Chapter 29 #3
His brown eyes spark with vexation, a defensiveness hardening his demeanor. “I got rid of a Rat Plague in multiple burgs and saved hundreds of people.”
“And then kidnapped some!” I reply waspishly, my accusation meant to dig in and sting.
“I have my reasons.”
I scoff.
Lacera looks between us like she doesn’t know what to think. What to do.
“I want to see them,” I demand hotly. “I want to go down with the fiends.”
His lips press into a hard line. “No.”
“Yes.”
Anger flashes over his face, but I don’t care.
“You want to go there so you can see that boy?” he jeers. “Maybe you want to hold his hand some more?”
“What is wrong with you? Stop saying it like that,” I hiss. “Fiends don’t even get romantically involved with each other!”
I can tell by his expression that this takes him by surprise. “Why not?”
I lift an incredulous brow, because it should be obvious.
I thought it was common knowledge. “Only nine Banes to spread their seed and impregnate the fae? That means many fiends are siblings without knowing. So Kaetir and I would never be involved like that. No fiends would. Have you ever met a fiend couple who are together romantically? No, it’s always a fiend with another fae. ”
“I don’t make it a point to take a roster of who’s fucking who.”
My insides boil with his crudeness as I continue to glare at him. “I want to go downstairs.”
“Fucked Fates, you’re a dog with a bone,” he growls through gritted teeth.
“Fine. Stay down there for all I care. Enjoy the shared bedrooms and the single washroom. Make your own food, launder your own clothes, deal with your own wounds. No servants, no privacy. You won’t have my shelter, and I won’t have a fiend reeking up my bed or ruining all my damn shirts! ”
“Good!” I shout.
“Good,” he lobs back.
We glare at each other, postures mirrored, hands fisted, breathing heated. His fury has darkened his expression, while my own eyes are narrowed in disdain.
“I shouldn’t expect anything else,” I finally say, but I’m unable to keep the wounded sound from my tone. “You use your power and then force everyone to pay the Piper. You save so you can steal.”
The energy between us turns burdened. Weighed down with stifling acrimony to remind me exactly who I’m dealing with. He’s a power-hungry Core fae who doesn’t care who he hurts, so long as he gets what he wants.
Lacera clears her throat within the cage of our tense stare, her voice carefully upbeat. “So . . . that’s decided, then? She’ll go down with the other fiends where she belongs.”
She darts a look between us. Neither of us breaks our gaze.
“Yes, you have your wish,” he tells me bitingly. I want to hurl the words back at his face. “Enjoy your virtuous ambling with your horned friends.”
I jab a finger in his direction. “You know what? I will. Because you are a prick—my lord. I’d rather be jammed in with strangers than be stuck in here with you.”
The muscles in his arms bulge from his fists, making my breath stick against my ribs. His foot lifts, readying to eat up the rest of the space between us, and stupidly, another thrill rushes through me, urging me to meet him in the middle of the challenge as he takes his first step.
“Funny how you loathe me, when the fiends I just collected were grateful—one woman in particular,” he drawls with a mean edge in his eye. “She was more than ready to, how did you say it? Pay the Piper. She was very good at showing her appreciation.”
I flinch. The cutting words twist in my gut with an awful plunge. His revelation eats through me, burning holes in my walls—and it shouldn’t. Because I shouldn’t even care.
I swallow thickly past a burnt bitterness. “I hate you,” I whisper.
The quickest falter flashes through the glowing embers of his eyes, and he stops in his tracks. For a split second, his arrogant anger is doused, smothered with something else. Something I can’t name.
The room seems to crumble beneath my feet as my eyes crack, tears leaking from the fissures. Mortified, I try to hold them back, but they puddle on my lids. I dash them away, and he tracks the movement, following my hand.
“Varrik,” Lacera interjects, making me jolt. For a moment, I forgot she was here. Her voice turns pleading. “We have to go.”
Finally, the Piper breaks our gaze. Turning his head, he nods over at Lacera like one hurls a hammer, the movement driving in the last stake with finality. “Yes. We do.”
“Leaving the castle again to go steal more innocent people?” I heave out mockingly.
His teeth grind. “Enough.”
An angry tremor travels up my spine.
He turns and heads toward the door without looking back. “Lace, stab her with your needle.”
Lacera sighs. “Right.”
With a pinched expression, she strides over to me, and I tense—
Her needle jabs into my back while I bite out a breath. By the time I open my eyes again, she’s already walking out the door, shutting it behind them.
I stand shaking as sweet numbness slowly sweeps over my back, while bitter anger trickles from my eyes.
Because I don’t know what bothers me more. That he stole more people . . . or that he seems to also be stealing something from me.