Chapter Thirty-Seven #3
He smiled but it held little mirth. “I agree. And yet again you prove how magnificent you are because you’re able to extend me compassion for an act that I myself visited upon you. I cannot say I am sorry for what I did, but I am sorry for the grief I caused you, if that matters to you at all.”
“It matters,” she said softly, warring emotions thick in her throat.
Malachi moved from holding her stomach to caressing it. Amid the weighted silence that stretched between them, his gaze held a far-off, cloudy look, as if he was seeing the past instead of the present.
When the murkiness cleared, he said gruffly, “If you’re pregnant and keeping the babe, then I’ve already failed to avoid gaining a family that I must protect at all costs. Which means there’s no use trying to fight or deny the urge I’ve had since our first meeting.”
She was afraid to ask, but somehow whispered, “Which is?”
“That I want you, and I don’t just mean your body,” he clarified in a tone that was as fervent as it was frank.
“Since Oleander House, you’ve invaded every part of my being.
You occupy my thoughts constantly. When we’re together, when we’re apart, when we’re fighting, when we’re fucking, when we’re bickering, when we’re talking, when we’re dining—it doesn’t matter the occasion, I am driven mad with desire for you in every instance.
When I think of a high queen who is worthy of the title and the Apollyon crown, that vision of who I’d want to reign beside me as my equal match in every way is you and only you.
And when I think of us being on separate sides, facing each other in a fight in the near future, it leaves me knowing with no uncertainty that I am well and truly fucking doomed.
There’s no way I’d lift a hand to harm you.
I’d sooner fall to my knees and accept whatever death you dole out. ”
“Why?” It wasn’t quite a laugh that he responded with, and she could sense the frustration coming from this male, a vulnerability she never thought she’d see from him.
“Because I love you, Kadeesha. I’m not positive precisely when it happened, but it did, and now I will rip the realm and everything in it to shreds to keep you at my side.
So tell me what I must give you to make that happen.
Will it take me swearing a binding oath?
One that promises to treat your kingdom as I would my own when we rule as one?
If so, I’ll speak the proper words right now. ”
She … Any words were beyond her as Malachi waited for a response.
Great Celestials, she was barely able to form coherent thoughts.
Malachi was not a male she’d ever imagine making a grand declaration of love to anyone.
Yet, he just did. To her. And he’d just as freely offered to swear a binding vow without asking for anything in return, without diving into their usual harried bargaining.
He … he’d said he loved her. Did he truly?
Moreover, did she love him? The answer to the first question was apparent in the depths of his gaze and by the very fact that he would freely share his crown with her and swear an oath that threw aside his lifelong plan of vengeance. As for the second question …
She finally stopped fighting a truth she’d been battling for too long.
“Yes, swear the oath. Not only about the Aether Kingdom, but promise that treatment for all of the Six Kingdoms and the innocent fae dwelling within them,” she said, arms still locked around his back as he held himself up on his arms so they gazed directly at one another.
“I was prepared to kill you and would have if I had to. But a part of me started rebelling at the idea somewhere along the way,” she admitted to both herself and him.
Because something had become clear for her: Malachi would never be some bastion of virtue.
But that was also an impossible standard, because no fae monarch would ever be that, including herself.
To rule, to amass and wield and retain power, meant there was always some necessity for brutality.
And if she was being completely honest with herself, she appreciated he was a multifaceted king, even if she disagreed with some of his tactics at times.
Yes, she’d seen him vicious and bloodthirsty.
But she’d also seen him generous and benevolent.
And another unabashed truth was that she wasn’t merely enthralled with both sides of this man; she loved all sides of him.
She loved Malachi in every face he donned because each one was him.
Plus, she could be two sides of the same coin herself depending on the situation.
But … when she’d been dangerously leaning too heavily one way after Samira’s injury, Malachi had helped her lean back the other; he’d given her a safe haven to spend the worst of her rage.
And he’d admitted that she’d tempered his wrath during the challenge feast.
That means we balance each other out and are the perfect complements, Malachi had insisted.
Could this actually work? Could this actually be real?
“I love you, too.” When the life-changing words spilled forth, they felt as natural as breathing.
So, too, did what she confessed next. “I don’t actually want to kill you either.
You’re stunning when you aren’t being a brute.
You’re a king who values and safeguards his people and a male who is fiercely loyal to those he has claimed as his own.
And when you are being a merciless ass, well, I can at least understand your reasoning for that—as long as it doesn’t go too far.
” It’s also hot as hell, but I’m not going to stroke his ego that much right now.
“So you’re aware, a widespread massacre, for any reason, is going too far. ”
He snorted, and she smacked his chest. “I’m serious.
If I am your high queen, that doesn’t happen.
Ever. I won’t abide it and once we have this child, I want him to witness true justice that doesn’t visit violence on innocents.
This way our son will grow up and become a monarch who rules in service of his folk instead of crushing them beneath his heel.
It is so very easy for us monarchs to become the latter.
Even my father was an example of such, and I hated it then, just as I hate it now.
Do you understand?” She stared Malachi directly in the eye and held his gaze so he truly got that this was a nonnegotiable.
She waited, knowing that formulating the answer she wanted would be difficult for him.
He was too much of a stubborn ass. But if they were really going to work, then she needed more than an answer.
She needed his vow. Because she knew he would mean it then, and that was what mattered.
So she pressed, “If you can agree to that too, then I’ll be your high queen of the Seven Kingdoms.”
“That last term might be slightly challenging,” Malachi said quietly.
“With you and a child to protect, I will not hesitate to eviscerate entire kingdoms, the entire continent, if I even catch wind of a brewing plot to cause either of you harm. I already told you: I would lay waste to the entire damn realm to prove a point not to fuck with what’s mine, and I will not apologize for doing so.
However,” he added when she moved to argue, “I’ll agree for that to be the only condition upon which I act so extremely. Can you live with that?”
As she stared into the smoldering promise his darkened gaze projected, that he’d always protect and shed blood for her and their babe, she weighed those terms. She’d be lying if she claimed she wouldn’t battle against exhibiting a similar fury if their future child was threatened, even given where she stood on the issue.
He was asking her to endorse annihilation if that happened, and yet she’d be a hypocrite if she didn’t acknowledge that the very thought of her baby being in danger filled her with murderous intent.
She took a deep breath, mostly because while she’d already decided to agree to his condition, she still couldn’t resist the fact that she disliked letting him win anything. Finally, she said, “I can live with it. But let’s work hard to see that it does not come to that.”
He peered down at her, his smile—an authentic, heart-meltingly genuine one—as wicked as it was handsome.
“As I said,” he murmured, “you have but to ask for the world and I shall hand it to you, wife. Whatever you desire, it is yours.” He kissed her, and this time, there was no resistance; this time it was an all-consuming affair that sent electric currents skimming all over her body.
When they broke off, he swore the vow she’d asked of him.
Afterward, Kadeesha basked in the afterglow, reveling being encased in Malachi’s arms while he sank inside her without any barriers or uncertain intentions left between them.
“Go the fuck away,” Malachi bellowed when a knock sounded at the door.
She and Malachi both cursed when the knocking grew more insistent. “You’re about to lose your hand!” he barked.
He grunted when the door creaked open and then repositioned himself on the bed beside Kadeesha.
She pulled the fur blanket up over her breasts as Trystin walked inside.
He sported a wide, beaming grin and said, “Before you try to take my head for interrupting your wedding night, cousin, I thought you’d both want to know that Zayvier and Samira are awake in the infirmary.
” He dramatically bowed behind the announcement, clearly amused by the astonished looks that sat on Kadeesha’s and Malachi’s faces.
“You’re most welcome, my king and queen,” he stated after he straightened. “And yes, I will take more riches and endless boons for being so brilliant with runes that I found a way to rouse them.”
Kadeesha’s eyes stung. She found herself crying, happy, shocked tears streaming down her face. “You—Are you serious?” she sputtered.
“Would I have risked this handsome face if I was joking? I know how testy my cousin can be.”
“Then you have my eternal gratitude. Thank you.”
Beside her, Malachi groaned. “Don’t tell him that.
Now he’ll become—no, he will be more of a pain in the ass and you’ll be sorry.
” Despite his words, Malachi leapt from the bed, not caring about being nude.
He strode to Trystin and clasped his cousin’s forearm.
“Thank you,” he breathed. “I’d hug you but—”
Trystin made a gagging noise while shoving Malachi back a step. “It’s fine. Please spare me. The healers want them to stay a bit longer for observation, but Zayvier and Samira are both asking for each of you.”
Kadeesha flung the fur off herself as well.
She was already rushing toward the door that led to Malachi’s massive bathing chamber, which held several armoires, intending to find a tunic to slip on, when a fresh pair of bootsteps sounded behind her and a feminine voice cried out, “We have a huge fucking problem!”
It was the ragged edge to Shionne’s tone, the positively stricken and rattled way the words rolled off her tongue, that had Kadeesha whipping around and knowing in her bones that something was catastrophically wrong.
“Was it … was it another attack?” she asked Shionne, a nauseating mash-up of rage and horror trying to claw its way up her throat. Great Celestials, so many had already died over literally nothing more than old grudges held between monarchs.
Shionne’s face turned ashen, Malachi snarled, and Kadeesha knew, she damn well knew what it was, before the female told Malachi, “Just about every surrounding residential sector is ablaze and scouts have spotted Rishaud, in the flesh, in our territory. He marches for the palace with thousands of soldiers from all of the Six Kingdoms at his back.”
Shadows swirled around Malachi. Even more poured forward and invaded every corner of the room, dropping it into near-total darkness, save for the slivers of rising sunlight that seeped in from the window.
“How did he get this close undetected?” Kadeesha’s voice was barely above a whisper.
“He had to have marched the army northward across the entire southern expanses of Apollyon territory to be upon the palace. His solar magic is powerful, but even he can’t teleport that many soldiers.
And the strongest of transport runes couldn’t accomplish it either, right?
” She directed the very last question at Trystin, even as horror was rooting her bare feet to the floor.
Not for herself—she’d be damned if she displayed a trace of fear where Rishaud was concerned.
But she’d just almost secured a future where what he was doing wouldn’t be possible.
Where an untold number of lives wouldn’t just be snuffed out on a whim and the devastation of this war that had been centuries in the making was mitigated.
But oceans of blood were still being spilled at this precise moment.
Trystin, who usually displayed a level of urbanity that Malachi rarely bothered with, radiated the same savage rage as the cousin who stood a few feet in front of him.
“You’d be surprised what one can accomplish if they put in the labor to seek out the right rune.
” His voice was startlingly even, but all the more malevolent for it.
“I am assuming that motherfucker,” Malachi said, the very floor beneath her feet shaking at the wrath in his voice, “has several generals among his army who are skilled in both teleportation and masking runes.” She’d heard him shout, growl, snarl, bark commands, and even issue threats in that coolly smug tone of his that often got under her skin.
But Malachi stated the guess in a quiet voice that was as cold and eviscerating and utterly devoid of mercy as she imagined the black Void—where all life had begun and where all life ended—itself was.
He followed it up with two simple statements that made her blood run cold.
“He’s about to regret having the balls to step foot on my lands or come after my wife.” He then let Kadeesha know, “If he’s here to retrieve you, which isn’t fucking happening, this counts as an exception, love, so we’re clear.”
It was right then that Kadeesha knew the unimaginable death toll had only barely begun if Malachi had anything to say about it.
The Apollyon king would face down Rishaud and his army and try his damnedest to annihilate every soul who’d had a hand in taking additional Apollyon lives and who bolstered Rishaud’s advancement toward the palace and Kadeesha—Malachi’s wife.
And so many more would die because when fae kings like Malachi and Rishaud clashed, the result was cataclysm.