Page 4 of A Cage of Magic and Darkness

I cross the sky bridge, aware of the wind buffeting it, and reach my father’s door. There’s no sign of the King’s Guard, for which I’m grateful. Not that I can’t handle them, but I need to keep all my energy for the confrontation with my father.

Without bothering to knock, I throw open the heavy wooden door and stride into the room.

My father stands at the tall, arched windows, gazing down onto the city and lands below.

The castle and tower are positioned on the highest part of Askos. Below us, the city of Highdrift sprawls in a rabbit warren of streets and alleys. I often slip away from the castle at night, disguised as one of our groomsmen, to frequent the whorehouses and bars. Not that I need to pay a whore, but sometimes…okay, more than sometimes…they know tricks that regular women don’t. I’ve not yet had a whore gasp in shock when I’ve told her that I’m fucking her ass tonight. They tend to be well-practiced. That’s not to say I don’t like ass-virgins—they can be fun all of their own—but they take time and practice to be able to fully take my size, and sometimes I’m hungry and don’t have the patience.

“What do you want, Ruarok?” he says without turning to face me.

“Good to see you missed your only son,” I reply, unable to keep the snideness out of my tone.

I hate that he brings out this side in me.

“The only time you want to see me is to either cause trouble, or because you’reintrouble.”

“Perhaps I simply want to wish you congratulations on your new bride since you completely ignored me in the Great Hall.”

He spins on his heel to look me in the eye. “Not everything is about you. At your age, I would have thought you’d learned that by now.”

Age is a strange thing among the Fae. I’m two hundred years old but only matured around forty years ago. A year in human years is ten years in Fae.

My father is four hundred years old, while the new queen must only be about three hundred, if that.

“Perhaps I just never had the right upbringing to learn it.”

I was raised by the castle staff, people who were only there because they were paid to be. As I started to mature and come into my magic, even those people no longer wanted to be around me. A teenage Incubi, with hormones flying and little control over the magic he’s coming into, isn’t a safe thing to be near.

“Shouldn’t you be with your new bride,” I say, “giving her a tour of her new home, maybe, making her welcome?”

He shrugs. “She has her own people for that. She doesn’t need me to do it.”

“She’s brought her own people with her?” I ask, curious. “Who?”

New people means fresh blood. They won’t know who or what I am, which always makes things more interesting. I imagine all the rich pickings that will be had among these people from a far-off land. Will they have been warned about me? I hope not.

“Yes, she brought all her lady’s maids, and her daughter.”

The word stops me. “Her daughter? She has a child?”

This is news to me.

“Yes. The rot has taken hold in her homeland of Torremora. It took her husband, too. She’s been left without a home or a husband to protect them, so I stepped in.”

My jaw drops. “You’ve berated me for years for being abastard, and now you’re taking on another man’s child?” I can’t hide the disbelief in my tone.

“It’s not the fact you’re a bastard that’s been the problem, Ruarok. It’s who your mother was.”

I snort in contempt. “My mother was a Succubus, and I bet you loved every second of fucking her.”

“I didn’t know that’s what she was when I met her. She tricked me, just like all your kind do.”

I shake my head, huffing air from my nostrils. “How can I trick anyone? All anyone has to do is look at me and they see what I am.”

“You’re a monster. A fucking energy vampire.”

I narrow my eyes. “Don’t insult me, Father. I’m nothing like those messy bastards. You think I’d want to get blood all over my face…” I consider this for a minute. “Well, I don’t mind one kind of blood, if it’s that time of the month.”

His upper lip curls in distaste. “You disgust me. I’m ashamed that you’re my son.”

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