Page 10 of A Kingdom of Death & Darkness
Shivers crawl across my arms at the sound of his warning whisper.
Then he steps back, leaving me fumbling down until my unsteady feet stumble back to the floor. And he keeps walking backward, his smirk seeming less amused and more saddened with every step he puts between us. Shadows crawl across his shoulders little by little, devouring him like a twisted dream, one I hope I’ll never forget.
“I’m on the lowest floor if you ever need someone you can trust.” He waits in the doorway, lingering there in the hungry shadows.
A thousand confused questions slam through my mind. I want to ask him about the Fae King. About the Dark Lands. About everything.
“I won’t,” I say instead.
“You will,” he says with his annoying smile. And then he winks, turns on the toe of his dark boot, and leaves.
I explore the rest of the castle at my leisure, mostly just checking into rooms and seeing what’s here. I don’t find anything else of note, but I do stumble upon a few women gossiping about the King.
“I heard he punched the Vampire Prince right in the face,” one of them giggles just as I come around the corner.
“I heard he ripped his arm off,” another says, her eyes wide.
Their gazes all jerk to me as I appear, surprised. “He didn’t do either of those things,” I correct them. “There wasn’t even a fight.”
The three fae women blink and glance at each other. “Not even a little punch?” one of them asks, a bit disappointed.
I chuckle. “Unfortunately, no. Though I could have done with Boris getting a good ass kicking.”
They giggle. “Couldn’t we all?”
I turn to leave, but before I disappear, I turn back. “Oh, could I ask a question?”
“Sure,” the nearest one says, and her eyes are so pale, they sparkle like diamonds.
I bite my lip. “What’s on the lowest level of the castle?”
She blinks. “Oh... um, that would be the dungeons, miss.”
I sigh. “Figures. Thank you.”
And then I leave them to their gossip, my mind full of vampires, fae, and the strangeness my life has become.
SIX
Christian
“I just wishyou’d be more involved in your Kingdom! Claim a Promised of your own. Maybe take on a wife and child to carry our title. Is that too much to ask?”
I blink up at the aging King staring down on me with disappointment lining his gray eyes.
“I’m sorry, what?” I ask, leaning back a bit further in my chair and losing my focus entirely when the large council door at the back of the room opens without a sound and Rorrick’s broad shoulders slip inside.
A pang of interest startles my chest, and I rise to my feet before my father has even finished sighing.
“Please excuse me,” I say to the table of counselors, and their questions rise in tone the further I stray from the table.
“Christian!” my father adds on top of the rumblings of frustration, but his words are cut short when I grip Rorrick’s enormous upper arm and guide him right back out the way he came.
“Did you see her?” I ask the very second the door closes behind me.
He nods silently as a maid slips by us, our attention lingering on her small frame until she turns the corner and is out of sight. I can’t help but note there’s no excitement in his eyes, no reassurance.
How is he so calm when she’s with them? I can’t protect her. I can’t even feel her bond anymore, and that loss alone is making me fucking crazy.
