Page 19 of The King is Dead
Gall scratched the back of his neck. “I just mean, because then people wouldn’t be scared when they saw me. If I was beautiful like you, they’d smile instead.”
Istralnodded like that was normal. “I was scared when I saw you because you’re so big. But now I’m not scared because you’re nice. So, you just need to be around and be nice, and then people won’t be scared.”
Gall glanced at me over his shoulder. “I hope so.”
“I know so,” my sister assured him. My heart squeezed with gratitude for her loving heart.
“I thought you were nice the first time I saw you,” Gall said, the tips of his ears going pink.
“Thank you!”
“You’re welcome.”
I laughed and looked at Harris. She had tears in her eyes.
Turo, behind us, was clearly uncertain what to make of all this, but I snapped my fingers to get his attention. “You can keep adistantguard, but you let the two of them talk as much as they want to.” Then I looked at the soldiers behind them. “And for God’s sake, someone run ahead on the path and warn Cook that a harmless Nephilim is about to need a lot of food!”
One of the guards trotted off, giving the pair a wide berth before darting into the fenced walkway and running towards the Palace.
As my sister patted Gall’s arm and he smiled at her, the two continued their conversation. I wasn’t just happy, I was beaming. For the first time in a long time my heart felt light.
An hour later we made quite a crowd in the kitchen. Poor Cook kept hesitantly placing new plates at the center of the thick, wooden table where the servants usually ate. She watched wide-eyed as the massive man hunched over a serving platter shoveling food into his mouth like he hadn’t eaten in a week, which I suppose was almost true.
My sister kept bringing him different foods to try and asking if he liked them. He just nodded again and again. Each item disappeared into his mouth with equal abandon while she babbled stories about meals she’d had, when those foods were served, or times that she had tried things but didn’t like them.
Gall barely spoke. But when his eyes weren’t on the food, they were on her.
He looked slightly awed.
I stood next to Harris with my hands clasped at my chest, and all I could think was thank God for Istral.
Thank God for Gall.
Just… thankGod.
6. Torment
~ MELEK ~
As night fell, I lay in the dark in that extravagant room, the windows open and unshuttered to allow both moonlight and the wind into the space.
I was having trouble breathing.
It felt like a thousand tiny thorns pricked and scrapedundermy skin. At first, I’d thought she put me under some kind of spell. But other than the guard bringing food, no one had spoken to me, or visited since I’d screamed at Yilan to get out of my head.
And of course, those images never stopped. I would push them away one by one, but they returned the moment my attention was diverted.
My mate, her skin flushed and warm, her hair messy and laying under my wing as she smiled and reached for me…
My mate crawling onto me, straddling me. My hands fitting in the curves of her waist, pulling her down onto me, taking her… her head thrown back and breasts bouncing as she called for me—
Fuck!
My heart thumped in my chest in a steady beat, shoving a heady mix of thrill and desire through my veins. I clawed a hand through my hair. I was beginning to sweat.
I groaned with the fuckingtormentof it all, and that space in my chest where she resided tugged at me.
I blinked and brought a shaking hand up to that place at the center of my chest, behind my ribs.
