Page 119 of A Bond in Blood

His laugh was like a tempting melody. “Clothing and bed.”

“Your Rite?” I asked.

“It is a long-standing tradition. Not one that will leave my island or kingdom in dire threat of the Gods. Besides—” his voice went low, “I found my traitor.”

Soft clothes were placed in my hand, and I blinked as the red light of the moon returned to the room and I found him with his mask secured on his face once more. The clothing however, he’d changed into loose trousers and an even looser, low-cut shirt. Revealing his inked skin to me.

“Stop staring and get out of that gown.” He pointed to me. “Even if I do appreciate every bare bit of your skin I can see.”

My skin went cold with his words and the piques of my breasts went rigid.

“Fuck,” he groaned. “Get clothes on now before I regret my decisions.”

I left him sitting on the bed while I entered the bathing room. When I found my reflection in the mirror, I did not recognize myself. Instead of seeing the woman, powerful and in chargeof her choices that I had seen earlier in the evening, I found a scared creature. A woman with smudged koal running down her face from her tears, and a dress—now torn at the back, revealing my scarred skin.

I looked as much as one of the monsters as I’d come to live amongst, and I wondered if I were turning into one of them?

I’d willingly walked into a court I knew ran on debauchery. I walked side-by-side with the Unseelie King each day. I ate across from him each night. I laid in his Godsdamn bed, stopping my attacks to end his life.

No—instead I’d taken the life of a man that was likely as innocent as I was the day Olen had ripped me from my home.

Was I any better than the rest of them?

I certainly wasn’t the woman who had left my isolated island. I was but a shell of her. A ghost walking the halls of the monster my world feared.

My hand went to the ink on my hip while my mind traveled to the gentle way he’d traced that ink. How he’d kept his eyes only on the secret I revealed to him.

How he refused to allow me to warm his bed just now because I was not sound of mind.

I turned, staring past the open doors of the bathing room, imagining him in the bed outside of my sight. Waiting for me like he did each night.

Then I remembered Adie’s words. The fondness in her voice. The smile that had cracked across her face when she’d spoken of herUncleUlrich.

The thought settled over me. Brief and a quiet ponder in my mind. I kept it inside while I washed my face and changed quickly. I left my tattered excuse of a gown in the corner of the bathing room.

When my foot hit the stone floors of the bedroom, the curtains snapped away the moonlight and the candles went out.

Without trouble, I made my way through the room, settling beside Ulrich.

I trembled while I moved my body closer, pulling away the wall of pillows he had placed down the middle of the bed.

“What are you—”

“Ssh,” I cut him off. “Quiet.”

I moved until my body was touching his, turning to settle on my side. As though it were a life-time long ritual, Ulrich turned as well, his body wrapping around mine.

I was a stupid fool for this. A stupid, unthinking fool.

His hand wrapped around me, pulling me closer to him.

“You should fear me,” he whispered against my neck.

My body went stiff with the words, but I shook my head. “I don’t.”

“You lie,” he muttered. “You are averybad liar.”

“I don’t fear you,” I repeated, trying to force myself to believe my own words.

---