Page 64 of Crown of Chaos

I slid my fingertips over the mark he’d left on my throat. I counted myself lucky that he hadn’t ripped it out when he’d first claimed me. That time had terrified me, but the second time, it had been life altering, likely because he’d discovered the truth and changed by that point. The mark that had scarred wasn’t Lennox’s, though. It was Knox’s, which meant more to me. He’d surrendered to what could have been for a moment, and it had been everything I’d thought it could be.

If I closed my eyes, I could still feel him embedded in my flesh, driving deep enough that he’d touched my soul. He’d been gentle with me, and for once, I’d gotten to bask in the afterglow. There’d been no angry taunts or whiplash from him hating himself for feeling too much with me. No ghosts had been in our nest, and his words were promises I’d clung to, even after he’d turned against me.

I considered his promise to protect me and pondered if I could trust it. When it came down to it, I knew I could trust him, but only where it would be life and death on the line. Knox had stood beside me, not leaving my side while I lost our daughters. He’d walked away when he’d realized I needed more help than he could give me. I knew I meant something to him, but he’d done things which left me questioning that, too. His council had ordered I be hunted and put down. Knox had also told them of what I’d done, and hadn’t stood up for me with them, either. He’d done a lot of things to prove he was able to change, but he’d done more that made me hesitant to believe him. If it was only my life on the line, it wouldn’t be such a precarious thing to test that trust out.

“Aria!”

He screamed my name, and I snapped my attention to him. I swallowed past the need to rush to him, to chase away his demons. His breathing had become labored and ragged. Sweat covered his slick flesh, and I swallowed the internal fight I waged daily, ignoring the mating call to be near him. It was a visceral need. The deep, penetrating mark he’d created in me had altered me irrevocably, and I wouldn’t ever be able to eradicate it from my soul.

He lifted from the bed, wholly focused on the shelves, as if he’d felt me here and knew I watched him. Slowly, I tiptoed deeper into the shadows. I’d remained out of sight for days, hoping he would think we’d all abandoned the library, and I had no intention of ruining all that work.

Knox had used me as a punching bag, and I’d allowed it for a while. He was learning, though, but it was a little too late. Why couldn’t he do as I’d done and just eat at least a quarter of the population of the Nine Realms? Luckily, they weren’t sticking to my hips like donuts.

“Snuff” by Slipknot started playing throughout the library as he stood. My hungry gaze followed his sleek, sinewy muscular back as they flexed as he moved to retrieve his gray sweatpants. Everything about this bastard was sexy, right down the way his thighs curved up around his waist, dipping into the V-line that lowered to his thickly hung cock. My body trembled, which had him shifting to face the pocket of shadows I followed his movement from. His attention shifted to the books as if he could will them to move and reveal me.

He pushed his fingers through his messy hair. His heavy exhale slid through me, and I wondered if it disappointed him that he hadn’t found me there, waiting for him. The tic in his jawline tightened, jumping as his rattle ripped free. Lennox sounded from within his host, as if echoing his own regret.

My teeth captured my bottom lip while my arms wrapped around my stomach. He bent, and I drank in the way the muscles of his stomach clenched and bunched before he stood, pulling the sweats into place and covering his cock. A moan of regret almost found purchase in my throat. I wished to pout at having his magnificent body shielded from me.

Returning to his bed, he never once stopped looking for me, which made me think it was something he did often. There was pain in his expression that tightened a vise around my heart, clenching the link between us. He lowered his head into his palms, cradling it with his fingers spread apart as if my absence pained him.

It almost made me want to believe that he struggled with regret over the choices he’d made. Only, Knox didn’t suffer from such useless emotions. No, he couldn’t understand the pain he’d inflicted when he’d given me a sip of home and then slit my wrists to get it back. One day, I would show him what that felt like so he would understand the consequences of his actions.

Knox’s head lifted and turned to the crackling fire in the large, eloquent fireplace. Rising, he moved toward it but paused in front of the decorative trunk Celia had fixed for him months ago. Knox glared at it before lowering to click open the latch and push the lid up. His hand moved, skimming over Sven’s image, but his eyes weren’t on the boy he’d cherished. They were on the woman he’d fallen in love with. The woman wasn’t what he’d thought her to be. Knox stood, slamming the lid down with a snarl.

Then he picked up the box as if it weighed nothing and threw it against the wall. I slammed my hands over my mouth, muffling my gasp as the chest splintered into a million pieces. He screamed out his pain, and I fought Ember, who sought to purr and ease the anguish she heard in his voice. It built in my throat, forcing my hands to lift, holding my lips closed while I silenced Ember.

His body trembled, and he grabbed a chair, sending it toward the same wall the chest had disintegrated against. Then he wrecked the room until it mirrored the pain churning through both of us.

The song restarted, playing louder, and he rattled until my spine ached. Only, the noise wasn’t meant for me. Lennox was echoing the agony of his host and screaming it until the entire library trembled from the pure misery they felt. My heart echoed his agony while Ember continued seeking to ease his pain. This was a show of grief, and it was private. Any comfort I would even be willing to offer him wouldn’t be welcome. He didn’t want, nor need, an audience while he finally allowed his pain to escape the iron clad grip he’d held on to it for so long.

I felt his screams to my very soul and wondered if Evelyn and Eleanora were included in this moment of raw, brutal heartbreak. Maybe he was more upset over his declaration of love for the evil bitch he’d declared his mate? I wanted to know who he was thinking of in this moment of pure, unchecked grief and weakness.

Finally, Knox ceased thrashing and shredding everything within the library, and he exhaled a broken sound that wrapped around me. He turned toward the barrier, shaking his head as he dropped to his knees and ripped his fingers through his hair. I waited for words, for something that would expose why he was lashing out, but they never came.

He just sat there as the library slowly put itself back to right and the sun rose outside the window, bathing the room in the dawn’s renewing light. Knox pushed off the floor, found the one thing that the library hadn’t fixed, and crept toward it.

My attention slid to the chest, to the black sacks sprinkled over the floor, and adrenaline spiked so violently that my head spun. The chest had contained no fewer than a dozen, small hex bags. I wanted to scream at him not to touch them, but he had already bent to pick one up. He looked at it, dropped it, and then grabbed another one as if checking if they were the same as the ones I’d pointed out to Greer all those months ago.

His jaw clenched, and he growled deep in his chest, the vibration a promise of death. It promised no mercy. The sound had Ember peering toward the scattered mess of hex bags, herbs, chicken bones, and other contents scatted on the floor. I took in the items, trying to work out what hex had been placed, but I failed to determine what it could have been.

How had he never noticed them before if they were inside the chest, though? Blinking slowly, I continued to examine what was left of the chest. Most of it was little more than splinters of wood, but there were a few larger chunks left intact. One of them looked as if it were a section of a larger piece that had been hollowed out, and my eyes narrowed. Sitting inside it were a handful of hex bags that had remained lodged in place when the others scattered.

The chest had been built with the secret compartment that was filled with the hex bags. It stood to reason that the same bitch who had taken great pride in making the chest for him had also been the one to add the hexes. She had willingly committed treason against her own fucking king. That would put a damper on their impending wedding date, I’d gander.

Knox stood, leaving the bags on the floor, as the music cut off as he strode from the bedroom. The moment he exited, I exhaled and fought the need to chase after him to ensure he wasn’t about to do something stupid.

“I need one of those pouches,” I whispered into the library, watching as one hidden beneath the chair disappeared, only to reappear in my hand a split second later.

The thunder of footsteps moving through the hallway forced me back to the concealment of the shadows, and it was sad that witches continued to meddle in his life. They’d ruined his life with endless torture, and it still wasn’t good enough for them. They continued to screw with him as if they had some right to do so. It didn’t make sense, but what the hell did anymore? The poor bastard drew witches to him, and I was one of them. Knox was the flame, and I was the idiot moth that blindly moved toward him. I’d learned that lesson the hard way, and would probably continue to be burned since I craved him, even now.

Brander, Killian, Greer, and Lore followed Knox through the door and stopped next to him in front of the mess. No one spoke, but Greer’s attention lifted, settling on me as if he knew exactly where I stood. I sank deeper into them, but I didn’t think I’d fooled him. I only hoped he’d allow me the illusion of not having been noticed.

“I need to figure out what these bags are for,” Knox said, drawing Greer’s attention away from me. “If they’re what I think they are, I want Celia stripped of all authority and protections and then removed from my lands before the sun sets. I want it made known that she’s been hexing my people and their king.”

“Knox.” Killian exhaled, scrubbing his palms down his face. “I don’t think that’s wise at this point. If she made those hexes to affect you, I’d rather you remove her head. I’ll carry the blemish she’s placed on my family’s name. What are they for?”

Greer cleared his throat and cast a brief glance to the where I lingered. “Do you want to know what they are?” he inquired softly, lowering to the ground. He picked up a bone and held it up to the sunlight coming through the window.

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