Page 6 of Insurrection
This…this was idiotic.
Why my parents had sent me here to play social and political games was beyond me. It was as if they knew I would fail them, andhey—maybe that's exactly what they wanted. Just another excuse to punish me and satisfy their sick minds. I truly think they had convinced themselves at this point that they not only loved me but were exceptional parents. The wounds that were blissfully covered by my tattoos said otherwise.
Resting my elbows against my bent knees as I sat on the edge of the black stone fountain in the middle of the courtyard, I considered leaving. I heaved a sigh as I ran my hands through the longer white locks of hair on top, pulling on them in frustration. Faking manners and kissing royal asses was definitely not my strong suit.Never has been and never will be.
Ask me to gut a man in fifteen seconds without him seeing my face? I was your man.
"Fuck me, this is going to be terrible," I groaned out loud and tried to clear my mind by focusing on the natural space around me. I found that the sound of the water pouring from the centerpiece soothed my trembling hands as I attempted to ground myself in the present and not memories from the past.
As the Summit neared, it was as if it stirred up my parents' already vile tendencies with the need to come out on top in the Supreme position. I, for one, had no desire to be a weapon in their bloodthirsty plans, but there was nowhere else for me to go, and they ruled our house and territory with an iron fist. They had shaped me into the assassin they wanted over the years, and I hated to admit it, but I was damn good at it.
Not for the first time, I found myself wishing I could leave it all behind and just explore the rest of the world. There had to be more to life than cruelty. Right? There had to be some form of love out there that didn’t include so much pain. It was a foreign concept to me, as I'd never experienced such a feeling, but it was something I wanted with every fiber of my being.
To be wanted.
To be safe.
To be loved.
A light misting of rain continued to fall from the sky, and I tilted my head back up as I placed my hands on the stone beneath me. Being a dark elf made me attuned with the natural elements and most at ease when I was outside surrounded by them. Being cooped up in a building for too long made my skin crawl and my feet itch to touch the soil outside, which was why I was out here putting off going into that gothic monstrosity of a castle.
Closing my eyes, I basked in the glow of the moon and the feeling of the water on my skin. My tense muscles finally relaxed as I breathed in the energy around me, but that relaxation was quickly interrupted by someone mumbling to themselves as they approached the courtyard from the path that led into the castle.
"Hitting her with my wing was not as satisfying as the punch I had imagined in my head. I need a do-over."
What a bloodthirsty little creature.I couldn't tell if she was someone I should run towards and make friends with, or away from in case she decided to test that punch out on my face. I quite liked my face as it was, so I wasn’t fond of the idea of her messing it up.
I knew I was handsome, with unique purple eyes that contrasted with the white of my hair and high cheekbones that complemented a strong jawline. Those weren’t even my best features, according to the women who gossiped; whispers of my pierced cock—which a servant woman had accidentally seen while I was changing in my private quarters—reached their ears.
Additionally, I was marked with more rune tattoos—which were how we tracked power levels in our house—than any other of my house, and it tended to attract the women who thought they wanted a man that was a bit rougher around the edges. More dangerous. A reputation that was pretty easy to maintain, considering I was the most lethal killer from Tenebris.
Nimbly, I jumped to my feet and slinked into the shadows amidst the pillars lining the courtyard. Running a finger along the inside of my forearm, I activated the rune within my tattoo there with its Latin incantation, "Pugione."
The dagger embedded in my skin pulsated with a violet energy that matched my eyes as the cold metal of the hilt formed in my palm. Closing my hand around it tightly, I peeked around the edge of the pillar to take in the seemingly violent beauty emerging from the dark pathway and into the moonlight.
Little was definitely a proper term to describe her. She had to be nearly a foot shorter than me, and that was with the boots she had on adding to her height. But there were also a lot of other words I would use to describe her…
Beautiful.
Sensual.
Breathtaking.
She continued to mutter to herself, but more quietly, so I couldn't discern her words as she approached the fountain and sat in the exact spot I had just been in moments before.
Who was she? She didn't look like a Reaper, her features being quite the opposite of what their kind were known to look like. Whereas they are tall, lithe, pale, and had silver hair, she was short, curvy, tan, and had long black hair streaked with red that shone beneath the moonlight.
Her head tilted from side to side, as if she were cracking her neck, then she rolled her shoulders back before leathery black wings appeared on her back. While her seductive appearance and wings made me think she could be a Succubus, I had never seen one with black wings before.
What a conundrum my little creature was.
Something tugged at my chest, as if a rope was tied between us and I was being pulled closer without her even lifting a finger. An insatiable need to know everything about this woman blossomed within me.
I whispered the incantation that allowed all of my weapons to return to their rune tattoo until I called for them again, "Auferetur".
She didn't appear to be a threat for now, and I didn't want to scare her by appearing from the shadows with a glowing dagger in my hand. That definitely wasn't the way to approach the first woman for whom I had genuinely felt a spark of interest that ran deeper than appearances.
A part of me wanted to hold her in my arms and pry her soul open. I wanted to learn her darkest secrets and her every desire and whisper my own back to her.
