“Step aside, quaffer, our business is not with you.”

“Isay is mine,” Karmuth gritted out with such conviction it was hard to argue. “Which makes it my business.”

“Vindica has no concern with a naturel. Your restrictions forbid you from mingling with her kind.”

“My restrictions forbid me from feeding off her kind, they do not limit my social interactions. Felroth has no concern with a naturel either, or did you not sign a treaty with Elverstone?”

The fae smiled tightly. “You do not wish to keep him waiting. Frankly, you are horribly outnumbered.”

I whipped my head around to see if I could catch any more of the dark-haired fae in the building, but it was hard to distinguish fae from humans in the dim flashing lights of the club unless they were standing right in front of you.

I saw Karmuth do the same thing with much more subtlety. His face darkened further, and I knew he had more success in finding the threat. “You do not wish to challenge me,” he growled.

I didn’t want to cause any more trouble. If they did sign a treaty with Elverstone, they couldn’t harm me.

I tugged at his shirt. “Karmuth, maybe it’s better if—”

“No!” he roared.

I swallowed hard. He held himself stiff as if ready to charge any second. I searched the crowd for Hiko and Regar, but they’d disappeared from sight.

My heart pounded harder. And then I felt a hand on my neck, yanking me away from Karmuth, my fingers pulling at his shirt before they loosened. I was dragged across the dance floor, away from my protector.

“I do not enjoy being kept waiting,” a cold, slithery voice rasped close to my ear. The fae lord. I faced away from him and couldn’t see what he looked like, but he sounded hideous and absolutely terrifying.

“Karhhhkh—!” My breath was cut off, and I choked on his name, but he whipped around anyway, murder in his eyes.

“Let her go!” Karmuth charged my captor, who squeezed my throat harder.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

My vision blinked, but I saw Karmuth stop, hands tight fists at his sides.

The fae bared his teeth. “Don’t worry, I’ll get her back to you in one piece. My people don’t kill unless provoked.”

Karmuth was swiftly swallowed by the crowd as the fae lord guided me toward the staircase. I stumbled on the steps, hit my knee, and barely kept staggering in front of him. He discarded me in a leather chair once we reached his booth with an overview of the whole club.

Sitting down lazily next to me, he picked up a cigar, leaned against the backrest, and threw a leg over his knee. His gaze drank me in and made me shiver.

“Oh please, don’t tell me you preferred his company?” the Felrothian rasped. “I can make you feel things he never could.”

He had no idea what Karmuth could and couldn’t make me feel. He had no business interjecting himself in whatever it was that we had between us and looking smug while doing so.

“I don’t care if you’re the lord of all creation. I will never willingly seek out your company,” I spat with venom dripping from my tongue. My insides were roiling; the taste of tar filled my mouth, and my throat was burning.

He shrugged. “Not of all creation, dear, just Felroth. You’ll realise soon that my company is not optional. I always get what I want.”

One of his lackeys placed a drink in front of me. Something yellow and foamy. I eyed it with suspicion.

“It is not spiked,” the fae lord chuckled. “I take no joy in feeding off delirious prey. All those jumbled up emotions. No, I want a taste of all of that angry passion boiling in you. So much more savoury this way.”

I still didn’t touch the glass.

“You can’t feed off me,” I croaked. I knew nothing of the treaty Karmuth mentioned, but I was willing to bluff. I also hoped if the ring was still working it’d stop not only death fae but also emotion-feeders.

“You weren’t listening, were you? I always get what I want. Always.” He sucked on his cigar, breathing in deeply and then puffing out the smoke. “It’ll go a lot easier if I get your written consent, though.”

“My what?” I baulked as a piece of paper was shoved in my face. A contract of sorts, stating I willingly let him have at me. No way was I going to sign it. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“Easier for you, dear,” he said with a mischievous smile.

No. He needed me to sign to avoid conflict. My emotional turmoil was not worth war with both Elverstone and Vindica. Though he didn’t know my connection to the death fae, he had to know Karmuth wouldn’t go without retaliating should I be harmed in any way.

“Forget about it,” I snapped.

The fae lord’s eyes darkened. “An unwise choice, sunshine.”

He stood up from his seat and came to crouch in front of me. His hand snapped up to grip at my jaw roughly as he forced my eyes to his, only now noticing my defect.

His forehead wrinkled as his eyebrows furrowed, trying to make sense of my deathly black eye. I took my chance, knowing I’d likely not get a better one, and threw all my strength at him. He staggered but caught himself faster than I could make a run for it. His hand wrapped around my wrist as he pulled me back.

“Nice try, but that won’t be happening again.”  He positioned me between two of his lackeys that restrained me without his asking, their hold on me rougher than his had been.

“You are pathetic!” I shouted, fighting the two fae on either side of me without any success. All my frantic buckling did was embed their fingerprints on my arms where their iron grip tugged into my skin. “You’re pitiful!”

Attagirl, any more insults to spout while you’re at it? How about, wretched? Vile, revolting, diabolic? Why don’t you make him as angry as he’s made you, see what good it does to you?

I wasn’t in my right mind and not listening to that small voice of reason in my head. Gods, I hadn’t been in my right mind quite often lately and continuously getting into trouble did not look good on me. As it turned out, I got bold in the face of danger. I’d rather I’d shut my mouth.

“You act like you are all mighty and hold the power here.” I ripped at the holds on me but couldn’t get free. I wanted less to escape and more to just claw his face off. “You think you are the one holding the power here,” I laughed maniacally and saw him take a step back from my crazed self. I suppose insanity wasn’t one of the emotions he enjoyed feeding on. “You are under my influence, repressed by your urges. You are not in control. Not by a long shot.”

Neither was I. A wave of something nasty was bubbling up from where I’d tried to tuck the residing darkness.

I sneered, “I think it is time for you to ask yourself, are you the hunter or the prey?”

The fae lord’s eyes flashed in surprise before tendrils of darkness thrashed out from my chest in every direction very similarly to the delther’s many tongues and slammed into my captors. I felt their ecos filter through to me before they withered and fell to the ground. The fae lord managed to duck from my undirected attack, but I didn’t care. I made a run for it, the darkness clouding my escape down the stairs.

Chapter 21

KARMUTH

I PACED IN FRONT OF THE BAR, MAKING THE PATRONS SITTING ON high stools sipping their drinks anxious, but so was I. Regar patted me on the shoulder on my next round past him, but I shoved his hand away.

“There’s nothing you could’ve done,” he soothed, only serving to infuriate me further.

“I could’ve sucked the life out of him, drank him dry,” I growled.

Hiko shook his head and tutted. “Even I know that would have been a bad idea. We can’t afford a war with Felroth.”