Page 62 of Crown of Chaos

He rattled with warning as he peered at me. “I didn’t wish that, Aria. I want you even now. I may not deserve you, which I’ll be the first to admit, but that doesn’t change the fact that I need you. I want to lay you down and feel the heat of your body clenching around me while I fuck you until you want nothing else. Tell me you don’t want me, Aria.”

“I don’t want you,” I replied harshly, and he winced.

“I don’t believe you,” he whispered, searching my face as if he could find a sliver of emotion that would back up his words.

“Why would I crave someone who doesn’t think twice about cutting me down? I gave you all of myself, and you threw me away. I saw past the hurt you inflicted because I knew you were wounded and needed gentle hands to hold you together. You looked me in the eye and told me I wasn’t enough, and I didn’t believe you. Now I do,” I murmured, and when he pressed his hand to where mine rested against the barrier, I pulled away.

“You are enough, Aria Primrose. You’re more than enough. I was wrong. I fucked up, and I know I don’t deserve you, but I intend to prove to you that it’s you I want. If I have to spend the rest of our lives proving that to you, I will. I’ll fight to ensure you’re protected, even if it means going against the entire Nine Realms to make sure you’re safe. I’ll do whatever it takes to make you see that you’re worth fighting for. You’re my queen. You are the only woman I want, and no one else will ever replace you. You’re not someone who can be replaced, ever.”

“Don’t fight for me. It’s too late for that.” I snorted indifferently. “I think you should marry Celia, King Karnavious. And if it helps, you have my blessing. After all, you are a perfect match for one another. You both are empty, pathetic creatures who live in the past and cannot be bothered to see the future. At least you won’t need your ghosts to rule you anymore because now the council and their vote will dictate your life. Maybe it already is, though. They voted me out of our marriage, and you allowed it to happen. They voted to put me down like the rabid bitch my mother says I am, and you let them do that, too.”

“Norvalla and those on the council representing this realm didn’t vote against you, Aria. I also told them I wouldn’t hunt you down, Aria. If I have to murder the entire council to end this threat against you, I will do it without hesitation.”

“And yet, you haven’t, so how am I to believe anything you promise me? I can’t, which is how I know that when they vote for your new bride, you will bend to their whim. You’ll stand at the altar and speak the vows to love, cherish, and obey your new queen. Because a king’s only as powerful as those who stand behind him, right?” The irony was thick enough to choke on. “And if you refuse, they’ll remove you and place someone else on your throne because you allowed them that power.Youhanded them power to control and wield you in your need for vengeance. You’re their weapon, King Karnavious, merely a blade they swing to ensure they hold power over everyone. Even if you willingly abdicated your throne, you still wouldn’t get me.”

“Don’t think for one moment that you’re not mine, because you are. If I have to rip this world down to nothing more than ruins to prove it to you, I’ll do it with my fucking hands. I’ll destroy it and fuck you in the ruins and ashes of everyone who thought to destroy us.” His hands had balled into tight fists he pressed against the barrier, while he smiled. “You’re right. We weren’t written in the stars. Stars die out, but we’ll never burn out. I won’t ever stop fighting for you, Little Monster. I’ll be in every shadow and every corner of this world, watching you, protecting you. Do you hear me? I’ll always come for you. I choose you, Aria Primrose.”

“Choose me for what? To fuck? To abuse while you beat your chest like some fucking caveman?” I snarled, ripping my tattered dress off and then tearing the slip down the middle until I was naked, heaving with anger. “Is this what you want from me? For me to allow you to use me like some pathetic whore? Come on then. Come fucking use me and then declare how worthless I am before the sweat cools from my flesh.” I snorted, cupping my breasts in my hands as I backed up. “I know. How about you push my face into the table, spread my legs, and fuck me like a dirty little slut? You can tell me how good my pussy smells and that it’s the only reason I’m worth a damn. Or maybe you can just beat me while you fuck me? That way, I won’t have the chance to forget where I stand with you.” I rocked on my feet, waiting for him to answer.

Knox’s jaw clenched, but he didn’t look at my body. Not until I released the stranglehold Ember had on my scent, ensuring he could smell the perfume of my coming heat cycle. His eyes narrowed to slits, and he rattled, which had my nipples hardening.

I slammed down my emotions and stared at him.

“You are coming into a heat cycle.”

“So what if I am? You don’t need to worry yourself over my needs. When it hits, I’ll find someone who doesn’t loathe themselves when they fuck me. I’m sure that, by then, you’ll already be married to someone else and I’ll be free to do as my body demands with whomever I choose.”

“That isn’t happening,” he hissed through clenched teeth, anger pulsing in a furious cadence through the barrier.

“I assure you, it will,” I stated firmly, bending to grab the dress from the floor. “I don’t need your permission, nor do I care about your opinion. I finally figured out that it doesn’t matter what you or anyone thinks about what I do.” I turned back to hold his stare.

“No one really wanted me or saw beyond what I could do for them. No one cared that I was real or that I only ever wanted to be loved. The second I stopped allowing myself to be used, every single one of you abandoned me. Now, I’m hunted for sport. Ember says we’re created to hunt, but they’re not even on our level, and I’m inclined to believe her. It won’t be us who rot on the wall of one of their castles. So, you can run back to your little pity party council and tell them I’m coming for them all. The moment they get brave enough to come for me, their clock will start counting down until they take their last breath of air.”

I turned on my heel, pulled the dress over my head as he watched me, and left him to join the others. The heavy weight of his stare burned down my spine, but I didn’t stop or care that I’d left him with the threat. I had meant every word I’d whispered, and if I so much as caught the scent of someone hunting me, I would unleash Ember on them.

Knox had repeatedly pushed me away. And right now, I didn’t care if he married Celia and lived happily fucking ever after with the spineless bitch. If he was too weak to prevent the council from pushing him into it, then he was of no use to me. I didn’t want someone who’d blindly do as others demanded just to save his political position.

“I’ll fight for you, Aria,” he uttered so softly that I’d thought I’d imagined it. “I’ll always fight for you, wife.”

Knox and the others had broken the wrong parts of me. They all had taken a turn beating me down. I’d learned to wear my pain as armor, and I wore it well. They’d beaten me, abandoned me, and betrayed me until they stripped me to mere bones. But sometimes you had to fall and get bruised before you rose stronger so that you knew how to fight harder.

I would secure a safe future for the witches and then never think about any of them again.

I’d dig deeper than the roots which had created me, and I would rip them out until I freed myself of their hold.

I’d become the queen the world didn’t know it needed. If they thought they could hunt me down and end my life, I’d show them what broken things could do when cornered. I would teach them what a reign of terror actually looked like when you fucked with a monster and the bitch bit back.

Aria Primrose Hecate Karnavious had died the day she’d discovered what she’d been born to do. I was the monster that had dug from the ashes that she intended to force down their throats. This version was what they’d created, and I had no loyalty to any kingdom or any breed. It was rather freeing, and I’d found it at my lowest point, which meant I could only go up from here.

Chapter Thirty-Two

Not too long after I’dmade the decision to stay in the library for a bit longer, it was as if the library opened its proverbial arms and welcomed us deeper into its sphere of protection.

Then I discovered an entire new wing within it.

There were hundreds of levels and just as many staircases that led up farther than my eyes could see. The shelves were lined with tomes and scrolls that dated back to the birth of the Nine Realms.

There were huge, sprawling wards that opened into landscapes that I’d spent hours within. One was laden with black roses, and another had frost fire that covered the walls and forced me to back out of it rather rapidly.

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