Page 115 of The Forbidden Dragon King
Well, apart from the Shadow Vampire King.
And I hope that Lanlin is suffering,fucking burningin his solitary ruts and loneliness.
The betrayer and assassin deserves it.
“It’s like her soul is melded to mine,” Daire slowly explains, and it’s the first genuine thing that he’s said to me today. It’s also as if he’s speaking the words of my own heart out loud. “As if I could let her see the darkest parts of myself and my past, and she still wouldn’t recoil or run from me.”
“As if the love is destined,” I murmur, “not only because of fate but also a thousand tiny moments of connection, attraction, and spark. Like you want to grow old next to her like you’ve never wanted anything else before but are frightened that the intensity of that desire could lead you to do the thing you’ve feared the most…or to become it.”
Daire turns to face me, unfurling his wings. “Youdolove Spark.”
I pull a face at Daire calling her by the name that feels special between her and me. But it seems that the three of us share it.
I’m more okay with that than I was before.
“Oh,” Daire studies my expression intently, “aren’t we three in trouble?” Then he chuckles. “You keep putting me on my knees, but it’s our Omega who has the power here. Good for her.”
I take a step toward him, holding my hand out in orderto help him to his feet. “Accept my authority, and I will put our feud aside for Spark’s sake.”
Daire ignores my hand and leaps to his feet unaided himself. “Accept that we’re both in love with the same Omega and that she loves us asequals.”
The insolent brat.
I was trying to be kind.
I wave around at the cell. “You’re locked up. A servant. You wear my brooch, which marks you as my personal pet. We may both be Spark’s Alphas, Kitten, but I am also still King to you both. You, on the other hand, are only an irrelevance.”
“Am I?” Daire’s voice is dangerously soft.
My lips curl with contempt. “Do you think that I’m the villain in your story?”
“Nay, I know thatI’mthe villain inyours.”
A moment later, Daire crushes me against the wall, as his wings slam either side of my head. His fangs are bared in fury.
Now, I finally see you, fae.
My nose scrunches, and I can’t help taking a deep breath of his scent, which is like frost on oak branches as the dawn sun is just starting to warm the forest.
For a moment, I feel transported to a peaceful, ancient grove.
Then reality slams through me.
I burned that grove down.
Daire is trembling from the effort of pinning me, which must be draining him with this much iron in thecell’s bars. I’m still surprised by just how much he’s shaking.
Has he truly become this weak so soon?
My breathing speeds up but I don’t move to defend myself.
I could slip out any number of daggers that I have hidden in my tunic and stop Daire like the other times that he’s attacked me. In his weakened state now, it would be easy.
It gives me too much of a thrill to see him try.
It’s much better than watching him curled up and miserable over the leftovers on the dirty floor.
“Are we keeping a tally with our Omega? I’ll bet on that because I always win bets,” Daire snarls. “I mark our Omega, you tongue her. I bond her…oh, but wait,you can’t. Because I’ve bonded Spark, but you’re forbidden to. Who’s more of an irrelevance, boss, the fallen king or the one who’ll never bond or have an heir?”
