Page 3

With a stream of vile words pouring from my lips, I stepped into his room, the place speaking of wealth and power from every dark surface to the towering black walls.

I approached the iron rail ringing the firepit at the centre of the room where the flames had died low, my gaze moving to the tall stained-glass windows beyond it that depicted Leo, Sagittarius and Aries.

No light filtered through them now, the snowstorm outside hiding the moon in swathes of heavy clouds.

It felt as though the stars had turned from me, Pisces, Scorpio and Cancer drawing the curtains on the scene of this night and heading off into a deep, unawakenable slumber.

At the will of Kaiser, my fingers curled around the railing and they fixed there, like a shackle locking into place.

Now the adrenaline was subsiding, I felt the hot lick of blood against my skin, the bite of pain from the whip marks the Reaper had left on me and the sting of the Vampire bite on my left arm.

My thoughts turned to the Sky Witch again, my mind refuting the possibility of her death whilst considering the probability of it too.

Those Vampires had left a trail of horrors in their wake and the fact was, she’d been trapped down there with several of them and there had been no sign of her since.

My limbs were leaden as I thought over every scenario, every choice painting out a fate I could never have predicted.

If only I could go back, change what had been done-

The door opened at my back and the flood of cold in my veins was enough to tell me who had entered. A click came as the door shut behind him and then…silence.

The oppressive quiet sucked the oxygen from the air.

“Why did you bring me here?” I bit out, my sharp voice cleaving the atmosphere apart.

A silencing shield slipped over us, but he didn’t respond.

The sound of his footfalls moved my way, but I was unable to turn from the position he’d put me in.

I was a fly caught in a spider’s web, listening as my monster approached, unable to do anything but await the feel of his fangs.

I controlled my fear, moulding it into something hard, but no doubt this Fury could taste it beneath the layers of my deception.

The sound of chair legs scraping across the floor made my teeth grind and he slammed the wooden seat down beside me with a bang that set my pulse racing.

“Fucking asshole,” I hissed, trying to turn my head to look at him, but I was still frozen in place.

“Turn,” he commanded.

His possession forced my limbs to do so without me willingly complying.

I found Kaiser standing all too close, his chest still bare, head tilted down and his soulless eyes fixed on mine.

His gaze didn’t stay there long, moving lower to inspect me with a scrutiny that made my skin itch.

Heat flared along my flesh, my breaths coming too hard to not be noticed.

His muscles flexed while he continued his analysis of me, drawing my attention to the hard lines of his chest and the firm planes of his abs.

He was evil wrapped up in a suit of temptation, but there wasn’t a single part of me that could desire a creature like him.

I had a thousand questions, all of them burning my tongue like acid, but the only one that made its way past my lips was the simplest of them all. “Why?”

“I thought I made myself clear, silka la vin,” he said in his deep baritone, his voice empty of the raw anger I’d witnessed from him down in that chamber.

“You are the Void. And I will deliver you to Mirelle the moment we are free to leave Never Keep. This soul-tie forged between us will ensure you remain compliant in the meantime.”

I scoffed at him and his idiocy. “You wasted your precious Fury magic on a wild, unfounded assumption.”

He remained silent in answer to that and Blue – no, Calcifiend – crawled out from his trouser pocket, clicking his tongue and looking between us.

I pursed my lips as the traitorous lizard took off upon his scaly wings and flew up to perch on top of the four-poster bed.

“Arms up,” Kaiser instructed, and I gazed coolly at him as he used his possession to make me deliver on that command.

He took hold of the hem of my shirt and I cursed him in a stream of Cascalian as he dragged my tunic over my head.

Some of the blood that had been drying over my injuries cracked and split my wounds apart once more.

I inhaled sharply as he tossed my tunic to the floor without care, a true fear finding me.

“Stop,” I growled forcefully, but he ignored me, simply using his power to make me shed my shoes and pants instead.

He was exposing me, one item after another, baring me to him.

Perhaps the hollowness in his eyes should have warned me of the kind of monster he truly was.

Perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised to find him forcing the clothes from my body.

If my fear wasn’t enough for him yet, then maybe the most monstrous part of him knew exactly what would cleave real terror from my soul.

“Place one hand on me and I will kill you,” I warned. “I will break through this power on me and destroy you.”

Kaiser ignored my idle threats, making me kick my clothes aside on the floor along with my dagger and stand upright before him in my underwear.

He inspected the whip marks, the thin lacerations not too deep but a couple of them might scar.

His gaze on them made them sting, like my body was rejecting the touch it could feel coming.

And as my eyes slid to my dagger, all I wished for was the chance to wield it against him, slice his throat before he could lay a single finger on me.

Kaiser’s jaw ticked as he took in my wounds.

I couldn’t guess at why he was hesitating or what he was thinking.

Violence was coming and there was nothing I could do but wait for it to arrive.

Abruptly, he turned and strode away across the room, disappearing through a door that gave a glimpse of a fine bathing chamber.

I released a ragged breath, relieved by his absence, but no matter how hard I fought his control, it still didn’t lift.

He took his time in there and all the while, my mind painted violent pictures of his body pinning mine beneath it, taking anything and everything he wanted from me.

Was this what Kaiser planned to use this soul-tie for before handing me to The Matriarch?

Feeding on the most tainted brand of fear he could conjure in my body.

My muscles strained against his power as panic set in. Torture, I could face. But this?

My throat filled with bile, my breaths coming too fast as the walls closed in on either side of me.

“Pisces,” I breathed. “Release me from these binds. Swear you won’t let him have me. I will pay any price for the chance at his death this night.”

Kaiser returned with a bowl of water in the shape of a flame, laying it on the floor and wetting a cloth in it.

“What are you doing?” I hissed.

“I have a duty to you now whether either of us care for it or not,” he said blandly, moving toward me and dabbing the warm cloth against the whip mark that ran across my chest.

I bit down on my tongue at the bite of pain, not giving him the satisfaction of wincing.

“A duty?” I spat, my mind reeling. “Because of this putrid magic you’ve cast on me? What else will it demand of us?”

“It will demand much of you and little of me,” he answered simply and my wrath amplified - though there was no denying the relief that was settling beneath it. He didn’t want my body after all and thank the fucking stars for that.

“There is no use in fighting it,” he added.

I tried to raise a fist to him to counter his point, but his possession kept me still as he worked to clean my wounds.

His gentle touches were at complete odds with what I’d expected from him.

In fact, I would have preferred he was cutting more marks into my flesh, showing the truth of him instead of this farse.

Hatred simmered inside me as he cleansed each of the cuts across my body then, without a word, he willed me to stand on the chair so he could more easily access the cuts on my thighs.

My throat thickened as I glared down at him, his hands moving the cloth deftly over my skin, painting trails of fire along the lines of my injuries.

He had done this before, I had no doubt; this creature was well used to blood.

His muscles were painted gold within the firelight, his body sculpted by the dancing shadows.

The scent of cinders and oak lay heavily on my tongue, making me draw in an involuntary breath, the taste of it alluring despite the source.

His soulless eyes never left my skin, moving from one wound to the next as he worked methodically to cleanse them.

I was too hot in his company, this room blisteringly warm, and every touch he laid upon me burned ever deeper.

“You said there were requirements to this soul-tie,” I said coldly, trying to ignore the sparks his fingers were triggering along my body.

“You should know that I will fight you on anything you demand of me. I will fight until either I am destroyed by this magic, or I break free of it. Either way, I will ensure I take you with me if this path leads to death.”

Kaiser glanced up, all too close to me, his breath skating against my chest and making goosebumps dance there.

“Fight all you like. Thrash and struggle and plead with the stars for your deliverance, it will do you little good, and you will burn in the process. Once you are done with your rebellion, you will come crawling back to my door begging to fulfil the demands of the soul-tie. There is no escaping that fate. But if you wish to do this the hard way, silka la vin, so be it.”