Chapter 24
TWENTY-FOUR
Crymson
I’ll never get used to the glaring difference between the Blood Lands and the Fae Kingdom when I step outside the door to look for Christian.
Where the Blood Lands is all burning ash and smoky skies, the Fae Kingdom is bright with sunshine and greenery.
I can smell the salty ocean in the distance.
While it’s overcast right now because of the rain, it’s still beautiful.
I’m able to take a deep breath when I walk outside and not feel suffocated here. That is worth its weight in gold alone.
At first, as I walk through the gardens around the castle, I don’t see him.
It takes me a while of peeking around corners and looking across the grounds to find him sitting on a bench alongside a large fountain.
Someone had lovingly sculpted a scene of thorns curling around and up the base, where a woman stands with her arm outstretched.
The thorns kiss her feet, climb up her legs, but don’t mar her skin.
Christian sits beneath it, looking out across the field of wildflowers despite the light sprinkling of rain, probably not even understanding the profoundness of where he sits.
I know he hears my approach. I’m not light-footed, and he has the senses of a predator, but he doesn’t move as I step forward and take a seat beside him on the small perch.
“Do you know who the statue is?” I ask, looking at him.
He glances at me and then looks over his shoulder up at the brass woman, his eyes perusing the features.
He’s silent for a long moment as he studies every inch.
“It’s her, isn’t it?” he finally whispers.
“Thorn told me about it once,” I say. “Of course, I didn’t know it was also your mother at the time.”
He doesn’t respond to my words. Instead, he turns back to the scenery before us and stares out at it like he’s lost in the heavy clouds. At least the rain has stopped. Kind of. Though I’d have come out here to be with him even if it was a downpour.
Christian saved me that night in his father’s kingdom. He gave away a pretty little pet that belonged to a ruthless man. Despite wanting to keep her. He truly did save me in his own messed-up way.
I just wish he’d let me save him right back sometimes.
He looks over at me with that cold contemplation he wears so well. “You look better,” he admits, almost begrudgingly. “Happier.”
I nod and stretch out my pale legs. I’m pretty sure I weigh more now than I have in my entire life, and all that’s happened is I look normal instead of gaunt.
“It’s amazing what’ll happen when you eat like you’re supposed to,” I tease. He doesn’t respond, no emotion in his eyes, and I sigh. “Look, we keep dancing around this thing between us. I’ve made it clear what I think of you.”
“And I haven’t?” he asks, raising his brow and peering at me from the corner of his eye.
“Not really,” I grumble. “You have this way of making me feel like I’m a pet rather than someone you care about.”
He turns more fully in his seat toward me. His eyes trace my face, taking in the emotion I know I’m wearing across my expression. Unlike Christian, I haven’t mastered the cold and calculated look. I don’t think I ever will. For now, I’ll keep trying.
“Does the Thorn King make you feel like that?” he asks on a low empty whisper.
For fuck’s sake. Here we go, I think as I fold my hands in my lap to keep from touching him.
I really, really want to touch him. But it feels like it’ll cheapen this moment when I’m trying to tell him how I feel, to tell him that I don’t want to just be a pet.
He came here for a reason, and hopefully, that reason is me, but in this world of blood kings and terrible monsters, there could be any manner of reasons he’s here.
“If you think that he’s being an asshole, then you’re wrong,” I explain. “He told me that whatever I decide to do, he’ll respect it.”
Christian laughs under his breath, but that laughter doesn’t meet his eyes. It’s a crackle of vacant amusement.
“He’s better than me in every way then. Is that what you’re saying?”
“That’s not what I’m saying at all—” I growl.
“Maybe it was a mistake to come here,” he says suddenly, cutting me off. His eyes flash with something I can’t place.
Anger flickers through me, and I have the urge to strike out at him. Instead, I hiss through my teeth, “Maybe you’re an asshole and you aren’t listening to what I’m saying!”
That flash comes again, and I realize what it is. It’s the look in a predator’s eyes just before it strikes. “Oh?” He edges closer, his gaze flicking to my lips before meeting my eyes. “What exactly are you saying then, pretty pet?”
“See,” I growl. “There you go again.” I roll my eyes, unamused.
“We dance in this circle because you refuse to look any deeper. You say you yearn for me, and then always stop. You act like you care sometimes, and other times, you don’t.
You give me the biggest case of whiplash.
Fuck, it’s like you’re terrified to love something in your pretentious little life! ”
He watches me carefully through my outburst, those eyes tracing my face and watching my flailing arms I use to make a point. When I finish my tirade, he raises a brow.
A smile tilts at the corner of his lips as he stares at me intently.
“You seem flustered, pretty pet.”
I scowl, and before I can think better of it, I grab his face between my palms. Power flickers through my fingers, humming to life with my emotions.
His eyes widen when that power flickers out a little, the small electricity I’ve been practicing tingling along his skin and reminding him that I’m not exactly as human as he thought I was.
Because of him. Because of them.
“Stop that!” I growl. “Either love me or don’t. But stop playing games with me, Christian!”
He stares at me, my hands on either side of his face where I’d zapped him, surprise still there.
And then inky lines creep over his face.
His heated gaze darkens, and I know I probably made a mistake to touch this predator like I own him.
I won’t back down now, no matter what happens, but I do shift on the stone bench.
“You shouldn’t have done that, pretty pet,” he purrs low through sharp extended fangs.
“And why not?” I hiss, still pissed, still holding onto him out of pure spite.
The corner of his lips flicks up once more in a sexy smile that makes my stomach flip. “Because now I’m going to devour you.”
He’s on me before I’ve even taken my next breath.