Bad Fae | romantasy | Bad Fae #1

Chapter Thirty-Two

Feyrith seemed pleased with our mission, even if we hadn't found the crown. I suspected that the deaths of some thirty mortals probably had something to do with it, as did the discovery that there was a place the crown wasn't. Only an infinite number of hiding spots left to look!

Once he'd finished reporting to his uncle, Dain locked us away in our room and refused to be bothered by anyone. Even after we'd wrung numerous pleasures out of each other.

We were lying in a tangle of blankets and Dain's glamour was gone, coaxed away from him at some point during the night. I felt a quiet warmth steal over me where my hand touched his chest. I looked at it and saw his knots were extending to me, that creeping crawling darkness was shifting over my skin. As I pulled my hand away, they faded again. I lay it back and they extended again. Pulled it away, and they faded once more.

"It knows you," he said lazily, his eyes still closed.

"The Darkrealm and its magic hate me," was my counter-argument because it felt true more days than not.

The corner of his lips tipped. "The Darkrealm wants to keep you for itself."

"And, what? You'll fight it for me?"

"If I have to."

"Why is it doing this now?" I asked, leaving his comment where it was.

"Hm?"

"The...prison. Why is it extending to me now?"

The corner of his lips tipped up. "Just because you haven't seen it, doesn't mean it hasn't since the first time you touched me."

He was running lazy circles over my shoulder, and I froze. "What?"

I felt his whole body tense up, and I pushed off him to look at him incredulously.

"What?" I pressed more firmly. "When I first touched you...when?"

His eyes narrowed, but he didn't say anything. What I wouldn't give for a geas command over him for once.

Then it all fell into place.

He hadn't told Feyrith he didn't know my heritage. He hadn't even seemed surprised. He'd just seemed pissed that Feyrith had so easily worked it out. I swallowed hard.

"How long have you known my blood, Dain?"

Still no answer.

"Did you know before we met with Feyrith?"

"Yes, I knew your heritage," he finally snarled, and I pulled back. "What? How could I not know? The minute we came back, and I smelled your blood. I smelled the power you'd used–"

"Power I'd used?" I asked. "What power?"

"Whatever power you wielded while I was gone. And then you kissed me–"

I blinked. "I didn't use..." My eyes widened as more pieces fell into place.

The first time Dain left me in his house...

The shadows. Their sudden retreat. The plants hadn't been the first. The shadows had been the first. And he'd smelled it on me... That early and not said anything!

I shoved him. "You knew way back then?"

"I have known since then. You have driven me insane since then. I was mad enough for you before that, but we returned–"

"You were all little better than animals that night," I remembered. "Clearly high on whatever destruction you'd wrought."

"And then we returned. I was already driven by base instinct and there you were. Reeking of the power that fights to escape me every day. It suddenly made so much sense. You. Thivrah's power. You were one and the same. Drawn to me yet fighting me constantly. Drawing me to you while despising you."