Chapter Thirty-One
Stassi
E oforhild was gorgeous.
The sun shone down upon the luscious greenery through little tufts of white clouds, the closest thing to perfection I’d seen since coming to Alemthian. I briefly wondered if I was going to have an even harder time leaving here than I had Betovere.
Though there I had my creature.
When had I taken to calling him that? That thought stopped me dead in my tracks, throwing my mind off course. I couldn’t seem to recall when that shift had happened, but I knew that my time visiting him in his cell had resulted in a sort of obsession. I was infatuated with the male, his easy going jokes and odd habit of spewing facts I didn’t ask for were charming. Though nothing was as intriguing as the way he seemed to shrink away from violence.
Not once since meeting him had I felt even an ounce of that sin. It was like he had been born without bloodlust, which was new to me, as I had yet to meet anyone without it. Similar to how he seemed unwilling to fear me.
“Hello, lovely, can I help you find anything?”
The female behind the desk was warm in every sense of the word. From her dark skin to her kind smile to her yellow skirts, she was what I imagined this world’s sun would look like if it suddenly became sentient. I returned the smile, trying to remember what it was like to be so kind and not recalling a time I had been.
“Yes, actually. I’m looking for something to wear to meet a male. Do you have anything you think would suit me?” My voice was made of honey and my heart of acid—what a contrast, to be both virtuous and sinful. A startling balance that I had maintained for so long. It seemed that the more time I spent here, the more the scales tipped.
“Oh, yes! I believe I have something that will go perfectly with that stunning hair of yours!” Then she was off, running to the back end of her large clothing stall. In fact, the sheer size reminded me more of a building than a stall, but that was what all of the vendors in this market were calling their quaint stores.
Allowing myself another moment to look around, I silently thought of all the things I would need to get done today. The hardest would be finding the prince, as it seemed he was just as quick to disappear as the darling princess. We would need to break her of that when we secured her. Perhaps watching him die would make that abundantly clear.
Yes, that was likely the best route.
“What about this?” The female was back, her fingers gripping fabric that was the color of melted caramel. The dress was made for someone taller, but otherwise, I imagined she was right about how well it would work with my hair. Trading her a gold coin for the dress, I placed a soft kiss on her cheek and quickly left.
I quite liked the stunned expression she wore as I did so.
***
What sort of land had snow in the summer?
Stupid, disgusting mountains. Why would they choose this place? Were their soldiers not depressed? Sick? Cold? Miserable?
Maybe it was just the dress I wore, which stopped at my knees and exposed most of my back, the bunched and layered fabric wrapping around my neck the only thing keeping it up. I was freezing, which was saying something for my kind. A cloak, I should’ve purchased an Eternity-forsaken cloak. No matter. I’d get this done quickly.
In fact, I could hear my new little friend making his way to this very room. The padding of his footsteps was loud, an angry strut that told me I was probably about to incense him even more than I thought—which was exciting to say the least. I needed some fury to combat my boredom.
Just as he came close enough for me to hear his racing heartbeat, I felt the pull. A beacon to my magic, as if my creature were ripping on a cord secured to my chest.
I’ve never before had to make such a choice. This was my chance to find out once and for all where Asher was, but by the way my creature’s screams seemed to echo inside of my head as he repeatedly pulled on that line of connection we now had, I would never see him alive again if I didn’t leave now.
I was about to get myself into an unfortunate amount of trouble.
Before Prince Bellamy Ayad opened the door to his office, I was gone, the combination of wood and rock being replaced with the gloom of the dungeons within the golden palace. The last time I was here, the male and I talked until exhaustion stole his consciousness. Being healed by that fae had clearly been no replacement for actual rest, seeing as every time she did so he grew more and more weak. So I left him be, opting to instead search Asher’s chambers for anything I could bring to him.
What I had found was a bare room that looked as if no one lived there at all. That, and the absolutely wicked little mortal boy who seemed to enjoy torturing the male in the cell. Not long after I had come into her rooms, the mortal arrived, taking his time to lay in her bed and smell the pillow. I nearly snapped his neck so he could pay for making me witness such a strange thing, but I’d chosen to simply leave instead.
Now, as he sat on top of my creature, I almost regretted not flaying him then.
His fists were slamming into the imprisoned male’s face, beating down on him as he shouted. Hating how much it bothered me to listen, I ground my teeth and planted my feet.
“You pathetic excuse of a male! How dare you?” His voice sounded odd, those golden curls bouncing with each swing. My creature was even dirtier than usual, covered in enough blood that I could barely see his gaunt face. In fact, he looked somehow thinner than he had just days ago. “I will kill you! Do you think we need you? We do not! You are a waste of space, unloved and unwanted and unworthy of life!”
One of my feet moved forward of its own volition, my willpower crumbling before me. My magic flared, responding to the increasingly potent sin that poured from the mortal prince in the same way blood spilled when an artery was sliced through. In fact, he was about to know just how much blood he could lose.
I creeped around the corner, slowly and silently approaching the cell. I would skin him. I would tear out every little blonde eyelash one by one. I would toss him in the snow of Eoforhild then dunk him into a tub of boiling water. I would—
“Get off of him!” A burst of shadows appeared within the cell, from it walking a male wearing a tunic in a stunning shade of blue. His brown hair had a slight red tint, his face not dark per say but a hue that made me think he once had glowing brown skin. A prisoner roaming free. Interesting.
He grabbed the mortal boy by his curls, ripping him up and throwing him back into the bars. The scream that split the air nearly lit me up, the magic flooding me coming dangerously close to exposing my hiding place in the shadows. I darted back on silent feet, hoping that I wouldn’t get exposed now when it was too soon for me to claim my prize.
Bending down, the new male inspected my creature’s pulverized face, looking as if he couldn’t care less whether or not the damage was going to cause problems. Ah, a leashed prisoner.
“Your smart mouth is doing you no favors.” It was a causal statement, given with little care or compassion. Like how my creature said odd facts. It made me somehow angrier than watching him be beaten to near death.
“Well, at least one of us is smart. I dare say Prince Sterling could use a lesson or two on intelligence. Odd, seeing as he is rumored to be quite bookish.” The glorious deep tenor of his voice brought a wicked smile to my lips. When he laughed at the growl from the mortal, I nearly let my own humor ring out. I had forgotten that one didn’t have to be cruel to win. Such an oddity.
The prince in question stood, his forehead bleeding from where the bars split his skin. “One day those jokes of yours will be all you have, and that will be the moment you realize who has truly won.”
With that, the golden boy left, his head held far too high for how embarrassingly stupid he sounded. Apparently, my creature thought so too.
“Here I was thinking that was already all I had left. Foolish me for forgetting my lovely home of grime and mold. Thank you, Your Highness. Please, allow me to suck that little cock of yours as a thank you. Gods know it has been neglected!”
This time, the shadow wielder laughed too, the angry mumbling of the prince fading with each chuckle. But soon the air grew tense, a feeling of foreboding filling the spaces where the humor had quickly escaped. Something was very, very wrong.
After a moment, I realized what it was. A clicking noise could be heard in the distance, the sharp sound making my eyes blink and my ears twitch. The male that still stood above my creature smirked, turning his head towards the hallway the prince had just left through.
“You ready for more?” Again with a tone more casual than was warranted. He was toying with the prisoner, making a show of his nonchalance. My fingertips tingled from the influx of magic as the queen, with her tangerine hair and icy eyes, came into view.
The prisoner said nothing as she approached him, his face more stoic than I’d seen it before. Maybe they would end him quickly. At least then my creature wouldn’t suffer.
For some reason, the idea of his death troubled me deeply.
“Good afternoon, handsome,” the queen said, her gaze locked on my creature. It was impossible to miss his small flinch, the way he seemed to recoil from her presence igniting my fury. My thoughts warred between thinking him spineless and thinking her vile. “Malcolm, can you go fetch King Xavier?”
The male—Malcolm—didn’t hesitate, nodding quickly and then disappearing in a cloud of smoke-like shadows. Seeing him use that Moon magic was startling, just as it had been every time I witnessed it. It made sense of why the mortals and demons worshiped their false gods.
“Guess who we found roaming the Mortal Realm?” Her smile was wide, oddly sinister for something so beautiful. I quite liked her, despite the fact that she regularly ordered my creature to be tortured and hunted the same little fae princess that I did. She was despicable in the best way. A female hardened over time, crafted into a monster by those who raised her. I loved the potency of her, the way she so deeply burrowed herself in that sin.
My creature seemed prepared to offer a snide remark, a shaky version of his smirk on his lips, but then the cloud of shadows returned. They disappeared to reveal Malcolm and King Xavier, the latter looking as if he might be sick.
“Eternity spare me, I do so hate portaling.” His voice was strained, his pale skin taking on a green hue. The frown he wore was so deep that a single dimple appeared on his cheek, softening his pinched face.
“Pathetic,” Malcolm murmured under his breath, his glare practically burning a hole into the back of the king’s dark waves. Mia growled, pointing to the hallway where she had entered. For the first time, the demon hesitated, defiantly lifting his chin.
There it was, the explanation for this odd relationship. He was in love with her. Now, that was pathetic.
After a small showdown between the queen and the demon, Malcolm finally relented and disappeared, portaling to who knew where. Mia schooled her face back into neutrality, hiding some sort of eagerness that made my magic sing.
“Now that we are alone, I have some exciting news.” The queen’s words were enough to stop the two males from breathing, both looking at her with eyes that portrayed two very different emotions. “We found her.”
Xavier’s smile was bright, the pure joy on his face surprising. Did he love Asher? Could anyone love someone whom they had so thoroughly abused? “Perfect, I will go get her. Where—”
“No, you will not. You proved yourself useless when you could not kill that thing we call son.” Venom spewed from her, the words so poisonous that I wondered how they didn’t kill the foolish king.
“I fail to see why I need to be here for this little lovers’ quarrel.” Stupid male, why was it so hard for him to shut that luscious mouth of his?
Luckily for him, the lovers in question were too focused on one another to punish the insolence.
“Seeing as you failed to do so first, I do not see how you are any more qualified to retrieve her.” His insult struck her like a slap, going so far as to make her flinch from the contact. Well, well. The king had balls after all. “While we are on the topic, perhaps we can appeal to that thing rather than risk her being harmed.”
The stone beneath my feet began to rumble, as if the planet itself were attempting to split in two. A single rose grew from the queen’s palm, thorns tearing their way through her.
“Asher will be safe, make no doubt about that.” As her cold voice echoed through the room, I left, knowing the truth of her words.
Asher would be safe—until they got their claws into her.