by Meg Xuemei X
I glanced around. Indeed. The Fae males all around gazed at their queen with lust. They couldn’t detect the rot, death, and violence beneath her glamoured beauty and rose perfume.
Maybe our mating bond prevented my mates from lusting after Tianna for now, but I couldn’t deny that she also drew them in like attracting moths to a dark, lethal flame.
And dragons all liked flames.
I hadn’t expected she would play this kind of game. No wonder she was so conceited when she said that the fun had just begun. She was bewitching my mates to hurt me, and my magic hadn’t been able to shield them.
Acid flooded my stomach.
“Stop it, Tianna!” I said. “This sick game of yours is over.”
“Stop what?” Tianna purred, her voice sexy, enchanting. Her bloodred lips tugged up in a sadistic smile.
“You want me to stop this?” She snapped her fingers, and a figure materialized and tumbled from the air.
Elvey crouched at her feet in iron chains.
6
Elvey raised his blue eyes, a swirl of falling stars burning to ashes in them as his gaze met mine.
He looked ragged, bruised, and disheveled, bound by the heavy chains. The wounds on his wrists and ankles were both old and new. Dried blood coated his skin, his gray shirt, and dark pants.
Once a proud demigod, now he was chained like a rabid animal.
How long had he been tortured?
“Daisy,” he hissed, his lavender hair a mess. “Take your mates and get out of here. Now! It’s a trap.”
You’re my mate, too, I thought.
“Go! Take her and leave!” he snarled at the two dragons hovering above us.
Even shackled, Elvey still had no concerns for himself. He didn’t think of his own freedom, only of my safety.
He hadn’t thought we’d come for him.
He never required it.
Words choked in my throat, and hot rage coursed in my cold blood.
Rai snarled, his masked face turning red with fury. Blaze puffed fire and Iokul hissed an icy stream, murder in their fiery dragon eyes. They hadn’t expected to see Elvey like this. Before we’d set out toward Sihde, they’d accepted him as one of them.
Now that they were seeing Elvey in this condition, they were able to shrug off whatever the dark Fae queen’s spell did to them and blinked back to reality.
They were with me again, and their rage boiled like mine.
Tianna let out a girlish giggle. Her eyes, like endless pits, swept over us.
Even with the dragons in the air, she didn’t seem bothered in the least, which meant she must have a ward around her.
“I’ve been looking for the traitor in my court for a long time,” Tianna said, “but I never thought Elvey had the audacity to betray me. The foxy demigod has been trying to undermine me for centuries in order to aid you. Now his eternal torture starts. He’ll wish to burn in hell rather than in here.”
The sound of bones cracking filled the air, and Elvey bit his lip so he wouldn’t scream.
His left fingers twisted at sickening angles. The dark queen had just broken all the fingers on his left hand with a mere thought.
“Stop!” I yelled.
“Leave, Daisy! You’re not ready yet,” Elvey shouted after he sucked in a breath of pain, fuming. “What the fuck are you waiting for? You idiot dragons, take your mate away from this filthy pit. Now!” He tried to rise and come to shove me away himself from the court, but he collapsed to the ground, dropped to his knees, and landed on his heels.
A sick snapping sound told me that Tianna had just broken his knees.
Sweat dotted his forehead.
Elvey couldn’t fight her because he was bound by his blood bond to her.
His agony and helplessness hammered into my heart.
I lost it.
I saw red and nothing else.
“Fucking bitch!” I screamed, and threw everything I had at Tianna.
My White Light speared toward her in wrath. At the same time, Rai tossed bolts of lightning at the evil queen.
A billow of smoke poured out of Tianna. Just as my Light ate away the smoke, more smoke bred. A surge of dark purple light formed another layer of shield round her.
My White Light had killed two of her powerful minions that had the protection of the smoke magic, but my Light, even enhanced by my mate’s lightning, couldn’t penetrate her new shield.
What the fuck?
Tianna thrust her fingernails in my direction. “Kill the dragon-hybrid abomination!”
At the same time, her smoke and purple light merged and slammed into my shield that covered my mates, Elvey, and me. She failed to breach my ward, but she could still get to Elvey because of their blood bond.
While Tianna and I were at an impasse, my mates charged at her guards.
Blaze spat fire at the dark Fae guards as they surged toward us, and Iokul tossed ice spears toward their armored chests. Rai fought beside me to keep anyone from getting near me.
My consorts were formidable warriors, but the enemy’s numbers were countless. Our small Fae army was blocked outside the Red Palace, and our main army still outside the Fae realm.
Our battle raged on, and neither side could gain the upper hand.
Tianna seemed surprised that I could hold my own.
She shouted out a stream of foul spells, and her bonding magic pierced the defense of my White Light and reached my mind.
We were both from the dark Fae royal line with the same bonding magic, so my White Light didn’t recognize Tianna’s bonding magic as hostile.
But my own bonding magic rose and met hers in full force.
“You’ll never have me, you fucking bitch,” I said, the veins in my temples jumping at my effort.
I grabbed her bonding magic, tore it from my head like it was a worm, and tossed it back at her face.
Elvey crawled toward me, but Tianna broke more of his bones, until he could no longer move. I couldn’t shield him like I could shield my dragon mates.
Until I broke the bond between them, Tianna could always get to him.
“Don’t you touch him again!” I sent another surge of White Light toward the bitch, but her shield enhanced.
She laughed. “You’ll never take me down, niece. It seems we have reached an impasse. However, I have another idea. Why don’t we play a new game to decide the winner?”
“Go fuck yourself.”
I yanked up my magic from my depth and threw it at her. I had to destroy this vermin.
But her dark magic was immense, and she’d had millennia of practice.
Soon, I would exhaust my magic, and my mates couldn’t fight the endless army pouring in.
Our former plan of coming in, overcoming Tianna, and grabbing Elvey hadn’t gone well. I hadn’t known my enemy’s true power. I’d underestimated my evil aunt. I thought I could have killed her the way I’d vanquished Lysandra. I’d thought my White Light was all I would need to kill her.
“You already have three gorgeous mates, niece,” Tianna said, winking at Rai. “Yet you want one more. Do you just open your legs for everyone?”
“Shut your filthy hole, you hell bitch,” I said.
I didn’t intend to have a conversation with her.
I wanted her dead.
But no matter how hard I pushed my magic to destroy her, her dark magic just matched up to mine and more.
“Would you like to know how I trapped Elvey, niece?” she asked sweetly, but her voice dripped with venom. “He had this prophetic dream about his destined mate and it led him to me. He was seeking you before you were even born. I tricked him into a blood bond to me. He did it in order to prevent your death. When he found out what a mistake he’d made, it was already too late for him. He’s been hating me for robbing him of a life with his true mate for centuries, yet there is nothing he could do but serve me. Did you know your mate used to warm my bed? Are you sure you still want my leftovers?”
“He rejected you
,” I hissed. “He turned you down. Tied by the blood bond, no one could refuse you, but he did it again and again. No matter how hard you’ve been trying to get him to your bed, he still rejects you time and again. Just like he and I can always see right through your glamour. I’m so proud of him, and you’re but an ugly crone who possesses nothing but evil.”
I couldn’t be prouder of Elvey. For centuries, the dark queen had been trying to crush his spirit, but she failed. While he didn’t get any sunshine, he still gave sunshine to others. He’d secretly helped many Fae escape Tianna and promised them that one day the true queen would return. He had no hope for himself, yet he constantly inspired hope in others. Only a pure soul could do that.
Tianna snapped her fingers, and another of Elvey’s bones cracked.
“Still proud?” Her bloodred lips bit out the words.
It felt like my own rib cage had just been shattered.
“You bitch! Stop!” I shrieked as I sent another wave of White Light to attack her, yet I couldn’t take her down. All I succeeded in doing was exhausting my own reservoir of magic. “Stop!”
My two dragon mates roared. Blaze spewed streams of fire at the dark queen, Iokul flung dozens of ice spears at her, and Rai sent bolts of lightning to crash on her.
But her shield diminished every assault.
“Boys, behave,” Tianna purred sweetly, and Elvey’s right hand distorted to a grotesque angle.
He didn’t even groan, but beads of sweat coated his face, and his star-blue eyes twitched from the pain.
“Cease the attack,” I told my three mates before turning to Tianna. “Please, don’t do that. Just leave him alone, please.” I breathed with difficultly.
I restrained myself from tossing another barrage of White Light at her. She would only turn to torture Elvey. She had found my weakness—all of my mates were my most vulnerable weakness.
Why couldn’t my White Light take the bitch out? Elvey had said it was the only weapon that could kill her. His intel wasn’t correct.
“Now you beg, niece,” Tianna said. “But you should not blame me. This is all Elvey’s fault, or maybe it’s yours. He’s done ton of dirty work behind my back in order to overthrow me. I only found out about it when you returned. He could hide on other planets where I couldn’t easily reach him through the blood bond, but he just couldn’t resist you. He couldn’t stay away from you, so he had to return, and now he has to endure this.”
She broke another bone.
I heard snickers from the court and snapped my head in that direction.
Some Fae turned their faces away, not having the stomach to continue to watch. Yet some of them held delight in watching Elvey’s suffering. I’d remember them, and none of them would walk out of here alive when all this ended.
“Stop!” I cried. “What do you want?”
“Are you ready to meet my challenge, Daisy Danaenyth, daughter to my dear sister Zuzana?” Tianna asked.
“Do not bargain with her!” Elvey hissed, pain lacing his voice, though he tried to contain it. “Get out and leave me here. I’m a dead man. Don’t waste your time on—”
He swallowed the rest of the words.
She’d broken his windpipe.
I couldn’t leave without him.
“I’m ready to bargain, aunt,” I snarled.
“Withdraw your magic now,” she ordered.
I pulled my White Light back, but still shielded my mates, including Elvey, though my shield hadn’t protected him.
Tianna let out an inaudible breath of relief, and I realized that she hadn’t known whether my magic could take her down eventually. She didn’t know my strength and the depth of my magic, and she didn’t intend to find out.
She wasn’t familiar with my kind of magic, but she feared it.
“You want Elvey, don’t you?” Tianna asked.
“Sever the blood bond between the two of you,” I said in a tight voice.
Elvey watched us, his expression unreadable, though pain carved deep lines on his face.
“Will you pay the price?” asked the evil queen.
I narrowed my burning eyes. “I’ll pay any price.”
“Any price, you say?” she purred, and a repulsed shiver crawled over my skin.
I stared at her blankly, not wanting to show any more emotion than I could help. Even the slightest hatred in my eyes would give her satisfaction.
“I want your three dragon consorts,” she said, lust sparkling in her cat-green eyes.
7
Wrath rained down in me. I’d slice open the bitch and slowly cut her heart to pieces.
Sphinx’s warning rang through my head. “Gain the first and lose the last. Keep the last, and the first will be shattered bones.”
It always came to this—my choice, but I wouldn’t choose.
How could I trade my three mates for Elvey? If I didn’t, Tianna would shatter every bone in his body. I was trapped in a nightmare I couldn’t escape.
Elvey’s gaze was full of agony. He had no voice, but he managed to shake his head. He didn’t want me to choose him over my mates. He’d rather endure every ounce of pain she inflicted on him.
“Your beloved Elvey can’t even die,” Tianna said. “He’s tried to break the blood bond to me for a millennium, but all he’s gotten has been pain. You can end his suffering. All you need to do is to play a final game, answer to my challenge, and offer me your dragons. You’ve already fucked them, so they’re no longer novelty to you. But you haven’t fucked Elvey. He was mind-blowing in bed, even though he imagined I was you.”
“Watch your mouth, bitch!” Rai snarled.
Blaze and Iokul shifted to their human forms and gathered around me.
Tianna was ready to snap a finger and break another bone in Elvey.
“What’s the game, Tianna?” Iokul asked with interest.
He wanted to play? I sent Iokul a sharp look, as did his brothers.
“It doesn’t matter what the game is,” Blaze spat. “The cunt will never have us.”
“Boys, you’re rude, but I love it when you talk dirty,” Tianna said. “What if I tell you that if you agree to play, I’ll lift the last piece of your curse and you no longer need to wear that dreadful mask on your handsome faces anymore?”
A stunned silence rippled across the room. My three mates exchanged a look, excluding me.
They weren’t seriously considering it, were they?
My heart sank to my stomach.
My hand lifted in the air and trained on Tianna, ready for another round of attack. My other hand grabbed Rai’s, Iokul’s, and Blaze’s hand in turn. I needed reassurance that they were with me. Only Blaze squeezed my hand back.
“I want to hear the game as well,” Rai said softly.
“We will only play if she can hold up her end of the bargain and remove our masks,” Iokul said.
Tianna laughed softly, her adorned eyelashes fluttering.
A wave of revulsion twisted my stomach, especially when I saw that all three of my mates regarded my immortal enemy with interest they hadn’t shown before. Moments ago, they’d been outraged and had called her cunt.
My bonding magic brushed over them and probed.
No, her spell wasn’t leeching on them. Then why had they changed their attitude all of a sudden? Realization hit me. Tianna promised them something I hadn’t been able to give them—removing the other half of the curse. They’d hidden their bitterness and disappointment that I wasn’t able to help them lift the final curse. They wanted more than anything to be rid of the masks.
But shouldn’t they give me a bit more time? From the moment we’d set foot in the Dragon Realm, we had been in constant crisis, but as soon as I took Elvey with us, I planned on finding a way to remove their curse completely.
But when the opportunity presented itself, it seemed they couldn’t wait.
I’d thought I had them, but perhaps I had been wrong.
Now they wanted to play Tianna’s game. They wante
d to see what my parents’ murderer could offer them. My heart bled.
Elvey struggled with his chains, trying to make enough noise, still attempting to stop us.
Tianna snapped her head toward him.
“Hurt him again, and I’ll never take your fucking challenge,” I said.
“Oh, you will,” Tianna said. “But he isn’t my concern at the moment.” She winked at me with a taunting smirk. “Don’t pout, Daisy. The game actually works in your favor. Let me lay out the terms and rules. They’re quite simple.” She licked her lips, her cat-like eyes roving over my three consorts as if they were a delicious dessert. “Right, boys?”
I wanted to stand in front of them and shield them from the sex predator. But it proved to be futile since my giant dragon mates stood out in any crowd.
“I’ll borrow the dragon princes only for a month,” the evil queen continued, her lustful gaze never leaving my mates’ hot bodies. She was fucking their every inch with her eyes.
Rage sizzled in me, yet I contained it. If I provoked her, she would only break Elvey’s bones to punish me.
“Within a month,” Tianna said, “if the dragon princes choose me, they’ll be mine. If they reject me, then they can return to you. While the challenge is on, we’ll have truce. We can be civilized and you’ll live in my palace. The princes, however, will live in my chamber with me, never with you. Whether they warm my bed or not will be their choice. If you agree to the Challenge, I’ll break Elvey’s blood bond to me.”
Wrath surged in my heart even as ice pumped through my veins.
How could I whore my three mates out in exchange for my fourth mate’s freedom? But if I refused to play, she would shatter every single bone in Elvey’s body. And once he healed, the bitch would do it again and again.
I didn’t see any way out of this, but I still couldn’t sacrifice my dragon mates.
I swallowed. I wanted to reduce Tianna to dirt. “No,” I said. “You filthy bitch, you can’t have my mates!”
Tianna’s cat-green eyes sharpened in displeasure, and she raised her fingers, ready to snap. Ready to break Elvey’s bones again.
“No, you won’t hurt him again!” I shouted, throwing up my hands, ready to attack her with my White Light and everything I had.
