Page 146 of A Bond in Blood

“He is the king,” the fae spat.

“He is as much of a pawn in this game as you are.”

A scream of agony rang down my spine and I twisted, watching an older Unseelie fae woman with grey skin and horns on her head pick up the head before her.

“No,” she sobbed. “No. She was only to be a handmaid. Only to listen to the whisperings. No.”

More people began to bend, picking up their heads. More screams echoed around me. Families finding their loved ones. Lovers discovering their partners.

It was horrifying.

“Olen,” I whispered.

“Quiet, princess,” he replied, grasping his palm around my hand.

I held his grip, my knees trembling while more heads came from the deck of the ship. My eyes moved to Ulrich and my heart clenched with fear.

“Death,” Olen whispered beside me.

I was frozen in my terror at the image before me. A creature of shadows, bone, and wrath had replaced the king. His hand still gripped the fae, but it was a hand of only bone with wisps of shadows wrapping around his limb.

“These weremypeople,” the king’s voice rumbled.

Another head hit the dock.

The fae laughed despite the feral fear in his eyes. His head turned to me. “Why do you havethatin your presence?”

Ulrich gripped the man’s neck. “You do not look at her.”

“Oh,shewill not be pleased to learn you have a guest,” the fae let out a shrill laugh. The nearly identical sound all Seelie fae made.

The sound unleashed the beast.

Ulrich’s hand barely twitched and the fae’s head exploded, bursting from the strength of his grip.

My responding scream was muffled by Olen’s palm. But the other screams—the Unseelie Fae on the dock—those sounds could not be silenced.

Ulrich moved like a ghost in the wind, his shadows propelling him to the deck of the ship. The magic created an outer skin on the king, masking him from the continued splattering of blood. Blood, so much blood, seeped from the wood of the ship as though the vessel itself were losing the iron substance and not the crew Ulrich was slaughtering.

I didn’t think I could handle it. Despite how my eyes could not pull away, my heart was freezing. The sight making me realize he truly was a monster.

Uncontrollable.

Ready to enact death and violence at any moment.

More screams hit my ears. Terror—Gods, they were all full of fear.

I stepped back, bumping into Olen.

“Please get me away,” I begged.

Olen’s arms gripped mine. “Watch, princess.”

My tears fell while headless bodies hit the earth and blood continued to run down the white ship. The liquid staining the wood and pooling into the water lit by the blood moon above us.

I held my hand to my heart.

Everything, every reason why I was here was because of that moon. Because ofblood. A substance I was seemingly baptized in. The Gods themselves dunking my soul in its waters.

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