Page 78 of The Fallen Fae King

On my fangs, let me be able to sense my Omega.

When I brush my fingers across the bond mark, I try not to let the relief show when I can feel Freya through it.

She is scared but she’s searching for me.

When my emotions brush like fingers through the bond, her own relief soothes my panic.

I concentrate, tugging on the threads of fate that connect us. Surely, even in this world beyond our own, Freya is the one person who I will be able to call to my soul.

The Void Devils’ voice deepens and distorts with his rage. “You worship me.”

“Do I?” I quirk my brow. “I worship no one but my King and Queen. Tell me, are you in trouble for failing your task? What’s the punishment for a Void Devil who can’t even tempt a single vampire to betray their world?”

Snarling in rage, Void Devil pushes me away from him, and I stumble.

I spin around in a fighter’s stance, extending my fangs and claws to face him.

“Your skin will be flayed alongside mine, while our eyes are gouged from our heads. If I can’t devour the world, then I will devour you.” Void Devil appears in front of me too fast for me to react.

My eyes widen.

I attempt to bite him, but he punches me across the jaw. Then he slams his palm into my chest so hard that I hear the crack of my own ribs.

I grunt in pain, struggling to keep standing.

Void Devil kicks my legs out from underneath me.

I slam into the dust onto my back.

When Void Devil stands over me, scrutinizing me, I take steadying breaths.

Freya is plucking on the bond between us again, attempting to join me.

Now, I hope that she doesn’t.

Except, is anywhere in the Void safe?

The Void Devil who is wearing a mask of Lazarus’ face with missing pupils leans over me.

His voice becomes low and hypnotic. “I could make you relive every nightmare from your life in a loop: your half-brother carving LITTLE MONSTER into your back, the visions Nebet forced you to witness in the Scarlet Temple, or every single one of your assassinations that stain your hands. Why not save us both the tedium and kill yourself? Isn’t that what most people in your life wished that you’d do?”

For a moment, my mind becomes hazy.

My eyes prick with tears, as the memories that he raises swirl in my mind like he’s forcing them into me, one after the other.

I raise my claws to my wrist, digging them into the fresh wound there.

I whine in despair.

Suddenly, Freya and Daire’s faces rise into my mind, breaking through the darkness.

“Not everyone,” I whisper.

Void Devil’s expression sours. “You still believe that you are anything but unlovable, when you bring death to everyone close to you? How long before you are the reason those fated mates of yours bleed out?”

I press my claws into my soft skin like a denial. “Such bitterness. It must taste nasty.”

“Not as nasty,” the Void Devil hisses, snake-like, “as the ash your twin tasted on his tongue as he died.”