I didn't get a chance to correct him and tell Arkan I was queen now—he slammed his lips on mine and thrust his tongue inside to claim ownership of my mouth, kissing me with fierceness and desperation. Like he wanted to devour every part of me until there was nothing left.
I threaded my fingers through his silken white hair and gripped tight, pressing the length of my body into his and groaning at the hardness that met my hip.Soon, I promised it silently. But I wasn't getting it on in front of the guards; that was a little too close to the community I'd just left for my liking.
"You're unhurt?" Arkan demanded between kisses, his peppermint tea scent invading my senses.
"Except for the dust chafing my ass cheeks," I confirmed, stupid pathetic tears springing to my eyes when he threw his head back and laughed, his cheeks flush from kissing me and his eyes bright. "Hey, I'm serious, it's a real problem. I need to be decontaminated ASAP."
"That can be arranged," he replied, his voice lower and eyes a shade darker. He ducked over me and scraped his teeth over a spot on my throat, dragging a small sound from me without my permission. "Later. Now, the rest of your circle are as worried about you as I was. It would be cruel to leave them for much longer."
He was worried about me?
I faked a scoff. "Overbearing mother hens. I'm fine. I'm a total badass, remember? You should be worried about everyone else around me."
Arkan raised a white eyebrow, his eyes turning cold and serious. "We found your house trashed, with a corpse rotting in your living room and signs of a struggle—and you missing. It took us weeks to track you to Hell, and when we arrived, the devil told us what had been done to you."
"Ah." The gutting, the torture, the psychological damage… "Well, I'm all good now. No harm done."
Arkan bared his teeth growled, rattling enough to send a primal shiver through my entire body. The sound promised an extreme, slow death, with every pain imaginable and not a glint of hope or mercy.
"No," he disagreed, his voice full of death and his hands possessive on my body, "it isnotall good. You were already scarred for life before, and now … how will you ever feel safe again?"
I cringed. "Alright, let's leave my trauma in the dark where it belongs, yeah? If we ignore it, it might go away," I whispered.
Arkan sighed, but he released me when I pulled away from him.
And because I was panicking, I fired out, "Oh, and the devil mated me too, just so you know."
I expected his expression to shutter, his mouth to press thin, maybe even for shadows to flicker around him as his wraith broke free. But he only nodded.
"He informed us."
"And you're okay with that, huh? Totally cool with me being the devil’s princess, too?"
"You're lashing out, Aveline," Arkan replied mildly. "It will not work."
I scoffed. "I'm not lashing out. Why would I be lashing out?" When he opened his mouth, I hissed, "That was rhetorical! I don't need to hear it, thank you."
I headed for the huge doors, annoyed when the big purple guards stepped aside this time. Only becausegreat and powerful Arkantold them to. My word apparently meant nothing here. Or maybe Dev hadn't told them I existed. Wouldn't that be great? The man who swore to be my protector and caregiver was keeping me his dirty little secret?
I shoved the old wood hard, storming into the fortress like a badass bitch.2Arkan kept close beside me when the doors swung shut, enclosing us in a dark corridor that led directly to the throne room.
"Everything is going to be alright, princess," he murmured.
I swallowed the frog in my throat, and felt his eyes on the side of my face. Ihatedhow weak this emotion made me, hated the way I wanted to throw myself into his arms again and cling forever. This wasn't me. I wasn't sweet and soft and caring. I was hard and prickly and mean, and that was exactly the way I liked it.
But his words cut through my armour, and instead of striking my vulnerable insides like arrows, they wrapped around them like a protective embrace.
Still, when we reached the big throne room doors at the end of the hall and Arkan pressed a kiss to my temple, I shot him a glare. "Don't make me regret missing you."
His pale blue eyes went cruelly soft, and my heart squeezed. "I missed you too, princess. Orchid Vale is empty without you."
"I’ll stab you, I swear I will," I choked out, my heart squeezing tight.
Fuck, I really had missed him.
Before he could say anything else sweet enough to make my teeth rot, I threw my shoulder into the smaller door inset in the fucking massive one, and stormed into Dev's throne room.
My eyes went to the enormous, triple-horned devil on the throne first, before falling on the three men standing before him. Well, one was standing with bronze arms crossed across his bare chest—Taj—one was pacing a hole in the floor, his locs messy as if he'd been pulling at them—Joseph—and one spun at the sound of the door, his expression wild and dark blue eyes flashing at the sight of me—X.
