Page 6 of A Bond in Blood (Blood Bound Duet #1)

Chapter 6

T he weeks of my service dragged on. When I wasn’t being forced to follow Olen around, watching him fulfill brutal punishments on behalf of Ulrich, I was forced to lay on the cold rotted floor of the dungeon.

That was until Ulrich called me back to his bedroom each night, or day.

I’d barely begun to get used to the change in how these fae lived their lives. Waking before the sunset, living their normal lives under the light of the moon, and then falling into their beds right before sunrise. At least this was how Ulrich ran his court, given the towns and cities the palace surrounded were always awake and bustling when Olen and I ventured out.

Still, week after week, I ended up back in the dungeon after only a short time beside Ulrich. Due to my continued attempts to end his life. Slowly, to my amusement, his room was emptying of its furniture and any potential weapons.

The war was growing tiresome though. With each failed attempt, I was reminded of my uselessness. My lack of strength, magic and skill. The painful reality I’d lived my entire life.

It was one of the many reasons I preferred the company of mortals over fae. The mortals never expected more than kindness from their princess.

I shifted through the haze of the past weeks, of the events missed in my life at home. The celebrations. Moments in my life with my loved ones that I would never get back. Hours of sobbing on the prison floor in my mourning. Days of trying to predict when Ulrich’s notoriously cruel hand would finally come down on me. When he would finally punish me for my attempts, instead of laughing in my face each time.

The dungeon door slammed open, and I jumped. When I turned around, my eyes widened when I found Ulrich at the caged entrance.

He was, as always, in that damned mask.

“Where’s Olen?” I asked, jumping to my feet.

Ulrich’s head tilted down as his eyes scanned me from head to toe before an amused smile graced his lips.

“Preoccupied.”

“What do you want?” I asked.

The king glanced around the cell before running one finger against the damp walls. I couldn’t see his eyes from a distance, but the grimace on his lips wasn’t hard to miss.

“It’s rather disgusting in here,” he said.

“I wasn’t aware,” I replied, taking a step back.

He mimicked the motion, pointing out the open cell door. “Time for your service, Ursa .”

I shook my head in defiance. “No. I’d rather stay in here tonight.”

An alluring laugh echoed around the cell before he was crossing the space, pinning me to the wall.

“Get out there now,” he demanded.

My knees buckled in fear while I stared into his eyes.

“No,” I managed to squeak out.

“You make everything so difficult,” he replied as his hand wrapped around my wrist. “I have something fun planned tonight.”

He yanked on me, pulling a pained cry from my lips.

“Now, Brenna.”

My feet stumbled as he pulled me through the dungeon, passing the previously sleeping guard, now sitting alert.

“Stop!” I cried out, trying to rip my wrist from his strong grip. “Stop!”

Ulrich paused and he whirled around, his green eyes swirling with amusement.

“No.”

He pulled again and I stumbled once more, my feet catching the dirtied hem of my gown. As he guided me through the palace, I realized we weren’t heading to the bedroom. No, he was leading me back to that damned ballroom. Where the fae played and fucked in the open.

My stomach dropped. He’d said he had something fun planned.

Was I part of that plan?

My eyes drifted down to my gown, now stinking with the prison rot. No, I realized, he wasn’t going to defile me. He was going to humiliate me.

His hands slammed a door open and I jerked, finding us entering the ballroom from a hidden passageway.

“Too many prying eyes at the main entrance,” he winked.

I was almost relieved when I was suddenly, and violently, thrown out in the open. The sound of my body hitting the dais halted the previously deafening noise.

Hisses rang out followed by laughs and sneers. I kept my eyes down, refusing to meet the masked eyes of his deprived people.

Hands gripped the back of my head, ripping my hair slightly.

“This princess thinks she’s better than us!” Ulrich yelled out.

I bit my lip, fisting my gown while Olen approached in beast form with a sick glee in his eyes while his teeth held a mask.

He approached and Ulrich kneeled, grasping the mask before he placed it on the bridge of my nose. “Masks, every single night, princess. Don’t forget.”

Ulrich dropped my head after tying the ribbons at the back and I fell against the hard floor again. His footsteps rang behind me while he sauntered toward the middle of the ballroom.

“Each night we celebrate!” His voice took command of the room. “Each night we enjoy ourselves. We welcome lust and liquor. We fall into our darkest fantasies.”

His eyes barreled into my gaze with his last sentence, latching onto my hate.

“But there’s one among us who doesn’t deserve such freedoms.”

My stomach dropped and hushes filled the ballroom. I moved to run, when my body hit a solid wall of muscle and fur.

“Keep watching, princess,” Olen ordered, keeping me in place with his paws holding my gown against the dais.

Ulrich crossed the room in a flash, the blond of his hair like a streak of dark gold in the wind. His arms reached behind a large column and a shriek echoed across the space. He yanked the body of a fae man out of the shadows. A completely nude fae man, one who had obviously been too occupied to realize the king was speaking.

“Hello, Tristan ,” Ulrich sneered.

Olen’s claws dug into the fabric of my gown, but even if I had wanted to, I couldn’t look away. Ulrich pulled the man upward to meet his eyes.

“My grace,” the man choked out.

My eyes stayed on his face but briefly, I glanced, watching the fae around Ulrich gawk and point at the man’s erection quickly disappearing.

Not surprising but still shocking that he’d been in the height of pleasure and was now a public spectacle.

Cold infiltrated the room while Ulrich kept the man in the air. I couldn’t stop myself from staring at the muscles in the king’s arm and wondered how in the Gods he kept a full man’s weight up for so long.

“How long?” Ulrich’s voice boomed.

“Your grace?” the man cried out.

“Do not lie to me,” Ulrich replied, somehow lifting the man’s body higher for the entirety of his court to see.

“My king,” Olen growled behind me. “Would you enlighten the court on this beast’s crimes?”

Ulrich’s gaze snapped to our direction and my body chilled. His expression, even behind the mask, was one of death. An emotionless predator determined to make his kill.

“Traitor,” was all that Ulrich snarled. The word warming the cold of the room.

Tristan struggled in Ulrich’s hand, his legs kicking frantically. “Please—” he choked out.

“It’s a shame you were caught,” Ulrich replied.

Tristan’s eyes filled with terror, sending me into a frenzy of equal terror. The man lost control of himself and my heart ached in empathy when he relieved himself on the ballroom floor. Disgusted screams and gags filled the room, but Ulrich only laughed.

My eyes turned back to Ulrich who was now whispering something to the whimpering man. Something that caused the fae to relieve himself once more before the snap of his neck rang out across the ballroom. Instantly silencing the noises of disgust from Ulrich’s people.

The king tossed the body into his own filth before snapping his fingers and the music began again. Like it was all nothing. Like these monsters were so used to these kinds of acts of violence.

My body shook in place while the smaller creatures I now knew to be attendants gathered around the body, cleaning up the mess. Another followed beside Ulrich, offering him a bowl with what I assumed to be water and a towel to dry his hands.

Olen released his hold on me and I glanced down, realizing he’d somehow been dragging me to the seat beside Ulrich’s throne. Placing me near it like the object they both believed I was.

“How was that?” Ulrich asked.

I blinked, sitting slowly to try and prevent myself from falling down. He was speaking to me, but I couldn’t form the words to reply.

“Not entertaining?” Olen laughed.

My eyes darted between the two men. One staring at me with his elbow leaning on his throne, the other, a beast, admiring what I assumed to be people lost in their lust once more.

“We’re speaking to you,” Olen said without turning his eyes from the ballroom behind me.

“That was awful,” I managed to respond.

Ulrich’s amused smile turned vile, and he straightened in his seat. My eyes shifted when one of his naked fae women approached the throne, bending as though she intended for me to see all the Gods had given her. Only Ulrich didn’t welcome her to his lap, instead I watched him grip her cheeks roughly, pulling her face up to his.

“Go,” he snarled, throwing her away from him.

Her gasp made me feel for the humiliation he’d put her through before she ran off to the side.

“That was brutal,” Olen said. “I could have had her.”

“Then go and claim her,” Ulrich replied while he scanned the ballroom.

My eyes went down again, praying he would release me from this spot soon. That he would grow tired of whatever game he was playing.

“I would,” Olen paused. “But I can’t leave you alone with a murderous princess.”

I snapped my head up, eyes widening. “I could kill you both.”

Ulrich’s laugh echoed around me. “Brenna, you are as terrifying as a mouse. Perhaps even less. You’re only alive because you’ve become entertaining to me. I wonder when you’ll finally give up.”

I sat straighter. “I’ll keep trying. For the remaining twelve months. I won’t stop.”

“Thirteen,” Ulrich countered.

My feet were pulling me up before I realized what I was doing. My voice rose and I pointed at him.

“Thirteen? No!” I yelled. “It’s been thirty-one days. Three days past a full month. I have completed the first month of my service.”

Ulrich sneered at me, his hair brushing past the black mask covering half of his face. “You have attempted to kill me each night for thirty-one days. Do you really expect me to not punish you?”

“That wasn’t part of the terms you gave me!” I protested.

“Well, neither was your determination to kill me,” he replied. “Sit back down, Brenna.”

I crossed my hands over my chest. “No.”

His eyes glared back at me, and I swore black flecks rushed past the green. “Sit down. My court is now staring.”

“Let them stare,” I challenged.

Olen’s eyes widened beside Ulrich.

Slowly, Ulrich stood from his throne. I braced myself for his wrath but gasped in shock when shadows appeared from behind him, climbing up his body as though they were part of him.

The lights in the room dimmed while whispers filled the space.

“My guest!” Ulrich yelled, not meeting my gaze. “Did you all know she’s tried to kill me each night?”

“Traitor!” voices chimed together.

“What should I do about that?” he laughed.

“Remove her head!” one voice yelled out.

“Force her into courtesan servitude!” another laughed.

Ulrich’s smile coursed through my body as he approached. His shadows wrapped around my legs, holding me in place. After flipping me to face his people, his hands wrapped around my body, but I could do nothing to fight him off.

His hand crawled past my stomach, traveling between the plains of my breasts, stopping at the base of my neck.

“Should I give them a show?” he whispered into my ear.

“I hate you,” I replied.

The hand on my neck gripped me, not enough to choke the air from my lungs but enough to bring out a shocked gasp from my lips.

“I hate you, Brenna,” he muttered. “I hate your presence in my home. I hate your useless attempts to end my life. Me —a God of Millenia—a beast who could wipe out everything and everyone you love with a snap of my fingers.”

His hand released my neck, and his shadows climbed higher, forcing my hands to my side.

“I hate that I am duty bound to keep you here for the next year,” he continued as his shadows moved me from the dais and toward the middle of the room. “You think you hate me ?”

I was forced to my knees, his shadows holding my chin up while he approached me. “You don’t hate me yet,” he laughed.

His fingers snapped and the bodies surrounding me scattered. Heavy footsteps approached behind him and my eyes laid on Olen.

“Yes, your grace?” the beast snarled.

Ulrich grinned. “I think one for each day she’s attempted to end my life.”

My mouth opened to cry out, trying to decipher what he was referring to, but his shadows went down my throat, choking out my ability to reply.

Tears sprang from my eyes with the shock of his attack and the cold of the shadows. My hands went to my throat, a useless attempt to fill my lungs once more.

Olen cleared his throat. “Yes, your grace.”

“Prepare her,” Ulrich said with little emotion.

His shadows were gone as quickly as their attack and I fell against the floor, gulping in fresh air. I braced myself, ready for him to enact the revenge I’d been waiting for. Waiting for him to allow whatever he planned to defile me. Only I didn’t expect Olen’s sharp teeth to rip my dress, exposing my back to the crowd.

“Lashes,” Ulrich sang out. “Traitors get lashes.”

More tears fell from my eyes along with the cheering cries of his court.

I tracked him while he held me in place and his shadows lifted my arms above my head. My dress slipped, barely stopping before my breasts would be exposed to the monsters before me. He circled me, his hand brushing against my hair.

“Thirty-one lashes, Brenna,” he whispered and his hands ripped the front of my dress down, exposing me. “Then you will truly hate me.”

I held in my cry from the cold of my exposed skin, ignoring the hungry eyes gawking at my body.

The first lash hit. Cold, hard, biting.

My body jolted in pain, but I didn’t cry.

Then the next one.

Three.

Four.

Five.

I counted each one, my arms shaking in his shadows, tears lining my eyes, refusing to let out the cry he was attempting to force from my lips. The sixth lash pulled a whimper from my throat, and I shook further.

“Kill me,” I whispered.

He leaned over me, pausing his beating. Gripping my neck once, he pulled me against him.

“That’s the easy way out,” he replied before licking the tears running down my cheeks.

I screamed in response, jerking against his shadows when another lash hit my back.

“Show no mercy!” a voice from the crowd yelled out, encouraging the show of depravity that I had become.

I focused my ears, trying to figure out where the voice had come from but laughed in shock and disgust when I realized people had resumed their fucking.

“I hate you all!” I screamed, hoping they would hear me over their moans.

“And we hate you,” Ulrich responded.

The next lash hit my back, harder, deeper, the blood instantly running down my skin, warming me from the cold. The pain—my head spun from it. I would have collapsed onto the ground if his shadows hadn’t held me in place.

“I hate you,” I whispered again as the next lash hit, in the same spot as before. The sound of my flesh breaking turned my stomach in knots while my eyes rolled to the back of my head.

I fell into darkness, allowing the pain to take over. Repeating my hate for him as I drifted away to the sounds of my flesh tearing, sending me right toward newfound vengeance poisoning my soul.