Page 20 of Courting Envy
He could win this battle; I would win the war.
“Yes, of course,” he said, his voice dry with humor. “Rava, I barely know you, but I adore you. Your voice, your simple presence makes my blood sing. Come to Hell and be my Queen. Please.”
I laughed then, the ridiculousness of his statement cracking through the ice in my heart. “I guess that wouldn’t have gone down very well. I’d have thought you were a lunatic.”
His body seemed to soften against mine, as if he’d finally been able to make a point he’d been wanting to since I got here. “I can’t deny my nature, Rava. I wanted you from the moment I laid eyes on you. I just knew you were the one to take the crown. The only one for me.”
Was now the time to tell him that I didn’t think there was only one for me? That in fact, I’d spent time making out with a woman made of shadows, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, I might have some romantic notions towards Reon as well?
I didn’t think that was going to go down well with this possessive man, the Prince of Envy surely wouldn’t be happy to share. But if I didn’t tell him now… It would only get worse.
“That’s… It’s wonderful, I think. I just.” I heaved out a breath. “I’ve known you for one night, Lucien, and then you killed me. You’re going to have to work a little harder to gain my trust. My love. If that’s what you want. And I can’t make you any promises.”
He was the one who pulled away this time, his arms dropping from around my body, leaving me cold and bereft. I hated that I felt that way. I should hate him for what he’d done to me, and yet I couldn’t seem to bring the fire of wrath against him.
“I see.” He nodded once, as if agreeing to an unspoken deal. “Where do we begin? I–” He ground his teeth together, then squeezed the bridge of his nose as if he was getting a headache. “I want to do this, but we have dinner to attend.”
I considered his face, the lines of his body, his deep green eyes, and I knew exactly how he could start. I reached up and caressed his face.
“Start with this,” I said softly, going up on my tiptoes to kiss his cheek. “Show me who you really are.”
His brow furrowed for a moment, as if he didn’t quite understand what I meant, but then he stepped back from me and rolled his shoulders. His black wings popped out through slits in his shirt and I realized this time that they weren’t feathered like birds, they were smooth like a bat. His skin darkened as well, becoming a deep purple-grey. Streaks of gold shot across his skin, spreading from the outer corners of his eyes like a half sun on each side. The gold bled like tears, down his shoulders and under the fabric of his shirt.
I wanted to take it off, to see where else it went, whether these lines of gold formed patterns. What would I read in them if they did?
His ears sharpened into points, like the elves from movies on earth, and then he grimaced as thick white horns forced their way from his temples. They curved back slightly and as I looked closer, I could see that they were speckled with diamonds and tipped with gold.
Lucien’s face changed subtly too, the lines becoming sharper, cleaner, though his tousled black hair remained exactly the same.
I reached up to touch it and there was comfort in knowing that it felt the same way as when I’d run my hands through it that night, gripped it hard when he’d fucked me senseless.
“You’re gorgeous,” I said, hardly believing the truth in those words as they spilled from my mouth. He still looked semi-human, but he was clearly not. It was going to take some time for my brain to get used to the strangeness, but I had a feeling that the demonic blood running through my veins had something to do with the ridiculous attraction I felt toward him.
Toward them all. I’d changed in ways that were irrevocable. There was no going back, and while there was a pang of sadness about that – for all the things I’d lost – a thread of excitement at the new possibilities had invaded me as well.
"You are gorgeous," Lucien replied, looking at me with hunger in his eyes. "You were before you came here, but now..." He reached a hand out and stroked one of the horns on my head. I could feel a ripple of pleasure at his touch, felt myself lean into it. "You're becoming so much more."
"And these?" I asked, lifting my hands to him again.
"Beautiful, dangerous, powerful." He clasped my hands in his and brought them to his mouth, kissing the palms of them with the kind of reverence he'd shown me back when he was pretending to be human. "If you want the black to stop, you can stop it. That's within your power. Or, you could wait and see what your final form is, who you are here as a demonic Queen of Hell."
There was a tremor in my body at that thought. Who might I evolve into? What were the other ways that I would change?
I didn't think I was ready to find out. Not yet.
"I'll think about it," I said.
"That's all I ask." Lucien dipped his head. "And now, you really need to get ready for dinner. There will be... An audience." He grimaced, and I gathered that it hadn't been his original plan. "Do you think you could put on a show? At least pretend that you're on board with this." He twirled a finger in the air as if to encapsulate everything that had happened to me since I met him.
I choked out a bitter laugh. "I'll do my best."
“Thank you.” He let out a breath and then turned to walk away. I watched him go, in awe with the way his wings seemed to move with a mind of their own.
And then I caught a glimpse of something else. A thick, dark tail that twitched when he exited the door.
Chapter twelve
Rava
