Page 58

58

L ew gaped at Daisy for another long, silent moment, his eyes wide and blank on her face. While Daisy kept holding out the bag, waiting, her heartbeat pattering against her ribs.

“It’s a fortune, Lew ,” she said. “ It’s enough to support you for the rest of your life. Enough for you to sail across the sea and disappear, where Lord Nash will never find you again.”

Lew’s wide eyes blinked, once, and then glanced down at the bag. Where the top had slightly opened, showing the glint of rubies and sapphires and emeralds inside. Daisy’s own priceless sálugjald , offered up to her selfish, foolish partner.

But it would be worth it. It would be worth it to stop this attack for good. To keep all those people and children safe. And maybe — maybe to show Filak , too. To show him she truly hadn’t wanted the sálugjald . To show him that she would only use it to protect him, and all his people.

And for a hovering, hopeful instant, Daisy thought Lew would take it. He would see the wisdom in it, the freedom, the generosity. He would see how Daisy was offering him far more than he deserved, yet again.

And yes, yes, he was reaching out his hand, as if he was about to take it, please…

And then he swiped for — Daisy’s sketchbook .

Daisy yelped and flailed toward him, but Lew swerved away around the kitchen table, hurling a chair into her path. “ Don’t even try, Daisy ,” he hissed, with a purposeful grip of his hand at the sketchbook’s cover. “ Or I’ll rip it all into pieces, until there’s nothing left!”

Daisy’s breath heaved, her heartbeat surging into her ears, and she wildly shook her head. “ Lew , it’s mine ,” she shot back. “ It’s private. You do not want to see it!”

“Oh, yes, I do,” Lew retorted. “ You’re lying , Daisy . You’re lying about every damned word of this, and I guarantee you, this” — he brandished the sketchbook toward her — “will prove it!”

Daisy shook her head again, groped across the table for the sketchbook, but Lew easily wrenched away again, and began flipping through pages. “ I know you, Daisy ,” he snarled. “ I know you can’t help but waste your time endlessly documenting every random meaningless detail you come across! If we really want to know how you spent these last weeks, this will…”

But then his voice thinned, faded, as he flipped past those ugly flowers she’d drawn at this very table, and then found… the cave. The cave she’d drawn before that first night with Filak . The Skyli’s welcome chamber, its elegant beauty still all too apparent beneath the ruins.

Lew’s mouth tightened as he looked at it, for an instant too long — but then he kept going. To Daisy’s first drawings of Orc Mountain , after Filak had brought back her sketchbook. The wrought-iron lamp, the baths, the Bautul forge, the twisty Skai corridors, the beautiful garden…

Lew’s expression kept darkening as he flipped pages, faster and faster, and Daisy again swiped uselessly toward him. “ That’s enough, Lew ,” she said, her voice hitching. “ You have no right !”

But Lew fully ignored her, and kept going. Now onto that day when Filak had first taken Daisy to the Skyli , when she’d drawn all the rocks and crystals and stalagmites in the tunnels. And then — Daisy’s breath stilled — the first glimpse of Filak . His long clawed fingers, spread against the stone in the tunnel, breaking it apart.

Lew stared at it for a long, silent moment, his jaw flexing in his cheek, but then he kept going. Moving slower now, flipping through more sketches of Filak’s digging, his stone, his deft clawed hands spreading, working magic.

And then, the Skyli itself. The beautiful breathtaking cathedral, with its soaring rounded ceiling, its dark watching eye. And once again, Filak’s hand, this time spread against the tiled floor, over where he’d embedded the proof of their pleasure into it.

“ Enough , Lew ,” Daisy said, almost pleading now, because she knew what came next, she knew . But curse Lew , he just turned the page, and found…

Filak, lying naked in bed. His tall bare body shamelessly on display, showing all his marks, all his lean hard muscle. And — most vivid of all — his swollen, marked cock, propped long and innocuous against his hip, with Daisy’s sun brazenly marked upon it.

Lew stared at it without speaking, his mouth slack — and then he shot a narrow, accusing glance at Daisy’s chest. At where her own matching sun was still very visible, dense and black over her heart.

A low, angry hiss escaped Lew’s throat, but then his hand began turning pages again. Flipping past many more drawings of the Skyli and Orc Mountain , as if he’d barely seen them — and then hesitating on another page. The one — Daisy’s face heated — of Filak lying coolly back on the bed, flaunting his daisy tattoo, and all the vivid droplets of his own glossy white seed, spattered all over his belly and chest.

Lew stared at the daisy tattoo for an instant too long, surely recognizing Daisy’s work — and then he shot another narrow, disbelieving look toward her, and then back at the page. As if he was stunned by it, as if he couldn’t believe she had done such a thing.

“You had no right, Daisy ,” he finally said, his voice cracking. “ We had an agreement .”

Daisy’s laugh escaped all on its own, too loud and harsh. “ Really , Lew ?” she demanded. “ The agreement you wanted, where we were both free to see other people? And the agreement you broke when you fucked Sybil in my bed?!”

Lew’s mouth spasmed, his eyes glittering, and then he roughly flipped to the next page, and the next. Finding yet more shameless artwork of Filak , including a view of his firm arse, with his bollocks a tempting hanging shadow between his thighs — and then the one of Daisy’s own naked parted legs, and Filak feasting between them, his eyes bright and devilish on her face.

And finally, most graphic of all, was that detailed close-up she’d drawn of Filak’s marked hard cock, just the night before. With its black hood peeled back, its shiny head still dripping with Daisy’s juices, its deep slit oozing a long string of shining wet seed. As if it was just waiting to be kissed, suckled, worshipped.

“Gods, Daisy ,” Lew hissed as he stared at it, shaking his head. “ What the fuck .”

But Daisy didn’t justify it with an answer, because Lew was the one who’d started this. He was the one who’d insisted on looking. And he was the one who’d recklessly plotted to hurt desperate women, murder innocent children, and start another war .

“Well, you can stop looking anytime, Lew ,” Daisy snapped. “ Or are you enjoying this too much? My mate is very striking, don’t you think?”

Lew’s gaze darted up to Daisy again, and he finally slammed the sketchbook shut, and hurled it down onto the table. “ That outrageous orc is not your mate,” he growled. “ You are my partner, Daisy ! My artist! And ” — he flailed his hand toward her — “as per the terms of our agreement, I’m forbidding you from ever seeing that orc again!”

He was what ? Daisy stared at Lew for a stunned, incredulous breath, and then barked another harsh, disbelieving laugh. “ Like hell you are,” she shot back. “ You lost your artist when you broke our agreement. When you gave me a fake ring. When you sent a regiment after me, and threatened me. When you dragged me into this stupid, ridiculous project that will end up destroying you, and all the good work we’ve done together! Now ” — she hauled in a deep breath — “take the extremely generous offer I’m giving you, and get the hell out!”

But Lew’s eyes were blazing now, and he shook his head as he stalked around the table toward her. “ Oh , I’ll go, Daisy ,” he breathed. “ But you’re coming with me.”

The room jolted all around her, while those impossible words pulsed, shuddered, flared in Lew’s vicious dangerous eyes. You’re coming with me . And suddenly there was a true flare of dark, visceral fear, streaking up Daisy’s spine. Lew didn’t actually mean that, or could he…

“You — you don’t want me, Lew ,” she sputtered, taking a step backwards, raising her hands. “ You want nothing to do with me!”

But Lew kept coming toward her, slow and purposeful. “ We had a good life together, Daisy ,” he said, his voice hard. “ I supported you, I gave you a career, I made you famous! You would have had nothing without me, not even this stupid fling with that hideous orc! The least you can do is come with me, and repay me!”

And as Daisy kept backing away, searching Lew’s menacing eyes, there was… something else. Something else she hadn’t seen, until this very moment.

Lew did want her. He wanted her work and her art. He wanted her knowledge and her collaboration. He wanted her ready to follow him across the realm, and ready to give him all the power, too. Ready to downplay her own hard-earned accomplishments, her own skill — and yes, maybe even her own fame — in favour of his.

But that wasn’t all, was it? No , no, because he was still prowling toward her, looking her up and down, now with a familiar greedy glint in his eyes. A look Daisy knew too well, one she’d seen on him so many times before…

Lew still wanted her , too. He wanted all those heated nights they’d shared in bed together. He wanted her to draw him like she’d drawn Filak . He wanted to be the only one to give her that kind of inspiration, that kind of pleasure.

Lew was… jealous .

Daisy stumbled back further, shaking her head, but Lew kept coming closer, his eyes still flashing with jealousy, with greed, with rage. And damn it, Filak had been right all along, Lew was dangerous, but now there was no forgetting, no pretending…

Daisy glanced behind her for the apartment’s door, and fumbled backwards for the latch — but then Lew leapt forward. Charging across the room toward her, his strong hands clamping tightly at her arms, and shoving her back against the solid door behind her.

“Let me go!” Daisy yelped, as she jerked and thrashed against him, and desperately fought to kick him as hard as she could. But he was too close, too strong, even the smell of him churning in her stomach —

“You’re mine , Daisy ,” Lew snarled, loud and sickening in her ear. “ And you’ll never escape me again!”

No. No . He couldn’t. And Daisy could only shake her head, groping desperately behind her, all around her. “ Nei ,” she gasped. “ Nei , Lew ! Nei , nei, nei! ”

But Lew only laughed. Shoved her further back. Leaned in close, his hot breath and blunt teeth skating against her throat. Like a mockery of Filak , a mockery of his kiss, a twisted terrifying nightmare she couldn’t escape…

And then, in a breath, the entire room went black.