Chapter 22 #2
“So, are you admitting that you are dangerous, Little Dove? Yet you look so sweet.” Lanlin lowers his voice to a seductive drawl.
Daire flaps his angelic wings, while his hand drops to the feathered hilt of one of the two bronze daggers, which are holstered at his waist. “Don’t judge by appearances, bat. You look so wicked, when you’re actually sweet.”
Lanlin blinks. “Was that a compliment?”
“I’m not sweet enough to give you one of those.”
“Perhaps you are.” When Lanlin cocks his head, studying Daire’s hand that is resting on his dagger, I tense with worry.
Lanlin only points, however, at the bands of black velvet that are decorated with the House of Sin scarab beetle emblem and hieroglyphs, which have been wrapped neatly around Daire’s delicate dragon iron bracelets.
“Are they helping to contain that cursed magic, which has been burning you? May the Void Devils damn Maximinus to the howling abyss for binding you like this.”
Daire rocks on his heels, raising his wrists.
Then he twirls on the spot in an elegant dance move that takes away my breath. He weaves his hands like serpents in front of Lanlin, before sweeping into a bow in front of him.
“You could have just said yes.” But I am grinning.
When Lanlin presented Daire with the velvet scarab bracelets yesterday as a replacement for the lotion to treat the burns on his arms, I’d squealed with joy.
“Heka, my old tutor, created them with hieroglyph magic,” Lanlin said.
“He was fascinated by the chance to work on a new challenge. The iron would still hurt you through normal cloth. I will find a way to break you free of them entirely; Heka is committed to it.” His fingers hovered over the silver dove mask.
“I am sorry that I have not been able to remove this cursed silver and look upon your pretty face. You should never have been shamed like this.”
Daire’s voice was flat. “The mask will come off on the night of the Blood Moon.”
And it fucking will. All our masks will.
Daire straightened, stretching. “Aye, but ancient fae would dance or sing their gratitude, sometimes through the long summer nights for weeks. Of course, sometimes they’d show it through mind-blowing fucking…”
“Shameless.” Lanlin turns to stare over the desert, but I can see by his silhouette that he is smiling. He is doing more of that than he did before. “But also, I am honored to accept your thanks.”
“Honored,” Daire mouths at me, spinning on the spot with a flap of his wings.
I reach to drag Daire into my arms, desperate to kiss the curve of his laughing mouth. He makes me feel more alive than I have in my life; with him it’s easy to forget that our lives hang on a…golden…thread.
“In ancient times, those with the Power would sometimes have mates as their riders.” Lanlin doesn’t look around at us, and the sudden vulnerability in his voice startles both Daire and me enough to break us apart and stare at him.
“If those riders were caught, then they would be executed as an example alongside their monster. I have been forbidden by the Scarlet Temple to bond. I never dreamed that I would find my fated mates who would take the risk of becoming my riders. On my fangs, who would wish to touch a bat’s wings?
Ride on a shadow creature like mine’s back? ”
“If this is you asking us to become your riders,” my pulse races with sudden excitement, “then the answer is fuck yeah, we would. It would be amazing to fly with you.”
Lanlin turns and darts to my side with uncanny speed.
His gaze is hungry and desperate. “Do you mean it, dearheart? Even though you saw me transform in White Lotus? Become feral? I lost control in my grief; I was bloodstained in my bat form.”
“You protected us,” I reply, firmly. “It was an ambush that killed your civilians and soldiers. It destroyed your sacred village. It was you against an entire fucking army. We’d be dead without you.”
“You were glorious.” Daire gives a sharp grin.
Lanlin appears bewildered at the praise.
Has anyone ever praised him before?
I’m going to praise all my Alphas more from now on.
“Plus, we’ve ridden on demonic lions for you, and no offense…” Daire side-eyes Shadow and Devil, who open their eyes warningly at Daire, “…but they’re bloody scary. Riding you would be thrilling.”
“I’m not scary…?” Lanlin bares his fangs.
“Only in the best way.” Daire glances between Lanlin and me. “Where are you taking us?”
“Out into the desert.” Lanlin’s expression suddenly becomes shuttered. “Somewhere we can’t be spied on. Sheut has many eyes at night.”
Daire nods. “Go on.”
“What?”
“Aren’t you going to do a dance in thanks?”
I smother my laugh behind my palm.
Lanlin yanks Daire forward by the arm, whispering into his ear, “We have different ancient traditions in the Blood Kingdom. Do you want me to show you?”
Daire swallows. “Maybe you’re more of an exhibitionist. How about later?”
Lanlin looks like a cat letting go of a mouse who he is toying with when he pushes Daire into my arms. Then he strolls further into the shadowed desert.
As he walks, he begins to trail shadows, transforming on each step into a giant bat with wings that are composed of nothing but shadows.
My breath quickens.
The clash and heat of battle floods through me: screams fill my ears, dust, ash, and sand are itchy on my skin, and the copper stink of blood makes me sick.
Yet despite the visceral memory, I’m not scared.
The bat is larger than any dragon apart from Aurelius.
Lanlin is looking back at Daire and me but not as if he wishes to tear out our throats like he did those dragons in White Lotus, but rather like he’d take on the entire Draca Kingdom at our command.
I glance sideways at Daire and am caught off guard, when he stumbles toward Lanlin, entranced.
Daire lays his hand on Lanlin’s back.
When the ravens caw in alarm above us, Daire whistles to them. “Your Raven King is now a bat rider. Go to sleep. I’m safe.”
Safe.
We’re in a desert alone with the monstrous Shadow Vampire King who would tear King Daire apart.
Yet Daire feels safe…?
Doubt winds through me.
Daire is meant to be manipulating and seducing Lanlin, but vampires from the noble lines have the power to allure and mesmerize.
Their pheromones are weapons against every dynamic.
Is their bite as dangerous?
Could it be working right now to attract Daire to Lanlin as his Blood Lover, as much as Daire’s blood is attracting Lanlin?
Was Lanlin all along not the moth being drawn to Daire’s sunshine but rather, the false sun, drawing in Daire on his newly white wings?
I hurriedly follow Daire.
Lanlin crouches down. Shadows wind from his wings to wrap around Daire and me, dragging us up to settle on his furry back.
“Hold on, love.” Daire glances over his shoulder at me; his lavender eyes glitter in the dark like amethysts.
I wrap my arms around his middle.
Adrenaline rushes through me.
How many generations have passed since anyone has flown as a bat rider through these deserts? How long since they were accepted and not executed?
The bat’s body feels warm and muscular underneath my thighs.
Suddenly, Lanlin launches himself into the air with shuddering force. The sand is scattered, as each deliberate flap of the shadow wings takes us further up into the cold night air, which tugs at my long, dark coat.
Lanlin emits a series of high clicks.
My stomach swoops.
Daire lets out a bright laugh.
“This is fucking incredible.” Daire’s voice is caught by the whoosh of the wind and carried away.
I can feel every movement of Lanlin’s body: the flex of his shoulders and the twist of his spine as he banks to the side.
It is incredible.
Thrilling.
It is life affirming in a way that is perfectly Lanlin because it’s like he has his fangs poised at my neck threatening death.
He doesn’t glide or fly gently.
Maybe he’s showing off, dropping into sudden heart stopping dives, sharp banks, and agile acrobatic turns.
It’s like dancing.
Suddenly, it hits me.
Is this how Lanlin shows his gratitude?
Because in its own way, it’s as fucking beautiful as Daire’s dance.
My chest fills with warmth.
Lanlin walks the line between life and death and makes me feel more alive than I have before.
Daire, of course, is having the time of his reckless fae life in front of me.
“Faster!” Daire yells. “By the Shadow Gods, I feel like I have my wings back. A fae should be in the sky and not grounded. Faster!”
“Not if you don’t want me to puke,” I warn.
Fuck a troll, is Lanlin about to fly upside down?
Lanlin appears to hear me because he slows the acrobatics to Daire’s disappointment, gliding lower over the waves of the dunes toward a bank of cliffs that rise deep in the desert.
Sheut looks like a flaming mirage on the horizon.
Finally, Lanlin slows. The beat of his wings grows deeper and more deliberate.
He circles the cliffs.
My weight shifts forward; I rest my head against Daire’s back.
Lanlin’s body tightens, as he appears to be reading the environment. Then he lowers toward the sand. His long claws bite into the ground, and his shadow wings surround Daire and me in a cocoon to shield us from the scattered sand.
Slowly, his wings lower again, only for the tendrils of shadows to wrap around Daire and me and lift us to the sand.
Even though my feet are on the ground, inside I am still flying.
Awe-struck, I stare at Lanlin. “I want to do that again.”
Daire is beating his wings, as if he hopes that he may himself take flight. “On the sacred ash, if my soul wasn’t already damned, I would sell it to ride you again. And I have a lot of experience in riding people to tell you that you’re the bloody best.”
Lanlin transforms back, stalking toward us both.
He looks wild, almost undone at our words.
“You don’t need to sell your soul. It is already mine.” Lanlin holds out his hands, and my breath stutters. It is such a rare gesture for him to willingly offer to be touched like this. Daire and I instantly hold his hands. “My bat riders.”