37. FACING THE STORM
Chapter thirty-seven
FACING THE STORM
Her body moved with his, every sway and arch designed to seduce, to lure him deeper. Sweet, breathless moans filled the air, wrapping around him, intoxicating him.
Grand King Daemonikai thrust into the warmth of her, unable to get enough. He had to get deeper.
"Yess," Galilea moaned. Her fingers brushed against his arms, featherlight, as her bright blue eyes locked onto his. Looking at him as if the very sun and moon, rose and set around him. He liked that.
"Mine." Leaning forward, he pressed a kiss to her neck, breathing in her scent. Such sweet, sweet scent.
"Yours," she gasped, her voice trembling with need. "Always yours."
Daemonikai could feel the familiar, dizzying rush of his orgasm building. But he didn’t want this to end, not yet. He needed more. More of her, more of the moment. He—
Suddenly, the world around him shifted.
The warm intimacy shattered like porcelain.
Blood. Blood everywhere.
Screams tore around him, piercing and chaotic. The sweet moans were gone, replaced by terror. Daemonikai’s fingers were buried deep in a human’s gut, and he watched as the life drained from their eyes, their body crumpling to the ground lifelessly.
"Father!"
That voice jolted him. Myka.
Daemonikai’s gaze snapped to the vortex hall's entrance. Myka stood there, frantic, his usual calm shattered. In this chaos, Myka looked exactly like Alvin…wild-eyed and lost.
"Father! There are so many of them! We have to get Mother to safety!"
Daemonikai wrenched his bloody hands free and rushed to Myka. “Listen to me, son.” Gripping his son’s face, Daemonikai forced him to meet his eyes. “Go through the back.”
"But…" Myka's breath came in ragged pants as he stared up at his father, eyes wide with fear.
“I cannot leave these people. They depend on us, on me, to keep them safe tonight. That is why they are here, instead of in their homes.”
Myka nodded, though his hands shook. “Yes, Papa.”
"Get your mother to our bedchambers.” Daemonikai cupped his son’s face, grounding him. “Lock everything down, do you understand me?”
Myka nodded again, more vigorously this time. "It's just... I cannot feel my strength,” he said, scared. “I feel weak, empty. I’m scared I will fail you… and her."
Before Daemonikai could respond, another voice cut through the chaos. "Dae-Daemon..."
He turned at the sweet voice. Evie was pale and shaking, but with fire burning in her eyes. Even in the midst all this, she was trying to be strong.
"Do not worry about us. We will be fine. Alvin’s already made it to our chambers. Protect these people. They will be slaughtered otherwise." A tear slipped down her cheek as she stepped forward and pressed her lips to his in a brief, tender kiss. "But come back to me when all this is over. I will be waiting."
"I know." He brushed his lips across her forehead. "I love you."
Evie smiled, radiant even in the face of danger. She squeezed his hand tightly before letting go. "I love you too, my dearest beloved."
Daemonikai's eyes sprang open, his own breath choking him. There was an iron cage in his chest, squeezing tighter with each shallow breath he took, determined to kill him.
Palming his forehead, sweat slicked from Daemonikai's skin as he fought to steady himself. Feeling like he was underwater...drowning and drowning .
Control it. Breathe.
But it was impossible. The vividness of the dream—no, dreams—still stuck with him.
Two nightmares colliding. One, an erotic recall of Galilea, her touch lingering like fire on his skin, leaving him painfully hard. The other, a memory... the last moments of Myka and Evie. The last time he'd seen them alive.
His arousal wilted, and a roar built inside him, trapped in his chest with no outlet. Daemonikai’s body trembled with the force of it, the need to release this anguish, but he could not make a sound. He could not breathe .
Forcing himself upright, Daemonikai stumbled out of bed, struggling to find his footing. Even gravity too had conspired against him.
His fingers scraped the walls for support as he staggered out of his room, his chest heaving with the effort of each breath. Wegai had the night off, but his second stood silently at the door.
"Do not follow," Daemonikai rasped in warning before he pushed past, nearly falling through the doorway.
The cool night air hit him, crisp and biting against his fevered skin, and for the first time in what felt like forever, he dragged in a breath that did not choke him.
He kept walking, mind blank, steps aimless. No destination, just the all-powering need to escape the crushing memories.
By the time he became aware of his surroundings, he was standing by the small lake in the Southern Wings' courtyard, hands clenched at his sides, knuckles pale. Tension coiled tight on his shoulder blades.
The water’s surface rippled gently in the moonlight, sparkling as though in mockery of the torrent inside him. Daemonikai stood there, eyes locked on the water as it danced and simmered in tranquil beauty. He lost track of time. Minutes, hours? It didn't matter.
The night stretched around him, the sound of night owls blending with the distant howls of Urekai beasts prowling in the distance. He listened to them, letting their wild calls ground him.
When the first pale streak of dawn bled into the sky, he stirred at last, feeling... not calm, but better. The iron bands had let go, enough for him to breathe properly, to think.
Daemonikai turned walking back toward the fortress. Yet, instead of his chambers in Frostfall, he found himself standing in Blackstone, before her door.
For days, this urge had chewed at him like blizzards on a carcass, but he had fought it with everything in him. Yet, it seemed, no matter how hard he resisted, he would always be pulled back here… back to her.
What was he doing here?
Daemonikai took a step back. But that was all the moving away he could do. Standing there, rooted to the spot, he fought himself. His fists clenched at his sides, nails digging into his palms as he hovered outside her door, torn between instinct and reason.
In the end, reason crumbled. With a quiet exhale, he pushed the door open, stepping into the room with barely a sound, closing it softly behind him.
The scent of her, of Galilea , folded around him like a raven's wings, soothing and provoking all at once. His eyes found her curled beneath the heavy covers, asleep, her dark hair wild against the pillow. So young like this. Innocent, at peace.
His beast purred. His savage animal, hardened by long, drawn-out wars, who had witnessed kingdoms fall and saw fires rein, now relaxed. It rubbed against him like a lazy feline, content after days of feeling bloodthirsty and restlessness. The tension on his shoulders unraveled.
And it made sense now. Soulbond .
Fucking hell.
"Your Grace," a sleepy tone broke through the quiet.
Daemonikai's eyes snapped up, locking onto hers. Eyes that had been asleep mere seconds ago were now blearily open. She rubbed them to shake off the remnants of sleep.
He had to leave before the pull of this bond dragged him into a storm he was not ready to face.
“Go back to sleep.” Daemonikai said crisply, turning toward the door.
“Wait, please.”
He heard a shuffle and his jaw locked tight. He couldn’t do this. Not now. Not like this.
“Stay over there,” Daemonikai snapped. “Do not come close to me.”
A sharp intake of breath came behind him, and though he did not want to— gods, he did NOT want to —Daemonikai turned to look at her.
Hurt flashed in her eyes, before she quickly masked it, swallowing tightly.
“As you wish, I would not…” her voice wavered, her hands fluttered helplessly before falling to her sides again. “I will not come closer. But please, do not leave.”
“Why?”
“Just…” She looked so small, even smaller than he remembered. So fragile, lost, and achingly vulnerable that every instinct within him screamed, protect .
But Daemonikai slammed the doors to them.
“Just please-please say something,” she pleaded, her swollen eyes begging him.
“Why?” he repeated, his voice sharper, colder.
“Anything is better than the silence.” Misery rolled off her in waves. “Anything at all. Hit me, sh-shout at me, use the s-sp-spiked whip, lock me away in the Hole, anything. Just react. Say something. I beg of you .”
Her words sank into him, cutting deeper than any royal dagger could. The last of his doubts, the denials he clung to, crumbled like the walls of Olympus.
Daemonikai had tried not to believe it. A larger part of him already knew she was truly his Soulbond , yet there was a small part of him clinging to denial. It’s not true. They must be joking. It’s unbelievable. There’s no way Ukrae and the fates would do this to me.
Evie had always told him he was good at ignoring things he didn’t want to see. And she had been right. The signs had been there all along, but he had refused to see.
It was insane how his entire being had tuned into her moods, craved her scent, how she soothed him with just her presence and the sound of her voice. His beast had called her mine more times than he could count. If that hadn’t been enough to clue him in, the way every feeling during sex had sharpened tenfold should have been.
He, a master of control, had barely managed to keep himself from losing it with her. He, who did not go into rut for anyone before sex, not even his own bondmate, had taken one whiff of her scent in heat and was immediately hit with the father of all ruts.
But Daemonikai had chosen not to analyze it. Some things, after all, were better left unexamined.
However, now, the mere thought of anyone— anyone at all —whipping or hurting her brought a fury so strong to his being. The need to tear apart anyone who dared harm her, who had hurt her before, or who might ever try in the future, was far too strong.
There was no denying it anymore. This human girl, standing before him with guilt-ridden eyes, was his Soulbond .
Bile rose in his throat, but Daemonikai gulped it down.
“I am sorry,” she said after a long pause. “I know it sounds lame, but I am tr-truly sorry. I tried to stay away. Lord Vladya made me swear I would, and I did try with everything in me. But when you stepped into Lord Herod’s home that morning, stopping right in front of me, I knew I was in trouble.” Emeriel's shoulders slumped, eyes dropping to the floor. “This... this thing is way bigger than me. I tried so hard.”
Anger simmered in him. “So you thought lying to me, coming to me in deceit was the way to go? Giving me a false name?”
“Galilea is my maiden name, it's not a false name, Your Highness."
"But it's not the name you answer to, is it, Emeriel ?"
The guilt shone brighter. "I did not think it through. Lord Herod, he… he knew about my predicament, and sought to protect me." Her eyes begged him to understand. "He thought after the pleasantries, we would not have any other exchanges.”
Daemonikai thought of that day. He had asked her to walk with him, and she had shown him the gardens.
The pull between them had been magnetic, he had no idea it was the bond, and had given in to its demands, scenting her like a caveman. The beginning of countless other encounters where that bond only grew stronger.
There were so many questions he could ask, but instead he blurted out. “Did you lay with Herod?”
It took her by surprise, like it did him. “No. Never.”
The tightness in his chest loosened. Just slightly. “But he would have taken your heat.” Daemonikai’s voice was low, strained. “If the bond had not drawn me to you that night, you would have given your heat to him. The whole time, I was ridden with guilt—guilt that I was stealing my high lord’s woman simply because I could, abusing my power and strength. And all this time, Herodis was the one stealing what belongs to me ?”
“No!” Emeriel's head whipped side by side. “Please, Lord Herod never touched me that way. He doesn’t see me that way. It’s true I begged him to-to take my heat, but only because I did not want to bear the pain. Those waves of agony. I knew I could not have you. I begged, and he declined . He didn’t do it, not even when he saw me writhing, suffering. He went into a rut, and I t-threw myself at him, begging him to put me out of my misery. And still, he wouldn’t,” she cried, “He sent a messenger to you instead.”
It was the truth, and it spilled out in hurried, jagged breaths. The sincerity in those blue eyes pierced through the fog of Daemonikai’s anger. His beast, attuned to even the slightest falsehood, had quieted—satisfied with her explanation.
He remembered the morning Wegai handed him that message, but still, a part of him had needed to hear it from her. Even after summoning Herod for questioning, he still had not felt settled. Now, though, some of that uneasiness slipped away.
Appeasing your jealousy when there were far more serious issues to discuss, Daemonikai.
“He never touched me that way,” Emeriel reiterated.
“We spent three nights together.” He palmed his forehead, rubbing the dull throb. “Three days, and you never thought to tell me the truth? ‘I live under two identities, Emeriel is a girl and she is me, and I am your Soulbond , it’s your right to know, so you can decide if this bond should grow further’” He whipped his hand away, eyes hard. “You never thought to tell me any of that?”
She whimpered, tears flooding her red-rimmed eyes.
But Daemonikai was far too angry to stop. “My reputation precedes me, Galilea. Surely one or two persons aware of your deception warned you that I despise lies.”
“I’m sorry, I was scared. I did not know how to tell you. I—”
"Sorry does not change the fact that YOU DECEIVED ME!" he bellowed, the rage he'd held on a tight leash for days spilling over. “I hate that you deceived me. I have executed people for less!”
She flinched, hugging herself protectively.
“We fed that bond!” He barked thunderously. “Every time we got together! Every walk , every breath of your scent, every time we had sex, every knotting, We. Fed. That. Bond.”
The floodgate of tears spilled over, bathing her red cheeks.
“It grew stronger, and stronger , what were you thinking!?” His fists clenched at his sides as he paced the room. “If I had known who you were, we would have never gotten together. I would have avoided this by all means . I would damn well never have touched you during your heat.”
Emeriel recoiled as if he had slapped her.
But all Daemonikai saw was the reality of their situation. It crashed into him like an avalanche.
He would have to mate again. The wide hole in his heart where his family used to be still gaped open, growing wider with every passing day. And now, he would have to do it all over again?
Despair turned his stomach. "I cannot do this." The very idea of risking his heart once again sickened him. "I will not do this.”
One would think that after hurting so much, for so long, over the same reason, Emeriel would have developed some kind of immunity to this pain in particular. But one would be wrong.
Nothing could have prepared Emeriel for the depth of the agony that came with her beloved's words, no matter how much she had expected them.
She had expected his rejection, expected him to push her away. But what she had not expected was the sheer passion behind every syllable. The raw, abject sincerity, the coiled rage, as he told her, in no uncertain terms, that he did not want her.
Emeriel shattered .
The words sliced her to pieces, cutting deeper than she thought words ever could. She had prepared herself for this moment, or at least she thought she had. But seeing the conviction, the determination, watching the flickers of yellow come and go in his eyes as his beast hovered just beneath the surface, mad as hell just like the man himself—it was too much. Stop. Please stop.
His restless feet came to a stop and he faced her once more. “I lost everything, Galilea. Everything that ever mattered to me is gone. For millennia, my family were my light, they were everything I knew, and I lost them. They took my life, my heart and soul.”
To be loved like this, what would it feel like? Emeriel would never know.
She grabbed at her chest, trying to physically hold herself together. As if clutching her heart could somehow soothe the river of pain flowing from it. It did not help. Nothing could.
The ache was too great, it was simply too much. And it wasn’t just hers—it was his .
From the moment Emeriel rose from sleep, she had felt his anguish. Even when he tried to be calm, when he battled to keep it contained, she had felt every misery, every anger and sorrow he carried. Speaking of his family, had her nearly suffocating, as though she, too, were being buried under it. Crushing and merciless, until Emeriel could no longer tell where his pain ended and hers began.
Please, stop, I beg of you.
“All that is left is this... this rage. Bitterness. All that is left is this need to destroy, and gods, do I wish to massacre every single human and Bathe. In. Their. Blood .” His eyes turned bloodshot as he began to pace again. “I will not take a mate, and I certainly will not take a human mate. I will kill us both before I let that happen. Put me out of my misery and send you back to whatever creator thought it would be fun to do this! Be it Ukrae, the Fates, or the damn Moon Goddess!”
"Daemon—" Emeriel took a step closer. My heart. Heavens, my heart...
"Do not come near me!" he barked, his deadly glare stopping her in her tracks. "I am NOT feeding that bond any more than it’s already been fed. Stay the hell away from me!”
The storm swallowed her. "I had no choice!" Emeriel screamed.
It came from deep within her. From every part of her shattered being. "I have never had a choice in any of this! Since the day I was born, every part of my life has been dictated for me. My own identity— chosen for me by my parents! I had no choice when I was sold into slavery. I was brought here, my freedom ripped away, and as if that was not enough, my own body turned against me!"
King Daemonikai frozen mid-step, watching her, as Emeriel’s mind screamed at her to stop. To rein in the torrent, but Emeriel could not. She simply could... not.
"My own body betrayed me, changing, going into heats... I never wanted any of this! Ever!" she cried, raw and frenzied. "I just wanted to be a normal female. But I can’t because I was suddenly a Syren, and worse than that, I belonged to someone. I had no choice in becoming a Syren, just like I had no choice in who I belonged to!" Every scream was a loaded rifle, shooting pain for bullets. She was sobbing again, unable to help it. "My whole life, every choice, has been taken from me…"
Closing the distance between them, Emeriel beat at his solid chest with her fists. "You are not the only one who has been forced into this! I never had a choice either! S-stop treating me like I tried to trap you, like I wanted this! I didn't ask them —" She pointed upward, her words cut off by her own sobs "— to do this to us! I never asked for any of this!"
Her fists pounded against his chest again, and again, her strength draining with each blow. "I am sorry for the lies; I am sorry for the deceit. But it was the only way I knew to survive. You and your people would have killed me! I needed to survive too!"
The last of her strength left her, and Emeriel collapsed to the floor in front of him, her body folding in on itself, as she wept, body shaking uncontrollably, drained and exhausted.
"I was a victim too," she whispered, her voice barely audible through the tears. " I was a victim too..."