Page 22 of A Kingdom of Death & Darkness
“Ask him yourself,” he tells me with that taunting smile of his playfully pulling at the corner of his sinful lips. Then he tilts his head and looks to the door.
I pull back immediately when my eyes meet the brooding darkness of the King’s gaze.
“Please, don’t stop on my account,” Thorn says with a lift of his hand.
He folds his arms back in place against his solid chest as he continues leaning against the arched doorway, watching me and his brother and oh, my god, why did I kiss him? My feet shuffle, and all the anger I held for this man just moments ago is now fumbling awkwardness, but I try to steel my spine and pretend to remember why I came here.
Why did I come here? Why is Carver so enigmatic? Why can’t I think when he’s around? Why is my mind so hazy and filled with lust and need and,,,
“Am I bonded to you?” I ask, and suddenly, I find that rage I’d lost in the darkness of this room.
Carver’s lazy smile pulls into a full smirk.
“Now you’re asking the right questions.” He circles me with taunting steps. “Ask some more, Crymson. Ask him.” He juts his chin toward his brother like it’s all a game and I’m just a piece the two of them are toying with.
I turn, though, and face Thorn. He doesn’t move, but there’s a softness in his eyes where normally there’s none. And so, I do. I ask him.
“What am I to you?”
He takes a single step and lifts his hand to me, but I shove him away.
“Answer the question.”
“Crymson, just trust me,” he says in a disgustingly gentle tone.
“You want me to trust you? I don’t even fucking know you!” My words climb the walls and shower around us.
“She’s got you there, brother,” Carver adds, and the glare the King shoots him is deadly.
“You can trust me,” he says, ignoring his brother and ignoring the taunting circle the man encloses around us as he prowls the shadows.
“You pretended to be my kin or my fucking family or whatever when you know, you know how badly all I’ve ever wanted was a family! How fucked up is that?”
Silence bleeds into the space that separates us. I left men who cared about me to come here. Seven is hurt because of him. Because of his lies. My heart hurts with every beat it takes, but I step forward and get right up in his face before I lose the nerve.
“If you’re not my family,” my words clip out with shaking violence, “you’re nothing to me. And I’m leaving.” I shove past him, but with one big hand, he clamps a hold of my wrist and pulls me back to him.
“Crymson, wait,” he pleads, and I’ve never seen so much desperation in one man’s eyes.
Fuck that desperation.
“No! You’re nothing to me!” and I pull away, bumping into Carver and thrashing against the hold his brother has on me until I can’t breathe. The panic sets in. Memories of survival claw at my mind. Sweat and fear consume my body in a flash flood of too many feelings. His eyes dart across my face with realization.
Then he lets me go.
But not before he says the quietest, saddest words...
“Crymson, you’re my soulmate.”
FOURTEEN
Crymson
“Soulmate?”I repeat, staring at the fae man in front of me. “How can I be your soulmate when you barely even know me?”
Thorn studies me carefully. “I know this doesn’t make much sense to you?—”
“You’re right,” I interrupt. “This doesn’t make sense. So explain. How about you start with the lie you told me.”
