Page 1 of Petals for Deadly Power

Prologue

Heronyxcrownlayin the middle of a pool of black ink, black blood, and black feathers.

The splashing noise of his steps towards the limp body of his beloved echoed in the chamber where everything and nothing happened.

“Where have you been?” Her voice was but a whisper, yet that was more than enough to make him tense.

“I was busy.” He continued approaching the stone slab where her naked body was confined to.

He would never get used to the astonishing beauty of this female before him. Her long dark hair billowed down the pale, almost translucent skin of her chest. Her black feathered wings protruded from her perfectly sculpted back. The same back he had kissed more times than he could count.

“In what world did you thinkbeing busywas a tolerable reason to ignore me?”

“I would never ignore you, my queen,” he swore.

“You wouldn’t.” Her pitch-black eyes opened then, pinning him in place just as the four Cardinal-red shackles kept her limbs restrained for over two centuries.

Indeed, he knew how much the female hated the manacles and chains made of red crystal. He was aware of how much she had suffered trying to recover some of her freedom. Even the ability to freely move one arm or a leg would give her temporary satisfaction. But even that was too much.

He knew of her agony and despair, because countless times he had wiped her black tears from her pale cheeks, wishing he could take her pain away.

She, who never cried, had allowed herself to break in his company.

She, who never broke, had allowed him to put her pieces back together.

She, who never loved, had allowed him to desperately and irreversibly fall in love with her.

And wasn’t love the most dangerous, fiercest weapon one could yield against the rest of the world? Wasn’t love the starter of countless fires that could burn the world down to ashes and ruin?

His fingers stroked the only red thing in the chamber other than the chains and handcuffs.

Her lips trembled at his touch as she exhaled. “Please,” she rasped. The darkness in her eyes glittered, begging for more.

More love, more passion, more desire.

More ways to make the remaining time of her curse less lonely and desperate. More ways to keep her mind off the bloodshed she would inflict when it was over, and she was free again.

Because when that time came, the world would never be the same.

Nothingwould ever stop the queen again.

The male who loved her with every fiber of his being glided his finger from her red lips to her bare breasts, tracing them while the female slightly arched her back and held onto the stone underneath her, inhaling sharply.

The red crystal of her handcuffs and the rattling of the crystal chains echoed in the chamber.

Whenever the curse broke, he wouldn’t miss meeting the love of his life in his dreams. He wouldn’t miss the constant fear of waking up when he was with her, being torn away from ravishing her in this chamber.

Yet he would miss having the queen exposed and chained for him to devour. He would miss her compliance and the symphony of her moans.

He doubted an unleashed queen would ever be obedient again. And while he couldn’t wait for her to come back to real life and freedom in full force, he would not waste the few opportunities he had left.

His fingers roamed from her breasts to her wrists, and in case the shackles weren’t enough, he pinned her wrists down over her head.

His silver eyes glittered in anticipation, in admiration and awe.

He would never get enough of loving the Cardinal Queen.

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