Page 56 of Vow of the Undead (The Bloodrune Saga #1)

I ’d traded myself for a glimpse of the lost history, but shame didn’t crawl its icy fingers up my neck as I’d expected. Instead, desire for more left me breathless and slick.

As King Drakkar stepped back, allowing me to fully breathe again, I lifted my chin.

“Have I changed your mind?” he asked, his icy eyes glimmering. “You marry me and all this is yours, Lux. And a lifetime of this.” He brushed thumb over my core, eliciting a gasp from me as every nerve ignited.

Despite the need burning between my thighs, I frowned and chewed at my bottom lip.

Giving in to the intoxication King Drakkar offered patched the hole left by Kayn, at least temporarily, but marrying a murderer wasn’t an option.

Even if the lost history was right in front of me.

The history I’d dreamed of. Everything my mother spent years offering sacrifices to the Gods to recover bits and pieces of.

These were the stories of our ancestors, the stories that created the world we live in.

I could lie and perhaps he’d allow me to see more of the library, but even the thought of lying left my tongue bitter.

“You’d lie to me?” he asked. The crease between his brow made him look as if he was actually hurt by this.

My heart jolted. I hadn’t said it aloud, had I?

“No,” he said. “I heard your thoughts.”

With my back snapping straight, I bore into him with a fevered glare. “I was really hoping that was a nightmare? You really can read my mind, can't you?”

With a chuckle he shook his head. “I can catch glimpses after I’ve…connected with a human. And then when they’re heated. When you want me. Part of it is simply observing how your body reacts to your thoughts.”

Rage built within me. “You tricked me into this twisted little kissing game so you could invade the privacy of my mind, didn’t you?”

He brushed his thumb over his lip and suppressed another chuckle. “Again, no. The human has to… want me, both in spirit and sex, in order for the connection to form. It goes both ways, and I didn’t know if you felt more than just the heat?—”

“No.”

“Hmm.”

I cursed. There was no way I could want anything beyond base attraction.

“So,” he began, his wicked smirk taunting me. “Shall I ask again? Is this library a wedding gift worthy of your hand?”

I shook my head and absently toyed with the tip of my braid.

Two smaller braids from the sides of my heads were intertwined with the larger one that I draped over my shoulder.

“There is so much we don’t know and I want all of it.

” I was that same girl my mother tasked to watch for the executioners—the blade at which the truth stopped.

She always knew they were hiding our history, but not for what purpose

This hidden library proved her right.

“Why? What can lost history do for you now? ”

I opened my mouth but stopped short, unsure if I could explain the will to live to an undead creature.

He grinned. “Speechless? I know another way to leave you without words.”

I mirrored him now, folding my arms. “You wouldn’t understand the answer.”

“Try me.”

“Survival.”

He opened his arms and looked around. “What is mere survival when you can have all of this and live in the castle in the wealthiest village in our realm?”

Our realm. The way he spoke almost drew me to him, like an invisible thread pulled taut between us.

Or perhaps my body was still tense, still wound up from the frustration of his teasing.

“I want freedom. And for someone like me, black eyes and with a pulse that beats to the rhythm of the Poetic Edda, it is only a matter of time until the executioners come for me. But you, my…” I stopped.

His lips parted, but he said nothing. “What?”

“You don’t know what to call me.”

“I’m not declaring you my king and certainly not calling you my husband because that’s simply not true.”

“How about Drak?”

“How about Killer?”

He stepped up to me, brushing the back of his finger along my cheek. “Only if I can call you that too.” I gritted my teeth.

“See? You wouldn’t understand. You killed for pleasure.

I killed for protection. That is what survival means.

” A weight lifted off of me though the shame still lingered with a chill trickling down my spine.

This is what the Gods needed from me; survival for me and my mother, for Stasia, and the people of Skaldir.

He cracked a half smile, but it wasn’t full of amusement as it often was .

“If my eyes speak for me, then it is the shape of your mouth that speaks for you, even when it is closed,” I said.

“My mouth is very talented.” Though he spoke suggestively, his half smile faded.

I pursed my lips. “I haven’t offended the king, have I?”

“There is something more precious than survival, Lux.” I ticked my brows, prodding him to continue, as if a monster could even understand the need to protect oneself. “Revenge.” I huffed. “And,” he said, cutting me off before I could argue. “Freedom.”

My heart skipped. “Those are the titles of Loki and Freya’s sagas…”

“And I’m a monster cut off from the Gods,” he said. “Yes, I’m aware.”

“Are the full accounts here?” I pushed past him and trailed my finger against the stone shelf.

Would Freya’s full saga hint at these trials?

Perhaps I could confirm if the answer I’d received after the blood sacrifice was correct.

Could a huntress also be seer? Reading the entire saga dedicated to her would give a deeper insight into the God I was never allowed to speak of.

He caught my elbow and yanked me away from the shelf. I stumbled into him and shot him a venomous look. “That’s enough.”

“You have to release this history,” I said between breaths. My heart beat faster, anticipating what could be if only he’d listen to me. “When it’s exposed, the council will have to let the witches out of exile. The people of Vylheim will recognize the truth.”

“I can’t do that. There is already unrest in Mara because of the Age of Exploration. This will tilt humans into full on war.”

If I wasn’t helping the witches, then what was the point of any of this? My mother was still dying. Ragna was still locked away somewhere, and I’d still be forced to marry the king or die.

He turned his back to me, giving me a second, one single second to act.

Desperation melted with the simmering fury and I lunged for the stake.

He spun around, his eyes flicking to the weapon before his smirk spread into a sinister grin. “You won’t kill me.”

“Like you won’t kill me?” I challenged, speaking through my teeth. Despite my earlier hesitance, I refused to give up my power again.

His smile wavered. “I told you, I don’t want to, but if you refuse me?—”

“You would have killed me already if you had the balls to do it.”

He laughed. “I’ve killed more people than you’ve met, my wife.”

I frowned and gripped the stake tighter.

“But not me. What is it? Because I’m a witch?

I’ve communed with the divine. Is the king afraid of the Gods?

” Squeezing my throat harder, he finally frowned, which meant I’d hit a painful truth.

It was my turn to smirk. “They’re more powerful than you’ll ever be, my king . ”

“I thought I told you to call me Drak?”

“I thought I told you not to call me your wife?”

He laughed, though the sound didn’t have a lick of joy in it. “If you’d just trust me, you’d know that is a compliment and for your benefit.”

“If you’d just tell me why?—”

With a huff, he ripped his hand from my throat and stepped back, shaking his head. “This world is a game, Lux?—”

“Silver.”

“Lux. ”

“Fuck you!”

He laughed again and lifted his arm to tug at the strings of my dress that now hung loose.

My chest was nearly bare with the ribbons having come undone.

His narrowed eyes raked over the swell of my breasts before he met my gaze again.

“I’m playing to win with you on my team.

Unfortunately, the other team has more players. ”

“Consider me on the other side.”

“You have no idea what you’re saying.”

“Then. Tell. Me.”

He drew his tongue over his top teeth before flexing his jaw. Dropping his hand from the ribbons at my breast, he smiled without amusement and sighed. “I can’t risk it.”

“Risk what?” I demanded.

“Losing you.”

My lips parted. This was the last response I expected.

He didn’t know me, he didn’t care for me, he used me and fucked with me, but that was where our connection ended.

Or where it should have ended. My damn body still wanted him.

The line between anger and this dizzying need to release the tension he’d built thinned.

I forced the depraved thoughts to quiet.

“I’m nothing but a piece of the game to you,” I said.

“You’re the only one strong enough to believe in the Gods despite the executioners and you’ve yet to succumb to the Gods’ affairs.”

“Does this have to do with your revenge and freedom?”

“My revenge, yes, but everyone’s freedom.”

I brought the tip of the stake to the center of his chest. Even if he knew I wouldn’t kill him yet, I liked the position of power. “How?”

“When we’re married, I’ll tell you everything.” I closed my eyes, frustrated with his useless response, then, surprised to hear his voice again, I peeled them back open. “I’m not only speaking to you right now. I can’t trust that they aren’t listening. ”

“They?” I breathed. Though I posed it as a question, I already knew. How did he know the Gods warred within me?

“Because you’re one of the few people brave enough to still believe in them despite the executioners, and you’re the only one to fight back, so of course they’d choose you.”

I released a string of curses under my breath. “You read my mind again. That’s how you know about the Gods.”

“No, in your mind or not, a vampire could never hear the Gods. I hear you , and only when you—” his lips bent into a wicked grin, the suggestion heating me from the inside out.

The darkness within me beckoned for him, curling and twisting to reach for him.

It wasn’t just my body that wanted him to touch me again, but my spirit, poisoned black with a corruption that found comfort in the familiar corruption within him.

I straightened, finally lowering the stake to my side. I refused to let go of it, but I no longer wielded it against him.

“I’ll marry you,” I whispered.

His sharp gaze pinned me. “What did you say?”

“Release the witches, risk this war you claim will happen, and give Vylheim the true history of their people. Let everyone remember the Gods, and I’ll marry you.

” With Drak still as their king, he could release the truth and temper this war.

We could not risk another wasteland, not with the winters growing harsher.

As much as I just wanted freedom, I had to be smart about this.

I could be the queen at his side, giving the real history to the people of Vylheim.

Shaking his head, he let out a cruel laugh. “That’s not how this works. You will marry me because I told you to.”

“I thought I had to accept it?”

He breathed a curse. He hated not being in control. Maybe I knew him as well as he claimed to know me. “I will not release Ragna or any of my witches until they’ve summoned Odin. ”

“What is your obsession with this summoning?”

“Is that understood?” He hardly let me finish speaking before barreling over my words with his own question.

I narrowed my eyes, keeping my chin lifted. I would not back down now, I’d already failed Odin. I’d already decided not to follow through with the single command he’d given me. Valhalla and Folkvangr were the dreams of a foolish girl. They were afterlives meant for someone better.

Could the Gods really fault me for wanting to save her? They knew who they’d chosen—a sick and twisted witch. Their choice was a gamble from the beginning and I had no doubt they were aware of it. Odin was aware of most things, especially when it came to witches.

Now it was either pass the trial given to me by the Allfather, or take what I wanted, and I was exactly selfish enough to take what I wanted.

“After we’ve tried summoning him then,” I said. “And it can’t take longer than a year from when we’re married.”

His fists flexed and released, flexed and released. He was fighting every instinct to demand control. I would not win him over by stripping him of it.

Maybe I could give him the illusion of control. Maybe that’d tip him over the edge. Maybe he’d agree to risk everything.

He’d asked for kisses in exchange for the answers he gave me, but it was obvious he was desperate for more.

“You will agree to this and for tonight, I’ll do whatever you want.” Even saying it stirred something low in my belly. The pleasure he’d given me only left me aching for more.

His eyes darkened and the tips of his lips tilted. “If I agree to this, you’ll be my wife soon. I’ve no need to convince you.”

“But you want to.”

“And what do you want?”

Isn’t it obvious? If he didn’t hear my thoughts, the wetness between my legs would expose the truth if he ran his hands up my thighs again.

His gaze roved over me, hungry, consuming, as needy as he’d left me since bringing me to the brink of full pleasure. “By the flush over your chest and that look in your eyes? Yes, it’s obvious, my wife.”

I didn’t fight it. At least he didn’t call me Lux.

“So?” I prodded, impatient both because I wanted answers and because I needed more from him.

He tilted his head. “I have a very specific idea that I’ve been thinking about since you sat on my lap in front of everyone.”

“You made me do that.”

“And now I’m going to make you come, on my throne, and on me.”

I barely breathed. I shouldn’t be so distracted with this, but the offer had worked. “Then you will agree to my terms?”

“I will do everything in my power to release them on your timeline. I swear to you.”

It would have to be enough. A king so desperate to control everything wasn’t going to give me another inch.

I nodded and, finally giving in to the need building within me, I slipped my hand in his and kept my grip on the stake with the other. He was malleable now, intrigued by my wants, and I couldn’t lie, I was more than intrigued whenever we touched.

Depraved thoughts slipped into my mind. Thoughts of his hands all over me, as I led him down the secret passageway and towards the throne room.