Chapter 10
Drak
Fucking pig’s blood. It was my ridiculous idea to give Lux what she wanted, and I’d made it possible with vials of fucking pig’s blood.
I’d always longed to give someone what they wanted, a chance I never had with my mother. And now that I had, where the fuck was the surge of victory? And why wasn’t I basking in the thought of our coming consummation?
Because none of it was real.
And because my chest still ached where the phantom axe had landed.
After slipping her arm from mine, she set the goblet down and lifted her face toward me, holding my gaze with unspoken intensity.
This was the moment I was supposed to take her hand and lead her to dance in the middle of the throne room while the witnesses sipped their fill of wine.
But I couldn’t bear to put my hands on her unless I knew for certain she wanted it too.
Near the throne, a servant plucked the strings of an instrument. The haunting sound caught in the peaked ceiling, echoing throughout the room and drawing every eye toward the newlywed couple.
Lux waited patiently, looking up at me with wide eyes, the same way she’d looked at me in the library when she wanted me to read the saga of the first witch.
“We did it. They think we’re bonded,” she said, trying to smile, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “It’s almost hard to believe that was pig’s blood in the rune.”
Rune? Shit. She’d said it again.
Rune, for some fucked-up reason, set off these flashes where the world vanished, and just like before, a memory, a dream, or whatever the hell this was, hit me full force.
Tears of blood suddenly streamed down Lux’s face.
The white scar from Sten’s fang was gone, changing how she looked and confirming that this couldn’t be real.
When her lips parted, her mouth formed around a familiar name.
Rune! Come back to me. Her begging carved a hole in my chest, and the pain left my lungs breathless and my vision dimming.
Her jaw seemed to unhinge as a shrill sob erupted from her chest.
“Lux,” I breathed, grabbing her shoulders to ground myself and pull myself back to reality. But she was just staring at me, her face already normal again other than the aghast expression drawing her cheeks hollow and her mouth in an “O” shape.
The wine must have been too strong, and I hadn’t rested at all, too curiously consumed by the pieces of the saga I’d never read before.
I hadn’t fed on anyone in days either. People loyal to my throne still offered me their blood, rotating so that nobody grew weak or sick from the loss, but I hadn’t drunk enough of it.
Not that I had any clue what that Hel that had to do with the word Rune.
I rubbed at the pain in my heart, and thrust out a hand. Faking this marriage was my idea. I had to keep playing along even if it felt wrong—or I felt wrong thanks to my lack of sustenance and rest.
Lux slipped her hand into mine and allowed me to guide her away from the feast sprawled along the table.
“Are you okay?” she asked when we were away from the crowd. I nodded as the music beckoned our bodies to move in tandem.
Our dance began, and while our limbs followed the rhythm, tension hung in the air between us. Lux was worried about me. I wanted to smirk at that, but after losing control of myself; I didn’t dare tempt fate with arrogance.
“Why did you give me that strange look?” she asked.
Shaking off the drunkenness, I pressed my palm to her lower back and drew her into me.
“Nothing,” I said. But then I caught myself.
I swallowed, my tongue feeling like sandpaper with the lie clawing and scratching at my throat.
“That’s not true.” Her brows peaked as I swept her along the stone floor with me.
Though she didn’t grow up in Mara’s court, she followed the dance easily enough with smooth steps and a keen awareness of exactly how to move every part of her body.
Fuck if that didn’t make my cock twitch.
I ground my teeth together, willing myself to settle down and finish my damn sentence.
“It’s been too long since I fed. I got a little dizzy and thought I saw something. ”
At the song’s peak, I glided my hand up her spine and tipped her to the side; her back arching beneath me.
My body was bent, hovering over her in a dance that mimicked what we’d do together as soon as the last of the wine was gone.
Once they consumed the last drop, tradition dictated that the royal couple consummate the marriage with the council close enough to listen to every breath and groan as proof.
Her eyes narrowed. “What did you see?”
I lifted her upright again and spun her outward, pulling her back flush against my chest as we swayed. “It’s not like your visions,” I explained. “There was nothing of the Gods in this. Trust me.” Though running my palm up her stomach felt divine.
“What did you see?” she insisted.
“You, crying blood and calling me by another name.”
She froze. “And you’re saying that’s nothing?”
“No, I’m saying it’s not from Odin or Freya or Loki.”
“Of course not. You’re a vampire. Is this some sort of undead ability?”
The saga of the first witch came to mind.
Myrah created vampires, and her abilities created me through Silver.
Could this be related? She is the blood; he is the rune.
My skin was covered in runes and tattoos I had chosen, but right where the back of Lux’s head pressed against my sternum sat the rune of Yggdrasil, etched into my chest since I became a vampire.
Was this the rune the saga mentioned? And what about the mention of blood?
I saw it come from Lux’s eyes, not Myrah’s.
I shook my head. There was no point in trying to rationalize a drunken misunderstanding or something from a stressed mind.
“I don’t know,” I answered honestly.
She twisted, craning her neck just enough to bring her eyes to meet mine. “Maybe it’s just you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m well-versed in all kinds of vampires now. As far as I know, this isn’t part of existing as an undead. So,” she held my gaze. “I think it’s just you. Maybe it was a daydream. Maybe you’re hoping for that in the future.”
“Hoping to see you cry? Never. And this isn’t a prophecy.
It’s more of…” I drew her hand up to my lips and kissed the soft skin on the back of her knuckles.
We hardly moved as the music slowed. “It felt more like something that’d already happened rather than a coming moment.
It happened when I was reminded of a name from the sagas. ”
“Wouldn’t that be crazy?” She let out a little laugh.
“Hmm?”
“If I see the future and you see the past.”
My chest tightened with the ache of a moment long ago. Because that was exactly what the experience felt like: a memory.
Drawing my hand over the front of her dress, I stopped at her collarbone, not trusting myself to touch the curve of her neck. The song ended, but I didn’t want to release her just yet. Even if this—our vows, our dance, all of it—was only a performance, my body didn’t believe it.
Everyone seemed to buy into the facade, especially my fucking cock.
Though every curve of her body was flush against me, her ass pressing into my hardness, it was her words that made me stiffen. She didn’t hesitate to believe I wasn’t like the other vampires. She knew something more caused the episode. That I was more.
I almost told her I loved her in that instant, but she would have seen it as part of the performance, meant to validate our marriage. But damn if it didn’t feel true when she looked at me like that.
I held her tightly, dropping my lips to her bare shoulder where I’d craved to kiss her this morning in the healing room. My mouth brushed over her warm skin. The hint of a moan escaped with her exhale, and her thoughts came to me unbidden now.
Like the warrior I’d always wished I could marry. But riding him won’t just be a dream anymore.
A smile carved across my face. “You’ve dreamed of us together?”
“Damn,” she breathed. “Every time you do that, it startles me.” Ignoring her own words, she leaned closer, and we both forgot the hundreds of eyes on us. We were upright, but she may as well have been writhing on top of me.
“Tell me what else happened in these dreams,” I beckoned. The air simmered between us, thick and coating our skin with the sheen of heat. It left us both breathless as I ran my finger along her jaw and tipped her mouth toward mine.
The sharp crash of shattering glass snapped us out of our shared imagination. A chorus of cheers rang out through the throne room. Guests had picked the wedding feast clean.
Lux stepped away from me, and I followed her line of sight to the shards of dark glass spread across the floor by the table.
Eggshells, quail bones, and the remains of the smoked pigs from which I’d stolen blood for our vials, were all that remained.
A weathered, grey-haired woman smashed the empty bottle at her feet, prompting murmurs and whistles alongside those cheering for tradition.
The last drop of wine had been consumed.