Chapter 20
“Iwill not wait.” I push back my chair and stand. Briony stares at me in alarm. “He wants me? He will see me now.”
Ever since last night, the question, What am I? has been burning in my mind. Maura’s words haunt me, circling round and round and round.
There is only one person who can answer this question.
One.
And I will not wait any longer to seek his answers.
She opens her mouth to protest, but I am already walking away and all she can do is scurry behind me.
When we reach his chambers, it is Henrik on duty. “You’re early,” he says, frowning.
“His request,” I reply tightly.
Henrik looks at Briony for confirmation. She gives a small nod, her cheeks flushing. But instead of reading her blush as deceit, Henrik reads it as flirtation, and he smiles at her. “More time for us,” he says, rolling his tongue over his upper teeth in a way that might be sexy if he was someone I found attractive.
Stepping aside, he gestures for me to enter. I push open the door and let it close quietly behind me. Through the thick wood, I can hear the murmur of conversation between Briony and Henrik which will, undoubtedly, soon become muted moans of pleasure as he fucks her up against the door.
The room is dark and silent. The fire flickers in the grate, but there is no sign of Eldrion. Usually, he greets me with a glass of whisky and lurches straight into his string of questions.
Now, he is nowhere to be seen.
I move deeper into the chamber. Clearly, this room is used as his living quarters and his study. Behind the fireplace, to the side, there is another door. A smaller one.
I approach slowly, my heart thundering in my chest. Suddenly, my bravado seems rather foolish.
I pause outside the door and press my ear to it.
Inside, a muffled sound escapes, a groan, low and guttural, like a beast in torment. It sends a shiver down my spine.
Then, he says my name. No, he doesn’t say my name – he moans my name.
Heart pounding, I take a deep breath and turn the handle. The door opens silently. The room beyond is dimly lit, with shadows dancing on the wall and casting an eerie glow on Eldrion’s figure.
He is standing by the window, facing away from me. One arm is braced on the wall, his wings spread wide and trembling. I creep into the room and slip into the shadows, moving until I can see past his wings.
Catchingfull view of his body, I swallow a murmur of surprise.
He is completely naked.And while he punches the wall with one fist, his other arm is moving in fast, jerky motions, his fingers curled tightly around a large, throbbing erection.
He groans louder,letting out a shaky breath. Then he calls my name again, and treacherous wetness floods my core.
How can I want him so badly when I fear him so much? When I fear his power, his control over me, and the darkness that lurks in his soul.
“He is evil,” Briony said. “He has done unspeakable things.”
And yet this evil, dark, all-powerful creature is using my name to bring him to climax.
My fingers find the hem of my dress and slide it up my thighs, my gaze fixed on the twisted shapes that his wings cast on the wall.
Eldrion’s muscles ripple as his hips thrust forward, the sound of his laboured breathing mingling with the soft whisper of the wind outside the window.
As the room swirls with shadow and light, I lose myself in the rhythm of my name on his lips, aching to touch the damp heat between my legs.
A low growl escapes his lips, and he turns his head.
For a moment,I cannot breathe because I am certain he has seen me, but then he closes his eyes, releases another loud moan, and tightens his grip on his cock.
Movingmy underwear to one side, I slip my fingers past the lace and begin to circle my clit. My nipples are hard, straining against the silk fabric of the corset I wear beneath my dress. My breath quickens, but I do not close my eyes. I keep them on him.
I watch his shoulders ripple,and his stomach tense. I see the veins in his arms, and the way his breath hitches as pleasure builds inside him.
“Fuck, Alana...”He turns around, away from the window, and the hand that was braced against the wall throws a bundle of light into the centre of the room.
My fingers slow.I cannot breathe.
For there,suspended in the middle of the room, is a shimmering vision of a body I recognise.
My body.
I am naked,tied to a wall with chains around my wrists. And Eldrion is in front of me. As he stalks towards me, his silver hair moves softly over his shoulders. He roughly takes my chin in his hand, then kisses me.
And it isat that moment I realise I am not a prisoner in his vision but a lover.
He kisses me deeply,then drags his lips down my throat to my naked breasts. He sucks one nipple playfully into his mouth, kneading it with his expert tongue.
As I watch,my fingers return to my clit and Eldrion – the real one, the one who is standing just feet away from me watching the same thing I am – starts jerking his cock once more.
He stands,stock-still, watching the vision play out.
Is he doing this?Is this what he was picturing when he was standing by the window?
The versionof me that is chained up wraps her legs around Eldrion and cries out as he enters her. I stifle a moan, biting the back of my hand so hard I draw blood.
Then the vision disappears.Eldrion drops to his knees and comes hard onto the floor, hot come drenching the stone beneath him.
He stays there a moment, breathing hard, then sits back on his knees and scrapes his hand through his hair.
It is when he smiles that my orgasm takes over.
Because it isthe first time I have seen him look anything other than deadly.
He smiles, and shakes his head. “Fuck, that woman. She will end me,” he mutters.
And with that,my body uncoils.
When Eldrionfinally emerges from his bedroom, I am sitting in his armchair, legs crossed.
I greet him with a rather cocky stare, but he seems oblivious to its meaning.
If I hadn’t known what was happening a moment ago, there would be no visible signs of it anywhere on his face or his body.
Fully clothed now, he walks over to the table where he keeps his whisky and pours himself a glass.
“I want you to tell me who I am,” I waste no time and speak firmly, feeling a newfound sense of assurance that he will not hurt me because a man who calls my name like that could surely not hurt me.
Eldrion takes a slow sip from his whisky. “You’re an empath,” he says.
“An important one,” I counter.
My words are more of a statement than a question, but Eldrion tilts his head from side to side and says, “Perhaps.”
“You tracked me down in my village long before you brought me here.”
Eldrion chews his lower lip. “I did.”
“Why?”
“I cannot tell you that, not yet.”
Again, I ask, “Why?”
Eldrion’s eyes flash and he drums his fingers on his glass. “Are you a child?” he says, his voice like gravel in the back of his throat. “Always asking why, why, why.”
“You bought me at auction, gave me chambers in your castle, and have spent every night for nearly two weeks questioning me on things you already know about. You took me outside the castle and made me use my powers against an innocent man. And you’re afraid of me.”
I stand up to meet his stare.
He glowers down at me, his eyes glittering like diamonds, sharp and deadly and beautiful.
“You have searched my feelings?” he asks darkly.
“No,” I say, “I have not. But some of them crept in when we were with the innkeeper. I didn’t realise it at first; I thought it was all him. But the tendrils of darkness I felt, they were you, weren’t they?” I tilt my chin up towards him, fire rising in my belly. “How can you, the most powerful fae in the kingdom, be afraid of me? A fae with so little magic that you allow me to roam your castle unrestrained while my friends rot in your dungeon.”
“They’re not your friends,” he says. “They will never be your friends. They did not understand you or appreciate you. They do not trust you. They do not know what you are. You offered to free them, and still they do not trust you.”
I stifle a sharp intake of breath. How does he know? Finn? Henrik? They would not betray me, for they have done things that would get them in far deeper trouble.
But then how?
In one quick stride, Eldrion closes the gap between us.
He flexes his wings so wide that a shadow falls over me, and I think he’s going to wrap them around me. “It is you who should be afraid of me,” he growls.
My heart thunders in my chest. Am I afraid of him? Perhaps I was, but now, in this moment, I’m simply curious.
A sudden, tremulous knock on the door causes Eldrion to look up and stride away from me.
He flings it open in a way that makes me think he’s going to strangle whoever is on the other side, but when he looks down and finds Briony blinking up at him, his expression softens just a tiny bit.
“What is it?” he barks.
“Trouble,” she whispers, her voice shaking. “The dungeons, my lord. Trouble.”
Eldrion strides back to me, grabs my hand, and drags me towards the door.
Briony mouths, “I’m sorry,” in my direction, but I’m whisked past her before I can ask what she is sorry for.
We have not even reached the staircase that leads to the cells when I hear the screaming.