Her—disheveled and looking helpless but alive—and with a circle around her pupil…in the same diamond dust as him.
“Mine should be gold,” he said softly. “I have no idea why it changed. I can only guess it has something to do with you. You’ve used your chalice magic for the good of the kingdom, and it has marked you as something special within this realm. And maybe you’ve…marked me. The ink matches the royal color ring in a fae’s eye. You only have a small bit of ink right now, but it does match. I just have a whole lot more.”
She released a breath. A smile spread as her heart bloomed. Daisy had no idea why it was happening and did not really care. She just wanted him. She loved that she matched him. That they shared this remarkable transition.
“Forgiven,” was all she thought to say, her feelings too big for words. But not needing words with him.
Something moved behind his eyes that she couldn’t read, and his entire bearing shut down unexpectedly. His expression went neutral.
She sighed. “Now what? Let me guess. I need to find the princess and the other royals and try to kill them too. Or some other horrible thing? I wouldn’t be surprised.”
A blast of magic so potent it made Daisy’s eyes water pulsed through the room. A delicious, earthy scent tickled her senses.
Tarian shook his head. “You’ve done the heavy lifting. You’ve killed the guardian of my cage. You’ve freed me.”
She’d been right. That made it all worth it.
Well…killing the king was its own reward, but enduring the steel-tipped whip was now justified.
Tarian’s power manifested as a physical entity, a sexual pulse that ached gloriously through every inch of her body. Invisible hands burned across her sensitive skin. “Rest now, my little dove. I’ll take it from here.”
His heat saturated the space around her. His magic ballooned, so immense that it filled the room, a pressure unlike anything she’d ever felt. A power that seemed endless. It shook the very foundation of the castle.
The Celestial in the human world hadn’t felt like this. Neither had the Celestials guarding the fringe. This was a level unto itself. Royalty, probably, but also…
“The Ancestral Magic of Sevens,” he murmured. He pulled her into his arms. “A gift from my mother. The curse of the kingdom. My bane to bear.”
“Your weapon to wield.” She pulled his neck down so she could capture his lips. “The wicked never rest, Tarian. Don’t you know that? Let’s go kill those fucking royals.”
He laughed and squeezed her tightly. “Yes,dewdrop.Let’s. But first…”
Wings flowed out from the back of his shoulders, delicate like a dragonfly’s. They were colored like the sky at dusk, with peach and pink tones leading down to indigo and navy, covered in a glittering sheen of gold. Not dawn after the night, but dusk leading into the darkness. Just like him. They were stunning. Her breath caught to behold them.
They flared to the sides, snapping taut. Light flowed through the webbing, showing the glimmer, like the failing light dancing across the surface of a lake. She reached out and slid her fingers along the velvety, soft edge. He shivered, goosebumps rolling across his flesh.
Later, dove. I want to feel you stroke my wings—and other things—later. Right now, we have some wrongs to right.
She expected him to lead her out of the chamber, but instead, he took her hand and walked beside her. His wings fluttered, and his tattoos glittered, a fucking specimen to witness. She didn’t much care about the enormity of his magic, but he was so fucking hot, so ethereal—godlike—that she was surely going to get a complex. She wasn’t nearly attractive enough for someone like him. Not nearly close enough in pedigree. Maybe it was a good thing she had a noble death awaiting her. She wouldn’t have to suffer the heartbreak of watching him lose interest before finding an incredible beauty with titles and gold and all the things handsome princes were sure to want.
“Question,” she said to distract herself as they entered the outer chamber. Bodies lay prone and bloodied. Tarian had fought his way through to get to her. “Before I do the magnanimous thing and sacrifice myself for the good of the realm, can I get a bigger tattoo? Assuming it’ll be diamond dust. Even in death, I’d rock that thing. I was made for it.”
He tugged her closer. “Yes. We’ll get one to match. How’s that?”
“I mean, sure, if you want to be cutesy about it.”
He chuckled darkly as they left the king’s wing and entered the corridor.
“Question,” she said again. His magic stuffed the space full of blistering, potent magic. It wasn’t billowing black shadows this time, though. Pale gold, coral, lavender, and cerulean sparkled in a magnificent display of dusk-like colors, coating the walls and swirling through the air. The magic was clean and pure and playful while still deadly and menacing. Fae. It lifted her soul and made her want to burn down the world all at the same time.
“Yes?” he asked, jostling her out of her stupor with the beauty of his magic. One being should not be allowed to be this overwhelmingly gorgeous. It simply wasn’t fair for the rest of the worlds at large—both the fae world and the human. And any other world out there that she didn’t know about.
“Why did you come for me? You never said. I thought you couldn’t.”
They turned the corner. “I’ll explain it all later. Right now…”
Guards waited in the hall, weapons in hand and bodies tense. They sighted Tarian and pivoted to face him. They must’ve known he was coming.
“Not known,” he said as he walked toward them with a purposeful stride. His wings fluttered behind him, proving to everyone what he was. “Feared. And now their fears will come true.”
