Page 20 of The Fallen Fae King

“Likely.”

“At least give King Daire to me to break in the punishment pits.”

When Lanlin hesitates, as if thinking hard, my chest rises and falls in panic.

I’ll endure it. I won’t break.

It means spending the final days of my life apart from Freya, however, when my only wish is to stay at her side.

I need to keep her safe and live out the last precious weeks I have with her.

Is that too greedy of me?

“Like you tried to break me?” Lanlin smooths his hair out of his face, adjusting his crown. “You’re forgetting that I told you that nestmates should be more important to a Blood than anything in their life. Mine asked that there be no blood sacrifice tonight. I would kill…or die…for them. I will honor their needs, and that especially means not sacrificing my nestmates themselves.”

I slump against the altar in relief.

Kill or die?

Lanlin was listening to me.

But then, Lanlin leans down to whisper against my ear, and my skin goosebumps, “I will marry Freya and you tomorrow on the Blood Moon, completing the bonding ritual. But don’t believe that you are forgiven, my Raven. My fangs will be in your throat to complete our deal. Then, fae, I will decide whether I will make you my King of the House of Sin, as Freya shall be my Queen, or drain you dry.”

CHAPTER THREE

Royal Vampire Nest, Blood Kingdom

Lanlin Sin, Alpha Shadow Vampire King

I roar with fury as I stalk into my royal vampire nest, where I had imagined spending the night before my marriage with my new mates.

It is also the night before I sacrifice myself for them by throwing myself into the Void…the night before I die…

They don’t know that.

I am sure that if they did it would bring them joy.

Have they ever seen me as more than the freak? The monster?

Freya and Daire are spending the next day in a guest chamber, rather than the punishment pits like Isis would like.

Yet I can’t bear to be close to them right now.

Why must this room still smell of them?

My betrayers, my soulmates, my everything.

I take a deep breath of the delicious scent of summer roses in full bloom, along with sweet berries and sunshine, mingling with oak and frost.

By my heart, I need my nestmates.

I have dwelled in loneliness my entire life, but this is like having my twin cleaved from my soul all over again.

“Damn them to the Void!” I tip back my head, as tears drip from my chin.

I tear off my mask and hurl it against the smooth, whitewashed wall. The antique mask cracks down the middle.

Like a whirlwind, I tip over the small table where I sat and helped my mates prepare for the ball, spilling the perfumed oil and gold and turquoise beads over the floor.