I was giving him a chance. It would be highly advantageous for me to have a turncoat in Caen’s inner cadre—an informant. I could easily bind the Scáthic guard to an oath of fealty if he chose to participate. Caen would never know. The Ravenhound knew what I was asking, and stiffened.
“I would rather die than kneel before you, traitorous bastard.”
“Then die,” I snarled.
The Hound made one last attempt for his life, viciously shoving an elbow into my gut and slicing at my side with the sharpened, jagged edge of his gauntlet. Taking advantage of my brief distraction, Berith managed to wrest himself free from my binds and took off in a sprint, deeper into the darkness of the forest. It had been too long, and so he had forgotten. He must’ve.
A Ravenhound was fast, but I was faster.
My Shadows melded effortlessly with that inherent power surging through my blood, whispering sweet nothings in my ear, begging to take over. I let them. The Ravenhound hardly made it a mile before I had overtaken him, catching him by the throat. By the time he even realized that I had caught up, my dagger was already in his back. The man staggered against me, laughing incredulously as he realized that I’d struck vital organs from behind.
“Howfuckingfitting,” he wheezed.
“What have you told your prince, Berith? What else does he know?” I demanded, tugging at the dregs of what magick I had left to spend.
In his weakened state, it was even easier to impose my will on the man. I could hear the struggle, the hatred in his voice as he tried desperately to remain silent, coughing up blood as a consequence of his resistance. But the answer inevitably came, the Ravenhound forced to answer to the power of my bloodline.
“Prince Caen knows that you’ve developed a pretty little weakness,your Grace,” Berith replied, his tone taking a turn for the mocking. “He knows that you’ve found some mortalplaything, and you seem attached to this one. He finds that to be rather interesting, indeed. So send me to the fucking Abyss, because I regret nothing. I hope she dies screaming.”
I saw red. Nothing remained in me but the fury and the beast.
I tore out the Ravenhound’s jugular with my teeth, letting his corpse drop to the ground without any semblance of respect.
Chapter Sixty-Eight
Arken
I woke up alone, and found myself surprisingly comfortable with the silence. Perhaps it was because the scent of him still lingered on my sheets—orange peels and cloves melding with the sweat and the sex in a surprisingly pleasant fashion. I smirked to myself as I stretched out in bed, the various aches and soreness providing some very obvious reminders of what had transpired the night before.
Kieran also had the foresight to let me know over dinner last night that he had to leave before dawn, a seemingly simple gesture that actually meant the world to me. It eased my mind when I knew what to expect, and he knew that last minute changes in routine had a tendency to stress me out.
I ran my thumb over the astral quartz he had left behind on my pillow. The stone was smooth, flat and rounded—and it fit perfectly in my palm.
It made me think of you.
The quartz captured the morning sun flawlessly in irisated, opalescent little fractals. In a way, it reminded me of the way my Light often manifested, too. If Kieran could see me in the beauty of this tiny treasure… I felt my chest tighten.
Gods.
I was starting to think that Kieran and I had been kidding ourselves—and that the sex was all it had taken to wipe away that thin veneer claiming that what we had together wasplatonic. Had it ever been? Had we ever really beenjust friends?
I felt my cheeks heat as I remembered some of my lust-addled confessions last night. If it weren’t for his sweet, hand-written note, and the quartz, I may have been afraid that I had scared him off.
Sometimes I really think we were made for each other.
It had sounded like the mallow-soft, saccharine confessions of a pre-teen crush, and Ihadadmittedly been drunk on submission and satisfaction as I had said it, but sometimes, I did legitimately get the sense that there was something…moreto the bond between Kieran and I. Something meant to be.
If Kieran had said anything in response, I hadn’t heard it. While it used to take me quite literallyhourson end to fall asleep, it took mere minutes when I slept with him in my bed. The warmth of his chest and the way he liked to draw lazy, loving circles on my back with his fingertips as I drifted off…
Good gods.
If I didn’t get my ass out of bed and enforce some productivity upon myself now, I ran the risk of spending my entire day in bed—fantasizing about a man who had only left 3 hours ago. I needed to get my shit together. I summoned asmall orb of Water from the washroom, icy cool, and let it splash against my face. I jolted and shivered as I jumped out of bed, but hey—it did the trick.
I padded into the kitchen to prepare myself some tea, only to find a small rabbit perched on my windowsill, sparkling in the sun. No ordinary rabbit, naturally. This one looked as though it had been carved out of amethyst and labradorite while also being semi-corporeal—it was Laurel’s mail sprite.
Oh,right,I thought to myself as I opened the window latch and retrieved Laurel’s note.We’ve got brunch plans.
I swear to the Source, Asher - if you cancel on us because you’re too busy getting laid, I will break into your apartment and tear Kieran off of you with my bare hands.