They spoke quietly—mostly him—about his youth. How he’d come to the treetops, leaping from the branches to trust the air beneath him. The conversation was always light, never delving into the depths of darkness that pressed between them:
The prophecy, the Tenebrae looming, and the fact that she didn’t trust him yet let him touch her and hold her like this.
A few days later, there was the ball.
Vale had come to her and told her about it, parchment in his hands as he’d stood at the threshold of her room. He said it was needed—to show strength. Not just theirs, but Queen Samil’s.
There had not been another attempt on Luella since that day, but Bastian had found tension in the Fallen. Word of Luella’s abduction had been kept quiet, but they were sure others knew something had happened, for she’d suddenly disappeared for weeks as she healed. It was only just recently that she wasdeemed well enough to leave Graves’s island. She felt fine, but they didn’t want any markers of bruising or wounds on her body in case there were questions. The mark on her upper arm was a thin, pale line now. Tharen was almosttoometiculous in his healing of her.
Her body was wound tightly from anticipation and trepidation, but most of all from exhilaration. Graves hadshownher things. Things she never knew existed. The dark pleasure to be found in violent touches and harsh restraint. She loved it, but did not love him.
Luella doubted she could ever love him. Or Vale or Tharen. They were unlovable. But all in different ways.
Graves for his carefully built reticence. Vale for his indomitable cruelty. And Tharen for his icy harshness, like the crack of a whip against her flesh.
She loved Az. So much. He had been there for her when no one else had. She…
Could love Bastian.
Maybe.
Or maybe not.
Maybe love was too weak a word for what she felt for the vampire. What if she felt the complete opposite for him, and the two strong emotions were so closely entwined they blurred?
Luella shook the thoughts away, stepping into the lounge area as she passed the parted curtains. Sweat slipped down her back from having just come outside. But that wasn’t the only reason.
"Where have you been off to?" Bastian asked her, as he lay on one of the longer, plusher lounges, stone cup in hand and lips glistening red.
Her heart climbed up her throat. "N-nowhere," she replied.
The vampire arched a brow, sitting up and resting the stone cup on the low table. His red eyes took her in hungrily. "You don’t look like you were nowhere, pet."
She blushed, thighs tingling and lips swollen after her… lessons with Graves. "I was practicing my flying."
He stood and stalked toward her like a lethal, graceful predator. His scent wrapped around her as he reached for a tendril of her wind-swept white hair and brushed it away from her neck.
"Was flying all you practiced?" Bastian leaned down, mouth by her ear. The blood clinging to his lips brought the scent of iron. "You forget, we can feel what you do." He pulled away, fingers still brushing over the side of her neck and fluttering pulse. "Don’t lie again, pet."
Bastian let his hand drop, and without another word, he turned and left, swooping down to claim his cup as he did.
She stood there, speechless. "What?" she finally asked into the quiet of the room.
Footsteps echoed off the high, curved ceiling as Vale entered from the long hall that led to one of the study rooms. The dragon shifter saw her, paused, then canted his head.
"What happened?" Vale asked, nostrils flaring.
Luella shook her head. "I—Bastian."
The words seemed to be enough.
Vale huffed a smoky laugh as he walked toward her. He stopped well away, placing parchment on the cushion of a lounge. His golden hair fell into his eyes as he leaned over, and the midday light slanted in through the open archways, highlighting the faint golden shadow of hair along his jaw.
Vale straightened. "Come here, Princess Luella." He said her title like a promise. She hadn’t forgotten what he had told her, what felt like an eternity ago—she would be his Queen.
Luella took hesitant steps closer until she stood near him. Her fingers toyed with the chain of her bracelet.
"The ball is tomorrow evening. Emarelia said she wanted to come see you before then. She and Merath will not be in attendance."
