The Moon Garden #3
“Smart,” he said through a strained exhale. “It’s not something to enter into unless you’re entirely sure, with every piece of yourself, that it’s what you want. But…it is a choice.”
My face scrunched. “Preventing a war?”
Dommik’s face was all angles and cut edges, from his square jaw to pointed nose. But somehow, mentioning the potential conflict made everything harder, sharper. “I was referring to accepting his shadow. Becoming bound to him.” He struggled to get the words out.
“Yes. We talked a bit about that at dinner the other night.” I chewed on my cheek as I compared the hope I felt at dinner with Rhazien versus the despair I was overcoming now.
“He shouldn’t have told you that.” Dommik rubbed the back of his neck and began strolling around the fountain.
“Part of me wishes he hadn’t,” I admitted, the words escaping me before I could consider their impact.
He paused, hands deep in his pockets, leaning back slightly to peer at me from across the trickling fountain between us. “Are you okay?” he asked, frozen like a garden statue.
“Yes,” I said.
Dommik’s arched brow nearly disappeared beneath his wavy, dark tousels.
“No,” I admitted with a shrug.
He looked down to his feet. “I wouldn’t expect you to be.”
Dommik’s broad form rounded the fountain and approached me head on. My chin tilted up with each of his steps to hold his gaze. Then he stopped. “You don’t have to pretend. You’re allowed to feel.”
I narrowed my gaze at him, remembering his words again. Just an assignment.
“What?” he scoffed through a dimpled smile.
There it was. The Dommik I’d met in the Illica keep. Coy and playful, but also calculating and manipulative. The kind of man who would use his charms to get you to do what he wanted. Like relinquishing yourself to the Hive rather than going to the axe.
My intuition prickled at the base of my neck. “This feels like a trap.”
“No trap.” He lifted his palms in surrender.
I huffed out a breath.
“You can talk to me,” he encouraged.
I wanted to. My feelings begged to be released, but I kept them tucked just beneath my tongue.
What would admitting to him how fucking terrified I was accomplish? And what could Dommik possibly do to help alleviate this crushing fear? I shoved a few distasteful ideas back into the dark corners of my mind before they had a chance to surface.
“Or not.” He shoved his hands back into his pockets.
“I would appreciate it if you kept this between us,” I said.
Rhazien understood the weight of his ask was overwhelming, but I didn’t want him to know I was having a full meltdown, or that his commander—not him—had been the one to comfort me.
“You’re going to be Queen of the Southern Hive.
” Dommik swallowed thickly and continued, “You don’t have to ask me or anyone for favors.
” He took the smallest step forward and all of the air left my lungs.
“You, my lady, command me.” There, in the Moon Garden, atop the centuries old vampire Hive carved into the ancient Irriset mountains, Dommik Thorne knelt for me.
His stormy blue eyes looked up with a fierce sincerity and seeing him there, submitting to me, even if it was purely performative, ignited a spark in my soul.
With a single act, I suddenly felt like I had all my power back. He couldn’t have known how such a simple declaration would affect me. Just like he couldn’t have known how to calm me down.
“I’m ready to go back,” I said and waited for Dommik to stand and escort me.
The commander clicked his tongue. “Try again.”
I placed my hands on my hips, tipped my chin up, and without hesitation said, “Take me back.”
Dommik stood to his full height over me. “Yes, my lady.”
“And,” I added as I turned to leave, “quit lying to me.”
I veered right around a hedge, leaving Dommik and the babbling fountain behind.
“Lying to you?” He jogged to my side, effortlessly matching my stride.
“Yes,” I said, keeping my gaze fixed straight ahead on the stone pathway.
I might not have been born a royal, but I was high-born and had watched the pageantry that was royal life for years.
If Dommik wanted me to behave like the future Queen of the Southern Hive, then that’s exactly what I would do.
“And don’t ask what you lied about. We both know. ”
A noise between a cough and a laugh preceded his next words, “My lady, I—”
“Right. Now it’s ‘my lady’.” My pace quickened as I rounded another corner.
Dommik chuckled, “That’s the wrong way.”
I huffed, turning on my heel.
“You’re upset with me,” he said, folding his hands at his center.
I pursed my lips and mimicked his posture. In this particular stretch of pathway, the hedges were high and the shadows were long. Even in the looming darkness, I could make out Dommik’s shape and the cut of his dress shirt perfectly complementing his muscled form. And his pants…
I re-focused myself on his gaze and found a darkened stare.