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“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.” —The Tempest, William Shakespeare
A WOLF WAS a versatile creature. Adaptable.
When part of a pack, it was part of something larger than itself. It had a role to play and a place in the way of things. There was safety to be found in a pack. But a wolf could survive alone, too. In the dead of the midnight forest, surrounded by predators on all sides, a wolf could slip like a shadow through the trees. He could take refuge in darkened corners, stalking prey of his own. He could wait out his enemies, and bite back when they struck… Especially when he held a god sword in his hands.
Emotions painted the blood. Happiness. Anger. Sorrow. Lust.
Each gave off its own energy.
Humans were not good at taming their feelings. They felt everything so rudely, right out in the open, with no awareness of how their reactions might affect those with finer senses.
“They’re going to… destroy her, you know? It has already… been seen. This court will… fall… with her inside it.”
And he could have his reasons, so long as none of them involved him harboring any sort of hope that Saeris was going to confess her undying love for him. That wasn’t happening.
“What do you think I’m doing?” I snarled. “I’m saving the fucking fox!”
“And the day you save me on a battlefield, I’ll put on a dress and dance a fucking jig.”
“Never doubt your powers, sweet one,” she’d told me. “Each one of them is a gift. Each one will prove exactly enough when you have need of it. Have faith in yourself. You will always be enough.”
“Don’t you know? There isn’t much I wouldn’t sacrifice to make you happy, Osha. A little healing magic is the least of it.”
This was real. I was Fae. I was a vampire.
“Well, I suppose if no one else is going to say it, then I will. You look downright fuckable, Saeris Fane.”
Paused before I even allowed myself to think his name. Kingfisher. My mate.
“And I can’t help it if you aren’t falling over yourself to compliment your girlfriend,” Carrion countered, raising his glass at Kingfisher. Oh, gods. This was going to be bad.
Five vampire lords ruled beneath the vampire monarch—the Lords of Midnight—of which Taladaius was one.
Not too long ago, I’d dreamed of him standing close to me like this. My fool’s heart had craved him more than my lungs had craved air… and now that he was mine and I was his, my need for him had only intensified.
“Oh, I don’t know. I think we might be able to spare a minute,” Carrion said.
Perhaps it was that I wasn’t entirely one thing—neither wholly vampire nor Fae. Perhaps it was that I was an Alchemist on top of everything else, and I still had an affinity for metals. Either way, I was grateful for the advantage.
They’ll see you carrying a weapon as an act of aggression.” “Good.” My mate’s expression went dark with the promise of violence. “It is.”
“Your father was felled by his own hubris. He was too arrogant. He believed himself invincible, and I had the pleasure of showing him otherwise. A god sword will make worm food out of any of us, no matter who wields it. But, regardless,” I called in a clear voice. “I am no child. My name is Saeris Fane, and I am your queen.”
“That’s enough, Zovena. Throwing a temper tantrum won’t change anything. Taladaius saved the girl. Now she is of our blood. She killed Malcolm. Therefore, she must ascend. It is our way. We all know it. Hysterics solve nothing.”
You can own your fantasies with me, Little Osha. There is nothing in this realm or the next that I won’t give to you if you desire it. All you ever need do is ask.
If I touched him— “Don’t even think about it, or I’ll take you right here,” he panted. Holy. Fucking. Gods.
“Sounds to me like Saeris is one of the most powerful beings this side of the afterlife. They’ve crowned her. She’s spoken her will and made it law.”
Peace. What would that even look like? Would any of us know what to do with ourselves? I doubted it.
The room was full of electricity whenever he was in it. I was drawn to him like a magnet. Like my body was trying to find its way home into his arms.
Fisher was everything. I was attuned to him. I could feel the shifts in his moods like the ebb and flow of the tides that I had read so much about, and worrying about him while we were apart was enough to drive me mad.
Oh? Making demands, are we, Your Highness?
And I will never come at you with everything I’ve got. You are my mate. I’m in love with you. I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to. Which… he added softly, I do not.
“She isn’t my girlfriend. She’s my mate,” Fisher said quite amicably. “And if any part of your body, literally any part of it, comes into contact with hers, then I will remove it.”
Were the infected feeders sent by Madra? How had they gotten here from Zilvaren? How the fuck were we going to kill them? Would there be more?
Friends were expensive. In the end, they always cost you. Your food. Your water. Your money. Your safety. Your life.
Bruised herbs. Citrus. Smoke. Leather. Pine, and cold mountain air. And underneath it all, the maddening scent of him—the scent that made him unique and made me want to climb the fucking walls. A trace of pheromones that sent electricity zipping up the length of my spine
And I still loved the male walking beside me. I’d fought my feelings for him for so long that giving them space to breathe now felt a little frightening.
“I love you, Fisher.” It was the first time I’d said it. “I love you, and nothing else matters beyond that. Wherever you are, I’ll beg the gods and all the fates to let me be there, too,”
There was no stopping this. And why would I want to stop it? He was more than an addiction. He was life itself. We were separate beating chambers of the same heart now.
“I don’t crave the attention of the sun. The snowcapped mountains, the forest, the frozen river… those places are my home. You are home.”
“I’ve killed more people than I can count. I lost the parts of myself that knew how to feel anything other than pain and sorrow centuries ago. But for better or worse, you have brought me back to life.”
“Three nights. That’s how long I’ve paced this room, fantasizing about fucking you raw, Saeris Fane.”
“You taste like the end of the fucking world,” he purred. “Just kill me and be done with it. Nothing will ever be better than this.”
“You’re much stronger than you used to be,” he mused. “But I’m still stronger, Little Osha.”
“Magic is all about intention, Little Osha. You would have to want me dead to set me ablaze. Likewise, you would need to hate me pretty badly to conjure the kind of energy that would sever flesh and bone.”
“Come now, Osha. Where else would an acolyte kneel to worship but at the altar of his god?”
It was a disconcerting feeling, coming apart for someone. I could count on one hand the number of people I’d lowered my walls around during sex, but I didn’t have a choice with Fisher. He demanded all of me. No half measure would do.
like it was about to break bone. I barely heard Fisher’s satisfied drawl over the explosions going off in my head. “Thaaat’s it. Good girl. Ride it out.” I needed to breathe. Hah! No chance. Tiny black spots danced in my vision. My pulse throbbed slow and hard at my temples. Dum. Dum. Dum!
“I told you once that I was disappointed by how breakable humans were. Remember?” Oh, I remembered. “You’re not human anymore, Saeris. Think you can keep up with me now?”
“Because I am pleased with myself. Because I’m the luckiest bastard alive. And because you look like you’ve just been thoroughly fucked.”
