Page 33

MARLOWE

Dove had pulled out a dress like hers for me to wear, and after my bath and their omega orgy, we were back in the nest.

Florian seemed a little sad that I hadn’t wanted to fool around with him, so I asked him to cuddle with me for a bit—platonically, of course. I drifted off to sleep almost as soon as my head hit his chest, exhaustion finally catching up with me.

The sky was dark when a knock sounded at the door, waking us from our naps.

The omegas groaned, turning away from the sound and telling the visitor to go away, but a familiar voice had them perking up like meerkats.

“Is Marlowe available?”

“It’s Ezra!”

Dahlia squealed, running towards the door to let him in. I watched her smile disappear as her gaze lowered from his face down. “Oh, why are you so covered up today?”

She reached for the waistband of his pants, and he gently took her hand away, his face turning red.

“I’m sorry, I’m just here to see my sister, and she prefers I wear clothes.”

Dahlia huffed and stomped her foot, pouting like a child. “First the king’s attention, and now Ezra’s knot? Must she deprive us of everything?”

But then she turned around and laughed, jumping back into the nest with us and nuzzling into my side. “It’s okay, Marlowe, I forgive you!”

Her playfulness was infectious, but I was too mad at my brother to see him at the moment. “I’m not available, please leave.”

“If you need a companion for the night, I’m free,”

said Dove, biting her lip and raking her eyes over Ezra’s large frame.

I nearly gagged. Objectively, yes, he was very handsome. But he was still my brother.

Ezra smiled gently, although it didn’t quite reach his eyes. He was probably used to this sort of attention from them. “Some other time, Dove. Marlowe and I have a lot to catch up on.”

“No, we don’t. So kindly fuck off.”

Florian held onto me tightly, giving me a kiss on the top of my head. “You tell him, darling.”

River and Briar stood up, blocking Ezra’s view from where I lay. “We’re sorry, Ezra, but Marlowe doesn’t want to speak with you right now. Perhaps you should come back later?”

I loved these omegas. They might actually be effective opponents against my “alpha of alpha”

brother, because despite his newfound powers, he’d always been a gentle giant. He’d never be able to raise a hand against this group, even if they attacked him en masse, like a pack of rabid squirrels.

The image made me chuckle.

I could hear the irritation in his sigh, and even turning away, knew exactly what annoyed expression his face would be wearing. “Marlowe, come on, stop acting like a child.”

“A child?”

I asked, finally sitting up. “I’m sorry, so you faked your death, knocked me out, dragged me away from my pack to a fantasy land to hand me over to a psychopathic king with an omega fetish, and the fact that that makes me a little upset to the point where I need some space means I’m acting like a child?”

His eyes narrowed and he growled, the sound scaring the other omegas as they shrunk into their shoulders.

“Knock it off!” I yelled.

He tensed slightly and then chuckled. “Nice try, bitch, but you’ll never command me with that weak-ass omega bark.”

My new companions winced behind me, and I got even angrier. “What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You think you’re better than us just because you’re an alpha?”

My fingers began to tingle, rage building inside me. Had he really drunk all this “alpha male”

Kool-Aid in the past few years?

“It’s just biology, sorry that makes you mad. Alphas are stronger and better at leading, and omegas are only good for fu…”

Magic surged into my palms and exploded out in front of me, barreling towards his chest. He put up some kind of shield around himself at the last second, absorbing the impact, and then grinned like a madman. “There you go! Do you want to learn how to actually kill me? Because I came here to take you down to the training gym so we could practice your magic.”

My chest heaved as he looked behind me towards the other omegas, their faces still full of fear and shame. “You know I didn’t mean what I said. I was just trying to get Marlowe angry.”

“Yeah, maybe,”

Iris said, her voice low and crestfallen. “But it’s nothing we haven’t heard before.”

Ezra’s smile vanished. “I’m sorry, you’re right. That kind of taunting is beneath me. You know you have my utmost respect, right?”

She rolled her eyes and took my spot with Florian, waving her hand dismissively in our direction. “You might as well go with him, Marlowe. It would be nice to know an omega who could put an alpha in their place.”

I couldn’t really argue there. Physically, I’d never be able to defend myself against the king or an alpha shifter. Or anybody, really. I’d met twelve-year-olds bigger than me.

But with magic I might stand a chance. And I supposed it was worth spending time with my backstabbing brother to do it. “Fine, I’ll train with you. But those pants stay on, got it?”

His eyebrows lifted as he smirked, then he gestured towards my dress. “You might need a pair yourself.”

Briar hopped up and dug around in the wardrobe. “Florian, you have something she could probably borrow, right?”

Ten minutes later I had on some drawstring linen pants and an oversized tunic. “They don’t have sports bras here?”

I grumbled, crossing my arms over my chest as we walked down the hall barefoot. “Or shoes?”

Guards watched me carefully as we passed, but it seemed I was as safe with Ezra as I had been with the king, and beyond a few sniffs of the air no one made any attempts to move towards me.

Ezra chuckled. “I’m sure we can get you a proper wardrobe soon.”

“A ‘proper wardrobe?’”

I repeated in a posh British accent. “God, you sound like such an idiot.”

“What am I supposed to sound like?”

He intoned an annoying vocal fry and spoke again. “Like, Marlowe, I love you, but for real, you can’t girlboss when your vibes are lowkey cringe.”

Cringe was right.

“Honestly? Maybe you should just shut up entirely. Because now that I’m thinking about it, you’ve always sounded like an idiot.”

He messed up my hair and then hip-checked me into a wall. A nearby guard rushed to help me, but Ezra ordered him to stand down and he slunk back to his position.

“Why does everyone listen to you?”

I asked, preparing to trip him when he wasn’t paying attention. “Are you like a general or something?”

He looked up and pursed his lips in mock thought, clearly pleased with his high position. “Or something.”

My eyes widened and darted to something at his other side, and when he instinctively looked in that direction, I stuck my leg out, bringing him crashing to the floor.

He recovered quickly but the damage to his ego had been done, his cheeks burning red as a few guards stifled laughs. “Dammit, Marlowe,”

he whispered. “It’s hard enough getting these fae to respect you when you’re a quarter their age…”

I shrugged nonchalantly. “Maybe you should look where you’re going, then. Or maybe if you wanted to look cool in front of your friends, you shouldn’t have dragged me here. Because I’m going to make it my personal mission to embarrass and undermine you whenever I can.”

He led me down a set of stairs and laughed, wrapping his arm my neck and bringing my head into his chest to give me a noogie. “Ah, I missed you.”

I almost smiled, and then the context of our reunion came crashing right back into me.

I hated this so much. Ezra had always been my best friend, but this situation, what he had done to me—it was beyond fucked up. And yet he could make it so easy to fall back into our twin sibling rhythm. The teasing, the joking, the pranks.

I couldn’t let him lull me into complacency, keep me off guard. It would be difficult, but if I didn’t constantly maintain an active resistance, I might fall right into his trap.

The training gym was on the first floor at the back of the castle, and was mostly empty aside from a few overachievers, still going at it and looking like they were about to collapse from fatigue.

They had to be the same sort of fae like the king. They were all tall and lean, with well-defined muscles and not a strand of body hair. Their skin tones ranged from human to otherworldly, and with their pointed ears and elongated canines, they appeared even more feral than shifters did in their human forms.

Ezra huffed his annoyance at their presence. “After dinner they’re supposed to rest,”

he explained before telling the stragglers to leave.

They stopped immediately, passing by us and breathing in just a little too deeply when they got close. Ezra watched them carefully, and once the room was empty, he brought me to the center of one of the rings.

I rubbed my toe in the dirt, kicking up a little cloud. “Last time I was in one of these it didn’t end so well.”

Ezra snorted. “I disagree. Last time you were in one of these, you showed me you were ready to cross the veil.”

“Exactly,”

I sighed bitterly, stretching my arms behind my back. “Alright, teach me what I need to know so I can kill you all and go home.”

He approached me and adjusted my stance, knocking my feet apart and pushing my shoulders back. “Your posture sucks, but fine. Let’s first think about shifting. How do you call forth your wolf?”

My poor wolf, I hadn’t let her out in a long time. It would have been too dangerous in San Francisco or Chicago, and then as soon as I’d returned to Maiingan Hollow, everything had gone to shit. I wondered if, when this training was over, Ezra would let me release her for a bit.

I closed my eyes and touched base with her. She was anxious since our pack was far away. “I imagine a large, fenced-in pasture where she lives. And when it’s time for her to come out, I simply open the gate and let her through.”

“Good,”

Ezra replied. “You can learn to use your Aetherium in a similar manner.”

“Aetherium?”

“The magic, it’s a substance in every living thing in Vespera. You need to have a certain amount in your body before you can do things like shift or shoot icicles.”

“Oh right,”

I replied. “Archer found that, he called it Luminis.”

Ezra cocked an eyebrow. “Luminis? Huh, I think I like that name better than Aetherium. Well, in any case, all fae have it in their systems, some more than others, and how we’re able to channel and wield it depends on our genetics and fae type.”

“Starborne and Verdanshade?” I asked.

My brother grinned. “Well, it looks like the omegas taught you something. But do you know what makes us so special?”

“Besides the stupid prophecy?”

I asked, crossing my arms.

Ezra produced a small, glowing orb of light in the palm of his hand, and began rolling it back and forth over his skin, up his arms and across his shoulders. “Verdanshade magic is physical—they can manipulate the world around them. Their bodies, drawing a rock from the ground or water from a river, connecting to animals… anything that already has substance and is close by. Starborne magic is more abstract. They can summon elements from nowhere, wield light and shadows, induce pain or euphoria, influence minds to do their bidding…”

The ball of light in his hands separated into two figures, male and female. “We’re special because we’re both.”

My breath caught in my chest as I watched the little people made of light demonstrate their abilities—fighting, shifting, wielding…

“What do you mean? How can we be both?”

I asked quietly.

The figures disappeared into the air. “Mom was a Starborne fae and Dad was a shifter, or Verdanshade. Technically we shouldn’t exist—pregnancies that result from those pairings always end in miscarriage. At least until us. It’s what makes us so powerful, because we kind of got the best of both worlds. We’re strong, we can shift, and we can wield a wide array of magic, but we aren’t as beholden to our instincts. Like have you noticed alpha barks don’t really affect you?”

I perked up a bit at this. “Actually, I have.”

I guess that explained why Roland Thorne’s commands seemed to roll off me. “Is that why I don’t seem to fit the supposed ‘omega stereotype’ either? Everyone seems so surprised I’m not submissive.”

Ezra grinned. “No, that’s just because you’re a bitch.”

“Ha ha,”

I replied sarcastically. “But for real.”

“Omegas actually run the whole gamut personality-wise, but tend to have their willfulness beat out of them once their designation shows, because that’s what alphas typically want. Not me, of course, but you probably know what I mean.”

My face paled, and my heart bled for the poor omegas stuck in this world. Although considering I’d heard the same pre-conceived notions about omegas from shifters on Earth, had it been any better for them there?

“Anyway, that’s why Alaroth was so interested in us,”

Ezra continued. “If Mom and Dad hadn’t be so weak and short-sighted, we could have grown up here, where we belong. Instead, all they did was fuck us up.”

I had only recently learned the full extent of Mom’s failings when it came to raising Ezra, so now hearing that she wasn’t even a shifter herself, it made even more sense that she couldn’t relate to his struggles. He had a right to be angry, but the bitterness he refused to let go of had led us here, and had led him to thinking he could just give me away as a gift to a fae king in return for teaching him about his heritage and power.

“Ezra… we need to talk about why Mom and Dad left, and what they were afraid of. I know you worship Alaroth, but…”

A growl resonated through his chest. “Our king is going to unite the realms, Mar. Earth is a mess, and humans suck. You know that just as well as I do. The shifters there are pathetic, and vamps are vermin that need to be eradicated once and for all. King Alaroth will reshape and rule both worlds, bringing us into a new era of happiness and prosperity. Mom and Dad were just too stupid to understand his vision.”

Fuck, this was bad. Ezra sounded like a brainwashed cult member, Alaroth sounded like an egomaniacal fascist, and Earth was in big trouble. We had a lot of shit to work through, but the thought of this fae king being the one to solve our problems… yeah no, he was probably just going to kill or enslave everybody.

And apparently, he wanted me and Ezra to help him do that.

“People are going to die, Ezra. You realize that, don’t you?”

He shook his head. “Soldiers, yes. But the king has no interest in unnecessary casualties or genocide.”

“Unless they’re vampyrs,”

I replied sarcastically.

Ezra snarled as he turned to me, his face contorting in disbelief. “You really care about those abominations? After everything they did to you?”

“So far, it was nothing worse than what shifters have also done to me.”

“Yes!”

he bellowed, beating his chest with his hand. “And I killed them! All of them! Just to save you and bring you here! Why do you question my judgment and love for you? Haven’t I earned your trust by now?”

I saw red, my hands shaking as I raised one and pointed a finger at him. “You gave me to him like I was a prize, like I was a gift!”

He pointed a finger right back at me, poking me in the chest. “Your pack couldn’t stop the vamps, couldn’t stop the shifters, but I COULD AND DID! Do you really think after all that, I’d put you in a position where you’d be in danger?”

I grabbed his finger and pushed it away. He really had been blinded by his resentment. I’d been in this realm for less than a day and could already see right through Alaroth and imagine exactly the kind of world he’d shape. “Yeah, I think so! Because you’re too obsessed with that silver-haired despot to see that he’s manipulating you!”

Ezra’s chest began to heave, and he opened his mouth to yell at me again when a voice sounded behind me. “Silver-haired despot? That’s a new one.”

I jumped and turned around, finding Alaroth leaning against the wall with a bemused look on his face.

“God dammit!”

I yelled. “Would people please stop doing that?”

He walked towards us and laughed. “Ezra, you told me you would try to extol my many virtues to your sister to help win her over, but it appears she hates me more than ever now.”

Ezra dropped to a knee, becoming flustered. “My deepest apologies, Your Majesty, she…”

Alaroth raised a hand to cut him off. “Yes, she is a difficult one, isn’t she?”

He stopped in front of me and looked me up and down in disgust, pulling on the hem of my tunic and rubbing it between his fingers.

“Surely we can do better than this?”

he asked, gesturing to my outfit.

I tugged it back from his grip and smoothed the rough fabric down. “Surely I can do better than a fae fascist for a fiancé, but alas…”

Alaroth’s eyes darted towards Ezra, waiting for him to put me back in my place, and the look on my brother’s face was murderous.

“How dare you say that about him?”

he seethed.

“Shifters live in camps, Ezra!”

I replied. A flash of pain wiped across his face, but he quickly recovered, like a robot rebooting. “And he wants to ethnically cleanse both the worlds of vampyrs, for fuck’s sake. I’m sorry, but neither of those things sound like the makings of a benevolent ruler. I will never, ever love or follow a demented sociopath like him!”

A sharp pain erupted from my stomach, and I doubled over, gasping for air and relief. Alaroth’s eyes narrowed, fire and hatred growing in his cruel gaze as I fell to my knees, tears streaming down my face, my mouth open in a silent scream.

The pain was… indescribable. Like I was being flayed alive from the inside. I could barely breathe or think.

He crouched down next to me, pushing my hair out of the way so he could whisper in my ear. “I warned you about your temperament, beloved. Apologize, and I will forget this little tirade of yours.”

I gulped air like a fish out of water, trying to form the words.

“Fuck…”

*gasp* “you…”

The pain intensified and I fell completely on the ground, curling into the fetal position. Maybe I’d overestimated my value here, and he really could kill me if I proved to be too much trouble.

He stood over me and watched, Ezra growing more and more desperate behind him. “Please, Your Majesty, you told me…”

“I know what I told you!”

he snapped. “But you vastly understated her bold recalcitrance. Such open disobedience and slander cannot go unpunished.”

It was hard to know how much time had gone by, the agony consumed me entirely. I couldn’t even find reprieve in dissociation—he’d somehow gotten inside my head, forcing me to relive my worst memories over and over in a sick loop.

“Your Majesty, let me take her place. I will bear this punishment, please…”

“Silence!”

Alaroth shouted. “You may endure this by watching her or joining her, but she will receive it either way.”

Blood coated my mouth, my vision fading to black as my heart finally gave out.