Page 47

IRIS

It takes a few breaths and more minutes than I’ll admit before I work up the courage to activate the orb.

A haughty butler appears in the glass. “Kyorgos. We endure.”

That godsdamned motto.

Holding back a shudder, I straighten my shoulders. “The Azrids have a tomb location to offer Duke Kevan. It’s urgent, if he’s interested in trading for the information.”

The butler’s lips press together.

I’m ready to dish out more mysterious bullshit until he drags his master to the parlor. But, just by calling through Remy’s Azrid-official orb, I’m already legit.

“One moment.”

The orb turns frosted blue, leaving me on hold.

I tap my nails restlessly against the glass.

What’s the worst that can happen?

He says no?

No . The worst will be if Kevan answers from bed with the Guide he replaced me with.

Did the duchess give the new guy my room?

I guess he wouldn’t need his own. They’re imprinted. Kevan must finally be willing to share.

I never made it past the door of Kevan’s personal chambers. Our guiding sessions always happened in a guest bedroom.

Godsdamned fucking stars.

Why think of this right now?

Do I absolutely have to sabotage myself?

Just when I’m considering shot-putting the orb, the face from my nightmares stabs through the glass.

Kevan wears a neatly belted dressing robe. It shows a V of ice-pale skin at his throat. His face is fleshier than the last time I saw him. The skull ridges are still sharp, but he looks more human than the lich that comes out when his power runs wild.

He’s doing well , I realize as claws rip through my guts.

He’s better off without me.

I don’t know why that makes me feel so twisted inside.

Kevan’s glacier blue eyes match the chill of his frown. “This information best be urgent enough to warrant interrupting my rest with my Guide.”

More spikes pierce my heart.

There’s no recognition in his gaze.

I was wrong.

This is worse than the worst.

“Kevan,” I choke, “it’s me.”

He squints into the orb.

He’s watched me as our noses grazed and he rocked inside my body. My face was the first thing he saw when I wrenched him back from death, undeath, and more rampages than either of us can remember.

“Ris,” he’d gasp as he gripped my jaw.

Five years together, and he can’t recognize me because my hair is down?

I suffocate from the pressure. My shoulders drop.

It feels like being crushed.

Why did I ever care about a man like this?

Why do I still fucking let him hurt me?

“It’s Iris,” I finally crack and remind him of my own name.

“Iris?” He draws back and cocks his head. “Why are you messaging from Azrid?”

Where do I fucking start?

I pin my free hand under my thigh, stopping the urge to rub the blades embedded in my ribs. Just keep to business. That’s all we ever were . “We found your Sire’s prison tomb. Its seals are collapsing. The lich king is raising a horde to break itself free. We need Sentinels to hold the line.”

With no urgency at all, Kevan scans the room behind me.

“Where are you?” he asks, as flat and cold as ever.

“I was reassigned.”

He didn’t notice.

Kevan really didn’t fucking notice that I left his estate.

“Impossible.”

“Do you want the location or not? The site is packed with undead and artifacts you can absorb. All you have to do is support our fight with the Eastern Legion. Maybe share some family lore about your ancestor’s capture.”

“I’m curious.” His eyes narrow, turning shrewd. “How did you come to be the broker of this deal?”

This is the Kevan I remember.

Always hungry for more power.

“Does it matter?”

“Iris,” Kevan sighs and pushes back his hair. “If this is a ploy, it isn’t very good. As for your position at my side?—”

“Did I ask about your mistress?” I grind the words through my teeth. Don’t crush the orb, don’t crush the orb . “Lend us the Eastern Legion and your Deathguard. We need to stop the lich king from rising.”

“ We? ” Kevan glances past me again, as if the bedroom setting is more important than my warning about the upcoming apocalypse. “Who is we?”

I lift the orb to block his view. “My new guard.”

“Which guard?”

“The one I transferred to. There’s nothing to tell if we’re not making a deal.”

Kevan tilts his head as if he’s never seen me before.

I could lead him by his frozen nose when he was lost in lich mode. When Kevan was lucid, I always jumped to hand him whatever he wanted.

This is the first time he’s meeting a version of me who realizes how fucking pointless it is trying to win him over.

I fold my arms and wait for him to catch up.

“I’ll need proof that the tomb is what you claim,” he says carefully.

“I give you my word.”

The duke pauses too long. “Can I trust you?”

Knife.

Heart.

Stars .

“It’s me ,” I repeat, hollowing my soul to scrape those words out from my throat.

“Where are you? And in whose hands?”

“I’m in my own hands.” For the first time ever . “Or what? You think this is a conspiracy? Your enemies picked me to lure you out? Who’d bother? There’s a much better target beside you now.”

“So you do understand that I’ve imprinted.”

I drag in a sharp breath that wheezes out in a laugh. “Wow. That’s the first I’m hearing it from you.”

Kevan’s expression stays as smooth as the ice in his heart. “Come back. Our mothers will have you paired with a suitable Sentinel from a respectable house.”

I’m about to smash the orb. “I hope you regret it when you read the reports from the front. Just do me one favor? Kill me for good when you see my walking corpse. I deserve to have my afterlife to myself.”

For a second, I swear something like regret flickers in Kevan’s eyes.

Nope.

Those are pink flames, reflecting off the glass.

Before I can whirl, Vhex lifts me off the chair. He slides underneath me and hauls me back across his lap. Two possessive arms bar my waist. I’m forced to straddle his thighs. My bare pussy parts to greet the hard ridge of his shaft.

“Vhex!” I gasp, shocked by the sweet clench of muscle and his overbearing hold.

His heat wraps me in a winter coat, returning feeling to the hands I didn’t realize were numb.

How long have I been shaking?

Vhex drops his chin on my shoulder. His jawline is too sharp.

The devil is coming out.

I lift my hips, trying to release the pressure between our bodies and settle his wild silks. Thank the stars , the angle doesn’t let Kevan see under the desk.

Vhex grinds me back down. His clawed hand drags below my belly. Staring dead into the orb, he curls his claws around my pussy. “ Mine .”

The smoke of his voice toasts my collarbone. His silks bite even harder than his grip, not just putting on a show, but staking a claim that drives into the deepest part of my soul.

The orb slips from my fingers.

A helpful shadow plucks it from the air.

Remy glides the orb back to eye level.

Silver hair spills messily over his pointed ears. Wearing a cloak of shadows and a hint of my blood like ketchup at the corner of his mouth, Remy rocks the aura of a mad vampire prince.

His thoughts tangle as dark and twisted as a midnight jungle, but his voice gusts out surprisingly airy. “Who is this small skeleton?”

“You’re speaking to Duke Kevan Kyorgos, Sword Major of the Eastern Legion’s Deathguard,” Kevan says haughtily. “If you’re using her to get to me?—”

Remy gives the orb a snow globe shake, scrambling the rest of Kevan’s words.

“Use her?” Remy turns to me.

Shadows coil up from the legs of the chair. Ignoring Vhex, they flow down my arms, shivery but not cold. One gentle wisp strokes down my palm. It wraps around my finger, filling in the slight indent still left from the ring I tossed into a fountain as I left the estate.

“I can only be used.” His shadows press little sucking kisses into the gap in my skin.

“ Mine ,” Vhex growls, all smoke and gravel, snatching my fingers away from Remy’s deadly lips.

He angles his hips as if a territorial chair-fuck is just the thing to solve my problems.

My mouth twitches.

I rescued Vhex and Remy more than I chose them, but if I were going to pick Sentinels to piss off Kevan?

Exhibit V.

Exhibit R.

Neither gives a fuck about Kevan, left waiting on the other side of the frosted orb.

Their attention feels so warm. I tuck my chin to stop the heat climbing my throat.

Frustration, anger, and all those sharp-edged emotions ease.

At least for now, I’m not alone. I stretch through Vhex’s grip to open my palm. “Let me talk to the skeleton.”

“Why?” Remy’s shadows snatch the orb away. I feel their tug at my ring finger.

“We need his Sentinels.” I reach again.

Remy’s lips flatten. Not the answer he wanted.

“He hurts you.” Remy’s hand drifts to press his heart.

“Not anymore,” I answer hoarsely. Not after tonight. “Give me the orb. I know how to handle him.”

Vhex seethes underneath me, rumbling. “Handle me . Let hellfire handle the fucking lich.”

Careful of Vhex’s dangerous hardware, I angle my hips and lean back against his heated chest. I stroke his horn while I give the same caress to his agitated silks. “Aren’t I already handling you?”

“ Fuck . Handle me more.” Vhex rocks me in the chair. If his claws stray any closer to my pulsing clit, we’re going to find out if Remy’s antique upholstery is water-proofed.

I let him rub against me until Vhex is as calm as he gets—a banked campfire glowing at my back.

He should be human-ish for a few minutes.

As long as no one adds oil to his flames.

I reach to Remy again. “Let me finish the call. I have to try to get us help.”

“Do you?” Remy asks in a rich, slightly muzzy tone. “Perhaps I used to feel the same.”

“You did.” I saw glimpses of hundreds of his lives. Until Remy’s current incarnation, he never stood down from his duty to fight.

“Times are different.” Remy braces against the chair arms, bringing his face to mine. Intense black whirls through the reds of his eyes.

“Fuck them all,” he whispers hoarsely. “Everyone in power. This is the world they wanted. Let them fight for it themselves.”

Remy’s gaze burns, but his deep, dark thoughts tangle in a swamp that hurts my heart.

“You’re not wrong.” I slide my silks inside him to soothe his pain. “But if we let the world burn, we’ll all end up in the ashes. We have to fight for ourselves.”

I have to fight.

I finally found a place I’m needed.

“I’ll fight for you,” Vhex murmurs.

“For me?” I bury my full-spine shiver under a snort. “You just like fighting.”

“Both. Win, win.”

I gesture at Remy one more time. “The orb.”

Its surface is still frosted. Kevan hasn’t left, but he’ll be pissed after being kept on hold. It’s probably his first time waiting for anything, ever.

The shadows finally start to listen to me.

I make the mistake of shifting my attention from Remy to the glass.

The vampire snaps.

In another super-fast, impossible-to-dodge blur, he drags my lower lip between his fangs.

It’s part kiss, part bite, but mostly a point that Remy needs to make. Two sweet pricks of heat pierce just deep enough to feed me a taste of copper with the thrill. Remy’s tongue glides between his fangs, teasing back and forth, not licking but spreading my blood.

He pulls back and licks his lips.

Reflex has me start to do the same. A shadow pinches my tongue in place and gently, gently pushes it back inside my mouth.

“No.” Remy grips my jaw. The shadow swirls with my tongue, opening my mouth to its kiss while Remy watches from above.

The kiss presses deep.

It sweeps the roof of my mouth, grinding my head back against Vhex’s chest.

I leak strangled breaths.

I can’t kiss back. I can only be kissed, only be controlled. My mouth filled. When I whimper, the shadow eases, letting me swallow. Remy’s grip pumps my throat, controlling not just my breath, but the tempo of my moans.

The vampire plays me like a fucking accordion.

I buck on Vhex’s ridge, craving more than just a glide.

Shadows clamp my hips in place.

The monster gazes out from Remy’s eyes.

Dark. Captivated.

Remy watches his own shadows plunge between my blood-slicked lips with obsessive satisfaction. His soul hmmms with the same addictive sound he loves to press against my pulse.

It should feel suffocating, but it’s not at all.

I’m jelly on his fangs.

With our souls so closely twined, Remy knows exactly how he makes me feel.

When his tongue pulls out, he’s already rewired my brain. I gasp, open-mouthed, his grip controlling my jaw.

The shadows that so eagerly cleaned between my thighs, kiss my throat, ignoring the mess of blood and spit glistening around my mouth.

My tongue twitches. I draw it back behind my teeth before I’m told.

“Beautiful, my love.” Remy grins as dark as midnight. “Now you can finish your call.”

Remy slinks behind my chair.

Vhex curses while I try to control the current dancing beneath my skin.

I didn’t notice he was being held down with me.

Now that he’s free, his cock-springs auto-thrust. His candy buttons pulse my ass, clit, and all the soft places between.

I can only pant at the orb suddenly floating in front of my eyes.

“Azrid. Trezzoran.” Kevan’s tone grates like ice on steel. His glare is as piercing as ever, but there’s nothing left of me for him to cut.

Kevan, who?

I’m soft as cotton candy, busy being ruined by dark fangs and bubblegum cock.

Vhex growls. With thoughts firing sex and venom, he reaches between my legs.

He forgot that other people exist again .

I have just enough clarity left to snatch his wrist.

Only Remy gets to watch what happens next.

I used to straighten my hair before battles, trying to impress the man in the glass.

Now, I straighten my shoulders. My hair is a mess from my Sentinels’ hands. Remy’s shirt hangs off my shoulders, barely held on by Vhex’s arms that I wear like a belt.

I’m drenched from my spread thighs.

Blood smeared all over my chin so that Remy can show me off.

It feels…

Fucking fantastic.

Kevan fumes hard enough to spark cold flames in the pits of his eyes. As his powers strain, his bones stand out. His skull is as harsh as the accusation in his voice. “You’re with the Farguard.”

“I’m their commander,” I say as I pet Vhex’s toned forearm.

Kevan follows the motion of my hand.

I thought seeing his regret would settle my heart.

I don’t see regret. There’s only calculation in his cold gaze.

But it turns out, I don’t need Kevan’s reaction at all.

Remy chuckles.

My abs tighten.

Finish the call.

“If you want to do the right thing, bring the Eastern Legion to Lomfort base before dawn. If you’re any later, don’t bother. Flee south before your Sire takes the border.”

I make a cutting motion.

Remy kills the orb.

There’s no point in wasting more breath. Kevan will hear and do whatever he wants. Either way, I’ll be here to clean up the mess.

Some things never change.

Letting out a cleansing breath, I arch my back against Vhex. “I’m finished.”

“Not yet,” Remy says.

Licking his fangs, he drops to his knees in front of my chair.