The air becomes thicker, angrier, as swirls of black and crimson dance in my periphery.
“Who the fuck gave you permission to frolic in my chamber while I was away?” Killian’s enraged voice booms out of nowhere.
Chapter 16
Aimee
AsIfindmyfooting in Killian’s chamber, I don’t know what feeling to focus on first.
Should I fixate on the outrage bubbling up to the surface at the fact that Killian displayed such a public claim on me by kissing me in front of Mael and all the warriors present? I am not his damn possession.
I absolutely don’t want to address the disappointment swirling at the edge of consciousness over not being able to take the kiss further due to finding Blaise and his latest conquest all tangled up in the middle of Killian’s room.
So I turn to laughter, cackling at Killian’s irritation, his neck veins bulging so prominently that I’d probably be afraid he’s about to have a stroke if he weren’t a vampire. Blaise’s eyes are wide as saucers, and he stumbles before he flings himself at both of us, engulfing us in a bear hug.
“Thank Akaori, you’re safe! I was so worried, out of my Godsdamn mind!” he says between sloppy pecks that he lands wherever he can—on top of my head, my forehead, Killian’s ear, his neck.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing, idiot! Stop touching me with those filthy lips of yours that Akaori knows where the fuck they’ve been.And never in your sorry ass of an existence do you kiss Aimee again, in my presence or otherwise.”
Killian is seething like a volcano’s boiling surface right before a devastating rupture, but that doesn’t deter Blaise in the least.
“Oh, shut it, you grumpy old vampire! I was one meltdown away from wreaking havoc in Ryawarath, showing up at the Fae Court blades blazing, and you were probably not even there.”
“Of course not,” I say between laughs. “We were in Reweroth, dummy.”
“I told him as much, but pretty boy here is much like a dog with a boner, erm, I mean bone.”
That voice. Oh, Gods! I would recognize that mocking tone anywhere.
“Sariah?”
“The one and only.”
Sariah appears from behind Blaise, doing a mock curtsy and throwing her straw-colored curls behind her shoulder before she extends her hand to Killian for a handshake.
“Sariah Voxhall. Best friend extraordinaire. Enchanted to make your acquaintance, Vampire King.”
Killian shakes her hand, brows arched, no greeting coming out of his slightly ajar mouth. Leave it to Sariah to manage the unmanageable.
To baffle the imperturbable Vampire King.
I throw myself at her, engulfing her in a hug so tight she whimpers, and I swipe the moisture from under my eyes.
“You’re here, dear Gods, you’re really here!”
“Of course she’s here,” Blaise interjects, clutching his chest in feigned indignation. “Did you doubt my kidnapping skills?”
“I mean…” we both answer at the same time, before erupting into a fit of giggles.
Gods, it’s so good to see her. A cumbersome weight has just lifted from my chest, and for the first time in weeks I feel a sense of ease, of happiness,almost. In this instance, I can forget the dreadful future that awaits us and just revel in having the closest beings to my heart, all in the same room.
Even Killian. As much as I’m still mad at him, I can’t deny the feelings I harbor for him. They might be murky and confusing at the moment, but they are there.
I steal a glance at him, just in time to notice how he stiffens, going impossibly still, his brows furrowed in concentration.
“Blaise,” he says in a voice cold as the ice shards hanging from the balconies of Sangeries, “care to explain why there are hundreds of Fae running around my castle? What the fuck have you been up to in our absence?”
“I fear they are my Dark Umbras, King Killian,” Sariah answers sheepishly.
