Page 179 of The King is Dead
His fingers tightened on my jaw to the point of pain. “Be mine—take me yourself, or I will be forced to take some other little Fetch. They might not make it. Could you live with that on your conscience,Queen?”
God, I wanted to weep.
In a sickening parody of Melek’s intimacy and love, he leaned down with each following word until at the last, his breath was fluttering on my face. “Be mine, and I will ignore your people. I’ll leave them to their moral little lives. I will ignore your sister and how easily she might be manipulated. And I will makecertainthat the Nephilim follow Melek, even to death. They will herald him as the best and strongest King in Nephilim history. Because he will be. Because he will haveyou.And together, you and I will make him great.”
I sucked in and tried to slap his hand away, jerking back. But couldn’t get away.
“I wantnoneof that,” I hissed, shoving at his arm, clawing, but unable to break his grip on my jaw.
“Not even to see your mate, your family, yourpeoplethrive?”
“They will not thrive in your hands!”
“They’ll live a hell of a lot longer under me than if you force me to abandon my restraint.”
“I saidno!”
Lucifer’s brows rose and he sighed. “I had truly hoped you’d be smart enough not to force my hand. Pity.”
With no warning, he let me go and stepped back as if he hadn’t just been holding me against my will. I backed away from him, half-crouched, watching him warily. But he smiled again like we’d been having nothing but a casual conversation.
“Sadly, we are almost out of chances, Yilan,” he said quietly. “Remember my warning.”
Then he turned and I blinked. Suddenly we were in a tent—dark, but not that abyssal night. With one final, infernal smile, Lucifer walked out, snapping the canvas flap into the tent back with a flick of his fingers and disappearing outside without so much as a backwards glance.
Unwilling to believe he’d just release me like that, I stood there for a half a minute, breathing, patting my clothing to find my weapons returned.
What the fuck?
Sound rushed back in and I could hear the crowd roaring again. My heart skipped a beat as I ignored the tent flap and darted straight towards that sound.
“Melek!”
I walked the shadows, passing through the back of the tent and into the shadow of it to find the crowd cheering, hands raised, growling, calling, and roaring. And above them, Melek, panting, bloodied… and smiling.
Healthy.
Not darted.
Tired, but smiling.
His wings flapped lazily to keep him hovering above them, as he caught his breath and received their praise.
He’dwon.
67. Civil War
SOUNDTRACK:Takeoverby Ganyos
~ MELEK ~
I stood on top of that outcropping in the moonlight, washed in the cheering and applause of my brothers by blood. Below me and behind, Jann stood with Yilan and Diadre, all of them waiting for me to receive the accolades of my people.
But soon I raised my hands and gestured to them to quiet.
“Is Hever here—does he have a measure for the seal of the former bloodline?” I called.
There was a lot of murmuring and turning heads, but no sign of the old Neph.What the fuck was he up to?I shook my head and turned my attention back to those who’d stayed to watch my claim.
