I nodded again. My body still buzzed with a strange, electric hum, but I wasn’t sure if it was the drug or the grief—or both. Vince moved around me and clapped Kaius on the back. He exchanged a few low words with him, then disappeared out the front of the barn, leaving the wind and rain to howl through the torn-open doorway.
I stared after Vince, my eyes catching on the tarp flapping in the storm. For a second, the scene blurred, and I wasn’t in this barn anymore—I was back there.
Blood. It painted the dirt, seeped into it, creating a messy paste, and turned the air metallic and heavy in my lungs. I remember falling to my knees, my hands slipping in the warm, sticky pool spreading beneath what I thought was Alec’s body. Now I could see the difference between him and the prospect he had set up for death. The body in my arms was younger, barely out of boyhood, but already carrying the weight of a man. His eyes had been open, glassy, his mouth slack in the way death left people unrecognizable. I remember screaming my brother’s name, pressing my hands against wounds no hands could fix, shaking him, begging him to wake up.
“You promised me,” I had sobbed, voice raw. “You promised we’d always survive together.”
Detective Parsons had found me like that, a broken girl clutching the body of her brother amid the carnage of my family home. He pulled me back, his arms iron bands around me as I kicked and clawed to get back to Alec. Detective Watson hovered nearby, face grim, whispering something about trauma, about shock. None of it mattered. My nails raked Parsons’s arms as he lifted me, carried me out of the yard while I wailed so hard my throat shredded. My tears soaked through his shirt, my body convulsing with grief I didn’t understand how to live through. I ended up in the back of his squad car, hands cuffed in front of me as the two detectives talked just outside the vehicle.
The memory burned as it slipped away, dragging me back into the present—the smell of rain, gunpowder, and Alec’s corpse not so different from that night. Only this time, it had been my finger that pulled the trigger.
“Acelynn.” Kaius’s voice dragged me out of the spiral. It was softer than I deserved, his knuckles brushing down my cheek.
I sucked in a shaky breath. “I’m sorry.”
The words tumbled out before I could stop them. My skin burned with shame, but once the floodgates opened, I couldn’t close them. “I’m sorry for ever thinking you were a monster. You were the only one who…who didn’t ask me to bleed for them. And I doubted you anyway. You were right. About Alec. About me. About all of it.”
Kaius gripped my chin, forcing me to meet his eyes. His voice was steady and sure. It grounded me. “There’s nothing for you to be sorry for, kitten. You’ve consumed my every thought since I was thirteen years old. I’d walk through fire and ruin to get to you, and I’d do all of this again if it meant finding you at the end of it. You are my salvation, Acelynn Spade. The one thing in this world I’d trade my crown for. I love you. Always have.”
Tears spilled over, blurring my vision, but I leaned into him, whispering his name like it was the only prayer I knew. “Kai.”
Without hesitation, I crushed my lips against his. Kaius seized me instantly, his mouth claiming mine in a bruising kiss that left me gasping. One of his hands slid to cup my face possessively, holding me there as if he could consume me whole. I leaned into him eagerly, craving more, needing more than just this kiss. Pulling back, my voice was a command that trembled with hunger. “You called me a queen earlier. Get on your back, Kaius, and show me how you worship your queen.”
He arched a single brow at me but obeyed, lowering himself with deliberate slowness, first to his knees and then to the ground, settling back on his hands. His eyes burned with hunger, watching me with predatory patience as if I were the one putting on a show for him. I wasted no time. My fingers slid down, unbuttoning my jeans and tugging them off along with my underwear. Kaius’s gaze darkened as he drank me in, leaning back fully now as if daring me to take what I wanted. Dropping to my knees, I straddled his thighs, my skin alive with fire whereit brushed against him. My hands moved quickly, unzipping his jeans and freeing his already hard cock. I gave him a few slow pumps, savoring the way his groan rumbled through his chest, deep and guttural.
Kaius’s hand shot up, gripping my face and dragging me down into another fierce kiss. His mouth was hot, demanding, and it made my pussy clench tight around nothing. His lips brushed mine as he murmured, “The clock’s ticking before the cleanup crew arrives, kitten.”
“And?” I lifted a brow at him, my challenge clear.
I moved forward, lining him up with my aching core and sinking down onto him carefully. A low moan spilled from my throat as my body stretched around him. Kaius groaned, his hips bucking to bury himself fully into me. His teeth nipped at my lower lip, tugging me back into another kiss as I tore at the buttons of his dark shirt. The fabric gave way under my hands, buttons scattering across the floor. I shoved the ruined shirt from his shoulders, too far gone to care about anything but the heat burning between us.
My palm pressed firmly against the center of his chest, guiding him down until his back hit the ground. Both of my hands found purchase above his head where a dark pool of blood had collected. The liquid squelched between my fingers, warm and slick, coating my skin. Pulling from the kiss, I straightened up, dragging my bloodied hands down his abs, marking him with the crimson streaks. Marking him as mine.
I began to move, rolling my hips in slow, deliberate motions as pleasure pulsed through me. A shaky moan escaped as Kaius’s hand reached up, his thumb pressing against my clit in rough, relentless circles that made me shudder.
“Kaius…” My voice broke in a breathy protest as he met my rhythm with hard, punishing thrusts. My lungs burned, my body surrendering every ounce of control to him.
He sat up, stealing another kiss, his mouth devouring every sound I made. Then, with brutal swiftness, he flipped us. My back hit the ground, and his hips slammed into mine, each thrust harder than the last until my eyes rolled to the back of my head.
“Fuck, you’re gorgeous,” he muttered against my skin, his blood-stained hand trailing up my stomach and shoving my shirt over my breasts. His head dipped, lips wrapping around one aching nipple as he began to toy with it. A sharp whine tore from me as his teeth grazed, then bit, and my pussy clenched tight around him. His mouth lifted slightly, voice ragged and commanding. “Come on, kitten. Let it go.”
It only took a few more thrusts before I shattered, crying out his name as release tore through me. My body trembled, clenching tight around him, dragging him over the edge with me. His pace faltered, growing sloppy as he groaned, chasing his own release before spilling into me. Our breaths tangled together in the aftermath, ragged and heavy. Slowly, Kaius pulled out of me, pressing a single kiss to my forehead.
A soft smile curved my lips as I looked up at him, the chaos around us forgotten. “I love you too, Kaius.”
He brushed his knuckle beneath my chin, tilting it up with a teasing smirk. “Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah.” I bit down on my bottom lip, playful even in the haze of exhaustion. “And I’m glad you kept your end of the bargain of being the knight who saves the princess.”
“You didn’t need a knight to save you.” Kaius’s nose brushed against mine, voice low and steady. He pulled me flush against him, eyes burning into mine. “You saved yourself, kitten.”
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
kaius
The dim hospitallight sent a weak yellow glow over Astoria’s body. Her tiny frame seemed to be swallowed by the bed, blonde hair spilling like a halo across the thin white pillow. An IV line dripped antibiotics and painkillers into her veins, keeping her sedated and comfortable. Acelynn stood across from me in the corner of the room, trying to shrink into the shadows, but she was failing.
Her eyes were glassy, fixed on the rise and fall of Astoria’s chest like she wasn’t sure if she trusted it to keep going. Bruises darkened her face, yet she’d refused all treatment, hell-bent on laying eyes on Astoria with her own. Even unconscious, my little sister was stubborn. She twitched, trying to yank out the oxygen tube, but Nolan caught her wrist before she could rip it free. Nolan chuckled at her motion, standing slightly leaned over her and pulling her hand down to rest at her side.
