Ryder yelled out in rage, lunging for me as my fangs snapped out at the sight of his blood and I shot away from him before he could get his arms around me.
I made it behind him and kicked him in the ass with enough force to make him stumble forward a step, my blood pumping fast through my veins as the fight got my heart racing.
Ryder lunged for me again and I managed to lurch aside, but the moment I did, he was already there, anticipating my move, his hand wrapping tight around my throat.
We locked eyes and he snarled at me, teeth bared as his eyes shifted to reptilian slits and the power of his hypnosis pressed against my mental shields. But I kept my walls up tight against him, refusing to let him call the shots. He’d had his chance to do this the easy way. Now he was going to deal with me here and now, in the flesh. And fuck the consequences.
I slammed my fist into his elbow, forcing him to release his grip on my throat but he managed to wrap his other arm around my waist before I could shoot away.
I fought against his hold with all I had, throwing my elbow into his gut and stamping on his feet with my big ass boots but he only grunted in discomfort as his fingers dug in and he kept hold of me.
“Give it up, Elise, I have you beat,” he hissed in my ear and anger coursed through me that he seriously believed I’d go down that easy.
The longer this game went on the more the bloodlust caught me in its grip and I felt heady with the need to bite him, my fangs aching, flesh tingling.
I threw my head back against his face, the crunch of bone confirming I’d broken his nose and the pain of the injury was enough to make his hold on me loosen.
I lurched forward, breaking out of his grip and darting around the ring in a blur as the crowd booed and hissed and my head spun from the force of the blow I’d just struck.
I raced around him then shot at his back, leaping onto him like a monkey climbing a tree, my thighs locking around his waist, arms gripping his shoulders as I lunged for his neck with my fangs bared. But before I could sink them into his flesh, Ryder grabbed my leg and yanked hard enough to rip me off of him.
I landed on the hard pebbles, flat on my back with the crowd roaring their approval and Ryder pounced on top of me. His hand locked around my throat, his green eyes flaring with untethered rage and a monster peering out from beneath his skin.
His weight pressed me down into the stones, his muscular body crushing me beneath him as his grip on my throat tightened.
I snarled at him as I clawed at his arm and he snarled right back, slamming his free hand into the stones beside my head.
The beach seemed to shudder beneath me and my eyes widened as the ground sank away, swallowing us whole in the blink of an eye and leaving the crowd behind to wonder what the fuck had just happened.
Darkness enveloped us and the hard press of Ryder’s body on top of mine and the tightness of his grip on my throat were the only things that told me that I wasn’t alone down here.
We kept sinking, faster and faster, devoured by the earth and suffocated by the dark.
All of a sudden the press of rocks and soil surrounding us gave way and I screamed as I found myself falling.
I threw my hands out, seizing control of the air beneath us and slowing our descent so that by the time my back hit the floor, it was with more of a bump than a crash.
“What the fuck were you thinking attacking me like that in front of my Brothers?” Ryder demanded, his grip on my throat unrelenting, possessive, though by no means tight enough to stop me from breathing or responding to his question.
“Well I had to make you talk to me somehow,” I snapped. “So you can blame yourself if you’re looking for someone to be pissed at.”
Ryder scoffed a laugh and warm drops of his blood dripped down onto my lips from his broken nose, making me groan and writhe beneath him as I licked them clean.
“By the stars, stop doing that,” Ryder demanded.
“Cast a light, asshole,” I replied, ignoring his request. “And let me bite you if you want me to stop salivating over you. My power is running low and you’re making me all bloodthirsty here.”
“Stop trying to turn me on.”
“I’m not. I’m just thirsty,” I insisted, but I wriggled against him more anyway because the least he deserved was a bit of sexual frustration after freezing me out for months without letting me get a fucking word in.
But I was clearly underestimating my prey because of course he knew that I’d be aching for him just as much and he instantly called me out on my own shit.
Ryder growled, rolling his hips between my thighs so that I was left with no illusions about just how hard he was right now. I wrapped my legs around his back, bucking against him to create more friction, moaning softly as I felt his dick piercing roll over my clit through the fabric of our clothes. So close and yet way too far apart.
I raised a hand and cast a Faelight into existence, needing to see him. The orange glow of it revealed the long corridor we usually took beneath the beach to reach the Arcane Arts classroom under the lake itself. Ryder was frowning down at me as I looked around at the space but as I looked back to him, his gaze narrowed.
“Why won’t you just let me go?” he asked, starting out strong but his voice breaking at the end.
“It would be easier to give up breathing than you, Ryder,” I replied softly, the fight going out of me as I reached up to brush my fingers down his jaw.
His eyes fell closed and he leaned into my touch, his grip on my throat tightening then loosening.
Just as he began to shift back, I lurched forward, using my gifted strength to flip us so that his back hit the floor and I was straddling him.
“Don’t run from me,” I commanded. “My kind are only driven to hunt anyone who tries.”
His lips twitched and his hands fell on my thighs as I looked down at the bloodstained flesh of his bare chest and face. Most of it was from his victims tonight, but enough of his own blood coloured his skin to make me ache too.
I pressed a hand to his side, healing magic building in my palm, but he caught my wrist in his grip and tugged it back before I could do anything.
“Leave it. I want to feel this pain for once instead of what you gave me.”
My breath caught at his words and for a moment all of my own heartache reared up inside me, filling me to the point of bursting with the hurt of it all.
“The stars gave me a gift, but sometimes I think it was a curse too,” I replied steadily. “And I know it will be if it means they stole you from me.”
“I don’t know what you want me to say to that,” he replied, the grit in his voice making me ache. “I can’t just pretend it never happened. Every time I look at you it’s right there in your eyes, mocking me. I always felt like being with you was like entering a competition, now I know for sure I didn’t bag first place.”
“It’s not a competition. It was never a competition,” I growled, feeling the truth of those words with all my heart. I’d never compared one of my kings to another, I’d never even considered the idea of preferring one of them in any way. They were as different as my love for them was different, but I felt all of it just as strongly.
“Bite me, baby,” Ryder commanded. “I can’t figure out what to do about this right now. I’d rather get my pain from your teeth than your lips tonight.”
I sucked in a breath that caused an ache in my chest and the look in Ryder’s eyes said he’d felt that pain too.
I wanted to argue against him, force him to hear me out, but I was pretty sure he’d heard me already. He just needed to process it. Emotions and feelings didn’t come easy to him and he needed time to figure his out before he could give me anything honest about the way he felt.
I leaned down slowly, my lilac hair swinging forward around my jaw as I moved so close to him that our breaths danced together and my lips almost tasted his.
“I meant it,” I breathed, so low that the pounding of our heartbeats almost drowned the words
. “I love you.”
I touched my lips to the corner of his mouth and his chest rose as he fought the urge to turn toward me.
I leaned down slowly, my mouth brushing across the fine stubble coating his jaw until my lips were pressed flush to the thick artery in his neck.
Ryder’s hands slid to cup my ass as he held me there, the thundering pace of his pulse telling me just as much as any words might about his feelings for me anyway.
As gently as I could, I teased my fangs into his flesh and he groaned as his blood spilled over my tongue. I took my time, savouring the heady darkness of his magic as it flowed into me and he rocked my hips to a slow and steady rhythm against him which had me panting by the time I’d had my fill.
I drew back, meeting his eyes again and reading the desire there keenly.
Ryder raised his left hand, dragging the word lust on his knuckles across my cheekbone before dropping it and painting a cross over my heart with a single finger.
I mirrored the movement, tracing the tattoo I’d given him with my own finger before smiling softly and shooting away, giving him the time he’d asked for.
The grunt of pain that came from him told me he’d felt just how much it had hurt me to do that, but I knew he needed me to do as he’d asked.
Ryder Draconis wasn’t a man who would ever be told what to do. But if he did decide to come back to me, I was never letting him leave me behind again.
Seven Months before the Solarid Meteor Shower…
T wo months in this fucking cult and I was beginning to lose my mind. I’d thought it would be simple, easy money to pay Ella’s debt, but I’d never even begun to imagine the chains this place would put on my soul.
It hadn’t taken much to get me invited to join them in the end. Lorenzo had brought me to meet with some of his new friends and though they hadn’t said a lot, they’d definitely shown interest in me from the moment I arrived.
Within two weeks I’d been given the invitation to initiate and that was where my life had started to fall to shit.
The Card Master, King, who the fuck even knew what their real name was as they hid their face so well, but they had gotten their claws in me quick. I didn’t know what kind of magic it was that they’d used, but I instantly found myself unable to speak of the ritual I’d been subjected to when I was with anyone outside of the cult. Then, bit by bit, I’d begun to find it harder and harder to summon enthusiasm for things I’d always cared about.
I hardly watched Pitball matches anymore and my performance on the field was deteriorating. I didn’t go to parties or hang out with Leon, even though in some small corner of my mind I knew I still wanted to. But whenever I actually tried to do any of those things, I just felt impossibly tired. Unable to engage like I should have and my mind would end up trailing back to the Black Card. I wanted to spend time amongst the other members, take part in anything and everything they were involved in with a fierce kind of hunger that felt alien at times like someone else was whispering the thoughts in my ear, but I couldn’t quite disagree with them.
The only thing that hadn’t been stolen from me was my desire to protect my sister and my love for her. I still wanted to escape this place. But with every passing day I grew more fearful of how I’d even accomplish that with my mind so tethered to the Black Card.
I had to assume it was dark magic, but that only made it all the more terrifying because there was no way I could combat that.
On three separate occasions, I’d gone to Dante to tell him I was leaving this cult, that I couldn’t be bound by it anymore and that I needed to be free to protect my sister when the time came. But every time, the words had stuck in my throat and I’d even begun to doubt them, wondering why I’d been considering doing something so foolish.
The only time my thoughts felt like they were fully my own was when I lay alone in bed at night. When I pulled out my journal and started to sketch. I may not have been able to say or write the way I felt about the Black Card, but I could translate it into art.
I’d begun to draw pieces depicting the secrets I uncovered, the way to pass through hidden doors or even just the way this magic made me feel. I wasn’t even sure who I was doing it for at first until I realised the truth. This was for Ella, a warning in case I really couldn’t find a way out. Something that I could give her to try and explain even if the words were locked up so tight that I couldn’t utter them to her.
We didn’t keep secrets. Or at least, we hadn’t until I’d chosen to lie to her about Old Sal’s threats. And I hated myself for that, but I also knew it couldn’t be helped. If she caught wind of even the slightest hint of the things I’d been doing to clear this debt hanging over her, she’d be up on that stage in a heartbeat. Even if doing so destroyed her soul and ruined every dream she’d ever had for herself to do something more with her life than just become a carbon copy of our mom.
I wanted that life for her more than anything. For both of us. Freedom from this place and its secrets and depravity and gangs. Nothing more than the chance to live a life we chose instead of one where the mould was waiting for us to pour ourselves into, the decisions already made long before we ever agreed to them.
So the Black Card might have had me in their grasp, but I refused to stay captive for long. I’d find a way out of here, clear out Mom’s debt and then I’d grab hold of Ella and run and run and run until my legs gave out beneath me and Alestria was nothing more than a dark stain on the horizon of our past which we’d never look back at again.
The most terrifying thing about that was that I’d figured out how to do it. I may have been shackled to this cult, but that didn’t mean my eyes were closed to them. So whenever I was pulled from my bed to join in with rituals or when I woke finding I’d lost a whole chunk of time from my life and I just knew I’d been doing something with them despite the missing memories, I made sure I paid attention. And it had quickly become clear that the Black Card were divided into ranks. The members who held more power seemed more alert, aware, less chained by the restrictions of the magic placed upon them. So that was my goal. I had to prove myself worthy of advancement, rise amongst them so that they offered me more freedom, and when the time was right, I’d run for my fucking life.
I stood amongst the crowd in the chamber beneath Altair Halls as a new member was sworn in, chanting the words which my tongue seemed to know despite the fact that I had no recollection of being taught them.
Lorenzo stood to my left and Adrian to my right, several more members of the Card who I’d been working to befriend all close behind me. I’d been trying to squeeze them for info when I’d started spending time with them, but somehow I seemed to have drawn them all to me to stay. We hung out a lot, sitting together for meals or in classes when we shared them. I got them talking when their preference was silence, though sometimes it seemed like they were relieved to break it. I wondered if they felt the way I did, like they didn’t really want to withdraw from the life they’d had before they’d joined up but found it difficult to engage in it whenever they tried.
Leon seemed to be borderline pissed at me most of the time these days, pursing his lips and turning away from me whenever I failed to speak with him or joke around the way I used to. He’d muttered things about me changing since I’d found my new friends more than once and it had hurt me not to be able to tell him I hadn’t wanted to.
Cindy Lou was even harder to deal with. She frowned at my silences and pouted when I didn’t laugh at her stories. Seeking her out became harder and harder and whenever I did all she wanted me to do was fuck her roughly, pretending to be a Dragon while she cried out a name that wasn’t mine. It hurt, but I couldn’t summon the energy to tell her that when we were together. And I felt guilty enough over how withdrawn I’d become that I wasn’t even sure I could blame her anyway. I just hoped that one day I’d be able to explain it to her properly and that this game she liked to play really didn’t mean she was hungering for someone else.
The chanting came to
an end and the rest of the Black Card moved around the room, congratulating our newest member while my little group stayed close to me, awaiting my lead.
I moved to take a step forward, but a hand landed on my shoulder before I could. My skin tingled to the point of burning at the contact and I sucked in a breath to find the Card Master there, our self-appointed King. There seemed to be a general consensus that he was male, but with the constantly shifting features of his face and body within the concealment spells laid over him, there was no way to know for sure.
“A word, Gareth,” he murmured in an aged voice before seeming to triple in height and tower over me as he steered me into a side chamber.
I had no choice but to go, my little group splitting apart to allow it, all murmuring reverent praise to their King as he paid them no attention at all.
The moment we stepped through the stone archway, King waved a hand at it and earth magic made the floor tremble as it was sealed with stone, locking me in with him.
My heart ticked harder and I had to fight to keep my fear hidden as I waited to see what this was about, had he figured out that I’d been drawing his secrets? Could he tell that I’d never wanted to enter this viper’s nest in the first place and that I was desperately planning my escape even at this very moment?
“I’m impressed by how quickly you have drawn followers to your side, Gareth,” King murmured, their voice now the seductive purr of a woman. “And I always like to reward the most deserving of Fae for their abilities.”
“Oh?” I asked, thankfully not squeaking it out as I stood rooted to the spot, aching to find out what he wanted.
“I’d like to offer to elevate you amongst our ranks,” he said, voice gruff and manly. “I need someone trustworthy like you to help me with something.”
“Anything,” I murmured, knowing this was no choice anyway. And perhaps it was the beginnings of my plan coming together.
“You may have noticed that after each full moon you awake in your bed with no memory of the night before. That is no mistake, I need my disciples to take part in a ritual which will help me bring peace to our corner of the kingdom at that time every month, but I also don’t need everyone to know the details of it. However, I think you are ready to learn what it takes to build this power I have, for you to understand the way it has to be if we ever want Alestria to prosper the way it should, for its people to be safe from gangs and violence.”
Broken Fae Page 19
