Chapter 35
MALAKAI
Istare at bathroom door, the sharp, definitive crack of the iron bolt sliding home echoing like a death knell through my chest. My shadows pool around my bare feet on the stone floor, deflated.
I am the King of Shadow Keep, and I have never felt so stupid and powerless in my entire life.
She called me a ‘rat bastard.’
I didn’t know Aveline even knew curses.
She violently hurled a velvet pillow at my face with enough indignation to level a mountain range. Well, she missed by quite a bit, and I doubt it would have hurt should she have made contact, but it’s the thought that counts.
I touch the center of my bare chest, right where her fingers were dug into my muscle just hours ago, completely paralyzed with bewilderment. I do not understand mortal logic. I did not trick her.
Desperately, I pace the floor in front of the fire, replaying the last twenty-four hours.
She didn't merely allow the encounter; she explicitly stated her desire in the kitchen, demanded it.
Hell, she initiated intimacy at least ten times throughout the night, climbing over my body, commanding my length, and driving me to the literal edge of sanity.
Her magic didn't just flash; it poured from her skin in brilliant, self-confident waves of liquid sunshine that braided flawlessly with my power.
Wasn’t it good for her?
I know her body.
I know the exact, shattering rhythm of her release.
I memorized the way her core tightened around me, and the beautiful, breathless sobs I drank from her lips.
To an Elder God, sealing the fated bond through love is the highest honor in existence—a permanent locking of the threshold to ensure her absolute safety for eternity.
I thought I was handing her the universe. I thought I was giving her everything our souls wanted to remember.
Instead, she looked at me as if I committed a grave crime against her.
The raw pain of her anger is a brand against my heart.
I could sink into the stone floors and weep.
I should have known she wouldn’t understand. I should have explained it, should have prepared her.
The muffled sound of splashing water echoes from behind the locked door, a frustratingly close reminder of the wall she has built between us. I open my mouth to plead through the wood, to explain that the magic behaves on instinct—but the words freeze in my throat.
The living castle suddenly lets out a subterranean shriek, it’s pain vibrating through every stone and wood beam.
The ground beneath my feet violently buckles.
It isn't Vesperia's heavy, suffocating Unseelie winter frost pressing against the glass. This is a different magic entirely.
I throw back the half-drawn drapes, then shield my eyes. A blinding flash of emerald light erupts from the western horizon, cutting through the snow with the force of a falling star.
I hear Aveline gasp at the same time as pain spikes through my head. The threshold we sealed in the Elder Forest groans under the sudden onslaught.
The Seelie King has begun his assault.
Before I can even summon my armor, the double doors of my bedchamber are nearly kicked off their iron hinges.
"Malakai!" Cern’s voice booms through the room as he bursts through the doorway. An antler is snapped, his emerald eyes wide with alarm. "The Unseelie snow thaws—the Seelie Court has launched an ambush, Malakai. The coven’s safety has been breached. Wild Oak Woods is in danger."
I nod once, swallowing my despair over Aveline.
Duty calls.