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Failure. Again. Because that is what I do—I fail. I fuck things up with my impatience and my rash decisions. This realm would be better off without me. I make things worse for everyone. I am the curse.
“I’ll gladly take your cock in my mouth,” I tell the knight sweetly. “And I’ll bite it off and swallow it too. I hear the Daenallan men like girls who swallow, yes? If you’re lucky, maybe a bigger one will grow in its place.”
And certainly not my increasing desire to lie down in front of my beautiful prisoner and let her put her foot on my throat.
I am deeply, wretchedly angry. And I don’t know why. I have no reason to be this angry. I’ve had a good life, a better life than many. Loved by Dawn, by my mothers. Favorite of the King and Queen. I’m respected among the Caennith, or so my mothers tell me, even though Dawn and I rarely appear in public. I’ve had training, tutoring—a high-level education. I’m Fae, gifted with magic and wings. And yet… Something inside me is wrong. Disconnected, misshapen.
“Here you can be afraid,” he says softly. “You can be angry, and wretched, and so discouraged you want to die. And still you are accepted, and still you are fed. And still you are loved.”
He’s vain, insecure, impulsive, self-loathing, heretical, and careless with his powers. I should not find comfort in his presence. I should not know all those things about him, after so short an acquaintance—nor should I understand that he’s also compassionate, determined, well-mannered, loyal to his knights, and considerate of his people.
When I’m up here, flying with him, I don’t have to think about anything serious—only about the shearing ecstasy of the wind and the thrilling anticipation of the next drop.
Don’t think about anything. Nothing at all... do what feels good... give in to what you want right now... after all, in a few days you’re going to sleep for a century... you deserve to have a little fun...
I know what it is to be hunted. Every one who came against me failed. But I would let you suck me dry, little viper—I’d drink poison from your mouth, lick venom from your tongue.”
“I do. Trust me, I want to be on my face before you, kissing your feet, sucking each tender toe—and I want to be bound, with my back bared to your whip. I want to be lying prone at your mercy, straining for a release you refuse to give. But I like other things too. Like punishing naughty princesses who dance naked for my men and chain me to bedposts without my permission.”
“No one touches the Princess in the meantime. She is mine.”
Defender, captor, murderer. My lover and my enemy. My comfort and my doom. How can he be all those things at once?
A gleam of golden hair, a strong tug, and the pain in my wing recedes. Aura tosses the arrow aside. “On your feet, Your Majesty.” Her blue eyes blaze in her flushed face.
But this is no longer about the fate of the realm—not entirely. If only one of us can survive, I want it to be her. Not for any logical reason—simply because her existence is paramount. It is all that matters.
Still, I can’t lie here and watch him die. Why is he doing this? He’s the only one who can perform the spell to save Midunnel— Shit, have I actually started to believe in him? To trust that he can save us?
Mine, mine, he’s mine, I need him, I want him...
Don’t stop fighting. Don’t you ever fucking stop fighting, not ever. From now on, you are not allowed to give up on yourself. It’s not even an option, you hear me? You’re mine. You’re mine, and I want you here, you maleficent bastard—”
Are you with us, Princess?” His red eyes pierce mine. I nod. “I’m with you. With him.” “Good.”
Last of all, I confront my feelings for him. Enemy. Captor. Caster of my curse. Truth-teller. King. Companion. He is all those things, and he is the man who let me use him as a pleasure toy. He’s the faerie who fucked me on the goddess’s altar. He’s the soul so wracked with insecurity about his own worth, so burdened with heavy responsibility, that he would consider ending his own life.
I am broken, and the last time I felt whole was with Malec. In his arms I was safe, and that makes no sense, yet it’s irresistibly true.
“Yes. He and I.” “Well now.” The Fae’s antennae twitch. “Who would have thought?” “Certainly not me,” I mutter.
But I must know, my Lord—can you do what must be done? Can you perform the ritual, despite what is between you and the Princess?”
“What do you think is between us?” I shift my arm so I can stroke my raven’s wing. “You know best, Sire.” “I don’t, though. I only know that I’m drawn to her, that I like her as much as I lust for her. That her absence would wound me and her death would destroy me.” Kyan clears his throat. “I believe that’s called love, my King.” “It’s terribly inconvenient.”
I forgot to be afraid of him.
“I understand,” he rasps, a trail of smoke issuing from his lips. “You can’t face me after that. But I’d do it again—I’ll be the monster over and over until this is done, until our realm is saved, do you understand?”
You’ll go into your cursed sleep full of my cum. Is that what you want?” “Yes,” I whimper.
“How does it feel, little viper?” he murmurs. “To be fucked and filled by your enemy? To know that you smell of sex, that you carry my scent on you, inside you? And yet I’m the one you fought against all those years, the one who haunted your nightmares. Don’t you want to punish me for the curse, for troubling your dreams—for all of it?” He reaches beneath me, rubs a fingertip over my clit.
Fuck everything and everyone else. Fuck the Edge, the Void, and the curse. Fuck the whole realm—let it be swallowed into oblivion. I’ll suffer the End gladly, if only I can have a few years of joy with this precious woman.
“I am selfish.” His lips tremble as he kisses the corner of my jaw, then my temple. “But you are not. You never have been. That is a truth about you that hasn’t changed, no matter what others did to you—you beautiful soul.”
“I am the monster who cursed you, little viper,” I whisper. “And I am the supplicant who adores you. If my imperfect, wretched, diseased love can save you, take it. Take it all.” And I press my lips to hers.
They were always designed to hold the magic of the Three Faeries and allow me to channel it in specific ways as if it were my own. And now, the rings will act as siphons, sucking every bit of magic from all Three Faeries, channeling it into my body in a raw, malleable form, so I can use it for any purpose I desire.
He said it would require the power of the Three Faeries. And he knew they would never willingly agree to awaken him. But perhaps he also knew I wouldn’t let that stop me.
“You and me, fighting and fucking for the rest of our lives? It’s all I’ve wanted since I met you.”
“I love you beyond reason, with all the persistence of revenge and all the violence of hate. I love you with the bones beneath my flesh and the blood in my veins. I love you into the deepest dark and under the harshest light. Let me be your Forever. You are already mine.”
