“Everything he’s done has been for your protection, from the necklace he once gifted you to his mating vows to his visits here in the Midnight Fae Realm. He’s not trying to hurt you, Camillia. He’s trying to win your affection and to prove his own worth.” Lucifer finally pulled away from my neck, his eyes blazing with passion as he stared down at me.
I gazed back, confused and a little lost.
I’d expected him toconfidehis intentions. To finally reveal his punishment.
Not talk about Melek and his affections for me.
“He’s sad, Camillia,” Lucifer whispered. “I can’t tell you how rare an emotion that is for Melek.”
I blinked at him. “He’s sad?” I didn’t doubt that it wasrare. I hadn’t known Melek for nearly as long as Lucifer had, but I knew enough to understand how abnormal that had to be for the playful Hell Fae Prince.
“For lack of a better explanation, I think he’s feeling rejected.” Lucifer canted his head, our bodies still swaying to the beat, which hadn’t changed much over the last two songs. “Is it your intention to reject him as a mate?”
My eyes widened. “I…”
“You’d been about to tell me that you didn’t want my prince, yes?” he prompted, referring to our conversation from minutes ago. “You said you didn’t want my Source, then started to say you didn’t want something else. I assume you were going to name Melek. Am I wrong?”
I wasn’t sure how our conversation had evolved into my feelings for Melek, or how we’d even ended up on the dance floor.
Typhos Lucifer wanted to kill me. He hated me. He thought I was a threat.
Yet he was holding me with care and trying to have an intimate conversation with me.
All while my mates watched.
I glanced their way but found the three of them conversing amongst themselves. It seemed they were no longer concerned about me being in the arms of the Hell Fae King.
Maybe now that nothing terrible had happened, they didn’t see Lucifer as an immediate threat.
Do I see him as a threat?I wondered, thinking back to what he’d said about never being able to hurt me, how I was tied to his heart and soul.
Yet he’d also expressed his desire to end me.
An honest depiction of our relationship, I supposed. Perhaps the most honest he’d been with me to date.
Oh, he’d admitted to wanting to kill me before, but tonight he’d said desiring something and doing something were two very different actions.
“Camillia?” he prompted, trying to draw my focus back to him.
My gaze slid his way, only to pause as a head of blonde hair caught my eye, the glimmer shining beneath the moonlight. I swung my attention back to it, the color reminding me of my mother.
But the woman was nowhere to be seen.
A trick of the light?I wondered, frowning.
Lucifer’s lips grazed my cheek. “I want an answer, Camillia. If you’re going to break my prince’s heart, I need to know so I can pick up the pieces and heal him.”
“You’re not going to threaten me into being with him instead?” I asked, somewhat surprised by my own response, as well as the tone I’d used to issue it. There was a lot of deep-seated anger inside me, perhaps being bolstered by that foreign voice I’d heard twice now in my thoughts.
“If you don’t see how worthy my prince is, then your punishment will simply be to never experience him in all his beauty,” Lucifer said, a hint of anger underlining his tone. However, it wasn’t the kind of anger that frightened me. It was a different kind. The kind spoken by a man possessive of his mate.
He twirled me as a new song started, his movements a little harsher than before. Not violent, but dominant. Like he was trying to bring me to heel.
“Melek is a gift from the heavens,” he told me. “A beautiful soul. I may not always agree with his actions, but everything he does is for a reason. He’s not malicious. He’s pure. And the games he’s played with you have all been in your favor.”
“They’ve all pissed you off,” I countered.
“Indeed they have,” he agreed. “But that’s because Melek is pushing me on purpose. He believes you’re tied to our future. Sometimes, I understand why. Right now, I do not.”
