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In fact, there are so many things I could do to Althia right now. I’d fuck her in public if we weren’t both carrying a load of items for the mating ceremony.
Something about her has made me lose all inhibitions. She has unlocked something in me, something dark and spiked that has always existed, but has never come to the surface.
And the thing inside me, the thing that only Althia can access, is becoming more and more demanding day after day.
It wants to own Althia. To hook her on its spikes. It wants to swallow her in its darkness.
I need to make her mine, and I need to do it soon.
14
ALTHIA
“We can always just run away together. That would really piss my mother off,” Valkus says almost eagerly as we walk through the streets of the largest market in Pyrthos.
Every dark elf who can trade has a stand or a store there. Right now, it is busy and noisy, and the sun burns down on us as we try to navigate our way from one store or stand to the next.
We have a long list to get through today, and Valkus is starting to become tetchy.
It is quite difficult to ignore the dozens of dark elves, and even some of the humans, staring at us as we walk through the market together.
Valkus insists on having me take his arm while we walk, and with Nexus, his pet likar following us, we look even more bizarre.
“Your mother already hates me,” I admonish him lightly. “Let’s just do the traditional ceremony and get it over with.”
More and more dark elves are mating with humans, so Valkus and I aren’t that strange. But apparently, the noble dark elves of Pyrthos are slow to catch on because they do not hide their looks of disgust or anger at the sight of us.
I know that only Valkus’s family reputation and his own personal reputation are what keep many people from coming up to him and yelling at him for the mistake he is making.
The gods know that I cannot help but think that we’re making a mistake, too. Although that is something I’ll never say out loud.
“I don’t think I like the dress we just chose,” I say musingly as we stroll through the markets, towards the jeweler that Valkus wants us to see.
“You can change it,” he says immediately and lifts my hand to kiss the back of my palm. “You can have whatever you want, darling.”
“Thank you.” I smile and feel the tension I have been ignoring dissolve from my shoulders.
Being with Valkus is a strange experience, but there is a lot of good to it. I actually do like him a lot. And he takes care of me.
I can’t remember the last time I lived without fear twisting my stomach into knots. I cannot remember the last time I lived without anxiety sending jolts of shock through my body in the dead of night, forcing me awake.
I have been sleeping soundly since I met Valkus.
“My parents might not approve of you, at all,” Valkus says as we enter the jeweler’s store. “But they will want to make this whole mating ceremony work for them. That is why we are doing it the way we want to. Because if we don’t, it’ll end up being a mess of things we don’t like.”
Inside the jeweler’s store, Valkus orders a lot of jewelry, including a golden circlet for my hair, two golden armlets, and several rings.
I am exhausted when we finally leave.
“I think it is time for us to go home,” Valkus says, looking down at me with a soft smile on his face.
“Yes,” I say immediately. “I don’t think I can take any more hostility anyway.”
We both laugh as he flags down a carriage that takes us back to his family’s home.
* * *
Valkus’s home is empty when we arrive. We can tell right away. There is no sign of life. There aren’t even any zagfers around.
