Page 27 of King of Fire and Flames

How interesting. How perfect.

Gratitude for the Aldara mark flowed through me. Whatever magic made it impossible for Bakhur to assault me, right now, I was extremely glad of its existence.

“The mark makes our marriage impossible,” I said, my thoughts racing.

A dark brow rose. “Oh? Why so?”

“It would allow no intimacy. You couldn’t get heirs or even pleasure from the union.”

His low laugh prickled over my skin. “There are other pleasures than full consummation and many ways to get a babe inside a womb, Zali.”

Revulsion turned my stomach, his smile growing as I shivered.

Bakhur was an odd one—charming at times—but beneath his smooth veneer lay a cruel, calculating nature. Fairly typical of his species, I supposed. And I knew from experience fae couldn’t be trusted to treat humans well. Not even the one I’d given my heart to understood the true value of possessing a human’s love, given in faith to a much more powerful being.

“Let’s try an experiment, shall we?” Bakhur asked.

I said nothing as he turned me away and pressed my hands against the cool glass of the bay window, terror weakening my limbs.

He muttered a spell, and my nightgown fell to my elbows, exposing my back. His fingertip slowly traced the skin over my spine.

Hissing in a breath, I tried to swing around and elbow him, but found I couldn’t move. My muscles had seized—frozen by dark magic. His nail traced patterns over my back, red-hot pain searing. The Fire Prince was burning my flesh.

Sweat dripped between my breasts, and my blood boiled with useless fury. Trapped and rendered immobile by his spell, I stared through the tower window at the moon, its bright light mocking me.

“Let me go,” I thought, unable to push any sound through my lips. “Let me go. Let me go.”

Out of nowhere a growl sounded, and Ruhh appeared, her tattered slippers hovering above the floor. “Nephew, the girl wants you to stop. So stop. Now.”

“Oh, Ruhh dear, you always were a wet blanket. The only time you had any real life in you, was when Father announced that he would ask Arrowyn to marry you.”

Ruhh snarled, lank hair hanging around a gaunt face, her pale eyes large above prominent cheekbones. Water dripped from her gown onto the wooden floor. She had the look of a drowned rat, her clothes damp, the remaining skin wrinkled and puffy. Perhaps she had died in water.

A chill skittered down my spine as I pictured Arrow drowning her with ease. He was callous enough to do it.

“Go now, Bakhur, or I shall tell your father you’ve burned runes into his valuable guest.”

Runes? My suspicions were confirmed. Bakhur was an evil prick. And the last person I wished to be wed to.

Mentally, I added him to my list of targets.

One day, he would pay, too.

The prince watched as I reached my hand as far as I could and ran my fingers over my back, feeling the raised patterns on my skin. He snickered in delight, and then left my room without a word.

“You should stay away from my nephew,” said Ruhh, perching in the air above the edge of the bed. “He was working magic into your skin, attempting to get the Aldara mark off and also testing how much he could hurt you while it remained.” She flew a circle around my chamber. “Take care. Inflicting pain is Bakhur’s greatest passion.”

I collapsed on the window seat, hugging my knees to my chest as I contemplated the dead girl hovering in front of me. “How did you die, Ruhh?”

She pointed out the window. “See that tower in the distance?”

I nodded.

“It is Taln’s tallest. Arrowyn rejected my father’s marriage proposal, so poor Ruhh was tumbled from it and fell a very long way down.”

An odd way to phrase it. Not to mention how weird it was to refer to herself in the third person. A massive red flag, in fact.

Preparing to tease her, I kept a straight face and arched a brow. “Really? I had no idea Azarn felt that way about the Storm King.”

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