“You won’t. That wouldn’t fit into your plan,” I said.
He rolled his eyes. “Are you going to tell me what my plan is since you have it all figured out?”
“You know it, but I’ll tell you anyway. You slipped in right after all of the blood mages died. Full force, we would have been able to kill you. Between my family and Griff, we don’t stand a chance. Your next move was to make yourself essential to our leader. You asked for nothing but a position where you know everything and control what information gets in and out of the army. It’s not a thinking position where you’ll display your cunning, but instead, you took on a service position where the rebels can easily dismiss you as a good-hearted man who wants nothing more than to serve. You saved their lives, after all. You’re living among them. They can trust you. I can clearly trust you, too. You came to me in the middle of the night to help me save my siblings from certain death—never mind that you knew that Ignis fire crossed into that other dimension and never attempted to use it as a bridge.”
“You’re faulting me for not being as clever as you?”
“Oh, you’re as clever as me. You led me there…” I gestured down the hall, “Because you know that I’m the only one who sees through your story. If you saved the two people I cared most about, I would, of course, feel too guilty to mistrust you.”
“You’re wrong.” He leaned closer, too close. “Maybe that’s how you’d take over an army—”
“That’s exactly how I’d take over an army.” I folded my arms over my chest. “That’s how I recognized what you’re doing.”
He sighed. “I’ll just pretend that you thanked me. We should probably head up if you want to sneak back into your rooms before it’s impossible.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
KORI
I woke hours later, once more pressed between Ash and Ruin. In my sleep, I’d climbed halfway onto Ash, with one arm and leg thrown over his massive upper body. Ruin spooned me from the back, cocooning me in warmth. The Sorcerer had delivered me into the bathroom attached to Ash’s room. We had walked straight past Death who sat on the couch, staring pensively out at the city. After the Sorcerer left, I washed thoroughly and slipped between the men who immediately molded around me, all without waking.
Their warmth was almost enough to touch the chill that coursed through my chest. What had I even seen last night? More than anything, I wanted to blame the Sorcerer for everything that happened. I wanted to believe that he made us all see those things that weren’t real. But, as far as I knew, no mage power on Earth could trick what you felt physically. Mage powers could control air, water, fire, earth, and gravity. Some mages had the power to read minds or to make people see and hear what wasn’t there. There were rare powers like seeing into the future or transforming into animals. I had no doubt that the Sorcerer was using my siblings’ plight to his advantage, but the stark truth was that it was very unlikely that he was truly behind what happened last night.
Ruin groaned behind me and nuzzled up against my back. “Good morning, my beautiful goddess,” he mumbled as his lips trailed gentle kisses up my neck. “I could definitely get used to waking up like this.”
“Me too,” I whispered.
“Me three,” Ash mumbled as his eyes opened lazily. “Hey, sexy consort.” He gave me a gentle kiss.
It was almost too hot between them, but I welcomed the heat. The icy terror that had taken up residence inside of my chest finally melted. Between these two men, I felt like nothing in the world could hurt me. I was in a cocoon of their warmth and safety. Ruin’s hard length pressed between my ass cheeks, and Ash’s warm shaft pressed against my entrance, and my body begged for this distraction. A tingling warmth stirred low, making me hyperaware of every place the men touched me.
“I know how to make our mornings even better,” I whispered.
“We have an early meeting with Duchess Dread,” Ruin said with a groan into my shoulder.
Ash reached up and cupped my cheek. “Ruin’s right,” he smiled mirthlessly, “We have to go.”
I closed my eyes and nodded. “Yeah, of course. That’s more important.”
Neither man moved, and after a second Ash said, “We really shouldn’t be late for this meeting.”
Ruin’s hand curved over my hip, and he pulled me back into him. “Fuck the meeting. Death can handle it.”
I wriggled my hips up and rocked back until the tip of his cock pressed against my entrance. “Are you sure?”
He growled something impossible to understand into my back and pushed into me, filling me up from behind.
I gasped, grabbing onto Ash’s shoulders. “Are you going to stay?”
His mouth slammed into mine, and when I wrapped my hand around his cock, he kissed me all the harder, punishing my mouth with his tongue.
All too soon, we were moaning out our releases as Ruin drank blood from my neck. Warm pleasure coursed through me, but it quickly dissipated as Ruin pulled out and whispered apologies that he had to run to his meeting. Ash asked if I would wash with him, but as soon as we were clean, he left.
I paced for hours, holding myself as the horrible events of the night before ran through my head again and again on an endless loop. When it came time to dress for another stupid party, I found myself running down the palace stairs with two vampire guards trying to keep up. I threw open the door to Genevieve’s bedroom, and the thick wood door smacked into the wall, bounced off, and swung past me into its frame.
Genevieve jumped and held up the mascara brush that she’d been applying to Brendan’s lashes before a lighted mirror. “Kori,” she scolded as they both turned to me, “I almost poked out Brend’s eye.”
Brendan gave me a half-smirk. One of his eyes had luscious black lashes, and the other was still a light brown. “Haven’t you heard, this is the way Kori enters rooms now. We just forgot to fall onto our stomachs and kiss her feet.”
“Shut up. You both need to tell me what happened last night.”
They gave each other a wide-eyed stare that held a heavy meaning between them. “What did Timmy say to you?”
“Timmy? You’ve seen him.”
“He only stopped by for a moment last night—before the party, Kori,” Genevieve said with a shake of her head.
“And he didn’t come to see me?” A physical ache pierced my chest.
Genevieve bit her lip. “You were with the kings. Maybe he couldn’t find a way to you.”
“It doesn’t matter.” I squeezed my hands into fists. “I’m not talking about then—I’m talking about the middle of the night. I need to know what happened last night. I saw that wraith that was pretending to be Mira and the hands pulling you down into a pit in the ground.”
“What? I was here all night, Kori,” Brendan said. “Sleeping. Vivie?”
“Me too.” Genevieve’s brow furrowed, and her gaze veered to the side. “Timothy said something about Mira, too. He said that you should let him handle it—that you should never go back. I assumed he was talking about your nightmares. I don’t think he said where. Are you still having that dream about Mira every night?”
Mira. Her name sent a chill up my spine and my arms prickled in gooseflesh.
“Yeah, I’m having the dream, but this was real. I found you in the tunnels last night. You don’t remember that?” I demanded. “You almost died, Brend. Mira tried to get you to shoot me, Vivie. Where did you even get a gun?”
Genevieve turned to me and sighed. “A gun? Kori, we were here sleeping the entire time.”
“No, you weren’t here. You were in the tunnels,” I whispered, furiously. “I did this to you. It was me. You both died, and I… I brought you back.”
“With the flower.” Genevieve nodded before dipping her mascara wand back in the tube. “Timmy told us about the prophecy. You fed us from that flower.” She pivoted fully to me. Genevieve was already made up for the night and sitting in a red gown that was so sheer, she might as well be naked. “Why didn’t you tell us
, Kori? We’ve been so confused. Both of us knew that something happened. We knew that we weren’t the same, but we didn’t know why.”
“I’m sorry.” A tear dropped onto my cheek, and I wiped it away. “There’s no excuse. I just didn’t want to admit what I did.”
Brendan pulled the mascara wand from Genevieve’s fingers and started coating his bare lashes in thick layers “What you did? You were following orders in the middle of a battle. Neither of us would have done any differently in your situation.” The only thing that we’re upset with you about is that you lied to us.”
“You wouldn’t have.” I shook my head.
“We wouldn’t have lied to you. But then we wouldn’t have blamed ourselves for every corpse in Pioneer Courthouse Square.” My twin stood, and I noticed the rubies set in gold chains around her wrist and neck. They were new. When I glanced around her small room, my gaze caught on the new red embroidered silk draping over her four-poster bed. Roses sat in vases around the room. The flowers must have been shipped in from Seattle. Clearly, Genevieve had a patron who was either loose with his money or very well off. She came to stand beside me. “What happened isn’t your fault whatsoever, Kori. You have to let it go. You have to stop protecting us, too, or these nightmares will probably just keep getting worse. We can take care of ourselves. ”
Tears pricked my eyes. “No.”
“I have to agree with Genevieve here, Kori. This isn’t healthy.” Brendan placed the mascara stick on the vanity and turned on the bench. “And, how could you possibly hold yourself responsible for what Luca did.”
“You guys are trying to distract me from asking about the tunnels, and it’s not working—”
“I’m sorry, Kori.” Genevieve interrupted. “But We have no idea what you’re talking about. I went to sleep with a patron and woke up beside him. I slept through the night—I don’t even remember my dreams.”
“You don’t have to believe me—but it happened, and I’m going to do everything in my power to fix this.” I held out my hands. “Some wraith creatures were trying to lead you into the tunnels, and they were evil, pure evil. And, it has to be because of the Tree of Life. I’m going back, and I’ll find a way to keep these wraiths away from you permanently.”
They glanced at each other, their expressions bewildered like I was talking nonsense.
“It honestly sounds like a nightmare to me, Kori.” Genevieve touched my arm. “You’ve internalized all this guilt about what happened to us and the army, and your mind is playing tricks on you. You’ve been having these dreams about Mira ever since she died--”
“No. It wasn’t a dream,” I said, but a second later, fear crept in. Was I actually losing touch with reality? I hadn’t slept well since the Tree of Life, but could I actually be mistaking dreams for the truth? I had felt it with my fingers and smelled the sulfur in the air. I shook my head, and a tear slipped onto my cheek. “This was real. It happened.”
“Okay.” Brendan tapped the seat beside him. “Come over here, Kori. I’ll paint your face while Genevieve untangles the rats-nest on your head.”
The moment I sat, Genevieve went to work on my hair, gathering it up and brushing the strands. They groomed me with more care than they ever had before, and Brendan kept blotting tears off my cheek without saying a word about me crying. The wet brush felt cool on my skin, and it smelled like fresh powder, and I had to clench my muscles just to stay still.
“You need to sleep, and you need to stop worrying about us so much,” Brendan said as he dipped a brush into silver paint and raised it to my eyelids. “Maybe Timmy is right about you not going back to Nightendale. We’ll find another way.”
When I peeked out at him, he lifted his brows, and I immediately knew that the Sorcerer must have shared my mission with these two.
Genevieve leaned past me and nodded. “We’ll figure this out, Kori.”
I didn’t need to figure anything out, the cause was clear. I had the nightmares of the former consort telling me to return, and Mira’s ghost was haunting my siblings. The specter had been leading Brendan and Genevieve down to a bone-white tree only my siblings could see. I stole that flower from the Tree of Life, and now it was punishing us. I was alive when I ate the petal and my siblings were dead, which was probably why Mira’s ghost had more control over Brendan and Genevieve than it did me.
King Ravage had said there would be a price for the magic I stole. I should have listened. I should have at least heard what the price would be. Whether or not I was playing straight into the Sorcerer’s plans for the rebel army, I had to go back to Nightendale. I had to return to the tree and confront King Ravage.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
KORI
Late in the night, I sat beside Death on a plush red velvet couch. The backs of our hands barely touched on the cushion between us. Ruin and Ash hadn't joined us for dinner, and I had stuck to Death's side through dinner and afterward when he proposed we stay at the afterparty, but, the entire time, I might as well have been another cushion for all the interest the man held for me.
In Death’s defense, our surroundings were very distracting. Anastasia and another dark-haired courtesan stood in the center of the room, dancing around one another. Blue flames licked up from the head courtesan's hands while balls of water balanced on the woman across from her. Their mouths and tongues moved sensuously over each other's skin, while their elements moved on their fingers. Around the spacious room, more than one courtesan moaned as their patron bit into their wrist or neck.
Women and men pumped back and forth against rigid cocks, their bodies colliding in a chorus that almost drowned out the techno that thumped through the air. Balls of water bounced around the room as two vampires played with the elements they'd taken. A man floated in the air as his hair blew in all directions from a wind that was affecting only him. The use of power was as frivolous as it was useless.
Death rested a fist on his hand and stared out at the crowd. Writhing anxiety squirmed in my stomach, and the fact that Death seemed completely uninterested in me only made it worse. My position at these men's side was more important than ever, but keeping all three kings' attention was a ridiculous ambition in a court like this.
I leaned in toward Death, finally gaining his attention. Carefully, I brushed his hair over his shoulder and put my lips to his ear. "If you want to join them, I would completely understand."
The words hurt more than I expected them to. But, if I stayed here in the palace long term, I eventually had to let two of these men go. Of the three, I knew this flaxen-haired man with dark, mysterious eyes the least. Why did the idea of letting him go feel like a punch to the stomach?
His dusky eyes opened wide in surprise. "I'm here for you, Kori."
"For me?" I shook my head, and a small laugh escaped my lips. "Why didn't you say something." I gestured to the crowd. "Their dance is beautiful, but it doesn't turn me on at all."
His dark brows rose, and his eyes studied mine. "Then let's leave."
Death was just as distant as we headed out into the entrance hall toward the stairs. Our footsteps echoed around us, but otherwise, we were silent. His gaze traveled far away, and the moment of relief that I felt when I realized that he didn't want to join the crowd waned.
We passed two vampire warriors, heading through thick metal doors into the private royal stairwell of the palace.
As soon as the door closed behind us, I halted. "Death."
He spun back. "Sorry?"
"It's okay if you don't want me to be your consort." The words clogged up in my throat, but I managed to say them. This would probably have happened eventually, because, at the end of it all, it only made sense for me to pick the king who wanted me most. If I picked someone who was more ambivalent to me, it would cause problems for them and for me.
His fingers rubbed his temple. "Damn. Trust me, Kori, I want you to be my consort. I actually asked Ruin and Ash to give me the night with you, and I’ve been stuck in my head." Reaching
out, he offered me his hand. "I've probably come off as cold when that's the furthest thing from what I want."
I crossed the space and wrapped my fingers in his. "I wouldn't say cold. You’re just quiet and mysterious, and I never know quite how to read you."
His fingers squeezed around mine. "We haven't used the royal spa yet. Have you gone down there?"
I shook my head slowly. "No," I lied. "I'd love to go with you."
He nodded back to the stairwell. "You want to head up and grab a bathing suit?"
"No, but I will if my nakedness makes you uncomfortable.”
His gaze ran down my black silk dress. The v of the neckline went so low it displayed my bellybutton. A slit led up both my sides, displaying a fair bit of the flare of my hips.
"I think I can handle it," he said, and if there was irony in his statement, I couldn't sense it.
Shivers ran through me as we made our way into the room that I'd been imprisoned in for two weeks. Someone had scrubbed the ash marks and replaced the tile from the walls where my siblings had tried to burn their way out. A fire crackled in the hearth, and frankincense burned in the corner, smelling of lemon and wood. My eyes glanced toward the closed entrance. Even knowing that the heavy metal door wasn't barred or guarded, I wanted to push it open.
I shoved those feelings aside and peeked over my shoulder at Death. "Would you mind getting the knot?"
He hesitated a second before stepping up. His fingers worked at the strings of my dress. The cords slipped loose, and the silky material glided down my skin to pool at my feet. I stepped out of my heels and turned back to Death, fully naked. He watched me closely, almost warily, but his focus was on my face and not my body.
My heart picked up its pace as I waited to see what he’d do. Death had never undressed in front of me, and when he hesitated, I wondered if that was deliberate.
Ruin: A Reverse Harem Dark Fantasy Vampire Romance (Fire & Blood Book 1) Page 17
