Chapter 15 #3
“Tarq wouldn’t do that to me.” Aurelius looks like his whole world is collapsing around him.
I wish that I didn’t need to be the one to do this to him. On the Void, however, I can’t allow him to think that our friendship hasn’t been the one thing that I’ve clung to my entire life.
I am many things — but I am not a betrayer.
“Why did you go to the Silver Tower that night?” I cage Aurelius against the wall.
Aurelius looks lost. “It was where we played…where I was safe. Tarq tapped the code to me that meant we had a secret meeting there. I could never discover what it was about.”
I lean with my burned hand to push a strand of hair back from Aurelius’ face.
Finally, I can tell him the truth.
“And I never discovered why Tarq wished you to be assassinated,” I reply, softly. “But I have been punished severely twice for refusing to kill you. As I said, I would rather suffer eternally in the Void than break my oath to you. I assumed that you would have already worked this out.”
Aurelius flinches away from me. “You’re lying.”
“How did I cross the silver walls of the palace, if your uncle did not lower the magic to allow me entry?” I quirk my brow.
“Why did your brother lure you to the tower at just the moment of the assassination? In secret? I shan’t repeat what he said about you when I arrived but…
I knew that I had no choices. Assassinate your brother… or watch him assassinate you.”
Aurelius lets out a roar, shoving me back. His shadows roll out of him in agitated wings.
“W-w-hy?” He leaps to his feet, spinning away from me to try to hide his devastation but he can’t hide his clenched fists or the distress in his pheromones.
I slink to my feet. “Maybe you were becoming too strong for a weak Alpha like him. You are formidable, Relius. Only cowards fear the strong. And only the worst cowards use others to cover up their wickedness. I knew that I would have been the next to be slaughtered. I would have been scapegoated for the assassination, while my kingdom would have been forced to kneel before your empire.”
Aurelius’ strong fingers curl on the crumbling stone. “Why should I believe you?”
I think for a moment, biting my lip.
Then I spin Aurelius by the shoulder.
I meet his startled gaze, before I lean up and press my bloodied lip to his horn.
“I know you still hate me. I don’t expect you to trust me.
But trust my love for my mates — my sunshine.
I would never do anything to hurt them. And I have nothing else to give you but this: I bind myself to you with my blood and horn fealty. ”
Aurelius’ eyes widen. “You were telling the truth, Lan.”
Lan…
I didn’t know how much hearing my nickname on his lips would be like watching the lotus opening its petals.
Aurelius drags me into a desperate hug.
“Relius…” I wrap my arm around his shoulders.
I am smiling, filled with joy.
I no longer feel the whip lashes or bruises. They are merely pain beaten into my flesh.
Wraith was right that only the pain of my soul hurts me.
Being parted from Aurelius, and the fear that he would forever reject me has been like thorns lodged daily underneath my claws.
My smile drops, however, when Aurelius pulls back.
“I have something for you.” Aurelius fishes inside his tunic. His smile becomes sheepish. “I am what Daire would call a petty bastard. I shouldn’t have taken this from you.”
When he holds out my beetle pendant to me, I grin. “Your shining wings give shade to your poor prisoners.”
“Now, that’s the type of sycophancy that could get you anywhere.”
“Our ancient saying is that we must bend our back before our boss.” I clasp the pendant around my neck, finally relaxing.
Despite wearing this terrible leather costume, I feel more myself because I have my heirloom back where it belongs.
“Shall I compare you to a sharp-beaked eagle or a virile bull?”
“I think I’ve been flattered enough,” Aurelius says, dryly. Then he rests his hand on my forehead. “You’re sweating but you’re shivering. I ordered blankets to be added to your cell, but this is withdrawal from the fae’s blood, isn’t it?”
“Also, from being kept away from Freya. It hurts, Relius. A vampire needs their Omega once bonded. I should be in a nest with her.”
Aurelius’ expression shutters. “I won’t allow her to visit a place like this. It’s not like my palace dungeons, which are luxurious in comparison.”
“Then we’re in agreement because I don’t want her to see me like this.”
He considers me. “You’re dying.”
“I have been waiting on my death my entire life. You meant to trick me, but I want you to know that I am not angry about how you captured me. I have experienced bonding with an Omega and a pack because of it. I didn’t know…it could feel like that.”
“I know what you mean,” Aurelius says, quietly. “They grow on you, don’t they?”
“From the moment I saw them, I adored them.”
“Your devotion was always your weakness.”
I bare my fangs. “It has also been the greatest joy in my life. I don’t regret it.”
“Even if you die?”
I nod.
Aurelius studies me thoughtfully, then he bares his neck. “Bite me.”
I rear back from him in shock.
The beat of his pulse, in my starved, near feral state is overwhelming.
I claw at my stomach, shoving down the deep ache inside. I force myself to focus on the pain, rather than the hunger.
“Don’t do that,” I snarl. “Stop it. Don’t you know how dangerous that is around me?”
“But I mean it. Stop being a fucking fool. I’m trying to save your life, Lan.”
I back away to the corner at the back of the cell, which I have come to see as mine.
I drop to my knees and begin to rock.
I turn my forehead to rest against the stone and close my eyes. “Get out. My fangs are loyal to my Blood Lover and bonded Omega alone.”
“Don’t be such a stubborn fucker,” Aurelius says, impatiently. “I’m also bonded to them. We’re all connected by fate.”
“But you’re not bonded to me.”
Silence.
Then I listen to the footfalls, as Aurelius marches out of the cell, followed by the slam of the door closing.
“You devotion will be the death of you,” Aurelius growls from outside the cell.
I press over the Ankh mark, before I raise it to my lips, gently biting on it. “Then I shall die loyal.”