His smirk was as arrogant as ever. “A darkness I shall use.”
“You will never make it to the top because you will destroy yourself before you do. And if you do somehow manage to carve an irreparable path of destruction to get there, you will die on your throne in more ways than one.”
There it was. A hairline fracture. His stone-like features faltered, a slight disturbance, but I saw it. “You’re an ominous little thing,” he said flatly.
I dragged in a long breath and let out a heavy sigh. Maybe if I just had more time. Everything eventually breaks under pressure. Maybe that’s what he needed, to break. Hatred is nothing but glass after all. Though it may seem to hold its form well, it’s easy to shatter. His hatred had become a part of him, contorted and interwoven throughout his very being. He would need to break completely and be reassembled differently.
“Who helped you open the portal?” I asked.
Though he was already staring at me, his gaze seemed to zero in, entrapping me within its inescapable path.
“They’re a lot closer than you think.” His words raked through me like an echo of a life lived long ago. A specter plunging the room into a deep cold.
“What is your plan, Alaric? You wanted to overthrow our king, rule over Kilthorne. What’s the next step?”
“Securing your obedience.”
I reeled back slightly, not expecting his answer. “What do you mean?”
“You’re quite familiar with being alone.”
A vise gripped my heart, pulling down roughly, quickly. A sudden submersion. “You want ... what? My help?”
“Your support.” He was practically laying out his heart before me, though that glassy, placid surface of his face refused to break. Not even the slightest ripple to signify any feeling. But I knew it hurt. He was alone, one of the many deaths of the throne.
“Alaric—”
“Darling.”
I sighed. “You cannot force people to be with you.”
His lips curled into a devious smile. “Oh, but I can.”
My eyes narrowed on him.
“I just need to make you a bit more pliable.”
“And how would you do that?”
“A bond would make you most agreeable.”
I lost my breath as my heart skipped over a beat. “I wouldneverdrink from you.”
The soft glow of the room faded at his grin. A chill slinked around me, taunting, pricking my skin. He glanced down to the empty crystal goblet before me, and his eyes bore back into me. “You already have.”
My mouth fell open. I blinked rapidly through the burning tears. I stood abruptly, shoving my chair back that toppled over with a deafening clatter. I barely made it a few feet before he was on me, dragging me down to the cold stone.
My scream reached up high to the arched ceiling before it came crashing back down on me. My horror was quickly cut off with a choked cry as his teeth sank into my throat.
His hand gripped tightly at the nape of my neck, entangled within my hair, immobilizing me as I laid limp beneath him. Shock seized my muscles, my mind far off somewhere I couldn't reach.
Fighting it was like outrunning a flash flood. It consumed me quickly, violently. Golden warmth wrapped around my skin, erupting in sparks that awakened every nerve. My legs fell open, wrapping around him as I held him closer. He was so cold. I shivered,each tremble eliciting more sparks. My mind slipped through my fingers as I grasped for it. He continued to drink from me, and a haziness drifted past my vision.Don’t close your eyes. Don’t fall asleep.
My bond with Sebastian was a warm embrace I collapsed into, it was falling knowing I’d land safely on the ground. This, this was born of hellfire, a burning, it was falling to the jagged rocks below, crashing through the earth, magma consuming in one greedy bite.
This waswrong.It was all wrong.
And he was reaching in. I could feel him taking a part of me, what I’d never get back.
