That and the fact that you would be dead. But no need to drop that bomb just yet.
I winced. “Yeah, that might not be the best idea.”
He chuckled and pressed a chaste kiss to my forehead before stepping back, “It was amazing to meet you, Ama. I’ll be seeing you.”
“You too.” I felt like fanning my damn face. This man was swoon worthy. I swallowed nervously as he walked over to my father, who was eyeing him curiously, and offered him a respectful goodbye. The two of them had a quick conversation that left my dad smiling, allowing me to relax a bit. As he strolled from the room, Finias offered me a sexy wink. Then the doors closed, leaving me and my father alone in the meeting room.
“So, the Prince of Runes?” my father mused. Oh man. I could not handle talking about boys with my dad. I felt myself blushing and grabbed a chair to sit on, crossing my arms across my chest and putting on my best “I don’t want to talk about it” face. I had a feeling my dad was either not going to pick up on it at all or completely ignore it. He seemed way too amused by all of this.
“He seems cool,” I offered quietly as my dad chuckled, shaking his head but letting it be for the moment. Suspicious. I watched as he ordered dinner for us from the kitchen staff on call for meetings like this. My stomach rumbled, and I was suddenly very glad we were going to eat. Who knew meeting an appealing, dark elf assassin and watching him punch Drayven could work up such an appetite?
My eyes narrowed at the thought of the muscular Reaper. He deserved that, right? Yes. He’d totally deserved it.
“So, what really happened to Drayven?” my father asked curiously, moving to sit across from me as I leaned my chin on top of my crossed arms.
“He was napping…” I shrugged, “...sort of.”
“Ama.” My dad arched his brow while using that stern parental tone that said there was no getting around their request.
“He may have said something that was a bit demanding. And Finias may have forced him to take a nap,” I hedged, biting my lip before adding “With his fist.”
My father stared at me for a moment before chuckling. “You know, I wasn’t sure how I felt about the prince and how close you two seemed, but I have decided I like him. Good on him. I like Drayven, but he should know better than to attempt to boss you around,” he finished with a huff, pure mirth dancing in his eyes.
Good to know my life was so freakin’ entertaining to him.
“Damn straight,” I muttered, shocked by how well he’d taken that.
“Now, we really do need to talk.” His tone was softer as he leaned back in his chair and took a sip of the amber liquid in his crystal tumbler. My dad didn’t drink very often, but during meetings, he usually did—it was one small enjoyable element in an otherwise horrible situation. I knew he had been looking for an excuse to kick the others out of here, so ‘explaining the situation to his daughter in private” was a solid one.
It didn’t explain why the hell I was going to this Summit, though.
“Why can’t you go?” I asked sincerely. I knew my father wouldn’t make me go without a good reason, so while I was frustrated, I was also willing to listen. You know, despite the overwhelming panic and social awkwardness that I knew without a doubt would bubble up.
I also knew this would be testing my limits for how long I could go without feeding. If I couldn’t reap souls, I’d likely start to feel the drain and the thirst to use my succubus powers. I’d have to grin and bear it. I’d be back home before I knew it and would replenish myself with a mission then.
“There is something going on above, a natural disaster, and I don’t have enough Reapers to spare who could handle such a high intake. I need to go assist the influx of souls that need to cross over,” he explained, his expression serious as I deflated. Yeah. I was going to go to this dumb Summit.
Not because I cared about it, but because I could tell my dad wouldn’t have asked me if it wasn’t important. I didn’t want to disappoint him, and I did feel a bit of pride that he trusted me with such a monumental task, even though it was highly likely that I’d fuck it up on accident.
I frowned in realization, “Wait, how many souls are we talking about?” The concept that we didn’t have enough Reapers to spare meant we were talking about a massive amount of people dying. That…that was horrifying.
Just then, food arrived, and I felt my mood improve considerably as several plates were placed in front of us, along with some of my favorite wine. I poured myself a glass and dug into my alfredo pasta as I finally resigned myself to my fate.
I suspected my father had timed this food thing on purpose in a bid to make me more agreeable.
He finally answered, his eyes filling with sadness, “You don’t want to know, Ama.”
Fuck. It must have been really bad.
“I’ll go,” I grumbled as he offered me a thankful smile, “Of course, I’ll freakin’ go. But if I mess this up, I am going to say ‘I told you so’ until you find a way to remove the phrase from common use vocabulary. You will be that annoyed by how often I say it.” I punctuated my tangent by stabbing my fork in his direction with my words.
“Deal.” My father held his glass out, and I moved my own towards it in a cheers motion before digging back into my pasta, letting out a sound of contentment. There was nothing better than a tasty meal, wine, and good company.
“Wait,” I tilted my head, remembering one small detail, “Why was Drayven supposed to be here?”
My dad offered me an amused smile, “You didn’t think I would make you go completely alone, did you? Plus, the other royals insisted I send someone with you. I felt like he was a good compromise.”
I swallowed a lump of pasta that was suddenly lodged in my throat, “So, Drayven and I are traveling to the Summit, together?”
“Yep.” My dad nodded and offered me an inquisitive look, as if he didn’t quite understand my issue. I grumbled under my breath about how I would probably end up killing him, but I didn’t think my dad caught that. Which was good because it wasn’t an idle threat, and I didn’t want him ruining my plans.
After a few more minutes of comfortable silence, my dad reading over some documents as I considered the questions I would probably need to ask my tutor tomorrow, he looked up at me with an indecipherable expression.
“What?” I arched my brow.
“Prince of Runes...he’s the assassin one, right?” My father mused good naturedly.
I nearly smiled at the relaxed way he said that, showing he really did like the man. I had no idea what Finias had said in their brief conversation to win him over, but color me impressed. The man was far better at people-ing than he realized. And yes, that was a word.
“So I’ve heard,” I confirmed.
He nodded, “Nice kid. Parents suck though.”
“I can’t wait to meet them,” I responded dryly.
My dad’s smile grew, “Maybe they won’t be that terrible. The prince didn’t seem awful.”
I narrowed my eyes, “You know I am not talking about boys with you, right?”
He barked out a laugh. “Good, because I would probably kill most of them. Unless they would defend your honor while also respecting how powerful and unique you are and never putting you down. Then I might let them live. But it is a big maybe.”
That comment was so obviously about how Finias had stood up for me to Drayven.
I loved my dad. Seriously, the man was not only extraordinarily supportive, but in his own way, also a bit dorky. I mean, this man had raised me all on his own when my mom had ditched out. He’d been with me every step of the way, and although he was teasing me, I couldn’t help but let him know how much I appreciated him.
“I love you, Dad,” I offered.
He reached across the table and squeezed my hand. “Love you too, Ama.”
The door to the meeting room slammed open. Drayven, soaked to the bone and looking a bit terrifying with blood dripping down from his face, came to a complete halt when he saw us.
He met my gaze and exhaled—probably in disappointment that I was alive or something—before looking at my dad.
Yikes. I guess it had started storming again during his nap. What a shame.
“My apologies.” He bowed, water dripping onto the floor from his face as he did. “I was concerned about Ama’s safety.”
Liar, liar, pants on fucking fire.
My dad’s smile grew as he looked over Drayven, “I should be more worried about your safety right now, from the looks of you. Are you okay?”
Drayven glanced at me, his eyes flashing with frustration as his lips pinched together, “Yes, Sir.”
“Good, good.” My father waved dismissively, “I informed Ama that the two of you would be attending the Summit together. You will meet with her tutor tomorrow so you two can be briefed on everything.”
Fuck.
“Of course,” Drayven’s face was still actively bleeding as he stepped back. “Ama, I will see you tomorrow.” I offered a head nod, arching a brow at the look on his face. Oh man - he was totally pissed. Good. Maybe he would learn to not be such a demanding jerk.
The door closed and my dad offered me an amused look while switching back to our previous topic, “So the prince of Runes is a…”
“Friend,” I provided as my father offered me a patronizing but amused head nod.
“Awfully hard hit he landed on Drayven for someone defending their friend.”
I groaned, throwing my head back and wishing I had never let him see my interest in Finias or the forehead kiss he had given me. I had survived so long without embarrassment of the dad variety, and now he was never going to let this go. Mark my words.
Loud pounding on my bedroom door had me jerking up in bed as I let out a groan. There were only two people who had the audacity to knock on my door like that. One could let herself in easily, and the other…Well, I just had no interest in seeing the other. Fascinating that Drayven seemed to be making far more of an appearance now that someone was showing interest in me. Did he really hate me so much that the idea of someone else liking me pushed him to these extremes? To try to make me miserable in other ways?
There was also the fact that he was apparently coming to my tutoring session today. Thanks, Dad.
Getting out of bed, I wrapped a robe around myself and headed toward my back window to check on the weather. Opening the curtains, I tilted my head, noticing that there was something sitting in the center of the stone ledge outside.
I opened the window and picked up the hand-carved, cherry red wooden flower. The artistry was so skilled and gorgeous that it had me second-guessing for a moment whether it might be a real flower instead of a wooden one. I looked around, wondering how the hell it had gotten there.
I mean, my room hung over a fairly substantial drop to the east side of the castle. It was purposefully isolated for security, but still featured a stunning view of the rolling, mountainous tree landscape. So, how did this get here?
Humming under my breath, I attempted to get a feel for whether or not there was any magic attached to it, negative or otherwise, but I didn’t detect anything. Just a pretty wooden carved flower.
I turned around as I marveled over its beauty, and promptly almost dropped it as I noticed the intruder standing there.
“Holy shit!” I squeaked, finding Drayven leaning against the separation archway between my bedroom and the living suite.
“I knocked,” he reasoned, his voice rough and trailing against my skin. I kept the flower tucked against my chest with the hand that held my robe. I was completely covered, yet it felt shockingly intimate having him in my space like this. It wasn’t welcomed…mostly.
Why did I feel conflicted about that? I just needed to get some coffee in my system. My brain wasn’t functioning properly yet.
“I didn’t answer for a reason,” I pointed out, narrowing my eyes. When he didn’t say anything else, I rolled my eyes and walked towards my closet, deciding to wear my default hoodie and leggings because I wouldn’t be leaving my personal quarters. No one would see me outside of the tutor and Drayven.
I closed the bathroom door and got ready quickly, changing into comfortable clothes before pulling my hair into a loose braid and brushing my teeth. I stepped out of the bathroom and nearly ran right into Drayven. Damn him. This man had no understanding of personal space.
I backed up and looked up at him, my hands tucked away in my hoodie pocket, where they smoothed over the little flower trinket. I was finding I loved the object, and I had no idea why or who it was from.
“We need to talk about yesterday,” he rumbled.
“Not positive there is anything to talk about.” I shrugged dismissively, “You were being a demanding ass, and neither Finias nor I were cool with it.”
“And the fucking part where you were holding hands with a literal assassin?!” He snarled and threw his hands in the air, completely exasperated with me.
I couldn’t help but jolt slightly in response to his outburst. I wasn’t used to seeing him so worked up, and I regarded him carefully. “You're pissed because we were holding hands?”
“Correct,” he growled.
“So it is because you aren’t okay with the idea of anyone liking me!” I exclaimed, feeling validated in my previous thoughts on the situation. He hated the idea of someone making me happy. Devil forbid someone actually took a liking to me and broke the illusion of me as persona non grata.
“Yes,” he bit out, but not with anger. It was with sadness and an ounce of bitterness.
My heart clenched as I was hit by the wave of emotions in that single word—emotions I certainly hadn’t expected. His eyes ran over my face as his gaze flashed with a vibrant green flare. “Ama…”
“Do you really hate me that much?” I whispered, my voice cracking and tears pricking my eyes. “I mean shit, Drayven. I was sixteen when I kissed you. I had no idea what I was doing with my magic. You were my first kiss. How was I supposed to know it could hurt you? It's been over two years! I don’t understand this overwhelming need you seem to have to make sure I’m miserable every day of my life.”
His jaw clenched as he looked down and ran a hand through his gleaming silver hair, “It’s not like that, Ama.”
“What’s it like then?” I arched my brow, challenging him to explain to me how I was wrong. Secretly, I ached for him to tell me just how off-base I was, because a not-so-small part of me had never let go of the stupid crush I had on him, despite everything. Kinda pathetic, right?
He shook his head, and I deflated further, completely done with this nonsense. I kept my voice low and even, “Just leave me alone, okay? I deal with enough shit every single day. So if you supposedly don’t hate me, just stop. Stop being such an ass and leave me alone.”
“I can’t leave you alone,” he gritted out between his clenched teeth, and my blood began to boil.
Rolling my shoulders back, I raised my chin and strode past him. He didn’t try to stop me as I exited my bedroom and headed towards the comfortable living suite, where I figured my tutor was already waiting. I could feel Drayven’s broody ass following behind me, and I tried to ignore the ache in my chest at the freshly renewed idea of Drayven harboring true hatred for me.
Why did I care so much?
Chapter Six
Ama
I shouldn’t have been surprised— by this point it really should have been a natural assumption—but I had come to the realization that my tutor really didn’t like me. Which was, of course, inconvenient and frustrating, since it was all too clear that he did love Drayven. Because of course he did—everyone fucking did.
As I leaned back in the comfortable armchair I sat cross-legged in, Drayven briefly offered me a frustrated look because I had refused to sit next to him on the couch before going back to listening attentively to our tutor.
Who knew why he wanted me to sit next to him? Maybe he was attempting to kill me before the Summit so I wouldn’t embarrass the house. That seemed like a likely optio
n. Otto probably would have let him get away with it as well.
For the past three and a half years, the skeletal man had droned on and on, nearly every day of the week, about topics that frankly didn’t interest me. Mind you, sometimes he covered interesting stuff—like how the devil had gone willingly into an eternal slumber, leaving us with our life as we knew it—but usually, it was about the House of Death’s history and our ‘proud’ and ‘pure’ heritage as Reapers. Most of the time, I ended up drawing in my notebook when he started on one of his tangents about how much he disliked the other houses, especially the House of Sin.
Shocking, right?
I missed Maria. She had been my tutor before Otto, from the time I’d been very small. She was the one who’d taught me everything from writing to math, so we’d had a fairly close bond. Honestly, despite her being fairly young in comparison to Otto, she had been the closest thing I’d had to a maternal figure.
Then the council had voted her out of her position and removed her from the castle. They’d said it was because she was unqualified to teach me as I grew older, but I think it was really because she’d defended me in front of other Reapers. It had only been once or twice, but it had been a kindness I’d never forgotten.
When I had tried to search for Maria in town, I hadn’t been able to find her. The entire situation left a bad taste in my mouth, and I wondered what had happened to her.
“Amare!” Otto snapped, “Did you hear what I said?”
I felt my jaw tighten and exhaled slowly, trying to keep calm so I wouldn’t kill the jerk, “You were talking about the House of Hellfire.”
One of the more interesting houses, I would give them that.
“Exactly.” He nodded sharply, and Drayven examined my expression before going back to looking over the large text Otto had dragged from his crypt, the pages opened to a series of stunning crests representing the six houses.
Insurrection (Monarchs of Hell Book 1) Page 5
