Chapter 2 #2
Fae are tricksters. It’s one of our best talents.
Is it my fault that Lanlin has been isolated here as an outcast, vulnerable to the first people to offer him friendship, apart from his animals?
I swallow, as he raises his hand from my mouth. “Kill me then. Or do you plan to bore me to death?”
He punches me in the gut again.
“I’m into rough play as much as the next fae,” I wheeze. “But why don’t we move this to our nest?”
He punches me again.
“I should have let the guests watch.” Lanlin is shaking. He lets go of my chin. “They saw me enter with you on my arm as my honored consort. They know that you have made a fool of me.”
“Bondage and blood play, and now you want to add exhibitionism. Kinky.”
This time, he doesn’t hit me.
Instead, he cocks his head. “You’re still wearing a mask. Do you ever take it off?”
Uncomfortable, I drop my gaze. “Why would I? Doesn’t everyone wear one to protect themselves?”
“I didn’t with you. I allowed you to hold my hand in the sun, trusting you to keep me safe from burning because I hoped…finally…I had found the sunshine in my dark world.” The confession sounds painful. “But you hid your identity from me. I don’t know you. You’re a stranger.”
Frustrated, I curl my fists. “Bollocks. Damn your soul to hell, I’m still me.
My name may now be Daire and not Dove but I still showed you parts of my soul that I’ve never shown anyone.
No one has drunk my blood before. If I’d come here as King Daire, then you’d have killed me on sight.
You’d never have given me a chance or got to know me.
I’m the same idiot who stuffs my face with too many honey and date bat cakes and can spar better with you than anyone else.
Look into my eyes, Bat. This is fucking me. ”
My heart sinks, when Lanlin shakes his head.
His pheromones are powerful like a fog.
He grabs me by the curls, baring my neck in a way that is uncomfortable for any Alpha. “Do you claim that you are just the same Blood Lover as you were before, my dear? Then you are wasting my blood.”
He licks up my neck, cleaning the blood that has trickled down from the deep cut.
He shivers, as my blood that is like ambrosia hits him. When he tightens his hold on me, teasing his tongue along the cut, I shiver.
Except, it’s with fear, as much as pleasure.
My eyes smart with tears.
So, it’s going to be like this, huh?
Lanlin glances up at me through his long eyelashes. “I can hear how fast your heart is racing. It tells me your lies when you won’t. Even now, I will only take blood with permission. Order me to stop, fae.”
I press my lips tightly together.
Lanlin snarls, latching his teeth into my neck.
I hiss.
Why did it have to end like this? Why did I hope that it could have ended differently?
We’re enemies.
How could we have been anything else?
Yet Lanlin doesn’t drink, only holds onto me like he doesn’t want to let go. As if this way, he can hold onto me forever.
Then with a growl, he releases me. “We made a deal.” I am shocked when Lanlin raises his head, and his cheeks are streaked with tears. They hurt me worse than his bite could have. “You promised to serve me. Do fae break deals?”
I shake my head, staring at him in shock. “We break hearts, but we don’t break deals.”
Lanlin’s gaze sharpens. “I’ve learned that the hard way. But I’m no longer a fae dazzled fool, Daire.”
I wince at the way he spits Daire like it is poison.
I steel my expression. “This is my fault. Not Freya’s.”
“She knew who you were. I saw it on her face. She has betrayed me too.”
Ice chills my veins. “She fucking loves you.”
“But she lied for your sake.”
“That’s because the adorable idiot loves me too. Tear out my throat. I’m your enemy, but our Omega was only being loyal to her Alpha.”
“Is that what you wish me to do? Forgive our Omega, but punish my Blood Lover? But are you still that?” Lanlin moves with the speed of a warrior to his feet, tearing the bat circlet off my head and dashing it to the ground. “I placed this on my King’s head. You stole it from my Dove.”
I wince, remembering my emerald and bronze crown being torn from my head in Rune Forest, when my world was transformed to feathers, blood, and ash.
I’d fallen as a king that night, losing Ciara, my friends and brothers and sisters in the army, and being captured by Aurelius.
Now, I’ve lost another crown.
Suddenly, I feel hollow.
Lanlin has helped me hide from Freya that I am losing my sight because of my iron poisoning. He protected me in the Hunt. He was prepared to make me an equal King alongside Freya as his Queen.
Except, that was when I was Dove.
I was an idiot to dream that anyone would see or respect me: King Daire.
I killed Lanlin’s ma, but she was trying to kill me and the other fae kids in battle. I’m not ashamed.
It was survival.
Lanlin claws savagely at my glittering obsidian robe, which matches his own.
“This is Dove’s robe.” Lanlin rips the robe away, as his moths flutter against my cheeks in accusation.
Hurt makes me shudder.
Lanlin is stripping me of everything that connects me to him. He is rejecting me, while grieving his loss of Dove.
I hate that I can’t hide the scars that wind around my pale skin like ivy.
Did Lanlin ever understand me? Respect me?
Did he only care about my fake, sweet act as Dove?
Daire — rogue, bandit, and rebel — would never have been accepted into his royal vampire nest.
“Good luck returning the crown or robe to Dove when he never existed.” I narrow my eyes. “I’m here, however, and it may not mean a fucking thing to you, but I am sorry that it looked like I was betraying you.”
“You did betray me. Void! I betrayed all that I am to take you as my King. I was prepared to give up everything…”
“And I wasn’t?” I bare my sharp teeth.
Suddenly, he becomes very still. “You knew coming here was a death sentence.”
“I’ve faced worse odds.”
Like in the battle against Queen KalaKant, but it’s probably not the best time to mention that.
“Would you still say that,” Lanlin’s voice becomes softly hypnotic, “if I summoned my rats and commanded them to swarm over you? They would nibble into your stomach, eating out your guts slowly from the inside, while you writhed in agony.”
I pull a face. “What is it with you and creative, graphic deaths? Weren’t you hugged enough as a kid?”
Lanlin grabs me by the throat, smearing my blood. “Do you wish to die?”
“I wish to support Freya,” I rasp. “It’s why I traveled to an enemy court where an unhinged Blood who hated me more than anyone else reigned. I would do anything to protect my soulmate. Wouldn’t you die for her? I’ve seen you kill for her, but dying is harder, aye?”
“It is.” Lanlin’s voice is surprisingly soft. “Your devotion to our Omega is the only reason that you’re still breathing.”
I wish that he’d just stabbed me.
“I’m touched,” I grit out.
Suddenly, anger surges through me.
I may not be good but I’m not the only fucking villain here either.
“Do you want to know the truth?” I snarl.
Lanlin’s fingers bite into my throat. “I can both feel and hear your pulse. I will know if you’re lying.”
“I don’t lie.”
“Except, you do.”
“Bite me.” I catch his gaze with mine. “Feel the honesty in my blood.”
I am shaking.
“You don’t deserve my bite.”
It feels like he has slapped me.
I flush.
“To hell with you, bat-faced arsehole.” The words burst from me, tear-tinged and furious.
I don’t realize how long I have been holding them back behind my submissive Dove act.
“Whether you believe it or not, Freya and you are both my pack. Aurelius fucking captured me. He burned my world around me, caged me, then turned me into a pet. I was trained as a courtesan and an assassin. Who do you think gave me the iron poisoning, which is killing me?”
Lanlin wrenches his hand back from my neck in shock. “Relius would never harm a pet like that.”
“But his uncle would. Aurelius doesn’t know about the poisoning…but the rest of it was his plan. He ambushed me during a sacred rite and then took everything from me, including my crown just like you did.”
Lanlin blanches. “But you’re my—”
“Enemy, aye? We’re at war. But why does that justify how you treat me now that I am your prisoner and can’t fight back, but not how I fought your ma during a battle?
Are your war crimes lesser than mine? How do you weigh them, you hypocrite?
KalaKant was a legendary fighter, and I was only fifteen.
You cared about the villagers in White Lotus; I saw it.
Well, I felt the bloody same about my army.
We were child soldiers, forced onto the battlefield by the dragons.
Your ma had killed hundreds of us. That day…
the ambush…we only won because Tarquin didn’t show to back her up. She died because of the dragons.”
“But you…” Lanlin’s breathing is ragged.
“Slit her throat…? Aye, and I wish that I had done it sooner, before I watched her kill three of my featherglass in front of me and before she… Look at me. I’m covered in scars.
I earned them keeping my people alive. We’ve been hunted our entire lives.
Your ma helped the dragons in our genocide.
But see the star-shaped scar an inch above my heart? ”
Lanlin tentatively traces his thumb over the scar, and I tremble.
He nods.
“Courtesy of your ma’s Night Sky Blade, which almost slit my throat tonight.
I only managed to kill her because she was crouched over me, gloating that she’d slaughtered the filthy fae child king.
Don’t tell anyone. It’d ruin my reputation.
Wouldn’t that be the turning of the wheel?
She tried to kill me then, and finally, her shade would have completed her vengeance. ”
Lanlin hisses out a breath, stumbling back. His foot kicks the crescent moon blade. His shadows whip out, slamming the blade away with a clank, as if revolted by it.
“I hated her,” Lanlin whispers like the words have been torn from him. “She hated me.”
“She was a bitch,” I say, flatly. “And I’m not sorry that I killed her. But I am sorry that I hurt you.”