Love Potion: A Valentine's Day Charity Anthology

by Graceley Knox

  “Shut your mouth,” Lilith cried. “Don’t say it.”

  “I don’t have to, because you know what I am.”

  “No, no you can’t be because that would make you one of them!”

  “I’m still your sister. I’m still the girl who braids your hair at night and tells you stories of our mother.”

  “That’s why you couldn’t come to the Court of Night,” Lilith said as she covered her mouth with her arm, smothering her scream of rage. “That’s why they hid you here?”

  “This was the only place I was safe from his reach until he came and destroyed it. Then I was alone, until you. I couldn’t be with Mother, because what I was couldn’t be hidden until I Transitioned, but once I had, I learned to hide what I am.”

  “Oh my Gods, did you fuck your sister?” Tor exclaimed, forcing every eye to turn in his direction.

  “Lilith isn’t your father’s child, only I am,” Lara admitted as Lilith stumbled backwards, turning into darkness as Lara reached for her. “Lilith, please!”

  “You lied to me, about everything!”

  “I couldn’t tell you what I was, I couldn’t tell anyone.” Lara turned, staring up at where Lilith now stood in the rafters. She vanished into a dark storm cloud and slipped out of the palace into the night.

  “You’re one of them. That’s why you alone survived this attack; because the Horde doesn’t kill their own, especially women.”

  “I’m alive because one of them pushed me out a window into the pond behind the castle, protecting me from Alazander and his wrath. I’d have died with them if he hadn’t! I was spared because not all of them wanted us dead; because some of them did as they are telling you. You can’t keep living with the ghost of the past. You’re becoming one of them, Lilith. We both have been, day and night, we sit in the ruins and try to rebuild it, but we are the only ones here. There can be no court without people, and no matter what we do or fix, that won’t change. Let them show us, let them take us to our people, please!”

  Lilith turned into shadows and slipped from the castle, hiding from the hurt and pain of betrayal. The castle rumbled with it, trembling as she exploded into the night, away from those who had created the endless betrayal and pain she now felt. Her own sister was one of them, the girl who had held her at night, whispering that the ghost of the castle they lay within would forgive them for moving on, for continuing living even though they no longer did. Yeah, right. Everyone was a liar, a fucking coward and liar who said whatever it took to get what they wanted, and she was finished with it all.

  Chapter 9

  Lilith turned from shadows to her true form on the rocks of the bay that stood on the edge of Nightmare Bay. Her scream was smothered by the crashing waves of the ocean. Tears stung her eyes as salt water splashed, sprayed her where she faced the dangerous sea that raged, mirroring the emotions that crushed the air from her lungs.

  Thunder clapped loudly above her as she lifted her face to the rain that began, slowly drizzling before it let loose, pounding anything crazy enough to be outside during a storm in Faery.

  Her hair clung heavy against her flesh, ice cold as the storm turned from a spring drizzle to a beautiful, chaotic storm that howled, sending a shower of small ice balls pounding against the ocean’s waves.

  How could Lara have kept this from her? Did she think it would have changed how Lilith felt? They’d been alone, mourning their mother and their people together. It did explain the one question Lilith had always pondered in silence over: How had Lara survived and been spared when no one else had? Because she’d been one of them, and they’d seen it.

  Betrayal stung, but this one would leave a mark that wouldn’t soon heal. Did it change how she felt about her sister? No, she was her sister, but she also wouldn’t trust her as quickly as she had before. She swallowed another scream, wiping away at the hot, angry tears that flowed from her soul.

  One year and a day, one year and a day and she could erase this pain and pretend it had never happened. Asrian wasn’t what she’d expected, but he also wasn’t someone she’d have sought out to be mated to either. Nor did she plan on remaining with him a moment longer than she had to be, either.

  Her mind rushed with the implications of what they’d done, and what it could mean as well. She knew her father wanted her to secure an heir, but what did Asrian want? What did she expect to get from this? There were so many questions and no answers to be found here, in the silence on the border of the Court of Nightmares. Not any foe she could from their court.

  She misted, turning into shadows as she headed back to the palace, back to the people who had betrayed her.

  Once inside, sodden and soaking wet, she ignored the curious glances of the men as she sloshed water everywhere. Lilith stopped in front of Asrian and Sinjinn and paused.

  “I’ll go to see these people, to see if they belong here or if it is an empty attempt to lure me into a false sense of your decency.”

  “Lilith…” Lara whispered sadly.

  “You don’t get to speak to me right now,” Lilith uttered thickly through the emotion threatening to choke her.

  “I’m still your sister!”

  “You are, but you didn’t trust me enough to tell me the truth either. You didn’t trust me with your secrets while I poured mine out to you. I’ve never kept anything from you, including Court of Night secrets which I am now bound by law to report to my father. I told you, a princess of the Horde, our secrets which is punishable by death should he choose to enforce it. So no, you don’t get to talk to me. I will retire for the night; in the morning, we can travel without worry of the Court of Nightmares attacking us.”

  “You don’t have to tell him anything! They left you here with me, you chose this court. You’re the heir of both, Lilith. You will rule both courts, and now you have a husband strong enough to rule them with you.”

  “I have a husband for one year and one day, and after that time I don’t plan to ever see him again, or you, sister.”

  Lilith turned, lifting her soaked skirt to reveal her bare feet as she walked away from them with what little pride she had left. She’d barely made it to the hallway before a hand grabbed her, and she was pressed against the wall hard. Angry green eyes locked with hers as the giant heathen pinned her with his gaze.

  “That was harsh, even for you. Are you sure you’re not the Ice Queen, Lilith?” he snapped, his hands going flat beside her head, trapping her there. “Don’t plan on seeing me after the handfasting time, hmm?” he continued icily.

  “You think you have some say in what happens here, don’t you? Newsflash, you don’t. Once the time ends you’ll vanish, but me? I’ll be the soiled whore no one wants to touch after your hands leave their mark. The ill-fated queen who was sold to pay the tithe,” she laughed soundlessly as she watched his face tighten with anger. “That is the truth of what we’ve agreed to. The Horde is feared, but the women they use, the ones they touch? They’re considered trash, less even. You think you’re my hero in my story, but you, you’re the villain. So tell me, prince of the Horde, what do you expect to gain from this?”

  “I haven’t gotten that far yet. What I expected to find was a spoiled princess who complained entirely too much, which you’re not, minus the complaining part. I expected to come here, to retrieve a bride and do what was needed. Instead, I get here and find the most beautiful creature that world has ever created, and she fucking hates me. Soiled whore? Never, you’re perfect, innocent, and fire. So you can feel sorry for yourself if you want, but your sister? My sister, she had to hide from you because of that hate you’re allowing to consume you. You sit in a fucking pile of ruins and stew on shit that you couldn’t change, that we couldn’t change. Have you considered what she felt, what she endured? You walked into the chaos, she survived it.”

  Lilith fought the tears as his words hit her. “Because of what she is, and all she had to do was tell me. Lying to me has put my life on the line, and not even you can question that law. She l
ied to me, my own sister who cried with me, who mourned the loss of our mother together. I told her everything, I trusted her enough to let her see my flaws, to know my weaknesses, and the entire time, she didn’t trust me enough to tell me hers in return.”

  “And you can’t get past that, or is it because she’s what you hate most?”

  “There’s that too,” she admitted as she ducked out of the cage his arms had created and started down the hallway.

  “I’m not done talking,” he snapped harshly.

  “I’m freezing, so if you plan on finishing your little speech, you’ll do it in the bedroom,” she snapped back, her tone low as her teeth began to chatter as the cold in her bones mixed with the weariness and exhaustion she felt.

  She dismissed him, only to scream in shock as she was lifted easily from the floor into his massive arms. She shrieked as his arms tightened and then the world rocked and spun around her as they appeared inside her bedroom. Her fingers bit into his flesh as the room continued to spin out of control around her. Lilith opened her mouth to speak but something soft and welcoming pushed against hers.

  “Don’t do that!” she hissed.

  “Don’t do what? Sift, or kiss you?” he laughed huskily. “I don’t have to like you to fuck you, Lilith. You do respond so sweet to this fucking heathen king that it’s hard to ignore or forget. Even if you do call me your heathen king, you enjoyed what we did last night, even if you regretted it afterwards.”

  “Well…work on it,” she said as he gently set her down, ignoring the wide round eyes that stared up in shock at him. There was something hard that was very hard to miss as he’d set her down. She took a generous step away from him and let her eyes slowly lower to what had rubbed against her belly on the way down. “I’m…I should leave.”

  “It’s your room,” he noted huskily.

  “Excuse me?” she uttered thickly as her eyes lifted to his, finally realizing she’d been staring at the obvious erection that his jeans did little to hide.

  “It’s your room,” he said with a sexy grin lifting to play across his lips. The green in his eyes brightened, glowing as his hunger became evident. “You’re trembling, little queen.”

  “I’m cold,” she lied, because she was no longer trembling from the icy cold dress that clung to her like a second skin; no. Before her was a very virile, tough male who knew her with carnal knowledge and had apparently enjoyed what she had to offer him. “I should bathe.”

  “I’ll join you, wife,” he mused, his tongue slowly running over his full bottom lip as he watched the panic in her eyes spread. “Let me help you,” he continued, snapping his fingers, and then she was naked in all her glory with a single thought of his mind.

  The bathtub behind her hit her knees as she slowly backed up, and then she cried out as she fell into the warm water, heated by his magic as well as filled to the top. She spattered as she sat up, righting her body to glare up at him where he stood, sexual tension filling his endless emerald depths as he stared at her naked breasts.

  Her hands came up to cover her nudity. A deep red blush ignited in her cheeks as she worried her bottom lip as her eyes closed against the lust she had seen banked in his gaze. She wanted to splash him with the heated water, to curse him to the gates if the underworld, and yet she did neither.

  Her eyes peeked open as splashing sounded, and a stifled scream threatened to escape as she took in his cock at eye level. The thing was larger this close, and against her better judgment, she wanted to feel it, to test its weight in her hand. She hadn’t been entirely naïve about sex, or what happened with a man and a woman, but neither had she expected to enjoy it. She’d heard enough grunts and screams of pain in her father’s court to expect it to hurt, but that had quickly been replaced by pleasure.

  “You keep looking at it like it’s one of the Seven Wonders of the World and it won’t ever go down, my little heathen queen.”

  “I’m not a heathen,” she growled as she stared up into his heady gaze with anger boiling in her depths.

  “You live in the ruins of a castle, you hunt meat for substance, and live like a lavish cavewoman. If that isn’t a heathen queen to my heathen king, I don’t know what is. Scoot your ass over unless you’re planning to sit on my lap, which I’m not against. In fact, I’d rather you did with how hard that pretty stare of yours made my dick.”

  “You’re crude and uncouth.”

  “And you’re not? You rode my dick last night, so what does that make you, Lilith?”

  “Desperate,” she said. “Horrible, a traitor to my crown, and now because I actually liked it, ruined.”

  “And why would it make you ruined? Because you enjoyed sex? You’re Fae; we fuck to feed, and because we enjoy it. There’s nothing wrong with liking it. It makes you one of us.”

  “I’m lesser Fae; we do not feed by fucking. We need sustenance, and our status is defined by the character of the laws and rules we adhere to. You and your kind are ruled by emotions, by a need to fuck and destroy everything you touch. You are not the same as I am, and finding pleasure with you is against what the lesser caste will consider pure. If I’d hated it, hated you enough to make it a chore or a wifely duty, it would be different,” she said thickly, her throat tightening with her words. “Instead, I found pleasure with you.”

  “And you don’t want to?” he asked as he tipped his head as he sat in the tub, watching as she backed up as far as she could to keep from touching him.

  “No, I wanted to hate it as much as I hate you.”

  “You don’t hate me, you hate what I am. That’s fine; most of the world hates the Horde. It comes with what we are, and what they construe us to be. Hell, my mother wasn’t even from this world, and her people hate us too. We are the creatures of nightmares, the things that go bump in the night and legends you and your people use to keep your children in line. It doesn’t mean we are what they say we are,” he shrugged as he waved his hand and night bloom petals filled the tub, glowing as the floated above the surface.

  “You and your people took my mother’s corpse, hanging her on the gates of the Horde stronghold as a warning to the other castes of what happens lest they forget or be unable to pay the tithe. She hung there until I was sixteen, and her corpse became nothing but bones and eventually fell to the ground before your gates, forgotten. I took her then, brought her back home to bury. I don’t even remember her or what she was like. I don’t remember my people, or who they were before they became dust upon the floor of these ruins. Yet here, among the corpses and the dust, I stayed, away from court politics or drama. I could have gone home, could have brought Lara as a servant and given her a better life, but I wasn’t willing to ask that of her. To ask her to pretend to be anything other than my sister seemed wrong. You want to know why I hate your kind. Because to me, you weren’t legends that we used to keep our children in line, you played out every horror they’d ever whispered, proving it true to the children whose lives you ruined when you turned the Court of Shadows into a Court of Ruin and Ghosts that continue to haunt me.”

  “I didn’t do this,” he uttered as he ignored her stiffening as he pulled her closer, settling her astride on his lap. “The tithe has always come at the same time since the courts began to grow. If a court were unable to pay, the king would forfeit his life so that another in his line could secure it and their reign. It was like that before my father ever settled his murderous ass on his throne, and it was created by your people. We didn’t make the rules of how much or how little was demanded. We didn’t decide on the price that was paid for being unable to pay the tithe to the Horde. Your people did, and with it, they sealed their fate. I met your grandfather many times, and he was a warrior, Lilith. Proud, strong, and truthful. He fucked up, though; he told other courts to stand with him, and, to get out from beneath his thumb, they told my father what he planned, and sealed the fate of this court.”

  “That can’t be true because who in their right mind would try to take on the High Fae? T
hat would be suicide.”

  He lifted a brow, staring at her as his mouth slowly lowered, kissing the hollow flesh just above her collarbone. “I’m starving, wife,” he murmured before his hands captured her hips, lifting her until she was poised above his cock. “Will you feed me?” he asked, knowing she had no idea that her pain was calling to him, luring him into her mind as it rolled off of her in powerful waves.

  Asrian’s mother was a pain seeker, a demon who sought those suffering and fed until they were nothing more than a corpse. His Fae side had muted the call for death, instead allowing him to leave those he fed from alive. But Lilith, Lilith was a fucking buffet of endless food.

  “I don’t really have a choice, do I?” she whispered as she moaned, unable to contain it as his mouth continued to trail over the sensitive flesh.

  “You do; you can choose to let me starve. You can deny what you want,” he growled as her pussy rubbed against the hardened silk beneath the heated, fragrant water that was working against him like some aphrodisiac that was sending both of them to the point their need was painful. She rocked her hips, chewing her lip before she released it to stare him right in the eyes.

  “I can choose? I choose to let you starve, heathen king,” she hissed as she stood, ignoring the tightening of his hands on her hips. He snarled as he took her back down, pushing her beneath the water before his mouth crushed against hers beneath the floating petals.