Page 35 of The Forbidden Dragon King (Shadow Kings #1)

Freya will no doubt spill my secrets to her fellow pet. But right now, he doesn’t understand that I’ve been suffering right alongside him. In fact, I’m the only person in the world who does understand his pain.

Well, apart from the Shadow Vampire King.

And I hope that Lanlin is suffering, fucking burning in his solitary ruts and loneliness.

The betrayer and assassin deserves it.

“It’s like her soul is melded to mine,” Daire slowly explains, and it’s the first genuine thing that he’s said to me today.

It’s also as if he’s speaking the words of my own heart out loud.

“As if I could let her see the darkest parts of myself and my past, and she still wouldn’t recoil or run from me. ”

“As if the love is destined,” I murmur, “not only because of fate but also a thousand tiny moments of connection, attraction, and spark. Like you want to grow old next to her like you’ve never wanted anything else before but are frightened that the intensity of that desire could lead you to do the thing you’ve feared the most… or to become it.”

Daire turns to face me, unfurling his wings. “You do love Spark.”

I pull a face at Daire calling her by the name that feels special between her and me. But it seems that the three of us share it.

I’m more okay with that than I was before.

“Oh,” Daire studies my expression intently, “aren’t we three in trouble?” Then he chuckles. “You keep putting me on my knees, but it’s our Omega who has the power here. Good for her.”

I take a step toward him, holding my hand out in order to help him to his feet. “Accept my authority, and I will put our feud aside for Spark’s sake.”

Daire ignores my hand and leaps to his feet unaided himself. “Accept that we’re both in love with the same Omega and that she loves us as equals .”

The insolent brat.

I was trying to be kind.

I wave around at the cell. “You’re locked up. A servant. You wear my brooch, which marks you as my personal pet. We may both be Spark’s Alphas, Kitten, but I am also still King to you both. You, on the other hand, are only an irrelevance.”

“Am I?” Daire’s voice is dangerously soft.

My lips curl with contempt. “Do you think that I’m the villain in your story?”

“Nay, I know that I’m the villain in yours .”

A moment later, Daire crushes me against the wall, as his wings slam either side of my head. His fangs are bared in fury.

Now, I finally see you, fae.

My nose scrunches, and I can’t help taking a deep breath of his scent, which is like frost on oak branches as the dawn sun is just starting to warm the forest.

For a moment, I feel transported to a peaceful, ancient grove.

Then reality slams through me.

I burned that grove down.

Daire is trembling from the effort of pinning me, which must be draining him with this much iron in the cell’s bars. I’m still surprised by just how much he’s shaking.

Has he truly become this weak so soon?

My breathing speeds up but I don’t move to defend myself.

I could slip out any number of daggers that I have hidden in my tunic and stop Daire like the other times that he’s attacked me. In his weakened state now, it would be easy.

It gives me too much of a thrill to see him try.

It’s much better than watching him curled up and miserable over the leftovers on the dirty floor.

“Are we keeping a tally with our Omega? I’ll bet on that because I always win bets,” Daire snarls.

“I mark our Omega, you tongue her. I bond her…oh, but wait, you can’t .

Because I’ve bonded Spark, but you’re forbidden to.

Who’s more of an irrelevance, boss, the fallen king or the one who’ll never bond or have an heir? ”

Each one of his words slices me open and makes me bleed.

I slam Daire back with a single move, wrapping my strong hand around his slim neck. He struggles, but I hold him still by his curls. I twist our positions, pinning him to the wall instead.

He gasps, as his sensitive wings are crushed against the wall.

I flex my fingers around Daire’s throat, stroking my thumb gently over his bobbing Adam’s apple. “I’d say that it was the one who could have his throat crushed right now. ”

To my surprise, Daire doesn’t back down. He only directly meets my gaze.

“Then do it,” Daire replies. I jolt, when I realize that the glassiness in his eyes is agony. They appear unfocused, as if he’s not truly seeing me. Has he been able to see me fully from the moment that I stepped into the cell? “End my agony.”

Worry surges through me.

“What’s wrong with you? Is there too much iron down here?” When I let go of Daire’s throat, he slumps against the wall, panting. I trace over a livid bruise on his sharp cheekbone. “Are you in severe pain? These bruises, which fucker did this to you?”

Daire turns away his head. “They’re not important. I’m fine.”

“You can hardly stand.”

“Then let me sit.”

I take a step back, and he slumps to the ground, curling his wings around himself.

He ducks his head, and his hair veils his face. His shoulders are tight with pain. I should know better than most what it looks like to conceal your agony.

I turn toward the door. “I’m getting a healer.”

“Don’t.” Daire looks up at me now with true panic in his eyes. “I’m suffering at your uncle’s order.”

I freeze, resting my hand on the bars.

I take a steadying breath.

Of course he is. I should have known.

“He punished you…?” I ask through clenched teeth .

“I thought that you believed in thrashing misbehaving pets.”

My fingers curl tightly around the bar, throttling it. “You may not have not noticed but I talk a lot of shit.”

Daire chokes on a laugh. “I noticed. If I look at you too long, it’s like seeing myself in a dark, still pool. And seeing my reflection is something that I’m avoiding doing until I can at least brush my hair.”

“Narcissist.”

“Says my mirror image.” Daire runs his fingers through his tangled hair. “Also, the word you’re looking for is god .”

“It truly isn’t.” Then I add in a low, urgent voice, hoping that there is no way Maximinus can be spying on me even here, “Tomorrow, I will be leaving the Shadow Court for several days. Vampire skirmishes in the borderlands have become more intense, and I need to quell them. I’ll take you with me. You’ll be safe with me there.”

I don’t miss the irony that Daire will be safer with me on a battlefield against vampires, than in my own capital. But then, I never miss the irony that I am safer on the battlefield than I ever have been in my own home.

Daire looks up at me with large, surprised eyes.

His expression softens, before he sprawls back, pillowing his head on his hands. “Why would I leave such luxurious lodgings?”

I puff out a breath in frustration. “I gave your men and you my oath. If you’re in danger…being hurt…”

“By someone other than you, aye?” Daire gives a sharp smile .

I stiffly stalk out of his cell, looking back at him through the bars. “I spend more time protecting you, than you appear to spend protecting yourself.”

Suddenly furious, Daire’s expression becomes frosty.

He stares back at me, divided now by the iron bars of the prison cell.

“You’re not my savior. You’re my destroyer.

You caged me. Bloody ruined me. I may be a fallen king, but I am a king and not a damsel.

And I will protect myself and our Omega.

” When his gaze zeros in on the bruises that ring my neck, I flinch. “You can’t even protect yourself.”