Chapter 1
Chapter
One
MAXIMILLIA, PRISONER OF THE SHADOWLANDS
Ihear their footsteps echo down the deserted dungeon corridor long before I see their boots.
The compacted ground is cold against my butt, my legs having gone numb hours ago. There’s a drop of something wet in the corner but I don’t look.
I don’t so much as breathe.
Over the last week, I’ve dissociated from the world, floating in a sea of anger, sorrow and grief. It’s a heavy wave, crashing into me as I come to terms with my situation.
It’s been weeks since our final battle in the Eternal Night Forest. Weeks since I was struck with an arrow meant to incapacitate me, to bring me back to the Human palace with King Griffin as his tool. But, instead of the Humans getting me, Kaden stole me away for his father, King Zelos.
Kaden, the Dark Fae prince, who stole my heart in that wicked forest.
“Spew your hateful words at me, but if you utter another word toward the blood summoner, I’ll make your entire Coven regret it.”
When he defends me to Taylay in the forest, he endeared himself to me. He saw the darkest parts of me, that others feared, and wrapped them into his soul as if I belonged.
Then, he took it away.
When he laid his claim on me in that village, he mended not just our hearts, but souls. It was a sham of the Heartbonds others spent their whole lives searching for, a deceitful way to force someone into fabricated love.
Rubbing my chest I wince. And now I was tied to him. Soul-bound.
The boots stop in front of the iron bars.
The cell door swings open on creaky hinges, two Dark Fae guards entering with a tray of water and food. One of the guards I recognize—Zeke—the Captain of the Army and Kaden’s favorite. He’s here whenever Kaden needs extra help.
Behind them is him.
Dressed in all black finery, I see the cursed Dark Fae prince in the flesh. He stands tall, shoulders wide, his silken black strands twisted into a simple braid that hangs over his chest.
Inhaling, I pounce, sweeping one leg out as a guard falls, then I elbow Zeke. My body aches, stiff from the cold and grief, but I push through it. The captain ducks my attacks, the tray wobbling as a hand grabs my arm.
“Feeling feisty today, kitten?” Kaden smirks. Gods, I want to slap it clean from his face.
He tosses me into the wall. “This is the most fight we’ve had out of you all week.”
A week I spent, listening and assessing so as to plan for my escape. This was supposed to be my chance.
Jutting out my chin defiantly, he tilts his head. “Not so weak.”
Shuddering, I try not to show the desire that courses through me at his simple words.
Because as reverently as I hate him, how badly I hurt from his lies, how badly I want to be free of him, beg to find an escape, I don’t. My body still craves him, and my heart mourns his love. I still want him.
Gods, this infuriating bond.
Swinging my fist, I grit my teeth. All of this is his fault.
He jerks back, my tiny fist catching his chin.
Pain shoots up my arm to my jaw, but it’s replaced by victory. Landing a hit on him felt good.
I try to use my left, but the bastard catches me, pinning my back to his front. Embarrassingly, I inhale his campfire and spice scent. My heart—my body, yearns for him still.
Which is confusing and terrible. Kicking back my leg, I try to shake him off, but he holds firm.
“That’s enough of that, Max.” The words ghost over my ear, goose flesh breaking out over my arms. “Gods, you’re atrocious at fighting. How have you stayed alive this long?”
“I make it a point not to get involved with the enemy.”
Tossing me on to the cot, he points to his chest. “Mate.”
Glaring, my fingers hunt for a hard edge within my covers.
When the guards leave, he asks, “Are you going to eat?” I squirm, his voice igniting a fire inside my belly.
This damned bond.
Though which bond, I’m not sure I’m cursing. The soul-binding one he forced on me? Or the one Dey gifted me, a Heartbond with such a wicked Fae?
“You know this is for your own good.”
“Forcing me to eat poisoned food is for my own good?” I ask behind clenched teeth. “Drugging me so I’m pliable, unable to access my magic, is for my own good?”
That smirk edges with irritation. But his mask doesn’t slip, his control stays perfectly in place.
He must feel something, anything, even if it’s validation in capturing me.
“Believe what you want, Max.” He picks up the fork, touching my lips as I smell the herbal tang of his drug. My stomach growls and he frowns.
I haven’t eaten much since being down here. Nessa taught me how to detect poisonous plants when I lived in the Blackwoods Coven—it’s the one thing she did for my betterment. And it’s helping me now.
As he leans forward, I grasp the broken shard of rusted iron and cut his forearm.
He snarls, eyes bleeding black and finally, I see the monster behind the mask.
“Clever,” he murmurs. “There’s the hellcat I remember.”
“A hellcat who has claws. Stay back,” I command, feet planted, weapon at the ready. “Don’t come any closer.”
Leisurely rolling up his sleeves and I take in the corded muscles. “Did you check your own arm, kitten?”
As if called, my arm starts to ache.
He surges forward, yanking my arm high into the air. I watch as a thin cut forms, edges jagged, ends charred.
My eyes widen and my mouth parts. How?
“It’s a perk to the claiming.” Dropping my arm, he throws me back as the rusted shard falls. “We can’t hurt the other.”
Disbelief furrows my brow. “What?”
He smiles sinfully wide and my stomach dips. I used to pray to the Gods for that smile. Now, it reminds me of deceit and betrayal.
“Dark Fae are notoriously selfish,” he murmurs, kicking the blade away.
“When the Gods created us, they gave us the claiming. A soul-bond. They made our bond resistant to our… less honorable tendencies. We have a nasty habit of killing those we love for power.” Those dark eyes scan me, sneering at me.
“A claiming ties two souls together, kitten, remember? I cannot kill you and you cannot kill me. And if someone kills one of us? The other dies.”
He smirks. “Where you go, I’ll follow. Always.”
Bile rises hard and fast up my throat. My plan to fight for my freedom crashes like fallen leaves in the wind. If I hurt him, I hurt myself.
If I kill him, I die. We are completely tied, two lives into one.
Accusing eyes look up at him. “You knew this. All along. You knew that I wouldn’t be able to hurt you and yet, you kept it from me.”
He winks. “You thought I would tell you? When it would be so much more fun to see if you’d have the courage to try and kill me?
” He glances to his arm and chuckles. “I should have known better. I’ve seen you fight bigger enemies than me without a second thought.
My future queen is not just a hellcat, she’s a warrior under that docile facade, just waiting for the moment to strike. ”
He takes a step closer and I scramble back. “Don’t.”
“Max—”
“Don’t,” I breathe. I can’t. “Don’t say my name like that.”
His jaw bounces once, as he glances to the tray, annoyed.
Right, because he’s the one trapped.
“You need to eat.”
Using his magic, shadows pin my hands and legs to the cot. The cool touch reminding me of our time in the Phoka village, but I push those memories away, and try to break free.
Kaden steps close, hands shoved into his pockets, looking down at my prone, scrambling form.
“I’m trying to help you.”
“This is helping?” I pull against the shadows. “This is imprisonment.”
“You won’t listen to a thing I tell you.” He shoves a piece of fruit forcefully into my mouth, as my teeth clash together. “I’m doing this for you.”
“Liar,” I cough.
“You stubborn—” He cuts off. “You know, I could be like others and see a defenseless woman and use her as I see fit.”
“Don’t you dare—”
A growl slips between his lips before he leans into my face. “According to the customs of my land, you are now my mate. That means you are mine to do whatever I wish. Including using your body to fulfill whatever carnal desires I have.”
“You’re disgusting.” He pinches my mouth shut, shoving more food between my lips, tsking softly. The first trickle of fear wraps into my belly, only to be doused by rage.
He’s treating me like a misbehaving dog.
“Ah, you say that, but you remember what it’s like to be mine, don’t you, Max?
” He smirks as food lodges into my throat.
“To be completely used by me? Held open wide, as my cock stretched you? How you screamed only for me? Gods, you were so wet, I had to fight for control. I was surprised there wasn’t a line of shifters ready to take you from me. ”
He pinches my nose. “Not like they could. I’d slaughter them all if they had tried.”
Furious tears water my eyes as I glare.
“Swallow,” he growls, nails digging into my face.
I can’t breathe. I can’t move.
Stubbornly, I try one last time to shake him off, throwing my hips, but he doesn’t release me. I have no choice but to listen or risk suffocation.
Slowly, I do and he nods. He has the nerve to wink. “There’s my good girl.”
My body shudders and I exhale, coughing past the tears, the frustration and the burning in my chest and between my thighs. He thinks he can win, get under my skin, but I won’t let him.
“Let me go, Kaden,” I rasp. Desperately, I try to appeal to his decency. “I’m of no use to you. You’ve bound my magic, imprisoned me. What kind of tool can I be to your father in this state?
Those demonic eyes rake over my form as I push on. He’s getting it. “You must know, your father would never be able to use me. Not like this. Let me go and the world can be safe, and you can find another mate. Someone who wants to be here,” I plead.
A pain erupts at my breastbone and I wince. It feels as if a hot poker has been wedged under my heart, and I fight the urge to cry out.
The heir leans his head against mine, lips ghosting over my cheekbone.
“Oh, kitten,” he coos. “You don’t know me at all if you think I would let you go.
” Those lips trail up to my earlobe and I recoil.
“My father might have you as a new tool to utilize, but it is I who owns you, Max. You’re exactly where you need to be. ”
“But you can’t—” I whimper as the pain explodes.
“Do you remember what I said about the bond?” He interrupts, lifting another piece of food to my face. Turning away, I hear him huff.
“That pain in your chest?” he asks, deadly calm.
“That utter breathless agony that erupts whenever you think of leaving me? That’s the bond reminding you, you cannot escape me.
And it will only grow fiercer, the longer it is ignored.
The longer you ignore me. It’ll continue to hurt, until you’re begging me to end it. ”
As he forces the fruit between my teeth, I bite and my fingers respond, throbbing with pain. Gods, this is a cluster of a situation.
Chuckling, Kaden looks to his fingers, pride shining in his eyes.
“I’ll never beg you.”
“You did once.” He shrugs. “And you will again.”
Jutting out my chin, I narrow my eyes. “I’d rather be given to Griffin on a silver platter.”
He pinches my cheeks together, body tight with fury. Finally, there’s an ember of anger and I lap it up greedily. If I’m burning in rage, I want him to be an inferno.
“That can be arranged. Or did you forget, he’s still out there, hunting for you?”
I haven’t forgotten. How could I? It’s a recurring nightmare, only dwarfed by what Zelos will do to me.
Tossing me back, he snarls, “I am your only chance for survival. Me, Max. No one else can save you. So be a good pet, and act like you want to be here. Act like you want me. Accept the bond. Or you may find yourself with a bigger threat than Griffin on our doorstep.”