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“Then she is mine,” Hades said nonchalantly , studying the angry young woman.
His words were followed by the blaring of the alarm, the melody announcing a perimeter breach.
“It’s been less than two hours, and they’ve already fucked something up,” Cassimere sighed.
I turned on my heel and left the holding cell, going to find out what—or who—had triggered the alarm.
To say I was genuinely surprised that Duvessa had managed to walk out of the damn infirmary would be an understatement. Those too fucking incompetent to lock a door were being beheaded this very moment.
I found her myself, ensuring she came back to me and didn’t get snatched to the other side.
She now lay draped across my bed, her tempting little body hidden beneath a pale chemise and burgundy duvet. I’d been watching her sleep for the past hour, specifically the rise and fall of her chest. Even resting, she was one of the most stunning creatures I had ever seen.
I had been searching for the demi-demon and her comrades since Zenith fell to chaos. Those Duvessa would interact with never gave her up, even when they hung from a torture contraption, their limbs torn from them. Soon, I found her though, as I always did.
She slightly stirred and shifted under the blanket before rolling onto her side, never waking from peaceful slumber. Only when I reminded myself that she was in the clear did I truly begin to relax.
After far too long, my queen was home, in my bed, exactly where she belonged. With her securely beneath the citadel roof, I could begin furthering my agenda.
~5~
The second I opened my eyes, my head began to spin. I took a breath and sat up, willing it to stop.
That’s when I noticed my skin had been scrubbed with a strangely familiar blossom scent, my hair brushed back to its usual silky texture, and I was no longer naked.
My breathing no longer labored and the pain was now an ache I couldn’t compare anything else to.
Something was still very wrong.
A fireplace off to my left cast dancing shadows across a gold-colored ceiling
I kicked the heavy duvet from my body, needing to get it off my clammy skin. The mattress beneath me felt like a cloud, clearly one of high quality, which had me scanning this new room, taking it all in.
The furniture was all high class baroque; even in the near dark, I could make out the beautifully hand-crafted headboard. The walls were the same burgundy as the bed linens and the carpet had a matching damask pattern.
This was a male’s space. The bed smelled like expensive cologne, something that had become a rarity.
Feeling a tingling sensation as the hairs on the back of my neck rose, I looked around the room again.
My heart thudded in my chest the second my eyes came to rest on him. He sat in one of the chairs positioned near the fireplace, the same one that had been empty just seconds ago.
The bedroom doors had never opened, so he had to have been in here with me the entire time. What senses I did have let me know right away that this was a depire.
He wasn’t moving; his chest didn't rise, and he never blinked. My voice abandoned me. I glanced towards one of the windows, tempted to dive out of the damn thing and hope for the best.
Turning my head back in his direction, I steadily rose from the bed. I took a slight step to the side; eyes radiating intensity tracked the movement.
He stood up, the movement so silently fluid I would not have believed he’d been sitting had I not seen it with my own two eyes.
The man was a mountain taller than my height of barely five feet.
“Do you know who I am?” His voice. It was the one from the room of horrors, smooth and masculine wrapped in silk. This revelation did nothing helpful for my mental state.
“You’re…the king,” I nearly mumbled.
Without him lifting a finger, the small lamp on the nightstand flickered on. I swallowed at the small show of power. It did not bode well that Reyes Straykova was alone in a room with me, or that he was looking at me as a predator does their prey.
I had so many questions, but before I could voice a signal one, a cramp twisted my gut so severely I nearly doubled over. My internal temperature continued to raise steadily, skin going from clammy to a cold sweat.
This was different than from the first time I woke. This time, there was a need beginning to take root deep within me.
Having never felt anything like it, I couldn’t voice what I needed. My eyes flashed to Reyes who stood by, regarding me silently.
“What have you done to me?” I breathed through another cramp.
Ignoring my question, he came closer, movements still far too fluid for a man his size.
