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I was a threat to everything he stood for. And still, he had chosen me.
“What I know,” I said finally, my voice low, “is that you’d sell your own father for a seat at the council’s table.” “You mean my father that you attacked?” he sneered. “The man can’t even walk without a cane now because of you.” A slow smirk curled on my lips. “I did you a favor then. One step closer.” Eiran’s nostrils flared. “You fucking…” “Let me be clear,” I said, my voice like a whip. “I will choose her over every one of you.”
“I am not an enemy you want, Eiran, but for her, I will become whatever I have to.”
I had lived and bled for this place, and now I walked through it in chains.
“She is my mate.” I said each word slowly, letting them land as hard as I intended. “She is bound to me as I am bound to her.”
“You are not just the daughter of Marmoris, Verena. You are a daughter of Veyrith, the last daughter, and I bound your power to protect you. I bound your magic so it wouldn’t awaken until you found safety in someone who wanted you to have power, but did not wish to use it.”
“I will break you, Verena. Just as I broke your mother.”
His magic curled against the tattered edges of mine, a wildfire against the cold.
She had fought against her father, against the vessel, against the very magic that belonged to her. But this was the battle she could not win.
Because I had taken from Dacre. I had stolen from him, siphoned his power, drained him in front of them all. I hadn’t meant to. Gods, I hadn’t meant to. But I didn’t have control. My magic had reached out on its own, had sunk its claws into him, ripped him open and drank him dry. And I had let it happen.
He had chosen me, and in doing so, he had lost everything.
“You’re going to tell your son that after everything he just risked for her, after everything he’s done, you would slit her throat like a lamb and hold her out for her father to feast?”
“She is my mate.” The words cracked through the chamber like a thunderclap. Undeniable. Unyielding. “I’d risk every one of you to save her.” Dacre’s voice was steel, forged in fire, honed by war. “I’d risk everything.”
He was standing here, daring them all to strike him down just so I could keep breathing, so he could protect me at his side. I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t do this to him. Not again.
“If you put her in a cell,” Dacre snarled, his voice thick with something dark and dangerous. “If any of you lay a single finger on her, I will burn this city to the ground.”
She was here, she was alive, but I had still been too late.
my father had probably spent the entirety of the night helping those fears fester while I held Verena and tried to make hers disappear.
I was a new monster born of the one they knew.
“The rest of the kingdom will fall to their knees before you, Verena.” He leaned forward and pressed a kiss just below my belly button before he stared up at me. “But please allow me to be the first.”
“Take from me until I have nothing left to give. I am devoted to you. Everything I have is yours to take.”
I would ruin every part of me to give to you.”
“Hips up, love,”
hehehehe. i’m such a sucker for this EVERY SINGLE TIME
“You are the most powerful thing I’ve ever held.”
“You’re going to be a good girl, aren’t you?” he asked, and I nodded my head, even though I had no idea what he was asking. “That’s right. Be a good wife and come again for me. Come on your husband’s cock with this pretty pussy.”
“You are my father, but if you dare speak of my wife like that again, I will slit your throat and paint this city in your blood.”
“The tides have already turned,” I said. “The storm you feared is already here.”
“She is my fate, my future,” I said quietly, my words sharp as a blade. “And I serve only her.”
“Dacre.” I uttered his name as a gentle warning, yet his smile lingered against my lips, warm and teasing. “Yes, wife?” he replied, his voice carrying a playful note.
“She is not a bargaining chip. She is not a pawn to be moved in your war. She is the war.”
She was ruinous. And she was mine.
