Chapter 21
DAIGEN
They say Moonstones are known for their pride and the Sunstones their loyalty. But Bloodstones? Bloodstones are known for their warlust. As Narya turned to leave, I felt that lust rising in me again, clawing at the edges of my control.
èllia knelt beside me, clinging to my forearm. There was a time I would’ve pulled her onto my lap and used her without mercy, right there on my throne. Now her presence disgusted me. I wanted her gone, out of my sight.
“My king, I did not mean to—”
“Quite the little trick you played there, éllia.” I trained my gaze on her, barely resisting the urge to have her dragged away and whipped. “Did I not warn what would happen if you played them in my court again?”
She moved back, but kept her fingers on my arm.
Fingers I wanted to break one by one.
“I did not mean to cause any upset, my king.”
Upset? I wanted to wring her fucking neck.
When would she accept that she meant nothing to me?
She never had. She’d been but a vessel to warm my bed through long winters.
Perhaps I’d been foolish to think she’d stay loyal to me after I dismissed her.
Clearly the riches and the rooms I allowed her to keep in my home were not enough for the spoiled little viper.
I leaned in, my lips twisting into a sneer. “That’s exactly what you intended, éllia. Don’t fucking lie to me. How else did my sister’s cloak end up in Narya’s room?”
Slowly, I peeled her fingers off me, one by one, and crushed them in my hand.
èllia moaned, enjoying the pain. But she wouldn’t enjoy what I’d do next.
“From now on, you will reside in the servants’ quarters.
It befits you.” When she opened her mouth to protest, I crushed her hand in warning.
This time, she didn’t enjoy it. She winced and tried to pull away.
I tightened my grip. “I will suffer no argument. Be grateful I don’t throw you in the dungeons for what you did today. ”
I shoved her back, letting her fall to the floor with a gasp, and threw my sister’s bloodstained cloak at her. She looked up at me with the same stunned expression Narya had worn. Except, èllia wasn't just surprised.
There was a deep hatred in her eyes that hadn’t been in my mate’s.
It was hatred that coiled inside me again, scraping my ribs raw.
I settled back in my throne, the stone cold against my back. The hall pressed close. Without Narya, the air itself felt colder and heavier. I hadn’t noticed the cold before.
“My king—”
“Put it back where you found it and do not let me see you again unless I command it. Go.”
As I watched her leave, glaring at her back, it wasn’t èllia's face I imagined in my mind. It was Narya’s.
The silver-haired temptress who clawed at me like a wildcat in the archive.
The fated one the gods had cursed me with, and who, right now, according to the ring on my finger I had bound with my magic and crystal, was in a deep state of slumber.
I would go to her and make amends. But first—
“Bring me wine or ale, damn it!”
Ringed fingers stretched out in front of me.
I glowered at it, recognising the ruby jewel immediately, and watched the pale fingers sweep up the berries on the table.
“Ahh, to be young and fated again.” Luthrin leaned against the table and stretched out his legs. “I must say I am envious of you, my king.”
“I am neither young nor fated. Your envy is ill-placed.”
Luthrin chuckled at my gritted reply. “My liege might not be young, but he is soon to be fated, is he not?” In the corner of my eye, he threw a berry up and caught it in his mouth.
His grin lingered as he glanced at me. “I do wonder if your mate will be of the same mind after the way you humiliated her.”
Bastard.
I clenched my jaw to keep from punching the grin I could hear in his voice. I glared at him and rubbed my jaw, contemplating it.
Luthrin was one of the few I trusted, the rare man I might even call a friend.
He had served my court longer than any living soul, and I would have trusted him with my life.
Yet tonight, even his presence irritated me.
Not even Luthrin could ease the fury building in my chest, darkening every thought.
“Bring me ale and then leave before I throttle you.”
He clicked his fingers but didn’t move from the table that creaked beneath him. Luthrin was light on his feet despite his build, though he was no warrior. Still, I remembered the day he dragged his own son before me, covered in blood, for conspiring against my father.
Did I pity Nakólys? Only for being caught. But seeing him with Narya, hearing her laugh with him? That, I could not forgive. That I could kill him for.
His father gave an exaggerated sigh from beside me.
Anyone else, and I would’ve punched them.
“I dare not leave you now,” he said, humour returning to his voice. “You know how I cannot resist teasing you when you are in one of your foul moods. Girl, over here!”
At last a serving wench brought a tray of drinks.
Her arrival stopped me from punching Luthrin in the gut and breaking a few of his ribs.
He smirked at the girl as she nervously set the tray on the table.
Where my knuckles had cracked the wood, the tray slipped down along the splintered grain.
Luthrin steadied it with a wink at the girl, his easy laughter grating in the silence of the hall.
She retreated quickly, running from him like a startled bird, her skirts whispering against the stone, and in that fleeting sound I thought again of the dove.
I frowned as my gaze landed on the doors again.
“Such a pity,” he said with another sigh. “You have your court quite terrified of you, Daigen. It is not as fun as it used to be.”
He handed me a tankard. I grunted in reply before I threw back the ale, wiping the trickle of bitterness from my mouth with the back of my hand. The word fun played on my mind. It tasted sour on my tongue when I spoke it.
“What fun is there to be had?” I gestured to my court with a bitter glare. “Fun for the stag could be deadly for the wolf. Better my little herd feared me than doubted my wrath—like they did my father’s. Had they not doubted him, he would still be alive.”
“And you, my king, still a prince.”
Luthrin’s rebuttal was swift, and I clenched my tankard. He knew more than anyone the deep betrayal I harbored over the slaying of my father. It mattered not how little a role my court played in his downfall. All that mattered was their betrayal.
“My friend, it has been almost a millennium.”
It still wasn’t enough to soothe the anger in my soul.
“To my eye, it’s been but a day.”
Luthrin sighed in defeat although I knew he would force it upon me again soon. Why did he insist on defending them? They were traitors. Kingslayers.
I leaned back, picturing the select few I kept barely alive in my dungeon.
Sometimes I dragged them out to stumble as jesters, their hollow eyes and broken bodies serving as a warning.
Their suffering was not for my amusement alone, but a reminder to the rest of my court of what betrayal earned them.
I could only imagine Narya’s horror. She would soon learn that to be the Bloodstone King was to wear cruelty like a crown. It was the only way to shield the blades from my back.
“Pitiful, is it not?” I followed Luthrin’s gaze as he half-turned towards my court.
“Look at how they sup and drink yet are fearful of meeting their king’s eye.
You do have them well trained, my friend, I will give you that.
I do not believe the same can be said for your mate though, but do you know something…
” He leaned in, a smirk upturning his lips.
“I do not think you want her to be tamed.”
When I didn’t dignify him with a response, choosing instead to drink more ale, he chuckled.
“Ah, it’s as I thought. You like when she fights you. How different you are to your soft-hearted father! I suppose it’s no wonder he was slain in the end. He let too many in his court take advantage of his leniency.”
“And where were you, eh?” I turned my glare to him. “Where was his Chief of Counsel when he needed him?”
Luthrin’s smile withered, his features twisting into something harder.
Before he could dredge up excuses, I slammed the tankard down, the crack of it splitting the silence of the hall. I rose from my throne and turned on him. The shame in his eyes, the old guilt he had carried since the day he failed my father, stayed the blow I longed to strike.
“We will speak no more of it,” I said, nodding once at him.
It was the least reassurance I could give at that moment.
While Luthrin was an old friend, and I trusted him, he had still played a hand in my father’s slaying no matter how reluctant it had been.
It was our friendship that kept him from rotting in my dungeon with the others.
That, and he had been the one to warn me of the coup. But it was too late to save him.
“Although,” I added with a grin, “sometimes I think more’s the pity, for you would make an excellent fool.”
He smiled and huffed his agreement. His hand fell upon my shoulder. “Indeed let us speak no more of the past. You have far more exciting matters—present ones—to focus your mind on, my lucky friend.”
Lucky? I grunted. Was I lucky to have been fated to my enemy? To have been tethered to a woman who despised me, and she to a man who made her tremble in fear and shame as she wrestled her longing?
That shame wouldn’t last long, though. Narya would give in to me soon.
A wry grin played over my lips. How fiercely she fought me!
How valiant her efforts to deny the bond that had been thrust upon us, and this desire that I alone could elicit from her.
She knew it, could feel it. It was only a matter of time before she surrendered to me, and how victorious that battle would be. A triumph like no other.
I smiled at my old friend: “That I do.”
Luthrin returned the smile with a knowing glint in his eye.
It was as if he could read my thoughts and how the silver vixen invaded them.
His curious eyes followed me as I stepped down from the dais.
He alone I trusted to hold court in my absence and oversee anything that required immediate attention.
I had sickened myself enough looking at the traitorous faces before me.
I returned none of the nods or bows that were given to me as I strode across the hall. Each step struck the marble until the hall answered back with hollow echoes, as if I walked a hall lined with their bones. One day, it would be.
For now, let them all fear me.
I cared not how little a part they played in my father’s slaughter.
They were all traitors.
The only reason I let them live was at the counsel of Luthrin, who advised that having them all rotting in my dungeons—or better yet, hung—would leave me with no court for quite some time. And a king must have a court, no matter how venomous the snakes that writhed within it.
I ground my teeth as I reached the doors. Luthrin was right. I needed to focus on present matters. One, in particular, I would wait for no longer.
If Narya thought of me as a savage, then perhaps it was time she tasted my savagery.