my cries barely contained, too many people too close by for me to allow them out.