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June 28 - July 2, 2024
her blood’s unique scent, like summer rain and sweet, dark fruit.
But this girl—she was the red and orange of autumn leaves in the looming, dark woods. She was the flame of life that burned on and on, the warmth I would never feel again, the embers that had dimmed when I’d forsaken my humanity for an eternity of ice and death.
The only thing in this world Scarlett should fear was me.
I couldn’t let them snuff out her flame. I couldn’t let them stop her from seeing the world, from hoping and believing and reaching for those damn cosmos. I couldn’t let them turn her into a monster who only felt the briefest, most fleeting moments of humanity in a sea of eternal emptiness.
I still had a pleasant time torturing, killing, and maiming. It just wasn’t as fun. I reveled in the fight. Nothing was more satisfying than starting with a strong, confident being and breaking them down until they were a puddle of begging, pleading, pathetic weakness.
Countless born would’ve seen her nude. Countless born would’ve seen her new master claim her as his. And with that infuriating thought, I let my shadows feast, wrapping around the man as he continued to lie and beg. Thorns sliced through skin, releasing his blood back to the earth as he cried out. He choked on it too, gurgling and pleading with his eyes as his life waned.
Live, Little Flame. If you can survive what you have and still burn this blindingly, I have no doubt you will lead a life worthy of immortalization. Not the kind that has killed and buried my soul—but the kind that lives on with your children and ancestors in spoken word, or ink on pages that make it to strangers across the realm. Live. Burn. And never, ever, let them dim your fucking light.
This did lift my mood. I quite loved torture as a pastime, but the gradual breaking of spies and double-crossers specifically was one of life’s greatest pleasures.
I lifted the drink to my lips and took a sip, and something sick and twisted inside of me somersaulted when Rune smiled with satisfaction. “That’s a good girl,” he whispered, his voice now completely different from the sharp whip of his command. It was softer now as it carried my praise, and I refused to show him the way it affected me.
He chuckled. “Go ahead. Say whatever bratty thing you need to say. You’re still going to obey me.” “Obey you?” I scoffed. “You think that because I’m human, because I work for you, that you own me?” “No,” he said, slowly pushing off the wall. His cocky smirk remained, never faltering. “That’s not at all why I think that.” It
Or at least, she used to belong to no one. Now she belonged to me. All of Aristelle could gaze upon my Little Flame for all I cared, but just one touch, and I’d make sure they fucking burned.
“I’m merely trying to protect you from the regret of lost hours on dull mediocrity, disappointment, and selfish, lackluster performances. I’d rather you suffer at my hands, personally. In far more thrilling ways.”
“I will ruin all others for you, Scarlett,” he said. “Anything else but us will only feel empty, meaningless, soulless. I will be the only thing you can see, the only being worthy of touching you, of seeing all of you.” His power stilled, a resolute calmness eclipsing his features. “That is what I will demand of you, and what you will eventually give freely. All of you. The parts that you hide, the parts that you hate, the parts that others have made you ashamed of, the parts that you flaunt and wield as weapons.”
Because he hadn’t only broken into my apartment. He’d also snuck his way into my mind. His words reached a place no other being had ever glimpsed before, and though I wanted to believe it was a strange coincidence, a trick, or a grand seduction, I couldn’t help feeling like it was all so much more. There was this sick part of me that no amount of shame in the world could entirely kill. This hungry, yearning, unsatisfied piece of my subconscious that had been awakened, intrigued. I wanted to want Rune to leave me alone and stay the fuck away from me.
She hated how much she wanted me, and it was deeply, intoxicatingly, satisfying. I wanted to break her. I wanted to see her lose every ounce of her self-control, melt into a puddle of need and desperation at my feet. I wanted her to look up at me with those piercing blue eyes and recognize me as the jailer of her heart and the owner of her body and soul. All in due time.
Why is this so hot
In you I see hope that never dies, and some might call it weak or naive, but I think it’s the most beautiful thing about you, this radical choice to be open and warm in a world that is overwhelmingly cold and brutal.”
“I will earn your trust,” I said. “And then I will demand everything from you. Your secrets, your desires, your needs, and your every last dream. I will make sure you live the life you have always deserved.”
We shouldn’t have belonged together, this ageless monster cloaked in shadow and this human ray of sun. And yet, my darkness called to hers, and even more disastrous, so too did the humanity that I secretly mourned every year or two in early autumn.
It was as though he already knew me, like he understood things about my life and my mind that not even I had ever understood or could put into language.
I closed the distance between our lips before I could talk myself out of it. As soon as I did, the room filled with darkness and power. The scorching heat on my skin melted into sweeping pleasure, a dance of tingles that swept over every inch of me. His soft lips dominated mine, quickly taking control of the kiss as he grasped my face in his hands. He let go of my wrists, but they stayed captive against the wall by shadow. He tugged at my bottom lip, and when I felt the gentle brush of his fangs, I gasped softly. He smiled into my lips for a moment before devouring me again. He slowly teased
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“Scarlett, my beautiful, helpless toy, I will bring you more depraved ecstasy than you could ever conceive. I will bring you to the edge of your limits, flood you with so much pleasure and sensation that your body will give out, and then I’ll do it all over again. I will find and exploit your every weakness and use them to both satisfy and torment you endlessly. I will fuck your perfect mind even harder and deeper than I will fuck your divine body. I will make you the best, strongest, most powerful version of yourself. I will destroy you and remake you in my image as your Master and God.”
“You can take a lot more than you think, Little Flame,” he whispered. “You were so good for me, tonight. Absolutely perfect.” He paused. “You don’t believe in your own perfection yet, but one day you will. I’ll make sure you see yourself the way I do even if I have to destroy the entire realm to do it.”
“There are many people in this world who would love nothing more than to clip your wings. Stop doing it for them. Soar instead.”
Rune’s taste fit inside this home, though he’d never know it. He’d given me pieces of this future. The intrigue and the mystery, the tickets to the opera, grand costumes and jewelry, and the furniture that made my apartment feel full of life rather than cold and drab. The knowledge that he’d likely rip these men’s heads off for what they did to me was a small concession for my life cut far too short. I wasn’t sure how he’d find them, but something told me he would. Even if he had to tear through all the borns’ territory to do it. I still didn’t know how he truly felt about me, and that was
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“Don’t you dare give up, Little Flame. Or I swear I will fight Helia herself to drag you right back down here to live in hell with me.”
I would never let anyone hurt my Little Flame again. I would rather Durian wipe me from this earth and take my city than watch her suffer such unspeakable violations just one more time. I no longer cared about logic or reason, not when it came to her. I didn’t care that she wasn’t turned, or that she was a mortal. I would not let her go. Not even if she begged. Because when I thought she’d died in my arms, I felt my soul reach for hers, and I swore to the gods that hers had reached right back.
But Little Flame had always been a fucking fighter. Given the choice between life and death, my Scarlett fought for life every damn time, no matter how hard she’d been knocked on her ass.
Her eyes brimmed with tears. The sight of it had my chest splitting, my breath lodged in my throat. I could witness the most gruesome, unspeakable maiming of flesh and not bat an eye, but the first sign of Scarlett in pain cut through every shield I’d ever erected over my cold, dead heart.
“There is no competition in trauma. None of it is ever better or worse than any other. Trauma is not what happens to you. It’s what happens inside of you as a result of what happens to you.”
“I will always take care of what’s mine.” I opened my mouth to tell him I still didn’t belong to anyone, but he put a finger on my lips. “Shhh, baby, I wouldn’t want you to add to your remarkably long list with another distasteful lie.”
His lips found my neck, and again my voice was lost. When Rune kissed me, touched me, whispered praise in my ear, it was like everything I’d ever been searching for in this world had finally found me.
“Oh, so you’re putting me in my place?” I asked, struggling against him futilely. He stroked my cheek. “You’re so intelligent, baby,” he said. “I love when you steal the words right out of my mouth.”
“I told you, Scarlett. When I finally drink from you, I will never want anyone else’s blood ever again. When I become just as addicted to your blood as I am to your body and soul, I will rather starve than drink from another.”
They could never know how much I hated myself for stealing Scarlett’s freedom. Once she offered her Master her body and eternal soul, she would never be able to live a normal life again. Any doubt I was anything more than a damned monster hated by the gods, without an ounce of redeemability, had died the moment I’d decided to claim my Little Flame.
It suddenly broke my heart that I only had this one, fleeting life. My time here was so limited, nothing guaranteed.
Singing felt like soaring. Instead of the whoosh of firebird wings and the deafening howl of wind, my head was light and airy from the oxygen leaving my lungs, and it was a delicate weaving of instruments that carried me away.
I lowered to my knees. Her lilting, goddess-blessed voice filled the room, overshadowing all other sounds. She rose and fell like ocean waves. Powerful, sublime, impossible to capture through language. If she were a siren, I’d be her helpless sailor already dead and sinking to the bottom of the sea. I
There was beautiful hope in her eyes. She wanted to believe it was all magick, all serendipity, and how could I deny her of that humanlike devotion to the ethereal?
“I wonder if your desire to be a brat will outweigh your drive to be my good girl, my perfect little toy,”
“Listen to me very carefully, Little Flame.” He tilted my chin up. “I have business to attend to that will take me away from you for several days. While I am gone, you will enjoy your remaining days of freedom, as you requested. You will carry your dagger, but know that you will never have to use it. I have ensured you will be safe. I should be back before the opera, but if I am not, I want you and the witch to enjoy yourselves. You will both be taken care of, your every desire satisfied.”
“I love it when you fucking tremble. You should always tremble with fear and respect when you’re on your knees before your God.”
“You did so well for me. I cherish your trust and obedience, Scarlett. I adore it, just as much as I adore all the rest of you.”
“I heard you with the witches,” he said softly, holding me tighter when my whole body tensed. “One day, I want you on a stage before hundreds. The entire world should hear your voice.”
I’d never wanted anything more than Rune’s ultimate unraveling. I wanted him to take my body and use it however he wished. I wanted him to bend me, to grab me, to hold me down and drive himself so deep that he lost his last threads of control. I wanted to be a part of his every thought, his every dream, his every desire.
My skin tingled, shivers running down my spine and across my arms. I gripped my seat, my ears open wide, my heart aching, my mind still cloudy from the juxtaposition between Rune’s sadism and gentle touch.
I was raw and on display. The thought of Rune watching me right now felt even more intimate than when my legs were spread, and I lay bare before him.
“I do not enjoy how difficult it is to say no to you,” Rune muttered. I smiled widely, tracing his sharp jaw as he shuddered and frowned.
My soul somehow escaped the gods’ condemnation to remain intertwined with hers, fated since before we’d inhabited our mortal forms.
“I will fuck you and feed from you when you agree to be mine, officially,” I said, stifling a groan from her tightening hold. “Because once I’m addicted to both your blood and your tight little cunt, I will demand you accept the full protection of the clan. And gods damn me if a single person in the realm remains ignorant of exactly who leaves marks and bites on your body and has claimed your beautiful soul.”
My lips itched to smile, hearing her reveal indirectly that I’d stolen her heart. She didn’t trust me fully yet, but one day she would see that I was never planning on giving it back.
