Chapter 39
Korithax
Ishouldn’t have crossed that line.
Daisy’s asleep soundly beside me, her head resting on my chest, her naked body pressed against mine. After we had sex, we showered together, and I called for healing fruit to ease the soreness I knew she’d feel.
I took little mercy on her once I had her.
Every ounce of restraint I’d been holding back since the day I met her came undone.
And while I kept it to just fucking, the thoughts wouldn’t stop.
Tying her up. Teasing her. Punishing her for hours.
I wanted it all. I couldn’t be as gentle as she probably needed for her first consensual time, but I didn’t care.
I needed her. And now… I regret it. I shouldn’t have touched her, shouldn’t have kissed her days ago.
But I was a selfish man, and I had to have her.
But this is becoming dangerous. More dangerous than I’d ever anticipated. Daisy was no longer just the woman I’d married to shut up the Divine Six. She was becoming something else entirely. And that’s a problem. Because I could never offer her the kind of love or life she deserves.
She needs warmth, softness, and care. The things I was never built for.
I was born into a realm of hate, death, and ruin, and was to be the King of Hell, ruler of chaos and destruction.
She’s light, sunshine incarnate, and I’m cold, sharp steel.
Those two things don’t go together; they shouldn’t go together.
I fucked up by taking her to bed, but I wouldn’t keep fucking up.
She deserved better, and I had to put the distance between us before it was too late.
I slowly slide out from under her, careful not to wake her.
She shifts but doesn’t stir. I throw on my clothes and boots and step into the hallway.
The sunrise floods the corridor in a blaze of gold and orange.
Birds chirp cheerfully in the background, the sound irritating the shit out of me.
Everything here seems to be grating on me.
The brightness, the flowers, the warmth.
This entire realm is everything Daisy is—and everything I’ll never be.
“Korithax?”
I turn to see Sariya approaching, radiant as ever. Her ebony skin glows under the light of her realm.
“Good morning,” I mutter. “I never got a chance to thank you for yesterday.”
She smiles. “Please, it was nothing. Come, have breakfast with me. We need to talk.”
I raise a brow but follow her to a shaded table on a balcony framed by trees. Warm wind stirs the petals scattered across the stone flooring, the breeze doing nothing to cool the irritation bubbling inside me.
“What is it, Sariya?”
“Drink?” She offers.
“No.”
She sighs, setting her teacup down, brushing at her skirts with both hands. “I know you think you’re not meant for her, Korithax. But—”
“What are you talking about?” I cut her off sharply.
“Daisy. I see the way you look at her, I feel the way you feel about her.”
“You feel it?” I ask, frowning.
“Yes. And I feel the way she feels about you, too. Don’t push her away, Korithax. Things are about to change drastically. She is more like you than you realise.”
“What aren’t you telling me?” I ask, voice dropping low.
“I can’t say,” she says gently. “For your safety as well as mine. But when the time comes—you will need me, you will need my soldiers.” She lowers her voice. “And I promise you—we will answer.”
“You’re not making any sense,” I huff, already standing. “I don’t have time for this cryptic bullshit.”
She reaches out, grabbing my hand. Her amber eyes lock with mine, her expression unreadable.
“Just remember my words, Korithax. I won’t be able to say goodbye before your departure. Please... give Daisy my love. She’s a wonderful girl, and she will make a wonderful queen again.”
“Again?”
Before I can ask more, she rises and walks away. I stare after her, my jaw tight. I’m so tired of riddles.
I grab a few pieces of sweet bread and a jug of pale pink fluid and head back to our room.
Back inside, she’s still asleep—peaceful and unaware. Sariya’s words claw at my skull. She’s wrong. I don’t deserve Daisy. And it’s about time she understood. “Daisy,” I bark her name.
She jolts upright, blinking blearily. “Wha—?”
“Get up. We leave in an hour.”
She rubs at her eyes, frowning.
“Are you okay?”
Of course, she asks if I’m okay. Even when I’m a bastard, she cares. Like an absolute idiotic puppy.
“I’m fine. Just move your ass.”
“Okay… can you pass me that robe?”
I toss it at her without looking and sit at the table, tearing into a chunk of honeyed bread.
She pads over, robe tied around her waist, and sits across from me. She’s still sleepy-eyed, her hair in messy waves, and absolutely beautiful.
“Oooh! You brought Blytrine,” she says brightly. “Sariya told me it comes from a tree that only grows under Solara’s light; it’s delicious. Want to try it?”
She holds her glass out to me, smiling.
“No.” I don’t even glance at it.
Her smile drops. “… Right. Okay.”
“Just eat.”
“Has something happened?”
“No.” I snap. “And I don’t want to do the whole awkward morning-after thing. Just because we fucked doesn’t mean we’re friends now.”
She flinched like I slapped her. “Wow. Really?”
I shove my chair back and stand, the legs scraping loudly against the floor. “We leave soon. Hurry up.”
“You really think that’ll work?” Her voice rises as she follows me. “That if you’re enough of an asshole, I’ll just pretend last night didn’t happen?”
“Nothing did happen, Daisy. It was sex. That’s it. No feelings. No promises. No delusions.”
She storms after me, absolutely furious. “So I was just convenient? A warm body?”
“You’re reading into it.”
Her face twists. “Was I not good enough? That it?”
“Don’t be dramatic.”
She storms into the bathroom and slams the door shut behind her.
Fuck. FUCK.
I follow and try the handle, but it’s locked. “Daisy, open the door.”
“I don’t like swearing, but fuck you, Korithax!”
I snarl and kick the door open. She screams, backing into the corner.
“GET OUT!” She yells, throwing a bottle at me.
I let it hit me, barely feeling it. “Was that supposed to hurt?”
“No, you idiot. I don’t want to hurt you. I just want you to go away.”
“It’s not about last night.” I snap, stepping closer.
She stares at the floor, hands wringing in front of her.
“Daisy,” I sigh, reaching out and forcing her to look at me. “You were perfect. The way you sounded, the way you felt… gods, I could lose myself in you for eternity.”
Her face turns pink, and despite everything, my cock twitches at the memory of her flushed face as I was buried between her thighs.
“Then why are you being such an ass?”
I steel my voice, pulling away my gaze. “You deserve better.”
“What?”
“I’m not soft. I don’t love. I can’t. I was made to break things. You were made to be worshipped. I don’t worship, I burn things down.”
She snorts. “You don’t get to decide what I want.”
“I’m telling you what’s best for you.”
“You think I want someone gentle, someone safe? Korithax, I stopped being gentle a long time ago. You’re the first person who’s seen the ugly parts of me and didn’t look away.”
“There’s nothing ugly about you,” I respond, a little too quickly.
She chews her bottom lip, and I growl, using my thumb to tug it free from her teeth. “Stop that.”
She looks up and smiles at me, her face entirely too smug. “Why are you smiling at me?”
“Because you’re full of shit,” she says sweetly. “And I see through it. You’re not pushing me away because I’m not enough—you’re pushing me away because you think you’re not enough.”
My jaw clenches at her words. Am I truly that readable?
“I’m honoured to stand by your side, even if it’s just as a business transaction.”
She smiles again—but it doesn’t reach her eyes. She still doesn’t get it. All I hear are my father’s mocking words that nothing I touch survives. Not even my mother.
“Exactly,” I say coldly. “A business transaction. So let’s not confuse it.”
I turn to leave, and she doesn’t stop me. But her quiet voice hits me from behind. “I see what you’re doing, Korithax. But I am still yours.”
Her words gut me.
“Daisy,” I growl, gripping the doorframe until it cracks.
“I’m yours, Kori.”
I squeeze my eyes shut, my knuckles turning white. I want to believe her. But the thought of belonging to her terrifies me more than anything I’ve ever faced before.