“I don’t want to fucking know, mate,” he says. Without a reply, I storm off through the crowds and to the back of the room, using the secret wall to get into the throne room. Seb always goes here when he wants to escape the world around him, but I’ve never known him to bring a girl back to this place. I’m sure Ryker has once or twice. I hear Daesyn’s laugh, followed by the sound of Seb talking as the wall spins. Neither of them notices me as I step behind a sword, watching them both lying on the steps up the throne. Daesyn’s perfect and curvy body is on show in her dark blue dress, and the urge to kiss every bit of her exposed tanned skin is all I can think of for a moment. Her black hair, which looks soft and silky, is falling around her shoulders in waves, and I want to know how her hair would feel in my hands. I want to know what it would be like to kiss her, to own her body and soul.
“Mortals can be enchanting, can they not?” Queen Annalee Husk softly whispers right behind me. Appearing out of the shadows, she walks to my side. Seb and Daesyn are too busy drinking and laughing to notice us, and we are too far away for them to hear our conversation.
The queen touches my arm, and I resist the urge to flinch away from her touch. I don’t have to look down at her to see how she looks at me, the desire building in her eyes. If I wanted to, I could have her in my bed in two seconds flat.
But I’d rather chop my own dick off with an axe.
“Some are, yes,” I counter, keeping my expression neutral. No one can suspect how I feel for Daesyn, it would ruin many of the plans my mother and I have put together so I can stay here and not in Olympus.
“I am surprised to see affection in your eyes for this reaper girl,” Annalee comments, watching Dae with me. Daesyn’s laugh is as enchanting as she is, but that is not the main reason I like her. It’s her bravery, it’s how fearless she is in the face of everything. It’s the shadows I see in the corner of her eyes that she never lets win.
It’s how she reminds me of myself, and yet I feel myself losing control when I am around her. The memory of showing her my past comes to mind. That was a stupid fucking move. Since when do I ever show anyone my real past or even think of it myself?
I felt pity for her past, the flashback she showed me of herself, a little girl lost in the mortal world.
Annalee keeps on talking when I don’t reply. “Affection is not something I ever thought I’d see from you. Ever since you were sent here, you’ve been cold and distant from the mortal world. You longed for the gods.”
“Perhaps,” I reply. She isn’t wrong. When I was here as a teenager, all I wanted was to turn eighteen and find out who my parents really were and go home. Only adults can enter Olympus, a cold rule of the gods, and now that I’ve been up there, I never want to go back.
“She has no god blood in her soul, it would be apparent if she did, like my bloodline. Therefore she cannot be a mate to you,” Annalee dryly comments, a vindictive snip to her voice.
I turn and look at her for the first time since she came in here. Annalee might be beautiful by some people’s standards, but to me, she will always be a cruel monster who treats her son like shit under her shoe. “Some people are more beautiful and enchanting than the gods could ever be. Why do you think demi-gods exist?”
Her face tightens, and I turn away as she replies, “It still stands that you will bring that girl nothing but heartbreak, and it seems my son is already quite closer to her than you are.”
She is right, he is.
And it’s for the best. I tighten my hands into fists as I walk away, hearing Daesyn’s laugh following me and begging me to come back. To tell her I’m here, to fight for her.
But for the sake of her and myself, I keep walking.
Falling for a mortal would be a sin against the gods…and they have other plans for me nevertheless.
Chapter 22
My breath catches as I stand on top of a cliff, looking over an impressive ocean in front of me. The ocean is calm, and the sun is setting in the distance, bursting bright oranges and dark reds across the sky. The colours are reflected in the sea, and I suck in a deep breath, loving the millions of little waves and the smell of the saltwater in the air. I feel free for a brief second, until I realise I cannot move, and the panic sets in.
I’ve never been the one to be scared, but right at this moment, I’m nothing short of terrified.
Fear cripples me as I hear his voice and feel him standing right behind me.
“Such pretty black hair,
To fall through the air.
Will you die, little faeling?
Or will you survive, to be my forever living bride?”
I grit my teeth as I start walking to the edge of the cliff, my feet once again moving of their own accord.
“When I find you in the real world, whoever you are, I’m going to have fun stabbing you a million times!” I manage to scream, even though the words feel like an empty promise. How can I find the person doing this if I can’t see him to know who he is?
My feet eventually find the end of the cliff, and small pebbles fall over the edge, yet I’m powerless to do anything but watch as they fall into the sea below.
“This, my dear, is naught but a warning.
Figure out the cursed rune, or you will be wanting.”
I scream as I step off the cliff, the rushing air whistling past my ears blocks out all the sound, and I gasp, sucking in the salty air like this dream is real. My leg slams hard into the sea first, and I cry out from pain only to suck in a deep gulp of freezing cold water.
Then the world turns to darkness, and I thank it.
I wake with a cry, reaching straight for my leg and pulling back the sheets. My leg hurts like a bitch, and as I push my pyjamas down, I see the long red mark all down my leg, and my knee is really swollen.
“How did that happen?” Mossy asks me, his voice all groggy. I pull my pyjamas up and slide to the edge of the bed.
“Training this morning. It’s nothing, Mossy,” I gently tell him. He doesn’t believe me, I can see it in his eyes, and I’m so freaked out by these dreams that I know I’m being a shitty liar.
“Tell me the truth, and I will go and get Sword to make you a big cup of coffee,” Mossy demands, watching me with those big intelligent eyes.
“I’m having bad dreams, and in the dreams, there is a guy, and he hurts me. I think he gets off on seeing me in pain,” I start off. “But when I wake up, the things he did to me are real. Like this on my leg, it was when he forced me to walk off a cliff and fall into the sea.”
“Forced you?” Mossy asks. “The fucker needs his balls chopped off.”
I smile and pick Mossy up. He wraps his little arms around my neck. “Someone is fucking with me in my dreams, and he will mess up. I can’t see who he is, but I will find him. I know how he sounds, and that’s a start.”
