Chapter 2 #3
Yet how many other plots does my trickster have going on throughout the kingdoms that I don’t know about?
Aurelius truly should watch out.
I stroke my finger over the scale bracelet. “Is that why the asshole rejected me?”
“I don’t know. I’ll let my teeth ask his throat when I next see him.”
I grin, fiercely. “Don’t worry. I’m his Queen now. I’ll let mine ask his knot. Wait, that doesn’t sound—”
“Kinky.” Daire laughs. “Now, rune magic, aye? First, why don’t you pick a color for my wings and hair? Then this becomes something special and secret, which we can enjoy between us, rather than yet another loss of my identity. Plus, I want you to still find me attractive.”
As if it would be possible for him to be anything else, even if his head was covered in a paper bag.
He looks at me expectantly.
I card my fingers through his silver hair, leaning in to nuzzle at his scent gland.
“You’re frost and snow. The forest in the depth of winter.
If you must hide who you are, then you should lie with the truth: white like your heritage and the snowy Unseelie Kingdom that I hope I get to see with you one day, the wild woods and frozen waterfalls. ”
Daire’s lavender eyes are wide; his thick, butterfly lashes are matted wet.
He reaches to cup my cheek. “You’re a bloody miracle, Spark. And one day, I will show you my kingdom. Strength and power don’t lie in how much we own but how we survive when everything is taken from us. It doesn’t matter that I have kneeled for the dragons. The fae lands will always be free.”
He kisses me, soft and tender.
I loop my arms around his neck, losing myself as my soul is already lost in his.
“A white raven,” I murmur between kisses. “What will you call yourself?”
“Dove.” Daire’s eyes dance. “Aren’t I on a mission of peace?”
I splutter with laughter. “Rogue.”
“But a charming one.”
“You’re fucking with me, yeah?”
“Nay.” He shakes his head, giving a sharp grin.
“I’m fucking you, but I’ll be fucking them.
Peace…? They think that they’re being gifted a sweet pet, Dove.
But underneath, I’m the sharp beaked Raven King.
These dragons and Bloods would take my Omega, kingdom, freedom, and even the blood from my veins.
Let them mistake me as a harmless plaything, when I’m really the one who’ll bring war to both their kingdoms.”
I stare at him, uncertainly. “Daire, you promised to try not to hurt Aurelius…”
“Sadly, the dragon doesn’t seem to have made the same promise.” Daire savagely bites his thumb, smearing ancient rune symbols on the side of the pool. “Copy those on my hair and then my wings.”
I nod, raising my finger to my mouth.
Daire bats my hand away, placing his finger into my mouth instead.
I sigh, biting down. Then I gently take his finger out of my mouth, squeezing to coax his blood onto my thumb.
I peer with interest at the beautiful design of the runes, before copying them. I smear Daire’s blood across his curls and then onto each of his silky wings, which he has stretched out.
I stare at him, anxiously.
Nothing.
On the Shadow Gods, please work.
Suddenly, Daire tosses his head back and howls. His entire body stiffens and rises out of the water, as his shadows wind out of him in distress.
“Shit, shit, shit.” I stare at him in shock.
Did I draw the symbols wrong?
Have I killed him?
Then the color fades from Daire’s hair and wings, until they are snow-white.
He looks stunning.
Exhausted, he collapses back into the water. His eyes are closed.
I wrap my arms around him, stroking my shaky hand over his white feathers. “How are you feeling?”
“Like the Shadow Devils have eaten me and not in the fun way. How do I look?”
“Spellbinding.”
Daire’s eyes snap open.
He preens. “To be expected.” He glances down at his hair, arching his brow and then over his shoulder at his wings, flapping them experimentally. “I may even be able to trick the Shadow Gods and fly to the heavens looking like this.”
“Ambitious.”
“You know another way that I am ambitious?” Daire’s eyes twinkle. “I held the record in the featherglass for how long I could hold my breath.”
“Ehm, congratulations?” My brow furrows. “Do you want a cookie? Medal? Wing stroke?”
“Aye to all three, obviously. But not the point. My Omega Queen just did some brilliant rune magic and should be rewarded. Also, this may be the last time that we’re together as Daire and Spark, before I must become Dove for real.
So, my record is eight minutes but that’s swimming in lakes with my friends.
Shall we see if I can make you come before I need to surface for air?
Because you, my Omega, are all that I need to fucking breathe. ”
My eyes widen in alarm. “Wait, I’m sure you need oxygen too.”
Daire recklessly plunges with a flap of his wings underneath the petal strewn water’s surface.
His arms settle around my waist, holding me up.
My chest is rapidly rising and falling.
Anticipation and fear are bound together like they usually are with Daire, as his plush lips feather across my inner thighs, pushing them apart.
I let my legs fall open.
My cheeks flush.
Eight minutes…
Daire’s wings wrap around me, silky and seductive.
Then his mouth latches onto my clit and sucks.
I gasp.
I fall back against the side of the baths.
Daire’s curls spread around him under the water like pale seaweed. It halos him, and I can’t resist running my fingers through his curls.
He looks angelic — like a Shadow God.
By the way that he is curling his tongue down my pussy, however, he is all Shadow Devil.
Pleasure winds through me.
“F-f-fuck.” How long has it been? “Just there.”
I tug on this King’s hair who is worshiping between my thighs. Daire’s grunt is muffled underneath the water, but he increases the speed that his tongue is now spearing in and out of my slick pussy.
My toes curl.
Daire must be running out of breath. Why isn’t he surfacing?
He worships me harder like he is prepared to die on the altar of my pussy.
“Daire,” I moan. “My Alpha.”
I don’t know if I am begging him to rise out of the water and breathe or to stay where he is.
My core throbs with ecstasy.
I am almost there.
Almost…
Then ice-cold shadows feather out in the water, pressing into my pussy alongside Daire’s tongue. The shocking intensity of the sensation pushes me tumbling over the edge into an earth-shattering orgasm.
I scream, arching back as Daire stubbornly remains under the water to work me through the aftershocks.
I growl, grabbing him by the curls. Then I wrench him up.
Daire coughs, taking in desperate lungful’s of air. But he’s smiling brightly.
“See?” Daire splutters. “I knew that I could do it. Also, I broke my personal record. Wait, are you seeing stars as well?”
I laugh, pulling him into a deep kiss; I love that he smells of roses now as well as frost. “Yeah, but only because of that mind-blowing orgasm. Catch your breath.”
Daire pants. “Worth it.”
Suddenly, I freeze in fear. “Fuck a troll; we’re idiots. We’ve changed your appearance to trick Lanlin and make sure that he doesn’t know you’re anything but a featherglass who has been taken as a pet. But what about your scent?”
Daire’s smile is vicious. “Any Blood who has got close enough to know it…is already dead. Sin won’t see through my disguise. How will he able to resist such a pretty Dove?”
“How surprising that the rogue you insisted on saving, bonding, and taking as your consort, is already planning to deceive and seduce another king,” a sneering voice says from the doorway.
“Now do you understand that he has always been tricking you, my boy? Without my intervention, your kingdom would have fallen to the feathered bitch.”
Daire snarls, pushing me behind him and raising his wings out to shield me.
Fear lies heavy and sick in my stomach.
A hard-faced Alpha in his fifties with a thin mouth and jutting jaw, stands with his hands behind his back. He has a bald head and cruel, amber eyes.
Maximinus, the only sorcerer with metallicum magic.
Creator of magical nightmares. Horror of Bael. Pet-hater.
The sunlight gleams on his silver tunic and woolen cloak.
I can sense that Aurelius is standing behind his uncle at his shoulder, but he is in shadow.
I strain to see my Alpha.
“He made a deal to serve me.” Aurelius’ voice is so icy and emotionless that it makes me shiver.
Maximinus snorts. “Serve you right into your grave. You sort out your Omega and make sure that she understands the situation. I’ll deal with my whore.”
When Maximinus stalks toward Daire, I growl. “Don’t touch him, asshole.”
Where’s a bar of soap when you need to beat up an Alphahole? I knew that I should have kept hold of that scraper.
“Don’t fight,” Daire says, urgently. He launches himself out of the bath, before I can stop him. “Here I am, boss.”
Daire holds his arms out wide, as water drips off him in his naked glory.
Despite my fear and anxiety, my lips twitch.
Maximinus grimaces. “Shameless.”
“Thank you.” Daire puffs out his chest, proudly.
I wrap my arms around myself.
My guts churn with dread, as Maximinus drags Daire out of the room by the scruff of the neck.
Then I am left alone with Aurelius.
I meet the glowing amber eyes of the Shadow Dragon King who betrayed me.