Page 53

Chapter fifty-one

D imitri woke to the beating of his heart throbbing behind his temples. He blinked against the morning light and frowned at the female sleeping against his chest. Astrid never curled up to him. He held her through the night, keeping her close.

The events of the previous day whispered through his mind. The Ascension. The lilies he’d left on his mother’s grave. He’d left with Astrid before Ambrose could honor their father. They’d returned here…

But what happened after that was like trying to recall a dream. It slipped from him, as brittle as ashes in a breeze. The tumbling flickers of memory without context mocked him. One after the other they fell into place, painting the night he’d spent with Astrid.

Malice colored his vision.

She’d interrogated him. Dug through his private thoughts and moments. His hand closed around her throat, and he shoved her onto her back.

“You fucking drugged me?”

Astrid flailed, clawing at his grip, then those infuriating midnight eyes met his. Rancor glinted in her stare as she slipped two fingers beneath his grip and pivoted on her shoulder. She kicked at him, her heel aimed to break his jaw.

His reflexes were diminished by the lingering effects of her drug, but the leading edge of his wing deflected her blow and he was able to avoid its trajectory.

By the blood, he hated her. Dimitri leaned into his grip as she fought. He’d told her about his mother. Begged her not to leave him.

Astrid choked and twisted, managing to wedge her foot under his arm. She straightened her leg, lifting his weight off her airways.

“After everything you’ve done to me,” she spat, “ drugging is where you draw the line?”

Dimitri freed his famished shadows. His cursed magic ripped at her soul, feeding and rejuvenating him as she screamed.

Astrid crumbled and he bent low to whisper, “Suffer, wife.”

Her palm slid over the side of his face. She would beg for mercy. For his forgiveness.

Pain radiated over his scalp as she fisted his hair and yanked him to her chest. His crazed wife shrieked, driving her elbow into his cheekbone and eye. Dimitri pulled away after the third blow and his feral neva scrambled to her feet.

He withdrew his ravenous hunger, and his princess stalked to his desk completely naked.

She dragged his twin weapons off his desk, sending loose papers cascading to the floor in a flurry.

“I drugged you, and you took my virginity—” She launched his weapon at him. “—with your fucking sword.”

She unsheathed the second and hurled it at him. The blade would have embedded in his chest if he hadn’t caught it.

“We. Are. Even ,” she seethed, stomping toward him.

Her vicious beauty made his cock hard, but he wasn’t finished with this. He caught her by the throat once more and stepped into her. “Who gave you the drug?”

Astrid bared her teeth and yanked him closer by his collar while standing on her toes. “Gave me? I was sent here to kill your brother, before your little ambush derailed my plans.”

Suka . Dimitri shoved her away and bellowed, “Answer my question.”

“Do you remember anything we talked about last night?” Her vicious gaze searched his eyes. Her expression dropped as she exhaled, and her shoulders slumped. “All the plans we made?”

The ghost of her lies echoed through his mind.

Help me take the Serpents’ Crown. We’ll rule Clorea side by side, my king.

Dimitri stripped her venom from his thoughts. Whether it was real or imagined, it made no difference.

Her promises were lies.

“Was it Viktor or Keres?” he insisted.

She shook her head, and the curl of her lip added small wrinkles to the corner of her nose. “You should reevaluate your standing if you think your own people would betray you,” she said before turning her back on him.

Wrath sank into his heart and his knuckles whitened around the handle of his sword. He discarded the weapon at the foot of their bed and followed her into their closet.

“Should I kill them both to be sure?” Dimitri snapped, entering the large space.

Astrid jammed her arms into her black silk robe. “You could have been so much more, but you relish your part as the broken sword who can’t help but to cut its master,” she snapped as she cinched her belt over her waist.

Dimitri closed the distance between them. “I have no master.”

“Nikogda ne ostavliai menia,” she said, craning her neck to challenge his gaze. “You told me that last night.”

“I was drugged—”

“You were honest,” Astrid yelled. “Maybe for the first time in your life.”

The fragmented memories of the night he’d spent with her, stitched into a picture. She’d taken his cursed blood. Said she was his. Promised to never leave him.

“Put your hatred aside,” she said, caressing his cheek like she had last night. “I am everything you want. Everything your birth entitled you to.”

Her lips brushed his and longing twisted in Dimitri’s chest. His eyes trailed down her body as her fingertips ran through his hair. She touched her forehead to his and whispered, “We can leave Ledivion to your brother.”

His mother wouldn’t want him to strip Ambrose of his crown, but how could he trust the bloodthirsty female in his arms?

“This kingdom has done nothing but betray you,” she said at his lips. “Reclaim Clorea with me. Rule beside me.”

Dimitri pinched her chin and lifted her face. He tasted her lips. Longed for her loyalty. “If you betray me, wife, I’ll make you beg for a death I’ll never grant.”

Astrid snapped her teeth over his bottom lip and licked away the blood. “Betray me , and I’ll burn everything you love to ash.”