Page 770 of Hell Hath No Fury
Those eyes raking over me. Men screaming for mercy. A rough hand around my throat. The scent of burning on the air. A mouth moving down my body, breaking me apart. A many headed monster, the likes of which I’d never known, sewing terror into the world all around us. Words whispered in my ear, promises of worship and torture and a world beyond my knowledge. Blood spilling in the streets I’d grown up in. And the stars whispering secrets like every step I took was echoed by the chiming bells of fate.
I was so lost to the maelstrom of The Sight that I hadn’t even given proper thought to my destination until I realised my feet had delivered me to it already.
I stood before the ornate double doors which led into the starstruck suite and blinked at them as a voice reached me from beyond the thick mahogany.
“Are you sure about this, my liege? It could cause a mighty batch of pickle sauce if the stars aren’t in agreement.” Visions slammed into me.Fire, screaming, pleading, burning. War. Death. Carnage.
“Question me again and I’ll have your head along with the emperor’s,” a dark voice growled in response.
My lips parted in shock at the plainness of that revelation, of the threat that had just been made so baldly against my father’s life.
I took a step back, my death flashing through my mind, despite no visions rising to agree with such a fate, but the door was flung open before I could escape.
My heart leapt then free fell in my chest as I took in the huge man who stood there. His eyes were a pit of darkness, danger rolling off of him so thickly that I swear it stained the air aroundus almost as powerfully as the crackle of electricity which made the space between us sing.
He towered over me, his body powerfully built and features breath-taking even set in that cold and unyielding scowl. His strong jaw was lined with stubble and his deep green eyes fell to take me in with a cruelty unlike anything I had ever perceived before.
I should have been running. But I wasn’t. I was standing captivated by the sight of those eyes, that mouth, the hands I had felt a thousand times in my sleep and yet never truly experienced the touch of before. This couldn’t be real. But the memories I held of the moments I’dseenbetween us promised so much more than the darkness in his eyes.
“Do you know what we do with spies in Solaria?” the man growled, magic crackling between his fingers as he took a step towards me like he intended to flay the skin from my bones.
“It’s you,” I breathed, fear escaping me as wonder and awe took its place. I had been waiting for him without even accepting it as the truth. I’dseenhim coming. Though I hadn’t expected this…beast of a man.
I stepped closer, closing the distance between us until I was only inches from him, far closer than propriety would allow, especially with a stranger. Close enough to feel the power of all that darkness in him like it was brushing against my skin.
“Lady, step away from his majesty!” another man in the room barked but I didn’t look at him, just pressed the plate of fruit into his arms so that I could be free of everything but this creature before me.
The weight of the stars thickened in my throat until I found my tongue bending around words that seemed to spill directly from them.
“On the darkest day and longest night, I’ll guide you home with love so bright,” I whispered.
I should have been afraid. I knew that. But I wasn’t. For some strange, impossible reason, I wasn’t.
I reached out a hand and pressed it to his chest like I just needed to feel the thump of the heart which lay within.
He stilled, the magic in his hands blazing, but he made no move to force me back, like he could feel the power between us too, the taste of destiny on the air. I slid my hand up over the fine silk shirt he wore, trailing my fingers over his neck until I held his jaw in my hand, the bite of his stubble a thrill which set my pulse racing.
“I’veseenthe life we’re destined to share,” I told him in a low voice while he stared at me like I was some captivating creature who had him in my thrall. “Would you like toseeit too?”
The man’s gaze intensified if that was even possible and he parted his lips, seeming to remember himself, looking like he might refuse, but a flash of The Sight told me that he needed toseethis. A knowing smile drew my lips up.
“The truth will change the world,” I promised as I pushed the things I hadseenof us into his mind, more of our possible future unravelling itself too, as if it had been waiting for this moment to become clear to me as well.
I knew who he was now, not some foreign diplomat or courtier seeking favour, but the man who ruled over the lands beyond our empire. Hail Vega; The Savage King.
Fate called my name and it beckoned me north. To a land I didn’t know, and a king feared by all. And I found myself wanting to give in to its call.
CHAPTER FOUR
Hail
The magic snared my mind before I could stop it, and the brief flash of concern I felt over an attack vanished before my eyes as I fell into a future I had never dreamed I was capable of claiming.
Isawmyself enraptured with this woman, desiring her more deeply than I had ever desired anything. She looked at me the way no one had ever looked at me, with a love that seemed to defy everything I was and ever could be. In this future, we fell quickly into an obsession with one another, deeper and faster than should have been possible. Isawmyself taking her back to Solaria, declaring her as my queen and there was a smile on my face that made me look like an entirely different man. She became the centre of my world, the one good thing ever offered to me, and I coveted her like she could turn to dust at any moment.
The visions of this beautiful life surrounded me until I craved it with every furious beat of my heart.
She released me from the power and I was left staring at her, jaw slack and eyes unblinking. She was beauty embodied, from her ebony hair which was in a loose curls down her back to her hourglass curves and radiant bronze skin. But those eyes, those eyes alone I would have gone to war for. They were deepest brown , glittering with all the golden light of the star-littered sky.
