Page 52 of His Dark Delights
His kingdom stretched out as a vibrant canvas, alive with the pulse of society. A cacophony of sounds, horse-drawn buggies clattering on cobblestones, merchants soliciting their wares, street musicians playing lively melodies, all drifted through the air, alighting my senses with the stimulation of discovery.
Soren and I wove through noisy throngs of people,and I marveled at the web of colors and textures surrounding us. A kaleidoscope of lavish silks and rich velvets, nobles adorned in refined garments. Store fronts boasted sparkling gowns and accessories bearing the finest of jewels.
Through the bustling market square the air thickened with the mouthwatering aroma of spices, mingling with the heady sweetness of fresh pastries tempting the passerby. Soren led me to a street swelling with stalls laden with an array of goods I could never have imagined.
“Here, you’ll love this.” Ren offered a fig caramelized in a honey concoction. A delighted moan escaped me as the sample melted on my tongue, and Ren watched with darkened eyes. Then he plied me with morsels of roasted lamb on a stick, candied nuts, pastries twisted into shapes and stuffed with cheese, garlic, and herbs. Somehow, the wares in the city rivaled the meticulous meals of the palace. Each taste revealed flavors that went beyond the simple world of my village.
And the people—gods, the people—they didn’t know what I was. Most didn’t even recognize their king without his telltale crown adorning his brow. Those people we encountered shared stories of traders from distant realms, artisans displayed hand crafted trinkets, and an abundance of children laughed as they chased one another through the streets. With their lives and hopes and dreams on display, I felt a kinship with them, a shared humanity through the blood of my father coursing through my veins.
For the first time in my life, I felt like one of them.
The descending sun ambled toward the horizon, casting a cozy glow of the city. I leaned into Soren,brimming with gratitude and a newfound appreciation for humans. In those crowded streets, by my side, he went beyond the duty of a king and embraced the role of a man showing the woman he loved the beauty and wonder of the place he grew up. In doing so, he’d opened my eyes to a depth of his character once out of reach.
I had remained in the city, intent on feigning my adoration for him to sway his mind on the war. But Soren was not only the ruler of a kingdom, he was also a man who cherished the simple joys of life and wanted to share that lifewith me. The capital of Elleslan had revealed its secrets, forcing me to unveil the truth of my feelings.
I loved Soren.
A secret voice in my head whispered that I could love the good with the bad without settling for cruelty. A good man hid under the king’s brutal exterior, and that was the version I desired to give my heart to. If I could love all the roughened facets of Soren, could he love both sides of me, human and fae?
As the sun sighed its final breath of the day, Ren’s tour of the city wound toward the outer edges, where the quality of the city lowered significantly. We neared a section of the city near the iron-studded outer wall where homes along the streets shrank, morphing from cozy and humble into run-down shacks.
Ren’s hand on mine tightened, squeezing my fingers hard enough that my bones complained. His entire frame stiffened, rigid with rousing tension. His earlier smile melted into a grimace, stressed by his knitted brows and roving glare.
No one blinked twice at the king in their midst. He led me through crowds of people who shambledlike forlorn ghosts. Most gave him a wide berth simply from the aura of aggressive power radiating off him and creeping wider in virulent waves with each step he took.
We turned a corner, and a tall body slammed into my shoulder. A soft grunt startled from me, and my head whipped up as a cloaked figure marched away. But more than a blunt force ache, a bolt of magical awareness tingled through my nerves. Like the static shock I’d experience as a child after rubbing my socks on the rug for too long and poking my father in the arm, only intensified by ten.
The same electric current I’d felt the night before on the balcony when I thought I saw someone hovering in the dark. But it should have been impossible when we were stories above the city. I couldn’t have seen a person floating in the dark—
The hooded figure also sensed the connection.
He stopped in his tracks, head snapping around quick enough to break his neck. From beneath his hood, I locked onto twinkling gray-green eyes. His lips parted in an unheard sigh of disbelief at the same time my breath hitched.
Fae. He was a fae.
There was a fae in the city, walking the same street as a king who hated his kind. It couldn’t be true. He shouldn’t be here.
A fairy walked among men at the heart of the Fairy Butcher’s kingdom. He was so close I might have reached out and touched him, grabbed him, pulled him nearer to ask him questions and beg for answers.
Ren’s hand twitched around mine, and he glanced over his shoulder upon noticing someone bumped intome. My stare remained firmly on the fae man, whose brow tweaked up with recognition for the taller, dark-haired human behind me.
The glacial hatred in his eyes roused ice shards under the surface of my skin.
“Are you alright, Lilly?” Ren’s voice snagged my focus.
I faced forward, smiling timidly at him. “I’m fine. The streets are just crowded.”
“People down here have no manners. We’re almost there, though. Only a bit further.” Ren grimaced over the packed streets, ramshackle stalls, and dirty puddles of questionable liquids. Without another word, he readjusted our interwoven fingers and tugged me along.
When I looked back, the first and only fae I’d ever seen in my life had vanished into the sea of unsuspecting people as if he’d never existed at all. Maybe I’d imagined him, or maybe my kind were hiding in the dark corners of the city. If that was the case, why were there fae in Elleslan?
We stopped at the end of a long street with the tall outer wall of the city looming in the background as though it were the edge of the world. It stood soaring and unassailable in frightening contrast with the crumbling homes left to rot at the end of the lane.
The king paused in front of a home long abandoned. The fallen door clung to the last hinge, allowing a view into the darkened, dusty interior. I saw bits of broken furniture and a chaotic interior that looked like a natural disaster had blown through, tearing the bowels of the home apart. The miserable scene distracted my erratic thoughts to the moment at hand.
Ren’s eyes appeared void at first, empty ofemotion. When I pressed into his side, he glanced down, revealing the tidal wave of conflicting emotions clashing within him. Rage, regret, sorrow, grief, and agony flowed out of him, seeping into me as if they were my own feelings.
It was my turn to grip his hand.
