Page 46 of Moon Raven Rising
“You FAILED! The moment you allowed Dax to be taken from this very dungeon! You, Cano! Raelle will never be yours! You will be lucky if you ever walk out of this prison again!” The vein in his neck pops and throbs with his stained words as he yells at me.
But as he speaks the words, I realize that was the moment that changed my life. Brought me back to the Fae who I once called friends, and brought me back from the brink of death even after everything that I did. I didn’t fail. Not him at least. I failed fate; that is why I am being killed by the magic that I allowed to corrupt my soul. I’m being killed by the father I let corrupt my mind. I refuse to let him bring that fate to anyone else.
I tip my head back, and a wide smile breaks across my features as I stare up at the ceiling. A manic laugh erupts from my chest, and then I lock my gaze with the man who sired me. “They believe I am with them. A part of their heroic little team who have come to save their queen. Even you believed the lie.”
His eyes narrow on me, but I see in the moment they flare with what this could provide. The exact moment I know he will take my bait. I did learn from the best… I guess he can blame himself when he pulls the blade out of his back. A wicked glint lights in his eyes and as he opens his mouth to speak again, he is cut off by a ruckus in the hallway. Multiple guards run past us in the direction of the caves the dragons perch in.
Without another word, he spins on his heel, exits the dungeon, and closes the heavy door between us. I sag back to the floor, exhaustion and defeat weighing me down so much I can’t bear to stand anymore.
“He’s here. I sense it.” A craggy voice says from the corner, and my head whips in that direction.“When that which is hidden in the shadowed sea comes to light, guided by the bond, the shield in the night.”Heavy breaths fill the void before he speaks again. “It’s almost time.”
Chapter thirty-seven
My eyes snap open,but the darkness remains. Unseeing, but I feel everything. My body aches and burns with a frigid, icy heat. There is a tugging sensation that is growing, but as much as I try, I can’t seem to follow the thread that pulls me. Slowly I bring myself to sit up as I peel my clammy skin from the overheated, hard surface where I lay. A loud bang sounds from a door slamming open forcefully and hitting the wall behind it.
Blinking rapidly, my eyes begin to adjust to the dark, and I see the hulking figure steer toward me through the slowly dissipating aubergine mist. I fling my legs over the side of what I see now is a dias, and memory of what I am doing here flashes through my mind.“Soren.”The name comes out more like a deep rumble from my belly as I remember what he did to me.
Lifting my eyes to the man who now stands in front of me. I’m met with a glacier stare. His blue eyes are sharp like ice shardsof loathing as they pierce through me. Taking in the state of my body and the room I’m sitting in. I am frozen as I watch his eyes stirring like an oceanic storm with his thoughts.
“What have they done to you?” He growls through clenched teeth, and I watch his chest begin to rise and fall rapidly, but his words don’t affect me. Slowly, I slip from the stone altar I was placed on and tilt my head as I eye Osiris. It occurs to me what this could mean.
“Theyroyallyfucked up,” I say as his eyes fall down my body. I follow his stare and realize my body is shrouded in shadows. As the dark power ripples and waves like a dress of water, it eerily pools at the ground around my feet. It laps at Osiris’s boots, where he stands with wide eyes, taking in the scene.
His head begins to shake as he takes a step backward. “I—I can’t fix this. I can’t bring you back from dark magic, Raelle.” A deep V forms in the center of his forehead as my teeth rake over my bottom lip and a vicious smile spreads across my face.
“I don’t need to be fixed, Dragon Prince. Don’t you see? They haven’t broken me. They have loosed the arrow on my restraint. The power that I so tightly held secret can finally be…free.”
“I don’t understand…” The prince continues his slow retreat. “Where are they? Soren and Thames?” He asks, looking around the dank space.
“Hopefully close,” I respond candidly. Voices break out in a frantic commotion down the hall and echo to the chamber we are standing in. Soren’s voice I recognize among them, and my smile deepens. Osiris has the good sense to look scared of the vengeful queen who stands before him, but it’s not him who I seek to maim.
“Osiris, I’m still on your side, or have you so easily turned your back on me in what seems like a time of great need?” I ask, and he narrows his eyes on me. In the distance, I hear Bracarva howl, and his head swiftly turns in her direction.
“Bracarva needs me.” His gaze turns back to me, the storm now a raging endless ocean. “Against my better judgment, I still trust you. Even—with all of this.” He gestures down my body to the dress of shadows I’m draped with.
“Good. We are still going to get what we want, but Prince?” He bristles at my request but keeps his attention on my face. “Follow my lead.” With a quick jerk of his head, he storms out of the room. Without his scrutiny of me, I’m finally able to really take in how I feel. The magic that is rippling through me and the icy heat I feel streaming through my veins.
I understand what they were trying to do, and to any other Fae, it may have turned out very different…
Closing my eyes, I feel a familiar essence brush my senses. A tingle runs down my spine; a hum at the center of my chest. My eyes snap open, and my heart seizes as a new shadow darkens the doorway. The muscle in my chest pounds with fervor as two eyes of molten lava burn through me where I stand. His hair is overgrown and the scruff on his face is longer than I have ever seen it, but even before I laid eyes on the man, his soul caressed mine with its dark touch.
The force of his gaze punches the air from my lungs entirely. My lip trembles, and my legs threaten to send me to my knees at the sight of my dark king.
“Dax,” I breathe his name like it’s a prayer to the gods. He takes no more than a glance at me and what surrounds us before he closes the distance between our bodies. And as though he is taking his first breath after being dragged down in the deep depths of the Creale Sea, he gasps as he wraps me in his strong arms. Tears fill my eyes and spill over the edge, finally given reason to allow it.
“Are you really here?” The words come out a muffled cry as I bury my face into his neck, and he does the same.
“I’m here. Fuck, I’m here, love.” His hand finds its way to cradle my head. His fingers snake into my hair, sending shivers to cover my already cold skin. His eyes worriedly skate over me then settle on my eyes. Flicking back and forth, his worry grows. “Your eyes,” his thumb brushes along the side of my face in repeated strokes as his eyes stare unblinking into mine. “It’s the same darkness that’s riddled Cano, isn’t it? Who did this to you? Soren?” He questions rapidly, his eyes never leaving mine, and it makes me curious as to what he sees.
“They tried. The shadows they gave Cano did nothing to me. They gave me something else this time…” Dax’s eyes finally leave mine and trail down my body, watching as the shadows dance along my skin. His lips part and his eyes narrow and glow like molten copper as they burrow into me. “They can’t give me what I already have, Dax.”
“They’re mine.” A dark smirk pulls to his lips unlike any I’ve seen before, and then they are on me. Crushing, bruising, frantically, he steals my breath again with his mouth, and I allow it.
Welcome it.
My arms wrap around his neck as I throw myself at him. My legs help me climb up his body, and I hug him like a tree as our tongues battle in a dance of pure need. Tilting my head back, he groans with need as his tongue and lips taste the skin on my neck. His hands tremble as they roam over every inch of my body. His teeth graze the sensitive skin at my throat, and he nips at my shoulder. With a snarl, he rips the small amount of fabric that covers my breasts. The shadows instantly caress the skin of my hardened nipple, bringing a shudder through me and an arch to my back.
Bringing us to the center of the room, he lies me down on the dias where I lay, but mere minutes ago in a very different situation. His eyes flare as he steps closer between my legs, andhis hands trail my vibrating thighs. With a snap of his finger, the dress crafted of pure shadow magic falls from my milky skin, and he laughs. The sound of it is so jovial and so unknown to me that I pause.
