Page 33 of The Forbidden Dragon King (Shadow Kings #1)

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Palace Dungeons, Shadow Court

A urelius

My eyes flash, as I march down the quiet corridors beneath the palace that lead to the dungeon’s cells.

I shiver, dragging my cloak closer around myself. The cold is constant here; it seeps into my bones.

The walls are stone and drip with moisture.

Mold blooms across the ceiling in ghostly shadows.

No sunlight reaches this lower level, where servants and courtiers who break the rules are punished, interrogated, or tortured.

They’re hidden like anything broken, cracked, or ugly is put out of view of the palace’s splendor .

Bronze oil lamps shaped as dragons hang from the walls, casting shadows like flying dragons along the corridor’s bleak walls.

My wings, claws, and fangs have retracted back. I’m in control once again.

My feral nature still simmers beneath my skin.

Behind my regal mask, I will be able to face that fae fucker Daire and ensure the hierarchy of this new pack.

I jangle the cell’s keys, which hang at my waist with satisfaction.

I focus on the burning passion inside me from the touch of my Omega’s fingers on my wings.

No one has lovingly touched my wings before.

No one has claimed me.

In turn, I never imagined that I would want someone to become my Queen.

I lick my lips, before a smile dances across them.

Freya’s sweet pussy tasted fucking divine. I could dine on nothing but wine supped from her breasts and honey licked from her clit.

I should make worshiping between an Omega’s thighs a new law.

I clench my jaw, as my cock hardens.

I need to knot her.

I need to hold her down with my teeth sunk in her neck, wrap my wings around her, rut her, fucking breed her .

I glance down with a sigh at my now hardened cock in my breeches .

Maybe now isn’t the best time to think about Freya. But when don’t I think about my goddess?

She’s fucking consuming me.

I prowl faster down the corridor, passing empty cells with iron bars. This is the side of the dungeons that was designed to hold fae prisoners, or in the past, fae pets who had misbehaved.

Maximinus once told me that when he was young, Father gifted him a fae pet to play with .

I shudder. Poor fae .

Maximinus hates pets more than anything apart from Hadrian. Perhaps, something happened when he was young with this fae who no longer seems to be in the palace, which makes him so determined to make all of them suffer now.

I grit my teeth, struggling not to remember the isolated cell that shimmered with enchanted magic and chains that Uncle guided me to on the other side of the dungeons with a kindly hand on my shoulder.

“This is your cell.” Maximinus squeezed my shoulder.

I flinched. My blood ran cold. “I had it prepared on the day that you were born. So, there is no need to worry, is there, my boy? This is a special room for you alone. Any time that you believe you’re slipping in your self-discipline, just tell me.

I will have you installed down here. After all, this was Hadrian’s cell first long ago. ”

Emperor Hadrian’s cell.

Why did I have to be born as death on shadowed wings ?

Is this end for me, a cell and chains, inevitable? Turning to ash on my own dagger?

I shake my head, attempting to clear it of the image of that tiny, dark cell coiled with enchanted chains.

Did Tarquin know about it? Approve it?

Did my parents?

I clutch the tray that I am carrying closer to my chest.

I promised Freya that I would bring Daire his meal and I guess that Daire has missed…actually, I’m not certain how many meals.

But then, that’s what Daire gets for attempting to stick a butter knife through my heart.

I snort.

Should it even be classed as an assassination attempt?

Pathetic.

After all, fights like that between us are more like banter.

Vicious laughed, when she heard about Daire’s attack, calling it the love language in our bromance .

I threw her out of my study for that.

Daire should accept that I’m always going to be the winner when we fight.

He’s stubborn. Although, I admire his tenacity.

War has a betting pool going on how many days there will be between each of Daire’s dungeon visits.

Lucius won the last one since it was only four days.

I grin, taking a sniff of the leftovers that I grabbed from the kitchens on the tray: a pear, chestnuts, thick cuts of chicken and goat, cheese, bread, and a jug of milk.

My step lightens .

I told Freya about the golden threads. She didn’t reject me or tell me that she hated me. For some reason, she trusts the only person in the realms who is as dangerous as Lanlin is.

Daire is charming. It’s his talent.

He’s beautiful. Mesmerizing. Magnetic.

This is the leader who rose as a teenager to pull together an entire army of child rebels like himself who should have been easily broken and conquered. Instead, rallied by his charisma and power as their king alone, they grew in strength, daring to challenge us, their rulers.

I have to admire him. I also have to crush him.

I can accept being in a pack with Daire, but only if he accepts me as his dominant Alpha.

I peer through the gloom at the cell, which is at the bottom of the corridor. It is hidden in the deepest shadows.

Why is it hurting my heart to see how tiny the cell is? With no furniture, only dirty straw on the floor? How freezing, when Daire has no blanket?

I slam down hard on the memory of my uncle’s hand on my shoulder, steering me to face my nightmare future in a cell just like this one.

Does the iron in the bars hurt Daire, as the enchanted chains agonizingly supress my own primal nature?

To my surprise, however, Daire is sprawling on the cold, stone floor like it’s the softest nest fit for a king.

A cat is curled in front of him, which he is petting between the ragged ears.

I shake my head .

Trust Daire to have made friends with the only creature more disreputable than him down here, the working cat who hunts the mice.

The cat glowers at me. Her tabby fur is a mess, and she has one cloudy, blind eye and one golden. She looks like she has lost bites out of one of her ears in a fight.

So, just like Daire she is used to losing her battles.

They suit each other.

Daire is humming jauntily, tapping his foot. His silver curls are tangled, falling in waves around his shoulders. His servant’s uniform is ragged and stained. The linen tunic is ripped at the shoulder.

It makes me smirk with satisfaction that I don’t examine too closely to see that he hasn’t taken off the Golden Dragon brooch that marks him as being my personal pet.

Maximinus may be training him in skilled arts to perform at feasts, but Daire still works as my servant. This is more significant than the parade through the capital or seeing Daire in a cage. The outlaw is now my servant, wearing my brooch.

He’s not tame, however, just like Freya isn’t.

Where would the fun be in that?

Daire’s raven black wings are folded behind his back. What would they feel like to stroke? Are they as sensitive as mine are?

I frown, when I notice that Daire’s ice white skin is littered with purple bruises.

I didn’t order that he be beaten, despite the fact that the fucker deserves it .

I’ll cut off the hands of the guards that placed those marks on my pet’s skin without permission. He’s mine to hurt alone.

When I growl, Daire looks up from stroking his cat to peer through the bars at me. “Keep your growling down, boss. I was just getting to the good bit in the song.”

I growl even louder. “Is this how you spend your days? Lazing around, rather than reflecting on your mistakes?”

Daire’s intelligent lavender eyes assess me. I shift, uncomfortable. Why does it always feel like he can see through me?

“I reflect on them all the time: How I should have been faster with that butter knife. Why I didn’t kill you the first time we met on the battlefield. All the ways that I can tear out your?—”

“And how is this serving me, as per our deal?” I clutch the tray with whitened knuckles.

Daire cocks his head. “To hell with you, I never missed a work duty. When did I disobey?”

“Never trust a fae.” I meet his gaze. “I hoped you at least trusted that I was upholding my side. The featherglass are being well treated. I’ve protected them. Do you like being locked in cages, Kitten?”

Daire’s eyes burn with rage for a moment, before he smirks.

“Do you like locking me in them?” He licks his lips, stretching out suggestively. Is that a courtesan seductive trick that he’s learned? Or has he always been this much of a flirt? I’m not a mark that he can weaponize his allure against. “Does it excite you to see pets bound? ”

I chuckle, cold and vicious. “You’re not just any pet though, are you? You’re the King of Nowhere, ruling over a fallen kingdom. Mine because you chose to be.”

“Possessive.” Daire’s expression flashes with hurt, however, before he can shutter it.

When I make a show of selecting his cell door key from the ones that hang at my waist, Daire immediately scrambles to sit up.

Alert and wary, he bends over to whisper to the cat.

Uncomfortable, it reminds me too much of how Lanlin would talk to animals.

“Stop that,” I order.

“What?” Daire’s expression isn’t innocent because he’s incapable of that.

When I shove the key into the lock and swing open the door, Daire leaps to his feet with a powerful sweep of his wings.

His raven wings are glorious.

He may be a fae, but I can still admire his power. It’s a pity that his magic has had to be suppressed. What would it feel like to have him at my side with his full power unleashed?

I shut the idea away. He’d be too dangerous. How could I ever trust him?

The cat launches herself at me, hissing.

I dance to the side, almost dropping the tray.

Daire laughs, light and musical.

The cat fluffs up her tail and slinks out of the open door.

I lean down and throw the tray onto the floor harder than I’m meaning to and the chestnuts roll off into the straw. “You told the fucking cat to do that.”