Reign of Blood

Chapter Thirty-One

In the dungeons, Chronos sat outside of his brother's cell, biding his time until the King woke up.

With Annaliese well out of sight, he'd tasked himself with cleaning this shit up before matters could get out of hand.

His brother couldn't go around attacking his mate, even if it was his mate that had put his brother down here in the first place.

For the first time in centuries, Chronos would try his hand at being the reasonable brother.

When Lorcan groaned and opened his eyes, he was clearly worse for wear. His hand was slowly but surely regenerating. The rest of him was bruised and scratched. Chronos had done him a fair bit of damage, but it had been necessary. If Annaliese had come out on the wrong side of Lorcan's claws...

Her body would not have grown a limb back so easily.

Feeling eyes on him, Lorcan rolled to his side.

"Chronos."

"Hello brother."

"You're alive."

"Thanks for noticing."

Oh Gods. He'd been spending so much time around her he'd picked up on her sarcasm.

"Where the fuck am I?"

"You're in Veneficus," Chronos answered calmly. "You're in Castle Solum, brother. Well- you're under it technically. Welcome to the dungeons. You get used to the smell."

"That bitch put me down here."

"Watch it," Chronos warned. "That bitch might be evil, but she's mine."

"Fuck," The King cursed. "Have you seen what she's done to me?"

Chronos didn't grimace, even as the urge to do so toiled with him. "Annaliese didn't do that to you." Chronos lifted his chin. "Your beast took over. You were going to savage her. I did what I had to do to keep my mate safe. You understand."

"You took my fucking hand."

"Try it again and I'll take your other hand. Consider yourself lucky she's not down here trying to kick your dick off. You were going to take her Gods damned neck. But thanks. You trying to kill her was my ticket out of these cells. I made a deal to save her life. It's taken me straight to her bed."

Lorcan groaned, aching when he sat up straight. "Where's Evie?"

Chronos rolled his eyes.

Was he going to start sounding like this? All loved up and disgusting?

"She's safe upstairs somewhere."

"If your mate touches her-"

"You'll do nothing Lorcan. Annaliese won't hurt Evette. Second to you, you'd be hard pressed to find someone who'd keep her safer. They love each other. I've not gotten much out of her, but I know they grew up together. They didn't have much else."

Lorcan sighed, lifting his good hand to his head. "I owe your bitch."

"Call her that again and I'll take your other hand." A moment passed before Chronos sighed. "Owe her what?"

"Evie's told me plenty about her childhood here. Annaliese's Dad was going to kill her, so the blood Queen killed him. She'd have died a million times over if it weren't for Annaliese putting her foot in the way. Warlocks and such threats. I owe her for that. If Evie died, I'd die."

He knew she could care about things fiercely. The problem was getting her to care.

"Sylvester tried his luck at poisoning my Evie when she was a little girl. Annaliese had the bastard drink from the same goblet the very same night."