Page 11 of A Bond in Blood (Blood Bound Duet #1)

Chapter 11

I walked the halls of the palace with Olen in beast form at my side. It had been five days since my dinner with Ulrich. Five days of silence from the king.

And five days of exploration.

With my keeper always at my side.

In that time, I’d learned the attendant creatures were called troll, whose life purpose was to serve. At least from what I’d observed. I’d also learned Ulrich’s palace was surprisingly not just laid with stone but was carved into a mountain. A towering giant that overlooked the city of Muspell.

I’d discovered this when Olen had guided me to the library and the jagged edges of the mountain wall, making up the back of the room, had startled me. As Olen explained, the mountain was believed to have been the previous home of Muspell, the God the city was named after. Other tales claimed the mountain was Muspell himself, turned to solid stone when his fire had grown too hot and melted him to the island floor.

A shocking tale I’d never been told, despite my tutors’ determination for me to learn everything I could about the Gods the mortals bowed to.

My hands ran along the stone wall as we walked down the hall I’d come to call the looking glass, and I admired the windows running the length of the space. Brilliant glass panes that overlooked the city.

I found the beauty best at night. When the blood moon that had ushered in my birth shone through, painting the halls with a red no one in this world could mimic.

“Something on your mind?” Olen growled beside me.

“I was born under the blood moon,” I said airily.

“I’m aware,” he grunted.

I stopped my walking and turned to one of the many benches on the wall opposite to the windows. My gown shifted as I crossed one leg over the other and leaned back against the cold stone.

“My one hundred and fiftieth birthday is the last day of the blood moon.”

Olen settled before me, letting out a groan. “I’m also aware. It’s the last day of your service.”

“The service I’m not currently fulfilling?” I asked.

His black eyes met mine and then they rolled with annoyance. “Don’t question the king’s logic. He’s doing you a favor. He could have forced you into another kind of servitude.”

My stomach tightened but I grinned through my fear. “It has been some time…” I eyed the beast before me, watching the fur on his back ripple with my words.

“Ulrich says you’re rowdy.”

Olen was on all fours once more in an instant, his snout barely touching my nose while his voice rumbled. “Want to find out?”

I smiled, shoving him away. “Perhaps another time, beast.”

He laughed that unsettling laugh I hadn’t yet grown accustomed to before laying back on the stone.

“What are we doing?” he asked.

“You follow me around each day,” I stated. “What happened to performing the king’s duties? What happened to forcing me to watch failed deals being claimed?”

Olen’s shoulders rose. “I’ve been tasked to stand guard. Ulrich can’t have people believing he’s given you total freedom.”

“I want to write a letter,” I replied, forcing the request I’d been braving to ask out of my mouth.

“That’s not a request I can grant,” he replied.

“You could ask…” I stopped my words as the beast’s head rose once more.

“Princess, if you want the king to do anything you ask, you must meet his demands first.”

I groaned and sank against the stone behind me. “It’s been five days,” I said.

“You’re rather full of statements this afternoon.” Olen yawned.

“Tell him I’m returning him the other nine.”

Olen sat up, his eyes studying me. “Why?” he asked, the question echoing down the hall.

“Because I’m a diplomat,” I said calmly, standing from my seat. “I’ll meet his demands if he meets mine.”

The music boomed out from behind the ballroom doors, and I fidgeted in my place. It’d only been hours since my conversation with Olen, but Ulrich had responded quickly, alerting his right hand to have Adalie prep me for that evening’s ball.

The first I’d attended since he’d murdered a man ruthlessly and humiliated me. Marking my body for eternity.

The doors groaned open, and I held my breath, flattening my palms against my thighs. I expected the music to stop, like it had before, but it continued on. To my surprise, not one eye tracked me while I entered the room.

No, it was as though I didn’t exist in the sea of moving bodies. As though I were invisible amongst the music and moans harmonizing together.

How these fae managed to celebrate and hump one another night after night was almost admirable. Almost like they had nothing more to live for.

I made my way to the throne, where Ulrich sat with two naked women kissing his neck.

“Your grace,” I said, dipping into a bow.

The women didn’t stop their kissing. Also behaving like no words had been uttered. Ulrich grinned back, however, wide and bright. His silver mask illuminated his green eyes.

“Sit,” he ordered.

My jaw clenched but I bit the inside of my cheek. We were playing our game again. Dancing around each other, trying to crack the other.

I tilted my chin down and took my seat on the rounded settee beside his throne, crossing my legs gently.

“So obedient this evening,” he laughed.

I met his eyes, ignoring the tongue licking up his throat.

“I’m only trying to mend the fissures in our two kingdoms’ relationship.”

“Olen said you called yourself a diplomat. I’m impressed.”

The king leaned forward, brushing away the women. “What do you want, Brenna?” he asked, his gaze holding mine.

“I wish to make a request.”

“No,” he leaned back.

“You haven’t heard my terms, your grace,” I countered.

His laugh was loud, drowning out the music. “Your terms, Ursa ? Who said you were in a position to make terms?”

“I’m a princess.”

“And I’m the king. But please, tell me another fact everyone in this room already knows.”

“I want to make a deal,” I replied.

I hadn’t thought the words had come out louder than him being able to hear. I was proven wrong when the music stopped and gasped filled the room.

Ulrich’s body turned my way, his eyes wide.

“What?” he snapped.

“A deal? That’s what you’re known for, is it not?”

The king’s eyes went to his right hand silently gawking at me at the back of the dais.

“Olen.”

Olen stepped forward, tucking his chin down. “I swear, your grace. I did not know.”

The silence in the room was telling and I gazed out to find every eye on me and their king. Not one mouth moved. Not one body fidgeted. Even those that had been lost in their lust, were still fused together, but unmoving.

Ulrich stood, his command chilling the room instantly.

“You’re here because of a deal,” he said, not meeting my gaze.

“I’m here because of a deal a long-dead man made on my behalf.”

Olen cleared his throat, and Ulrich turned his attention to his right hand.

“She wants to make a deal.”

Olen nodded. “It would appear so, your grace.”

Ulrich’s laugh turned maddening, blood-chilling. The room darkened with his shadows appearing around him.

“Do you understand what you’ve just started?” he asked, turning to meet my eyes.

“No,” I replied honestly. “But I’ve been told you’re bound by your duty.”

Ulrich dropped to my level, his hand pulling my chin up. “I’m bound by blood , princess.”

“What is it you want?” he taunted.

“I want you to fulfill whatever request I make of you if I concede to your terms for another eleven months.”

Ulrich laughed. “Twelve months, Brenna.”

“Almost eleven months, your grace,” I replied. “You added my additional month. I will no longer fight you on that. I only ask that you allow me to do my best to obey my original servitude. If I do—you allow me one request. Whatever I wish. No protests.”

Ulrich’s eyes flared and I watched the same wisps of black I’d seen before flash in his gaze. He turned his attention to the people silently watching us. Making me wonder if he was considering their thoughts on the matter.

“Fine,” he replied.

I yelled out, not expecting the sharp sting of his shadows slicing across my wrist.

“What in the Gods?” I grunted, holding my hand over the now bleeding wound.

“A deal,” voices whispered across the room.

The whispers grew—like a chant. An old, soul-gripping sound. Shifting to something else other than the simple words.

A deal.

A deal.

A deal.

It didn’t stop, making my head turn while the blood flowed beneath my hand, seeping onto the stone floor through my fingers.

A drumbeat picked up, somehow thumping at the same beat as my heart.

What have I done?

I was terrified. Wondering if I shouldn’t have uttered those words. If I were a total fool to fall into the exact trap I’d been warned to avoid my entire life.

Ulrich sauntered around the dais, my blood dripping from his shadow blade. Then, to my horror, he licked it. With a smile that should have sent my soul straight to the Gods.

“Blood, Brenna. A deal is bound in blood .”

Without my control, I was standing and moving toward him.

“Open your mouth,” he commanded.

My hand fell to my side, allowing my blood to fall freely from my wrist once more. And I obeyed. I do not know why, but I did. I tilted my head back, opening my mouth for the Unseelie King.

“I control you after this, Brenna,” he whispered against my ear.

“Or I control you,” I replied back, letting something quiet and commanding inside of me to respond.

I kept my eyes open and my shoulders stiff, watching him slice his own blade against his palm. Not closing my mouth when he dropped three drops of his black blood onto my tongue.

My body jolted when the liquid ran through my body. A shock of pure power radiated through me. Igniting my soul.

Then it was gone. As quickly as it had come.

“A deal made!” his people’s voices screamed while he raised my bleeding arm into the air.

“A deal bound in blood,” Ulrich yelled back.

The ballroom picked up with the same sounds of debauchery while the attention of his people quickly resumed to their most natural instincts. Ulrich held me though, flipping my body to watch the moving bodies. Pressing my back against his chest.

His hand tucked a piece of hair behind my ear and his rough beard scratched my cheek.

“You do not know what you’ve just done, Ursa.”

I bit my lip, holding my hand to my bleeding wrist again, not replying. Because he was right.

I had no idea what I’d just set in motion.

The party raged around us, but I remained in my seat beside the king. I held my hands in my lap and my shoulders straight while I watched the bodies move.

A burn lingered on my tongue from the drops of his blood, and I glanced at him, my eyes following the trail of his hands running down the two bodies on his lap. The women he’d called back after our deal had been sealed.

One of them let out a laugh, biting the edge of his ear while the other pulled the tie holding his hair at the top of his head. The gold locks fell, landing on his shoulders.

His eyes met mine while their hands continued to explore him. There was a fire burning behind the green, determined to burn me with it.

I turned my head, finding Olen in the center of the room, throwing back a mug of ale while bodies circled him.

My patience had simmered to nothing.

I stood quickly, turning my body toward Ulrich.

“Your grace,” I said, forcing myself to bow before him.

His guests shifted their bodies, twisting to reveal Ulrich’s face and chest. A chest I hadn’t realized was bared by these women who’d spent the evening running their hands across his body.

My eyes shifted to the ink on his skin, my brows crumpling at the beasts on either side. Their elongated snouts almost met at the center of his chest, with their necks disappearing back toward his shoulders.

Ulrich cleared his throat.

I turned my gaze to his, cheeks burning, that he’d caught me staring at the strange markings.

“Not used to inked skin?” he asked.

The women on his lap laughed, one throwing her head back as she flipped her hair over her shoulder. A power-play to expose her breasts to me.

“I’ve seen inked skin,” I replied. “Just not markings like yours.”

Ulrich’s palms slapped the bare skin of the women on his lap, a silent command for them to leave. Both offered me an annoyed scowl, then ran off behind me. Likely to find another to fulfill whatever needs they’d hoped their king would have offered.

“I’m assuming it’s time for sleep?” Ulrich grinned.

I turned my eyes, finding the moon high and full in the sky.

“I don’t believe the sun will rise for several hours, your grace. Your court does not sleep before sunrise.”

Ulrich offered me a wink. “They do retire to their rooms far before the sun rises.”

I scowled. “I am tired. I’m still healing. If you remember correctly.”

His smile dropped and he nodded his head. His voice echoed throughout the chamber, halting the sounds behind me.

“Disperse,” he ordered.

There were no protests and no groans. The feet shuffled out quickly and the music ceased. Not one soul in the room dared to object to their king’s demand.

Footsteps approached behind me, and I turned my head, finding Olen with a fae woman and man. One armed wrapped around each body.

“My duties, your grace?” the towering man asked.

Ulrich smiled at him, then turned his body to face me. “I think you can disperse with your found bedmates, Olen. Have fun.”

The king kept his eyes on me while he addressed his right hand. Emphasizing the last sentence of his response.

Olen let out a laugh, pulling my gaze from the game Ulrich and I had begun again.

“If you try and kill him—” Olen unwrapped his arms from his companions and leaned forward. I let out a yelp when his palm gripped the neckline of my gown, pulling me toward his face. “I will cut off those delicate hands of yours.”

He dropped me, winking once then strutting away with his arms wrapped around the two silent beings who’d approached with him.

My skin warmed with rage. I was getting tired of being man-handled by these two. Tired of keeping my mouth clamped shut.

But I’d made a deal. A promise to do as I was told with a reward waiting for me at the end of it all.

I kept my back turned away from the door, holding Ulrich’s gaze once more while Olen’s footsteps retreated. The echo of the door slamming shut rang through my body, but I didn’t flinch.

“Bed, Ursa ?” the king asked.

I allowed myself to turn and look out across the now empty chamber. Noting the stone columns spaced throughout the room. The skylight, high above. The many corners hidden by shadows.

Places of darkness that appeared to have been deliberate for aching bodies to find their release.

“Do you like my palace?” His breath was hot against my neck.

I held still, only nodding my head once. “It’s sufficient.”

“That’s an understatement,” he replied, flipping me to face him.

His body towered over mine and I strained my neck to meet his eyes. We hadn’t stood so close. Not when I could easily stare into his eyes.

“We made a deal tonight,” he muttered.

I gulped. “Yes.”

His smile lifted. “You have no idea what’s in store for you.”

I stepped away, pushing him as I went. “I have eleven months to do what I’m told. To follow your terms. I know what I just agreed to.”

He was before me again, his hand hovering next to my cheek. I bit my lip, staring into his shifting eyes.

“You.” He stroked my skin. “Are.” Fingers trailed down, stopping at the base of my neck. “Foolish.”

Our war was on now. His words a warning cry on the field of our battle. An approval to ready my determination to best him.

“I can accept the worst you can do is ruin me,” I replied, wrapping my hand around his wrist.

“ Ursa ,” his fingers tightened around my neck, offering just enough pressure to force out a gasp, “you may just ruin me .”