Ruler [Blood Magic, Book 3]

Chapter 53: Union

Keel opened the doors of the royal chambers, hoisted me into his arms and carried me through. It was such an old-fashioned human gesture, I wondered if he'd been coached by my father or the internet or some outdated book. It felt like a mockery, especially after I'd lived here for weeks. Never mind, there was nothing normal or quaint about what had just been done, or the reason we'd done it.

All I needed to do to remind myself of that was to look down. Hundreds of red twinkling sequins shone like blood along my torso. The blood we had already exchanged. The blood we would exchange. The blood that fused us: sustenance and magic. Nosferatu and sorceress. Both and yet not quite either. Ever blurring the lines. Now we'd scratch out the final one.

Keel set me down on the other side of the doorway. The bed, despite the time I'd already spent coalescing and sleeping in it, loomed hulking and large in my peripheral vision, not unlike my fear of this moment. The butterflies in my stomach had given up flying and simply turned into a squirming mess.

He reached out and caressed my cheek with the backs of his fingers, a tiny surge of calm raced through me. When my eyes met his, they burned red with a question, though not the one I expected. I nodded.

His hand dropped from my face and scooped up my right hand. More calm washed over me. I allowed him to guide me to the dining area, away from the bed. It offered a hint of relief until I realized this might just mean he wanted to do it on the table.

His grip tightened around my wrist, as his other hand rose to my chin, forcing me to look at him. I saw hunger, lust, the struggle for self-control, so many things. "Mildred, you have to stop. Whatever you think I'm about to do, you're wrong. I've long proven my restraint, even when it hasn't been what I've desired." He tilted his head and brushed his cool lips against mine in the barest hint of a kiss before continuing. "And I do understand that this too is a ritual, with certain rules."

I almost laughed aloud, the fear combined with the absurdity of that statement pushed me into near hysterics. Who the hell would have told him that? Then I understood: my father. He'd found a way to protect me even now, or at least as much as possible.

I smiled, feeling more love for Ephraim in that moment than I'd perhaps ever felt in my life.

Keel's eyes widened and his hand slid back to remove my crown, he'd been reading my emotions and he'd thought that sudden influx of sentiment had been about him. I shrank back against the table and he let go of me, placing the crown next to me on the tabletop. The jewels looked darker here with lights dimmed, and glistened only faintly. It imbued the headpiece with a sinister aura, the perfect adornment for a Nosferatu queen who was too chickenshit to do the last thing that needed doing to assume the title.

"I hate that you still look at me like that," Keel said. "It makes me want to do things that would make us enemies and doom my people worse than I've doomed them already."

I almost asked what those things were, until I realized I didn't want to know, not if I had to go through with this tonight. If I asked, he would tell me. Probably in explicit, stomach-turning detail.

"I'm sorry," I said instead. It was infinitely safer.

He reached out and took my hand again, and then the other. He held them in his for a dozen seconds then brought them up to the top-most clasp of his royal robe. "Take it off," he said, guiding my fingers to the first button.

I pushed it through the accompanying hole, then his hands moved mine to the next one. We repeated the motion again and again. Was I really doing this? My fingers shook against his, even as they tingled with our shared electricity.