Oh yeah, he would like that, wouldn’t he? I nearly shoved him off, but the shock stole my vigor. Helickedmy jawline. Slow and languid. Then he trailed kisses down the side of my neck, pausing at the sensitive area where my neck met my shoulder, sucking lightly. I had to clamp my mouth shut at the moan that nearly slipped out.
My eyes snapped back open as he scooped me up into his lap. I stilled. He was hard. And reason fought to enter my mind once more, but was only muffled as he stroked my waist, my thighs. His fingers lazily grazed my rib cage, right beneath my breast. This could not be an appropriate dinner interaction.
“How lovely,” Queen Sindri crooned. “I’ve never seen my Sebby so captivated by a woman.”
He glared at the use of the nickname he clearly hated. I’d have to figure out how to fit it into a conversation.
She then turned to Fela, and they began to embrace, their lips colliding. And my initial fear of being inappropriate was promptly set at ease with the displays of affection going around the table. I glanced up to Sebastian.
“I told you we’re from different worlds,” he murmured.
The sudden screeching of wood against marble made me jump.
Odette stood. “This has been a lovely evening, but I must retire to my room.” Her words were heavy with annoyance and anger. She stalked off.
“Are you going to speak to her?” Shouldn’t he formally end things? Or should he end it at all if our betrothal wasn’t even real?
“She got the message,” he said simply.
“Wasn’t this all a little harsh?” I mean she was still human—vampire—after all.
“That’s the difference between you two. You still care about her despite the wickedness she just showed you, but she doesn’t care about you at all. She would pounce on the opportunity to take you down. She’s probably plotting to do so now.”
“And you never ... you weren’t ever ...”
He seemed to read my mind. “I was never interested in her. Odette was the product of my sister’s meddling.”
Queen Sindri gave us a sharp glance at that and then her shrug was followed by feigning exhaustion. She must have wanted Sebastian to marry for quite some time now.
Part of me was relieved that he hadn’t fancied her. Maybe it invalidated the allure of who I was supposed to be, who my mother wanted me to be. Maybe I just couldn’t ignore that part of me any longer, that part that burned at the thought of him with someone else. And when would I have to acknowledge that part of me? The part that craved the very thing that would only cast me further from society. I wondered if he was lying for my expense, though there shouldn’t have been reason for him to lie. But judging by the wayhe hadn’t spoken to her and how he didn’t even look at her once, I believed him.
* * *
Once we retired to his rooms for the night and I was ready for bed, I hadn’t realized I was standing before it staring it down until Sebastian came up beside me.
“I can sleep in the sitting room.”
“Oh, no, it’s not that.” Maybe it was. Flashes of fangs and writhing beneath him fled through my mind, heating my skin. The moment we had never formally addressed. What we had been pretending just didn’t ever happen. When I orgasmed on his face. My cheeks flushed. “I can’t kick you out of your own bed.”
And there we were again, laying beside each other like the night we had traveled to the Hushed Woods.
“Who is Alaric?” Though I tried to keep it soft, my voice still cut through the silence.
I knew Sebastian was still awake, but the way he stilled, I would have thought he was dead.
“You haven’t told me much about him. I feel like I should know more if he could turn me and bond me to him at any moment,” I continued as if I needed to convince him. I’d even beg him at this point. “You said your world had let him down. What did you mean by that?”
After a long, stretching silence I figured he wouldn’t respond, and I gave up, waiting for sleep. But then he finally spoke.
“When my father was alive, he had many mistresses. Alaric’s mother was one of them.” That meant ... “Alaric is my half-brother.” I remained perfectly still, as if any movement would make him stop talking. “I didn’t find out until he was ten. I was fourteen at the time. My father’s affairs that resulted in pregnancies were not allowed in his fucked up world. That’s why Alaric’s mother fled the kingdomwhen she knew she was pregnant. But my father found out somehow, took him years to finally track them down. Alaric was eight when my father’s men killed his mother. They tried to kill him too. But Alaric has always been smart. And his abilities, especially illusions as you unfortunately know, were the best I had ever seen. Even as a child. He escaped, and he continued to escape for two years before my father finally saw something he wanted.
“The most powerful kingdom in all of Dreigo couldn’t catch a kid. My father decided to stop trying to end him but use him instead. Alaric didn’t want to run anymore, so when my father finally offered him a deal, he accepted. He had told me he knew it could have been a trick, but he didn’t want a life on the run and the memories of his mother’s death, so he accepted his own death.”
He scoffed. “A ten-year-old accepting death. My father brought him home, not as his son, no, he made Alaric swear to keep that part of him a secret. Anyone who spoke of it would be executed, including him. He would be some sort of prodigy, my father’s special project. He was going to be the best warrior Svealin had ever seen.
“Since we were close enough in age, we would train together. My father wanted us to because he was hoping Alaric’s talents would rub off on me. Though we only ended up fucking around.” He paused, and I could tell he was smiling. “But he did teach me a lot about illusions. I don’t think I’d be half as good as I am without him.” I remembered the illusion he had shown me of Svealin. It felt as if I was really there. “We would disguise ourselves to get out of classes. We were able to convince the staff that a ghost haunted the castle. Some would actually run screaming into the night from our illusions.” He paused another moment. “That might have been when Alaric picked up his love for haunting. Sorry about that.”
I chuckled softly, rolling my eyes at the casualty, the absurdity, the trauma.
