Page 107 of Cruelest Kiss and Fairest Blood
The idea of fucking that monstrosity sends me over the edge. “That’s never going to happen.”
“What about your pet?” She nods to where Mytha cowers on my shoulder. “A Serpien slave would look good on my arm. That one is so very pretty.”
Mytha hunkers down, burying her beak into my neck. I place a hand over her, reassuringly.
“That is also off the table.”
Drusinnia glares. “You will give me something rare and beautiful to add to my collection or you will never leave this place.”
A thought strikes me. “I can offer you something unique. Something exceptionally beautiful and darkly powerful. A new pet for your collection. Ahumanpet.”
Her eyes light, forked tongue swiping out across her lower lip. “I’m listening.”
Lenore
The concussive throbbing against the back of my skull pulls me from a fitful sleep. The familiar comforts of my room swim into focus.God, my head. I reach up to soothe the wound but find myself unable to touch it. My wrist is stuck, no, bound. My heart pumps panicky blood through my heavy body. Both wrists and both ankles have been tied. Each is attached to one of the four posts that frame my bed.
Twisting my arm, I work to wiggle my wrist free.I will not be a captive again. I will not be a captive again. I will not?—
“Good morning. You’ve been a bad little princess.”
Cassius sits at the foot of my bed, his handsome warmth gone. It’s been replaced with the same cold beauty Catreena possesses. I can’t believe they’re related.Siblings.
“She’s your sister?”
“Catreena?” He nods, tilting his head and giving me a smile that I once found to be effortlessly sexy. “We’re so close in age, people have always called us twins.”
My stomach twists. “You slept with your sister?”
He shrugs as nonchalantly as if I’ve just called him out for arriving late to tea. “As the centuries passed and I watched every other mortal slowly wither and die, I realized Catreena was the only good fit. She’d been lusting after me for decades, raunchy thing. Got tired of dallying with mortals much more quickly than I did. The darkness from her magic twisted her morals until her wants and needs were a perversion of what love and desire should be.”
His face appears sad, thoughtful. “It’s not her fault. She had no idea the repercussions she would face when she made that deal. And after her failed attempt to rid herself of all the evil, she had to learn to embrace her gifts.”
“Made what deal?”
“A deal with a demon. Right here, as it were. I’d nearly forgotten this is where it all began until that hideous forest came into view. Catreena doesn’t like to look at it. For her, it signifies a failure. The one time she lost control. She does, however, enjoy drawing power from it. I’m surprised we didn’t return here sooner.”
“Catreena is the witch who created the dark forest? The story is true?” She’s the young woman who made a deal with a demonand became corrupted from the power. Which means this isn’t Catreena’s first time sitting the throne of Roseheart.
“Yes, the story always centers around Cat but there were three of us present that day. Three siblings trapped in horrible circumstances. Three people willing to do anything to crawl out of the vile pit life had tossed us in.”
Three people. “That means you have magic?” Every moment I spent with Cassius flickers through my thoughts. Wouldn’t I have noticed if he had magic? Has he been using it on me this whole time?
“Cat got the largest does of magic, having personally made the deal with the demon, but Cissy and I were gifted our own small shares. Of course, ours has faded a bit in the past few decades. We haven’t continued to feed the beast the same way Catreena has. Their relationship isunique. But I do still manage to keep up my glamours and hold sway over others with what little bit I have left. As for Cissy?—”
“There’s another one of you?”
His lips press into a hard line. “Not in this kingdom.”
My thoughts are spinning as they work to accommodate the influx of new and hard-to-digest information.
“Speaking of a deal with a demon”—his gaze narrows—“I would love to know who you have bargained with, Lenore Lillet Roseheart.She who rises from the dead.”
My mouth runs dry. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He grins, tossing his head back and releasing a belly-shaking laugh. “Lying? God, I’m finding you more attractive by the second.” He leans in close enough for his breath to disturb my hair.
“Untie me.”
