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Arven
Her braids snappedin the air like pissed off snakes as she moved. If she could tell me what she needed, then I would be happy to help. Instead, I had to stand back and watch her panic as the walls around us slowly closed in.
I could hold them if we needed. Dropping my glamour would reveal my true form, but it would give me the size and strength we needed to keep the walls from crushing us. I wasn’t going to rush her; I refused. But I didn’t know if revealing the truth of my cursed form would be a good idea right after bedding her. Though I’d shown it before, Del had been unconscious from the poisoned bolt. She hadn’t witnessed the monster I’d become.
Del howled with frustration. The sound tore a hole in my chest and left it hollow. I told myself that she would understand. A woman who’d seen as much blood and horror as she had wouldn’t gape at my true form. I wanted to believe that Del would lay eyes upon me and see the true man beneath the monster.
Still, my heart hammered as I watched the walls press in from either side. The main living area of her private domain was longer than it was wide. Up here in the loft, the narrow walls were closing in dangerously fast.
“I can’t find it. I can’t find it!” She threw a blanket to the side. “I’m so sorry. I can’t leave without it. It’s the only thing that I have from my home.”
That was enough. It was all I needed to hear.
The glamour fell away from me, and the room suddenly seemed smaller. The walls weren’t moving faster. I’d grown two feet. Throwing my arms out, I braced my hands on the walls on their side of us. They shuddered and halted, but I could already feel them shoving harder, trembling with the desire to flatten us into nothing.
Del stared up at me, her lips parted and her eyes wide. I could see my red demon skin reflected in her dark irises. For a heartbeat, I expected her breath to shudder out of her an become a scream of terror. Then, to my surprise, the corner of her mouth flicked into an excited smile.
Without a word, she turned back to the pile of blankets, shoved her hand into the folds, and came up with a rough looking stuffed cat—the same one I’d sent to her home so long ago. The sight of it eased the burning pain in my shoulders. The walls could not crush the blossoming warmth in my chest that made me smile in turn.
Del clutched it close to her chest the same way a child might before she sprang to her feet and wrapped an arm around my waist.
“Let’s get out of here, big man. We need to find you somewhere discreet now that you’re all hot and bothered.” She slammed into my middle and shoved us both back off the loft platform.
Magic of the in-between wrapped around us and plucked us from the collapsing domain. Once more, we landed in the middle of a flower-studded fae court. All conversation stopped. At first, my heart shuddered because I thought the sight of me frightened the Seelie fae.
“You’reback?” the blonde queen snapped. She sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes, but I saw the smile on her lips. She didn’t try to hold it back and instead offered her teasing warmth openly.
Del never let go of my waist. She rested her cheek against my red chest as she didn’t mind casually cuddling a monster. When she turned her face into my skin and breathed deep, perhaps centering herself, I wondered if all of my concern had been misplaced.
She looked up into my eyes, and I saw none of the hesitation that I expected. She did not flinch or jerk back. When she looked at me, she saw the person that I wanted to be rather than the monster I’d become.
I couldn’t help the sharp ache that stabbed through my chest. I wanted to pull her up to my lips and kiss her deeply, but I doubted she would want me to do that in front of her allies here.
Eventually, we disentangled ourselves. We sat on the underground court’s floor with our thighs and shoulders touching, like we hadn’t just lost ground to the battle. Locke had taken Del’s home once again. She didn’t seem to be all that bothered, but I wondered if she somehow kept her rage under wraps.
This was two homes that Locke had destroyed. Could this trigger some buried feelings that she hadn’t yet processed? I took her hand in mine and squeezed to show her that I was there for her, but she looked up at me with peace in her eyes.
It was an expression I’d never seen on her—not even before the fall of Eveningwind. Back then, she’d been scared and skittish. Now, I only knew her to be angry and defiant.
What had changed?
She stood and brushed herself off with one hand, the other still clutching the stuffed cat. “I might have lost my domain. I’ll need some time to set up a new one if you don’t mind housing us for a bit.”
Rhoan, the Nightmare King with the chimera beast in him, clapped his hands together. His smile turned devious. I eyed him warily, but there was a spark of delight about him that seemed friendly. He loved having us here, it seemed, even if I’d appeared in the form of my true beast. The man barely batted an eye at it.
“I have a better idea,” Rhoan announced. “We are in possession of a warehouse apartment that needs someone to take care of it.”
Cerri’s face lit up when she locked eyes with her king. She nodded as she faced us. “The apartment needs upkeep, and I don’t have the time to do it on my own. If the two of you would like to stay there…for however long you might need, I would appreciate it.”
“You’re trying to get me to be your neighbor!” Del’s jaw dropped.
The friendly air was a stark change from the collapsing walls of the magical domain. Rhoan came up and clapped me on the back as if to saywelcome to the neighborhood. I had a whole kingdom to run, but I didn’t tell him that.
It wasn’t like my kingdom needed me right now. Calen had everything under control while I was away. He didn’t need my brutish reputation to keep the borders safe from elven invasions. The man used information to maintain peace, and it was admirable after having spilled so much blood.
Did Calen need me at all? Did my kingdom really need a monster king to look over the court? When I watched Rhoan take his child and toss her in the air, eliciting a flurry of giggles, I wondered if I’d walked the wrong path.
This man had everything I always thought out of reach. Like me, he had a beast inside him, but no one here watched him warily like he might snap and take out half the court. No one waited for his beast to take over.
