It’s only a momentary blindness, but it’s enough to infuriate me.
“Have you lost your fucking mind?” I snap. Or try to, anyway. My voice is a bit hoarse. And what is he going on about, saying I did this to him? “I never stabbed you.”
“It’s an idiom,” he drawls, his voice stronger now as he crouches in front of me.
That’s when I realize his hit has sent me to the damn floor.
And I’m flat on my stomach.
“Also a metaphor, I guess,” he adds, his head cocking to the side. “It means you betrayed me. So I physically returned the favor. As I said ten minutes ago—hurts, doesn’t it?”
Ten minutes ago?
Fuck.
I must have blacked out longer than I realized.
Hence my placement on the floor.
But the knife appears to be gone.
“Now get up and take me to Serapina,” Maliki commands.
I huff a laugh. “Not going to do that.”Not after you fucking stabbed me, asshole.
Yet I’m oddly aroused by his violence. It isn’t because I want to fuck him, but because it confirms my decision to claim him for Serapina.
He truly is the ideal mate for my circle.
He’ll protect Serapina from every threat imaginable—including me.
Which will be important if she doesn’t want me to see her through her heat. I meant what I said about locking myself away. But on the chance I find a way out of the box, he’ll need to be able to take me down.
I’ll have to provide him with the tools to do so. However, he just proved he won’t even hesitate to follow through.
Because Serapina has his loyalty now.
Just as she should asourmate.
“That wasn’t the right answer, Hades,” Maliki says in a silky tone.
I mist to my room before he can stab me again, thenmist a second time tohisroom, just in case he’s trying to anticipate me again.
And finally return to the hallway on my feet rather than on the floor, and grab his wrist before he can stick another knife in me.
Except the clever fae was apparently ready for that, as evidenced by the stinging sensation climbing up my arm.
I release his wrist with a curse, belatedly realizing he put on some sort of silver-studded bracelet—laced withmorevenom. “Maliki.”
“You pissed me off,” he says conversationally. “So I found some extra slug venom.” He smiles as my knees give out. “But because I need you to be coherent, I didn’t use too much. Now take me to Sera.”
“I can’t,” I grit out. “Not yet.”
He cants his head. “Meaning what, exactly?”
“Meaning we have to talk first.”
“Talk,” he repeats, like the word is foreign to him. “Fancy that. You could havetalkedto me about an escape plan, but didn’t. Could have fucking mentioned a maze built to torture your mate, too. But no. You kept me in the dark.”
