“No.” I can’t believe I listened to Solano for a moment. I should’ve killed him then and there. “He said he didn’t kill my mother.”
“Every word a lie, every breath a disease.” He smooths his hand down my arm and pulls me tightly against him as he lies back on his bed. “Our army has him in the dungeon with his friends. You’ve no need to worry.” He kisses my hair. “They’re already making arrangements in the throne room for our mating.” His hand slides lower to slip under my tunic and caress my side. “I must admit I’ve had a rather hard time waiting to claim you.”
I look up at him, see the hunger in his dark eyes. “I want to be yours.”
“You will be. Now that I have the sun king, my plans are moving even faster than I’d hoped.” He pulls me up his body, forcing me to straddle him. With one hand at my throat, he stares deeply into my eyes, into my soul. “I see his footprints, his meddling touches in here.” He reaches up with his other hand and presses it over my heart. “In here as well.” With an easy motion, he rolls and pins me beneath him. “Did you let him in, my pet?” His eyes glint darker, the sharp edge in his voice slicing me with precision. But underneath it, there’s more. There’s … fear.
“No.” I hold his gaze. “Only you.”
He relents, his hold on my throat easing as his other hand drifts lower to cup my breast. “When I took you, it was only to salt the wound. To strike a blow against the sun king he would feel to his marrow.” He considers me, his thumb brushing across the peak of my nipple.
It sends skitters of sensation along my skin, but nothing more. Nothing like lightning or a falling star, no matter how hard I will it to be so.
“But now.” He leans closer, his lips grazing against mine. “Now I see why he chose you. Only you.”
“Because he wanted to hurt me?”
“Now he can’t. Now you’re strong.” He kisses me again, more deeply this time, his tongue teasing against mine before he pulls back, his cold, hard eyes so intent they almost glow like embers. “He chose you because—although his is a deceiver—he can still see with the eyes of a king. He saw you and took you, like a dragon choosing a priceless jewel to crown its hoard.”
“I was just a changeling.” My eyes blur as my tattered memories of leaving my mother, of being ferried off by the wicked sun king to his cruel realm, all seem to spin and collide in my mind.
“Shhh.” He wipes away my tear. “I can see it, too. There’s a deep lake within you, one I’ve only seen in ripples and dim reflections. But once we’re mated, I intend to dive deep, to find all of you, my pet. To taste every last drop.”
I shudder, but I don’t know if it’s from desire or fear. My king is on top of me, his lips brushing against mine as he makes promises of mating. I want this. I want it so badly, but that does nothing to end the ache beneath my ribs.
“We will mate before moonrise.” He moves off me, his tall frame reaching its full height in the glow of stars through the window. “And then I’ll slay the day king and his minions. After that, we will take the day realm. You will be queen of it all. Does that please you?”
“Yes.” I exhale on a sigh.
“Is there something else?” He turns, giving me his darkened profile in relief. The most handsome prince of night, his seeker features making him more predatory. I can’t imagine there has ever been a fiercer king of this realm.
“I have a request. For our mating.”
“A mating gift? Anything, my pet. What would you like?”
I sit up, then stand beside him, both of us surveying the wide expanse of Nightlands beyond the keep. “I want to kill the king of day for you.”
He cuts his gaze to me, then a smirk turns the corner of his lips, and he takes my hand and kisses it. “The honor will be yours, my bloodthirsty queen.”
21
Solano
“—hands off him, you detestable creatures!” A bellow rattles around in my ears.
Something hard crunches beneath me, and I feel a dull throb.
“My lord! Solano!” Banging and yells.
The scent of decay and death invade my nose, and my thoughts flash back into focus. Emma, she’s here.
“Ancestors, he’s been bitten.” Charen’s voice, close by.
“And half gutted,” Tristano observes.
“Emma.” I open my eyes to a dim reality. Filthy bars, stone walls, no windows, and the only light from a brazier high above. The Nightkeep’s dungeon.
“He’ll turn.” Everett grates.
