Page 20 of A Book of Royals and Deities

My cheeks burn, and he circles around me like a predator, enjoying tormenting his prey. “If I annoy you, you could leave Maeve out of this and try burning me yourself.”

I cross my arms, catching the end of my braid. I quickly learnt you don’t ride a dragon with your hair down unless you want to be blind and have a rat’s nest on top of your head. “I told you I can’t make it happen again.”

This argument between us isn’t going away. Training my powers has not gone well. In fact, they just don’t work, and Ziven doesn’t know how to train someone like me. “The princess had that magic, fire and red light that could burn. It was a power of the Twilight Dynasty.”

We both don’t bother pointing out there is no one alive who is from the Twilight Dynasty who could show me how to use my powers. I thought we were close to killing each other in the training before. Now, it usually ends in angry sex, and I end up wanting that outcome. He crosses his impossibly thick arms, and I rest my hands on them as I step closer to look up at him. “We’ll figure it out. Maz is looking for books on the Twilight Dynasty to read over at the same time as looking for a way to help Kyrell. The answers have to be in that library.”

“Maz?” Ziven hums, lowering his arms to grab my back and tug me up against his chest. “I don’t like you giving other males nicknames, Storm.”

The heat in his voice sends shivers down my spine, and my lips part. His eyes zero in on them, and I purposely run my tongue against my lower lip. “He isn’t a threat. I only want you, Ziv.”

His eyes impossibly darken and he leans down, brushing his lips against mine. “We are going back to my room, and you cancall me that while I’m inside you. Again and again as you come around my cock.”

Filthy, dirty-talking Moon king. I shouldn’t love it, but I do. My body definitely does. A throat clears and Ziven immediately tenses. His arm links around my waist, and I swear, a flash of silver seems to take over the world, like the moon is just there waiting at Ziven’s back, daring anybody to go close to me.

I know I should be independent and defend myself, but I want Ziven at my side. I actually like how he protects me. I’ve had devotion before from Emyr, but it was different. His devotion was desperation wrapped in what he thought was love. His need for control, yet the mixture of obsession with me, was overwhelming. He liked to see me in pain. When he realised he couldn’t control me, hurting me was his way of breaking what was left of my soul so that he could have every bit of it that was remaining. Ziven doesn’t do that. Yes, he’s obsessed with me, but he also respects my space and only demands what he knows I will give him. He makes me whole with his actions and words. He doesn’t let me break. The most important thing in the world to me is that I never feel scared when I’m with him.

I don’t have to be frightened anymore.

Foster waits between two trees, the sun literally shining on his sun mark on his neck. His blond hair looks brighter than I’ve seen it, likely from dragon riding. He inclines his head to Ziven before turning his gaze to me. “Ziven, Story.” He clears his throat. “Daegan instructed me to come and ask Story to see him in private.”

“Tell him to fuck off,” Ziven snarls.

Foster quickly holds his hands up. “Fuck, I’m the messenger, don’t… Please don’t fucking kill me.” He bravely moves his eyes off Ziven. “We weren’t all pretending to be your friends or lying to you when we didn’t have a choice. Daegan cares about you. That wasn’t a lie.”

I huff. “He tried to kill me… He lied to me and made everybody in that mansion lie, too. You think any of it was real? Are you that brainwashed by him that you can’t see he is a monster?”

He lowers his hands. “Fine, yes, Daegan lied to you, but he also cared. Ziven lied to you too, and he’s standing right there at your side.”

I arch an eyebrow. “Ziven didn’t try to kill me because a magical book told him he had to. Ziven didn’t play with my feelings and try to get me to fall in love with him just so he could break the spell. Ziven”—I blow out a breath—“is the king you should be bowing to, Foster. You’re on the wrong side, and I don’t want anything to do with the fucking Sun king.”

Ziven looks at me with pure pride, and it makes my heart feel like it’s going to burst. Foster clears his throat again, and Ziven’s had enough. “Didn’t I tell you to piss off? Want me to make you?”

Foster looks down at the ground. “We all know it’s fucking complicated when it comes to them, and you are right bang in the middle, Story. Daegan, for all his faults, isn’t a true monster. You know that. This isn’t all black and white. It doesn’t matter who’s the villain in that mansion when I’ve listened to the lives of the fae who lived under the vampyre rule. They know what true monsters are like, and they have all suffered. Endlessly. They are our kind, our family, and at this point, neither the Sunnor Moon king deserves to be our leaders. Not while they are like this.”

“Careful,” Ziven warns.

But Foster’s words hit me in my chest. He is right in a way. It is complicated and Daegan might be a murdering asshole, but he tried to kill me to free his people. He did it for the fae, and he isn’t an inch of what Emyr is like, what most of the vampyres can be like. Foster looks right at me. “The princess was close with both the Sun and Moon. She married the Dawn and was the link between all four dynasties. She killed herself to save them all, and if you don’t speak to Daegan, what was it for? Nothing?”

Maeve’s emotions fill my mind, her sadness over the princess’s death and the sacrifice. My shoulders drop and Ziven grits his teeth. “Don’t ask me to let you go in there, Story.”

Yeah, using my real name. He is mad. Foster keeps talking, completely unaware Ziven is close to going all “protective entwined mate” on him. “Anybody would go mad trapped inside that mansion for all those years. Daegan, he definitely did, but the book…things have been worse since he kept opening it. What Etena told you was true. We need your help. If you don’t care about him, I get it. Don’t come with me, but if there is a part of you who wants answers, please come. From what I’ve seen, you want to help our race become more than what you were born to be. We don’t achieve that by having the two most powerful kings at each other’s necks while we go to war.”

Ziven growls low. “Don’t you fucking dare blame her for the rift between our dynasties. Daegan was once my best friend and a brother in everything but blood. There’s a lot of past here that doesn’t involve Story. We will never be in any kind of agreement, but there’s an alliance to make sure we don’t slaughter eachother, and that alliance is wearing extremely thin. If you try to guilt her into seeing your bastard king again, I will start a war by killing you.”

My heart races as I link my hand with Ziven’s. I don’t know what happened, but I didn’t know Daegan was ever Ziven’s best friend. Whatever happened must have been big for them to hate each other so much now. “She’s not going.”

I pull Ziven aside and away from Foster. “We should see him. I don’t want to go, but Foster is right. This is bigger than us. Come with me. He’s not going to hurt me if you’re standing right there, and you can make sure I’m safe.”

“He wants you dead, Storm.” He tightens his hand in mine. “It takes every bit of strength I have not to hunt him down and make him painfully pay for ever touching you.”

“I don’t know what he wants, but we need to get close to the book. The book is the only reason I’m willing to listen to him,” I remind Ziven. “It’s got to be near him, and for what it is worth…Daegan is the leader of a big army that we need and the owner of the magical book. He knows this and was waiting for us.”

“He is a manipulative bastard, and I don’t want him near you.” He grits his jaw.

I lift my other hand and run my fingers down his cheek. He leans into the touch. “I’m not going to end up dying on you. Not when we are together.”

“Stay at my side.” He leans in and kisses my forehead. I didn’t expect him to agree with me and make any compromise, but he did. We walk up to Foster together. Ziven straightens. “If your fuckhead king attacks her, I’m killing him and then hunting you next.”

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