Page 8 of His Dark Delights
A lance of pain jolted through my head. My hand flew to my temple, and I groaned as memories flooded my bruised thoughts. I sank into a wooden rocking chair in the corner as images flashed brutally inside my skull.
Trenches. Fires burning day and night in the woods to drive out enemy warriors. Boots slogging through blood-soaked ash and mud, each step heavier than the last. Heavy, brutal combat. The ringing of blades clashing, creating a symphony of death and savagery. Watching soldiers take an arrow to the throat, choking as they died in front of me. Dying. Dying. Slashing, cutting, cleaving. Dying.
Wildflowers trampled underfoot.
Death. An endless cycle of suffering and final breaths wheezed through bruised, chapped lips. Gore and barbarity on display at every turn. Stinging breaths sawing through tired chests. Fatigued limbs barely lifting a sword in time to block the next blow. Crimson ichor splattered across a faceplate and dripped into the eyes, obscuring the view when it mattered most.
Thenheappeared.
The bastard exploded onto the battlefield like a giant fucking bug that needed to be stepped on. Anger blazed through me and lit the spark that renewedmy energy as the fairy prince descended on the battle. Arrows rained from him and his reinforcements, driving my forces back into the canopy of the trees. The fae followed, and we engaged in the grisly dance of combat.
If only he fluttered near enough to land a killing blow. Exterminating the bane of my existence might finally fill the wounded chasm in my center that drove me into a mindless, murderous fury. To kill the fae prince and all the vermin of his kind. And then maybe I might find peace. Then maybe I might rest.
The last thing I remembered with any clarity was a fire rapidly spreading through the trees. Plumes of smoke tainted the air and spread like an ash-laden plague. Elleslan forces splintered and fled for safety. Blinding pain crowned my head, and another blow struck my side before darkness draped over my thoughts and drowned me.
But I wasn’t in the mountains or the capital city. I wasn’t with my forces or captains. I was alone, healed by a mysterious force that brought me to a strange place.
When I placed a hand on the bandages hiding my injured ribs, a vision darted behind my eyes. A goddess, certainly. But maybe she’d come on the tail of my fever dreams. Surely there was no one as ethereal and resplendent as what I’d dreamed in the real world. A woman such as her could only exist in the land of gods and dreams.
“Gods-fuck,” I grumbled, tugging my hands through my hair.
My head ached in protest as I wrestled with my thoughts. I built mental walls around those fleetingdreams to prevent myself from grasping at wisps of an impossible wish. Someone had found me and nursed me to health. Presuming my host was an ally, I rose from the rocking chair and strode for the door.
I braced myself for the worst. Complications could arise if my savior recognized me. Bribery, extortion, even danger might follow. It might serve me better to find a horse and escape without receiving answers. I was too injured to find myself outnumbered or trapped.
The front door swung open. Easily.
Freedom spread out beyond the door, and a delightful breeze swirled in with the afternoon sunlight. Lured out into the open by an outside force, I followed the illogical tug of an invisible rope in my chest. Like a leash, I ambled into the light, shielding my unused eyes from the sun. That insensible string went taut, guiding me around the cottage and past a thriving garden. A plump red hen squawked and leapt ahead of me, nearly smacking into me. A goat bleated at me, but I ignored it in favor of the lure within me, leading me through the pasture.
Harmonious humming floated to life, dampening the sound of the coursing stream. On the other side, an astounding, vibrant meadow stretched to the very edge of the distant forest. If not for the wounds pulsing through me, I might have believed myself dead and heading toward the peace of the afterlife. Part of me longed for it—for the ultimate peace found in the restful embrace of death.
Then she giggled, and I finally noticed the cow with her. An odd sight to be sure, but something about it ensnared my undivided attention. My feet moved of their own accord, dragging me through swayingflowers that rivaled that of the royal garden. Seeking the source of the divine voice that mirrored the humming goddess from my dreams.
Gods above…
I might as well have been struck by lightning.
It was like watching clouds part at the end of winter to reveal the sun for the first time after the brutal, freezing months. Warmth suffused my chest and spread through my limbs. It ignited heat between my ribs that pooled lower in my abdomen, then further beyond that.
I couldn’t help but stand rooted in place and stare, jaw dropped at the wondrous sight before me. She was real, twirling barefoot in the meadow as if she was lighter than air and bound to take flight at any moment. A messenger of the gods, a being of primordial power, bewitching my senses. A goddess sent from above to tempt mere mortals such as myself.
Her eyes were alight with joy, crinkled as she spun and giggled with the black and white heifer. From a distance, they appeared light, perhaps some riveting shade of blue. Silky threads of rose gold hair unlike anything I’d ever seen before fell in luscious waves to the small of her back; ribbons that called for my fingers to run through the strands.
At first glance, she seemed so wholesome. Innocent and pure. Smiling from ear to ear and beaming with some inner glow that rendered me temporarily speechless—thoughtless, even.
Her outward innocence called to the rot living within me. A contagion that roused to life and spread through me, slithering through my ears with whispers to corrupt, to claim, to possess. That asphyxiating longing burned through my veins and incinerated theedges of my restraint, just enough to provoke me.
She was the most beautiful creature I’d ever seen.
Like the rarest butterfly in the world, I wanted to capture her. To pin her down and spread her out on display. She would be my most prized possession, and I’d keep her front and center for my delight. I wanted her with an instant need that should have frightened me. The hunger in me couldn’t help but be enraptured by her beauty and her perfection.
Had this creature of beauty been the one to save me and nurse me?
Despite the remaining distance, the light of her presence seized me. A creature of curiosity and yearning stirred within my chest, prowling under the surface. My mind waffled through a barrage of questions and barely restrained impulses. Something about this woman sparked my intrigue and strung together a rope of intangible allure.
Lost to my mindless desires, I watched as she danced through the meadow with the cow as if they were old friends. Her animated smile and excited movements drew my attention. There was something infectious about her joy, and it made me want to hold her hands and lead her into a dance. A thought that left me almost unsettled as I’d never taken a woman to the dancefloor or even considered the prospect of offering.
So absorbed in her amusement, she didn’t notice me observing her from the edge of the meadow. And I continued watching her, interest intensifying with each subtle movement, subtle gesture, that she made. Those inherent subtleties gave fleeting clues to the enigma of a woman stealing the breath from my lungs.
