Page 24 of Bartered by the Shadow Prince (Bargain with the Shadow Prince #3)

Convergence

ELOISE

I want to know what the hell Brahm was talking about, but Damien shakes his head and whispers, “Not here.” By the time we reach his room, I’m hot with anger and buzzing with frustration.

I didn’t hear everything that transpired between him and his brother, but I could’ve cut the tension with a knife.

I’m just glad Damien hadn’t started something with Brahm.

If Banias didn’t take his head off right then, he’d likely face even more brutal consequences later.

Once the door is locked behind us, he turns to me. “Brahm has stationed guards along the boundary of the property. We can’t leave again without him knowing. We’ve been warned not to encourage those resisting his rule.”

I draw back. “What? So, we’re prisoners here?”

His expression grows grim. “I can get us out, but we only have one shot. The moment the king and queen know that we’ve betrayed them, we will be considered traitors to the crown. There will be a price on our heads and an army of umbrae gunning for us.”

I swallow hard. “When can we go?”

He sighs through his nose. “First, we need somewhere to go. There is something I must do, little bird, and I must do it alone. I can blend into the darkness and shadoweave past the guards, but you’ll never make it on foot.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I promise to tell you upon my return, but now, I must…go.” His skin ripples with his need to shift.

“Wait!” I raise a hand. “What did you find out about your father?”

His fangs lengthen with his growl. “Only that my brother is lying. I don’t know exactly what happened to my family, Eloise, but I suspect he’s covering for the dark elf at his side.

My brother isn’t a murderer, but he is an opportunist. I will find out, and I will have my revenge.

Now, little bird, timing is everything.”

I kiss him on the cheek. “Go.”

He shifts into shadow and filters out the window.

I don’t believe for a second that Brahm and Nevina rose to power out of some sort of altruistic sacrifice to save the kingdom.

Damien’s father didn’t starve to death or die from complications of any disease.

According to Ariadne, the wasting disease doesn’t even exist. King Malek was murdered, and while we have no proof of who is responsible, I think Damien is right—Nevina and her father gained the most from the royal family’s demise.

We need to make a plan. I’m sure whatever Damien is doing, he has the kingdom’s best interests in mind. If I still had my magic, I’d make Nevina pay for what she’s doing to Stygarde. If I still had Phantom, we wouldn’t just leave this castle; we’d find a way to free this kingdom.

Restlessly, I head for the bedroom, where I left my parents’ grimoire. I need to try calling Phantom again. I saw Malek’s ghost tonight. Maybe something has changed.

I stop short when I see a trunk at the foot of the massive bed with a scrollwork A on the lid, a thin painted thread looping around to a needle that forms the bar in the A. That’s Ariadne’s crest! When did this get here?

In a rush, I open the chest and light up at the dresses I find carefully folded inside.

I’m still wearing the powder-blue atrocity that Nevina gave me, and I hastily try to rid myself of the garment.

I end up tearing a seam. Once I see the dress is ruined, I rip it completely off me, roll it into a ball, and cast it aside.

I never plan to wear any of the queen’s gifts again.

I lift one of the dresses from the chest. It’s a gorgeous, rich evergreen, which has always been one of my favorite colors.

But as I start to put it on, I realize it’s not a dress at all but a three-piece set, leggings with a cropped top and an overcoat that fastens like a corset to give the appearance of a dress.

Once I have it on, I notice the shoes she’s included.

They fit like they were designed around my feet.

Everything is comfortable, stretchy, and light.

It feels like I’m in athletic gear masquerading as a ball gown.

A shiny wooden box under the set catches my eye.

Damien asked for accessories. Could it be a necklace?

I open the box and find the most gorgeous diadem of black diamonds and emeralds.

I walk to the mirror and place the circlet of stones around my head.

The central emerald falls like a teardrop at the center of my forehead.

I’ve never been one to spend too much time staring into a mirror, but the effect is stunning.

The green brings out the color of my eyes, and my wild red curls are somewhat tamed by the diadem.

Ariadne is truly a master of her craft.

One thing is missing, though—well, two things, to be exact—that I plan to make a habit of wearing again from this day forward.

I dig in the drawer for where I’ve stored my daggers and strap them to my thighs.

Remembering what Cassius taught me, I go through my exercises, practicing each move until I can draw my daggers without getting tangled in the overcoat.

To be effective, I have to plan for the movement of the skirt, but I can do it.

With my vampire speed and agility, I have it figured out in no time.

Deep lunges. Big, sweeping steps. Timing so that the cloth twirls out of my way before I strike. I can fight in this.

I spar my way across the room. Practicing until I can do every move Cassius taught me effortlessly. I sense a presence behind me and instinctively whirl around, raising my dagger. I stop with the tip pressed under Damien’s chin.

“Are you going to kill me little bird?”

I sheath the dagger and pull him into my arms. “Where did you go?”

“I caught up to Tempest on her way back to Aendor. She’s agreed to take us in. The nature of her coastal territory means we can easily hide, even leave Tenebris by ship if we have to.”

“That’s great,” I say breathlessly, although the idea of running from that bitch Nevina makes me bristle. People like Brahm and Nevina need to be stopped. Fleeing means we give up and Damien cedes his homeland to those bastards. It doesn’t sit well with me.

But as he draws back, his gaze roves over me, his silver eyes turning stormy. “You take my breath away. Eloise, you look like a queen.”

“Don’t say that too loud. You might get me killed.”

He growls. “Goddess help anyone who might try.” He runs his nose and lips along my throat. “You are and always will be my only queen.”

“Damien—” We should talk, plan our escape, but his nearness awakens heat deep within me. Like muscle memory, my body reacts, pressing into his warmth, needing the pleasure and release it knows only he can provide.

“You found the dresses.”

“You brought them for me?” I run my hand down his chest, not caring about the dresses at all.

“Ariadne couldn’t safely come to the castle, so I met her halfway and delivered them here myself while the queen was distracted with her Harvest Festival meeting. Ari will be pleased they fit.”

“I’ve only tried on one so far.”

He works his fingers into the strings of my corset. “Well, little dragon, let me help you undress so you can try on another.”

He pushes the overcoat from my shoulders.

“You want to watch me try on dresses?” I tease, lifting my eyebrows.

He takes my jaw between his large, rough hands.

“Eventually.” His lips crash down on mine, all the pain and frustration he’s undoubtedly been carrying loaded into the way our mouths thrash, our tongues tangle.

He kisses me with an urgency I haven’t felt since Night Haven.

He invades my mouth, his tongue stroking mine, our fangs long enough that we have to angle ourselves to work around them.

Even then, we nick each other, the kiss catching my bottom lip and his tongue.

Our blood mingles, and he moans into my mouth.

It undoes something inside him. His hands are everywhere, untying my corset, pulling my top over my head. I toe off my shoes and grapple with his fly. He smokes out of his pants instead, forming again in front of me, completely naked.

Damien’s shadows swiftly shimmy my bottoms down my legs, leaving me naked as well. But when I reach for him, he dodges my touch, searing me with a wolfish smile.

“Oh no, little bird. I’ll have you just as I want you tonight.”

Shadows circle my wrists, my waist, my ankles, lifting me onto the bed and spreading me open, as wide as my limbs will go. I test the restraints, and although I’m not motivated to fight the shadows, I find them secure.

Damien kneels at the end of the bed, his gaze raking over my vulnerable flesh. My most sensitive parts throb with need, and I feel hot and wet between my quivering thighs.

“Damien, please,” I beg. This is torture. I need him to touch me.

He grins a fang-filled smile, and still more shadows lick up my ankles and wrists. A thousand cool tongues massage my calves, the backs of my knees. My inner elbows. He caresses along my armpit and the outer curve of my breast with the lightest touch.

My nipples harden to sharp peaks, and I arch my back as shadows lick across my belly, and lower still, nearing the place I desperately want more friction, the place aching with the need to be touched.

But the shadows stop at the tops of my thighs and slowly slip down the outside of my leg before beginning their climb again.

More shadows tease my collarbone, cool ribbons winding behind my neck.

They sift through my hair, my scalp, awakening, tingling.

Cool air weaves around my nipples, cascades beneath my breasts.

I moan and arch, all my cells reaching for him, desperately wanting more. “Damien…ahh!” The shadows slither along my spine, a cool tongue working between the mounds of my butt cheeks and teasing my back entrance. I inhale sharply, and the sensation is gone.

I growl and tug against the shadows. “Damien, I need your hands on me, now!”

“So impatient, little bird,” he grits out through a wicked grin.

He’s enjoying this, possibly more than I am!

He crawls between my legs and lowers his mouth toward the aching nub between my legs.

The heat of his breath is pyromancy. It’s dark, sexual magic.

I arch for him, desperate. With a laugh, he finally obliges me.

His tongue skates between my folds. Its slightly rough texture draws another moan from me as tiny shocks of sensation cascade out from that single point of contact.

He devours me, alternating between spearing, sucking, and flicking until I’m writhing against his face and on the edge of ecstasy.

The sounds I’m making are more animal than human. I’m so close, teetering on the edge.

The shadows return, pushing into me, even as his tongue continues to flick across my bud.

The fullness and pressure are everything.

Patterns of light explode behind my eyelids.

My head tips back and I cry out as I fling myself into intense sensation, my climax carrying me into a weightless sea of light.

When I come back down and open my eyes, I see Damien staring at my inner thigh. His fangs are elongated, and his expression is famished.

“Do it,” I order him.

He shakes his head, his expression suddenly tortured. “I don’t deserve it,” he mutters. His gaze flicks up to mine. “I don’t deserve you.”

I growl. “Why would you say something like that?”

He sits back on his heels, his erection painfully hard, the muscles of his throat swallowing over and over. He turns his face away from me.

“Because of her? Valeska assaulted you, she stole your confidence in your own strength, your own worthiness.”

He squeezes his eyes closed. “Eloise…”

“And now, your last cornerstone of safety, your home and your kingdom, is gone.” Damien is a warrior at heart, but he’s been beaten down and stripped vulnerable through no fault of his own. What he needs to realize again is that as long as he gets back up, the fight isn’t over.

Now he looks at me, and his expression is wretched. “I have failed to give you the life you deserve.”

I use all my strength to wrench my wrist free of his shadows and sit up to grab his bottom jaw.

“You listen to me. You’ve denied yourself long enough, Damien.

Stop punishing yourself for something you could not control.

You are free, and you are my mate. No mate of mine will wallow in self-loathing and denial.

I will have all of you—or none of you.” I squeeze until my nails bite in.

“Her ashes sifted through my fingers, Damien. She is gone, and I will not allow her ghost to come between us. Do you understand me? Now, feed from me. As your mate, I command it.”

All the shame and reticence bleeds from him. The tension in his shoulders releases and his scowl turns into a shallow smile. He shoves me back against the bed, grips my outer thighs. He strikes. His fangs sink deep into my femoral, and I go over the edge again.