I know the scent of that blood.
I can’t fucking think clearly enough to figure out where I’ve tasted it before, but I need it. Crave it. Desperately.
This scent is a lie, like everything else. I’ve had fits of insanity with daydreams exactly like this—but never has it felt so real. Never has my body reacted so viscerally.
When the scent of blood draws closer and something warm drips on my cheek just beside my mouth, I struggle against my chains once again, trying to lick at it.
“Closer,” I rasp in fae as anguished thirst consumes me.
And finally, glorious blood drips into my mouth.
Holy gods above.
This flavor—the sheer power of the intoxicatingly singular magic gracing my tongue–sends my entire system into frenzied need unlike anything I’ve experienced.
I need more. Now.
Use your magic!my father shouts in my head.
Use this power and free yourself!other voices chant, drowning out my every thought until?—
Magic explodes from my bound hands, breaking the shackles on my wrists and ankles. The fact that everything is blurred around me doesn’t stop me from rolling out of what’s left of the iron enclosure to tackle the source of this searing need.
My fangs puncture through a warm neck, immediately finding the carotid artery as the shrieking inside my head increases. I ignore the voices and drink heavily, squeezing my eyes shut and moaning at the flavor.
It’s fuckingdivine. So much stronger than I remember, though I still can’t pinpoint where I’ve had this delicacy before.
I want more. All of it.
I release this artery and drag my lips to a new place, biting down hard to get more of what I want. Again and again.
There’s a sharp inhale.
“So greedy,” a voice whispers in fae, laughing breathlessly.
How strange. It’sherlaugh. But her voice hasn’t laughed in my head in this hell, not even once.
And now she's…humming a song. A very off-tune fae lullaby. It tugs at a memory, drawing me out of the damnable haze of madness that’s trying to suffocate me as I draw deeply again from this perfect neck.
It’s a lie!the voices in my head shriek defiantly.Thetelumis dead! Kill her before she kills you!
All the voices are panicking. But why are they so afraid of this daydream?
I’m too far gone to reason out the answer as I move to bite somewhere else, reveling in the flavor that renders me incapable of thought.
A hand brushes through my curls, and I realize I can make out softly labored breathing beneath me. I would know the rhythm of that breathing anywhere, mad or not.
“Silas. I doubt I’ll revive from expiring anymore, and Everett would never forgive my stupidity if I die like this. That’s enough. Let me go.”
As the fog of insanity inside my brain begins to thin slightly, a sudden realization sets in, hard and fast. I’m drinking blood. Her blood.
I could never imagine a taste this all-consuming and potent, so it must be real. This isn’t another one of my mad daydreams.
Gods above.
I immediately release her and scramble away, licking residual heaven from my lips as I blink through the frantic confusion and see her face in the dim light of the candles.
Maven.
