Page 18 of The Forbidden Dragon King (Shadow Kings #1)

“I’m not in a cage.” I look down.

“You don’t need to be in a cage to be a prisoner.” Daire licks crumbs from his fingers. “You’re a long way from home, wolf. So, where do you live?”

Well, I should have seen that coming.

I take a deep breath. “In a tent.”

Who is being a trickster now? I really should have been born a fae. No wonder I feel an affinity with them.

Daire grins, sharply. “You’re smart. Still, these arseholes must be keeping you as a pet or a courtesan.” His expression clouds with pain for a moment, before he shoves the final piece of bread into his mouth, as if to stop himself admitting something.

“I’m Spark,” I offer because I find that seeing his pain hurts me .

I wasn’t expecting that.

“Maybe we’ll have fun playing together as pets sometime.

” He swallows. “Thank you for your gift. I owe you. The bloody bastards didn’t intend to feed me to keep me weak or at least, to make me look my worst, when they parade me in this cage as their trophy through the streets of the capital. What do you want in return?”

Unprepared, I blink at him.

I didn’t bring him the food expecting something in return. But what if this is how I get my deal?

Excited, I push myself higher on my knees, curling my hands around the bars. “I want to make a deal with you.”

Daire’s eyes glitter dangerously, and his smile sharpens, revealing too many teeth. I refuse to shrink back.

“Weren’t you taught not to make deals with fae?” He shakes his head, tutting. “And I just called you smart.”

“I didn’t bring the food to you because I expected something back. It was a gift. But can we negotiate?”

Daire cocks his head in surprise. Then he mirrors me, kneeling up at the bars, as if he’s struggling not to reach through to me, although he can’t because the iron would burn him.

This close I can smell him: frost, oak, and sunshine.

I am transported to the forests of the Winter Court, and it’s unsettling and magical all at once.

It’s intense, as alluring as his beauty is.

I am drawn toward him, no matter if it’s toward my own destruction.

“Kit,” I murmur, reaching to cup his bruised cheek.

He takes a deep sniff of my scent at the same time as his gaze drops to Aurelius’ bracelet around my wrist.

Then his expression hardens, becoming as icy as a winter day .

“Why do you wear that dragon’s cursed heirloom, as if it’s a courting gift?” Daire demands. “Why do you smell like him? Yet you also smell like you’re mine. How can you be my scent match? My Omega . Is this another heartless ambush? How much more of me do you want to shatter? Break?”

So fast that I don’t even see him move, he shoves his arm through the bars with the stench of burning flesh and grabs my wrist.

“Stop it,” I hiss. “You’re hurting yourself.”

Yet the moment that Daire’s fingers press over my pulse point, as if checking for something, pleasure surges through my blood.

I gasp, collapsing to the wet ground.

Spark, Spark, Spark…

Someone is calling my name, desperate and panicked.

They’re stroking the hair on my forehead.

Sorry, I’m sorry, so bloody sorry…

I can’t rise back into my body yet, however, I’m too sunk in the bond, which is settling into my soul and winding between Daire and me.

I can sense Daire’s emotions: An agonizing grief and loneliness beneath the charming rogue, and a pain so all-encompassing that I shake.

His sacrifice and sorrow is too great to bear. Tears chase down my cheeks.

I didn’t know. I didn’t fucking know that anyone could feel like this for years and still exist.

Still fight on.

Feathers, blood, and ash rain from the night sky. The moon is veiled by smoke. The devils have ambushed the only family that I have, my brothers and sisters in the army. My kingdom is falling…

I choke on the smoke. Sob as I watch the death of my devoted followers. Am flooded with despair, as I am slammed to my knees in the dirt before my enemies.

Before Aurelius.

“They’re memories.” It’s Daire. He is still burning his arm to massage my temples.

His swollen eyes gleam with tears. “The bond allows you to feel the echoes of my strongest emotions. I’ll try to settle my mind and control it.

I’m sorry, love. I’ve been battling alone for over a decade.

On the sacred ash, I didn’t believe that I could have discovered my soulmate.

Not now. The Shadow Gods are laughing at us idiots. ”

When I look down, I see a delicate silver snowflake appear on the wrist that isn’t scarred.

A bond mark, a Shadow Fae one.

I watch in even greater shock as a matching bond mark rises on Daire’s wrist.

There’s no hiding this.

I’m King Daire’s Omega.

I blink the tears out of my eyes and struggle to piece my fragmented mind together, working out where I start and Daire stops.

The devastating memories of the battle in Rune Forest are fading, and Daire’s grief is a muted pain now.

Slowly, he helps me to kneel back up. His wrists are still sizzling where they touch the iron. He doesn’t flinch .

“Please,” I shove him back, “stop hurting yourself for my sake.”

“I bloody deserve it,” Daire mutters but he pulls his arms back through the bars.

He rubs his thumb over the snowflake on his skin with a longing expression.

“My beautiful soulmate. I guess that I was looking for you in all the wrong places. All those parties and festivals, and believe me, I tested a lot of fae, and all I needed was to be defeated, lose everything, and be caged as a pet, then…here you are.”

“Here I am,” I reply in a daze. “Was I worth an entire kingdom?”

He looks away.

“You’re worth every realm, love. Don’t doubt that. But me…?” He gestures around the cage. “I didn’t mean to force a bond. I’m bloody sorry. When I look this gorgeous, it may be hard to believe, but you’re not seeing me at my best. I can hardly think through the screams in my head.”

“I know,” I say because I’ve seen only a glimpse inside his mind, and it was agony.

I don’t know how Daire is managing to look so calm.

Practice?

But what the fuck has he been through that he can act as cool as this, despite the hell raging inside?

I raise my wrist, touching the pretty snowflake. “What does this mean?”

Daire’s wings flap like he can’t contain their joy.

“It means that we’re a fated pair. We’re joined in ways that you’ve already partly experienced.

If you want me, I will dedicate my life to protecting and loving you.

We will always be able to hear the other’s cry for help, even across realms. Portals will draw us to each other.

It means that neither of us will ever be alone. ”

Startled, I meet his gaze. “But I’m nobody?—”

“ Mine, ” Daire replies, studying me intently, “if you’ll have me. My Omega. Except…” He gives a bitter laugh. “I’m not the best deal right now. I’m the nobody . You deserve someone who can protect you more than I failed to protect my friends or my own bloody face.”

There’s a raw vulnerability to his words, which makes my heart hurt for him. I have a sense that it’s rare for him to talk like this. It feels like an honor to see this side to him.

It’s as if the grief of what has happened is finally catching up with Daire. Tears tremble on his thick, butterfly lashes.

As he can’t reach to touch me, I reach through the bars to him.

Fuck it.

I often watched the elite Omegas with their Alphas and wished that just once, I could have someone take my hand in comfort like the elites would walk hand in hand down the Moon Court corridors.

Sometimes, I would lie in bed holding my own hand under the blankets, pretending that it was Prince Bard.

I could almost make myself believe it.

Believe that somebody cared about me.

Loved me.

Daire startles, as I grab his hand and entwine my fingers with his. It’s like he has never had anyone hold his hand either, at least, not in comfort.

He stares down wide eyed at where our hands meet and then back at me.

His expression gentles. “I’m trying to say that I’m freeing you, love. You can reject me. Break the bond.”

Shock shivers through me.

“Fuck that. Shadow Fae only get one soulmate in their long lives, right? If you lose me, then you’ll never have another fated Omega.

Ever.” I tilt up my chin. “I’ve been rejected.

I’ve suffered the shame of a broken bond.

I won’t do that to anyone.” I take a deep breath.

Can I say it? Can I risk being as brave in my confession as Daire has?

Risk my heart twice? Please, don’t break it.

“Plus, why would I let the Alpha escape who I’ve longed to be mine, since I first saw him on the fae borders three years ago? ”

Daire’s eyes light up with both interest and hope. He tightens his hold on my hand.

Then Daire’s smile becomes cocky. “An admirer, only natural. It looks like you’ve hunted and caught me, wolf. May I kiss you?”

My cheeks flush.

I nod, unable to speak.

Daire raises my hand to his plush lips.

The look in his eyes is wicked, as he deliberately slowly presses his lips to the back of my hand, never breaking his gaze from mine.

Then he does it again.

And a third time.

I can hardly breathe .

Daire grazes his sharp fangs along my skin, before darting out his tongue to lick across the same path.

I’m trembling.

Daire’s eyes dance, as he slowly lowers my hand into his lap, possessively.

The one who is a captive here is me.

Daire’s lips curl into a smile. “You taste as intoxicating as you smell.”

I whimper.

His smile widens.

The Alphahole knows the impact that he’s having on me. I’m going to need to watch that.

Suddenly, his words hit me through the haze.

…hunted and caught…

“I came here to work out how to rescue you.” I wrench my hand back and leap to my feet.

Frantically, I scrape my hands over the front of the cage, searching for the door. I don’t know whether there will be an obvious lock, but there aren’t many I can’t pick.

Everybody should have a hobby.