Page 31 of Avaritia

What fools populated Allerick’s court that none of them had seen fit to claim her for themselves?

Last night’s dinner had altered my perception of Verity, and I was adding that to my mental list of crimes Allerick had committed against me.

In the back of my mind, I’d been certain that Verity was unhappy at the palace and that was why she’d been so content to join me. Or at the very least, that she didn’t get along well with the other Hunters who resided there.

But the dinner had proven that wasn’t the case.

They liked Verity. All of them. She’d been cheerful and charming, and everyone had seemed pleased with her presence.

It had put me in a terrible mood.

I watched from the sitting room on the second story that Aderith had cleared for Verity’s use as the two of them walked around the overgrown garden while the rain had briefly ceased, Aderith occasionally pointing at something and Verity leaning in closer to investigate.

I was so absorbed in watching her and the fluid, graceful way she moved that I neglected to scan the perimeter at first. Though once I did, I was out on the balcony and scaling the side of the building before I’d even consciously decided to move.

Who the fuck did Tanix think he was? Monitoring my property. Looking at my mate.

Possessiveness unlike anything I’d ever experienced before, even for my crown, roared in my veins. Tanix dropped down from the tree on the outskirts of the property he’d been perched in, sprinting for the entry room as though the darkness of the in-between would save him from my wrath.

Wilder was scrambling to follow, though I doubted he even knew what I was chasing, and his advanced age was working against him.

“Watch Verity!” I shouted, ushering him away as I dived into the entry room, the door swinging shut behind me.

Tanix was an idiot if he thought I hadn’t done my research on him and his band of would-be rebels. I was already well aware that they had set up their latest camp in a rocky, mountainous area of the realm, unpopular with Shades because of its arid climate and difficult terrain.

I wasn’t going to let him get that far, though.

The in-between moved and breathed around me, responding to my urgency as I ran through the darkness, leaping on Tanix’s escaping form right before he could reach the threshold of the entry room he was aiming for.

“What did you think was going to happen?” I snarled, grabbing a horn so I could wrench his head back, the weight of my body keeping his pinned to the ground. “What did you think I would do when I found you watching her?”

“She’s just food!” Tanix wheezed, straining to escape my grip. “Are you really going to punish your own kind, Your Grace?”

I stilled. “Punish you? How optimistic you are. I’m going to kill you.”

In one swift movement, I unsheathed the silver poniard I kept secured at my hip beneath my shadows and sank it into the side of Tanix’s neck. In the darkness of the in-between, I could only just make out the smoky shadows pouring freely from his wound as his life force seeped out of him. Tugging my blade free, I rolled him roughly onto his back and struck the killing blow into his chest with my dagger, twisting it until shadows were pouring freely from his body. Tanix gave one last gurgle of pain before falling silent, his body disintegrating into nothing. Or perhaps joining the shadows of the ancestors, if one was to believe the old ways. I hoped they told him what an obnoxious little prick he was, if that was the case.

I climbed to my feet, sliding my blade back into its sheath, irritated at the whole inconvenience of the matter.

Allerick should have dealt with the traitors long before now, or at least sent his surly captain to do the job. But, alas, he’d never bothered, and now it had become my problem.

No one had any respect for my time.

I immediately returned to my own chambers to wash before making for the sitting room in time to meet Verity for our midday meal.

She was already there waiting for me, lounging back in the chair in another floaty pink dress and oddly sparkly boots, and smelling like the most tempting thing I’d ever encountered. I didn’t know how I’d managed to leave her alone last night. It had been a true testament to my self-control that I hadn’t snatched her from her bed and demanded her attention.

Verity hummed to herself as she sipped her tea, vaguely acknowledging my arrival with a half smile before returning to watching the rain falling outside the window once more.

“How did you spend your time in the human realm?” I asked, more acutely aware now than ever that Verity was, in fact, an individual, rather than just a power source that I had marked and claimed as my own. It made everything far more complicated in my own head.

Perhaps… perhaps biting her without discussing it first had been inappropriate?

No, that was a ludicrous notion. What if I hadn’t claimed her for my own? She may have ended up with someone else, and I’d have had to kill them.

“Like what did I do for work?” Verity looked at me over the rim of her cup, her dark eyes assessing and mischievous all at once. “I was an intrepid explorer. I traveled the globe, survived storms, and had park benches named after me.”

I watched her for a long moment, trying to decide whether or not she was speaking truthfully. I suspected that Verity derived some kind of amusement from me, which was an odd experience in itself. No one had ever associated me with humor, not even at my expense.

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