Chapter 3

CHAPTER3

The warmth of the sun was bleeding through the tent, and I moaned at the delicious way it heated my skin. I could stay in this moment forever with my eyes still closed and the kiss of the morning welcoming me. Nothing could touch me there. Not the truth of what the day was to bring. Not the heartbreak that still lay dormant in my chest.

It was just me and the fantasy that my slumber allowed.

I reached to my side, my body craving more warmth than even the sun could provide, and my hand was left wanting. I blinked my eyes open against the brightness that filled the tent and reality came crashing in.

I was still a prisoner to those outside the tent, and I was alone.

Voices were calling orders to one another outside, but I didn’t care about any of them. Evren was gone.

I stayed with him last night when he asked me to, and now, I knew I should have felt relieved that he was gone when I awoke, but I felt foolish.

I threw the small blanket off me and moved back to the side of the tent where my bedroll still laid on the grass. I quickly slipped my boots onto my feet and rolled up my bedding with short, frustrated movements.

I put together Evren’s bedroll as well because I couldn’t stand to look at it any longer. I dropped both by the door of the tent before I took a deep breath and pushed my hair out of my face.

I stepped out of the tent and tried to leave every bit of my insecurities behind me. I was in a camp full of my enemies without my dagger, and I wouldn’t allow them to see that their prince had given me every reason not to trust him, yet I had still given him more of myself than I should have allowed. I was foolish enough to only allow one of them that pleasure, and even though he had already proven what he was capable of, my chest ached with how easily I had given into him.

I moved toward the small fire that still had deep red coals burning at its center, and I lifted my hands out, chasing their warmth.

“How did you sleep?”

I spun my head to the side at the sound of Queen Veda’s voice and watched as she came up beside me. Her dark hair was pulled back at the nape of her neck, and her trousers were coated in dirt and dust from her days of travel. She held out some sort of dried meat in my direction, and I hesitated.

“I’m not going to poison you, Starblessed.” She chuckled softly and held it out further in my direction. I noted the dark circles under her eyes as she raised her chin. “If I did, this would all be for nothing.”

“Don’t call me that.” I took the meat from her hand, but I still didn’t bring it to my mouth.

“Starblessed? That’s what you are, isn’t it?” She was studying me as she spoke, gauging my reaction to her words.

“These marks on my skin aren’t a blessing.” I shook my head and looked back to the fire. “They have done nothing but damn my fate.”

“Your fate can’t simply be damned by the way you were born.” Her gaze roamed over my cheeks before falling to my shoulder. “The mark of the stars didn’t curse you. It was people who did that, Adara. People who don’t give a damn if they hurt you as long as they can control you and weaponize you for their own rule.”

“People like you?” My mark sparked to life against my spine, and I knew Evren was near. I looked over my shoulder, and there he stood near his men and a few horses, and he nodded at something one of them was saying even though he was looking directly at me.

“I don’t expect you to trust me, Adara.”

I pulled my attention back to her. Her hands squeezed into fists even as her shoulders fell.

“I would question your sanity if you did so blindly, but Queen Kaida and I, we aren’t the same.”

My stomach hardened at her words. She was right, I didn’t trust her, and I didn’t think I ever would. She was the queen of the Blood kingdom, the mother of my mate, I stuttered in thought at how easily that word formed in my mind, who betrayed me, and no one becomes queen without a thirst for power.

“I apologize for not taking your word on that.” I crossed my arms. “Queen Kaida would like for me to believe that she isn’t nearly as bad as she truly is as well.”

“That’s probably true.” She smiled, though it didn’t reach her eyes, and gave a half shrug. “But I’ve never known the woman to be anything other than her true, cruel self.” Her gaze dropped to my hand where I was still holding the dried meat, and she nodded toward it. “Eat. We’ll be leaving for Sidra Palace shortly.”

She turned, leaving me with nothing but the meat and my thoughts, and I looked back to where Evren stood. He was still watching me, his gaze hard and unreadable, but it flickered to his mother as she moved away from me.

I shoved the meat into my mouth as he took a step in my direction and quickly turned away from him. I wasn’t ready to face him after last night, after I allowed him to kiss me after everything that had happened. I had kissed him with so much want laced behind my lips, and he left the tent this morning without a single word.

“You ready?”

I could feel the heat of his chest at my back, but I didn’t turn around. I just stared ahead at the dying fire and nodded once. I could feel him studying me from behind, the heat of his gaze stronger than the flames in front of me, and I quickly swallowed the tough meat before wiping my mouth.

“Princess?” Just hearing his voice made my stomach tighten to the point of pain.

“I asked you not to call me that.” My voice was cold and unfeeling, exactly like I wanted it, but the complete opposite of how I felt inside. The urge to make sure he was okay was overwhelming, and I was dying to know if he was plagued with his nightmares often.

“Okay.” I could practically hear the frustration in his voice. “Are you ready, Adara?”

“Yes.” I finally turned to him, and my eyes threatened to flutter shut as the smell of him hit me. “Your mother said we are leaving for the palace shortly.”

“We are.” He crossed his arms as he studied me. His black shirt was clouded with dirt, and when I looked back up at his eyes, I saw the same weariness in his gaze. “The men are going to take down our tent, and then we’ll head out.”

“You should have woken me.” I lifted my chin as I said it. “It was foolish to let me sleep in while the rest of the camp was packed up.”

It was foolish to let me sleep while you left me feeling so unsure.

I wasn’t sure why that bothered me so much. He had asked me to stay with him for the night, and he didn’t owe me anything this morning. But my chest ached, and I couldn’t get the feeling to stop. I hated him, and the feeling confused me. How could I hate someone so badly while also craving them with every part of my being?

“You were sleeping so peacefully when I awoke. I knew you needed your rest.” His gaze fell to my mouth, and I bit my tongue to stop from saying the things I truly wanted to say.

“Well, thankfully now I’m rested and thinking clearly. So we should be on our way.” I went to step past him, but he stopped me with his hand on my bicep. He moved in close, close enough that everything about him overwhelmed me.

He stepped close enough that every part of me felt unsure in my resolve to hate him.

“You’re angry with me.”

“You’re bright, prince.”

His lips cocked into a smirk at my remark. “I meant angrier than normal. Angrier than you were when I left you sleeping.”

My spine straightened, and I begged it not to tremble under the weight of his presence.

“I’m fine.”

He leaned closer still. His nose pressed against my jaw, and I felt him breathe me in as if I was his first true breath after a lifetime of suffocation. “I’m sorry if I upset you last night.”

“You didn’t.” My voice broke, and I hated it. “Last night shouldn’t have happened. It won’t happen again.”

He groaned and his breath rushed out against my neck. “We both know that’s a lie, princess. You can hate me in the light all you want, but the truth of us comes out in the dark. It always will.”

My stomach tightened at his words, at his threat, and an ache began between my thighs. We were surrounded by a camp full of others, but it only took a few whispered words from his lips until he was all that I could see. He was everything that I could feel.

“That darkness is yours, not mine.”

He chuckled soft and low, but he didn’t back away a single inch. “Let some of your magic spill from your hands, princess. Let the rest of the camp see the way your magic is the twin to my own.”

I clamped my hands into fists and tried to hide the dark stains that soiled the tips of my fingers, because I didn’t want to see my magic. I didn’t want to listen to the words he was saying.

“I’ve never met another living being with this magic, princess. This darkness is ours whether you want it or not.”

I didn’t know what he meant, but I didn’t ask. I didn’t relish in the thought of our magic having any parallel. He finally pushed away from me, and I avoided looking at him. Instead, I looked ahead to where Jorah was climbing onto his mare.

“You don’t understand your magic yet, but you will. Soon enough, it will feel as vital as any other part of you.”

Even as I tried to deny the truth of his words in my mind, I felt my magic course through me as if it were as crucial to me as the blood that ran through my veins.

I followed behind him as he led us to where his horse stood, and I hoped he wouldn’t deny me a horse of my own.

“Where’s my horse?”

“You’re with me.” He barely looked back at me. “We are heading into the Blood kingdom, and I want you with me.”

“I’d rather walk.”

Someone snickered behind me, but I didn’t dare turn around to see who.

“That’s not an option. You’re with me.”

Queen Veda was watching us, already perched atop her own horse, and I tried to force the fight down inside me.

“Adara, get on the damn horse.”

My gaze hit his as his brow furrowed, and he jerked down the strap on the saddle to tighten it.

“I’ll ride with Jorah.” I didn’t trust him either, but at least with him, I wouldn’t be plagued with my warring thoughts.

“That’s not going to happen.” He gritted his teeth, and his hand fisted around the reins.

“I remember you telling me once that you would trust Jorah with your life. Why wouldn’t you trust him with me?”

“It’s not about trust, Adara. You are my mate, and you will ride with no other man than me as we arrive at my home.”

I wanted to fight him more. I wanted to scream and thrash and take out every bit of anger and hurt that I was feeling at that moment. But I didn’t.

Because this fight wasn’t worth it. I didn’t know what I was doing. I didn’t have a clue what waited for me in the Blood kingdom or the fight I would face there.

I silently walked toward him and reached forward until my fingers wrapped around the pommel of the saddle, and I pulled myself up in front of him. Irritation clung to my skin as his hands met my sides and helped situate me against him.

Then I could feel it. His dark magic that called to my own. It wrapped around me, embracing me with its strength and possessiveness. Everyone else could see it too, his black magic like a thick smoke that coated my skin. It moved and enveloped me as we took off, and I tried not to allow my body to react.

But it was the only thing I could focus on as we started our journey to the Blood kingdom, and I tried to distract myself.

Evren pushed the horse hard as we galloped along the land of thick lush trees I didn’t know. The horses’ hooves slammed against the damp ground, and I tried to focus on the sound.

But Evren’s touch and thoughts of what was to come troubled me. What would the Blood kingdom think of me? How would they react when they knew that I had been taken from the fae?

Would they welcome me, or would they be everything that I was taught to fear?

The thoughts rolled over and over through my head as we rode, and I could think of little else through the long ride.

I didn’t know how long we had been riding, but my thighs had become sore and my back begged me to just lean back into Evren and give it some reprieve. But I did no such thing.

I put as much distance between us as his magic would allow and clamped my eyes closed when his power ghosted over my lips. Evren was so in control of his magic, so in control of himself, and I was falling apart on the horse in front of him.

I wondered if this was exactly what my father was trying to avoid. Would he have been so disappointed when he saw what I had become? Would he fight in ways that I hadn’t? That even now I didn’t have the strength to?

“Princess,” Evren whispered, and my spine straightened as the sprawling city that lay ahead of us caught my attention as we topped the hill.

I tried to take a deep breath as my eyes scanned over the kingdom before me. Hills lush with wildflowers of every color led to the vast city with an array of stone homes and tall brick buildings. The sky was bright blue and the clearest I had ever seen it. It was far more beautiful than I could’ve imagined. Nothing like the nightmares of old legends.

“Welcome to the Blood Court.”

I looked back at him, and I could see the hesitancy on his face.

“I have no interest in being welcomed to the Blood Court.” My gaze dropped to his mouth, and I couldn’t force myself to look away. “I am here against my will, prince.”

His mouth curved up in a smirk that I hated but also loved, but it did nothing to hide the frustration that lay there. “This is my home, Adara.” He nodded toward the bustling city as we moved closer. “This could be your home too.”

I clamped my mouth closed as I searched the city ahead of us. I was about to enter a kingdom full of vampyres, a kingdom that I had been taught to fear my entire life, but I couldn’t muster up the terror I had once felt.

Even as our horses’ hooves sounded against the cobblestone streets, I felt more curious than fearful, and I hated that it was because Evren rode at my back.

I had no business feeling comfortable in his presence or beneath his touch, but I couldn’t explain it. His magic was protecting me as it surrounded me, and I still felt safe in that protection.

The city was alive with sound and vampyres bustling through the street, but when they noticed us riding through, every one of them stopped. They looked so normal, so unlike anything I had been taught to fear. Much like those in my village, some were so pale their skin almost looked translucent while others were the deepest shade of black. Each one of them looked different from the other, and I studied them as I tried to find a way that differentiated them from me.

I found it odd that the queen didn’t move behind her guards or allow them to shelter her, instead, she rode at the lead, and I watched as she smiled at her patrons like she was seeing old friends.

And they looked at her the same.

But they looked at Evren differently. It wasn’t a friendship or simple respect that shone in their eyes. They looked to him with admiration.

Many bowed their heads or simply nodded to him as he rode past, but everyone watched him and the way he was holding me.

Were they admiring him for what he had done? Were they impressed that he was so easily able to steal the Starblessed from her betrothed with his wicked words and the gods’ blessed hands?

Could they see how easily I fell for a man who promised me nothing?

What was the most shocking to me was that not a single one of them looked at me with an ounce of contempt or hunger. I was told of the vampyres’ thirst for blood. It was a fact my mother had drilled into my head over and over throughout the years. That thirst ruled them above all else, but if that was true, they all hid it incredibly well.

Because they looked like nothing more than men and women who were happy to welcome home their prince. I straightened on the horse, Evren’s thighs still pressed firmly against my own, and I watched them as we passed. I realized then that it was their unnatural beauty that set them apart, and I remembered my mother telling me of that fact on one of the double blood moons. It was their beauty that would draw you in. It was their looks that would make you attracted to them in a way that you couldn’t resist.

Evren seemed to move closer to me, his chest pressed against my back until there wasn’t a trace of air between us, but he didn’t say a word.

I wasn’t sure if he could sense my warring thoughts or if I should have truly been fearful of a threat, but either way, I tried not to let his touch affect me.

We rode through the streets quickly until the palace came into view. The castle was just as large as the one in the Fae Court, but it was different. The stone exterior was weathered with age and covered in mossy patches and climbing vines that beared vibrant flowers.

There was no large wall separating the castle from its kingdom. Instead, we rode directly from the street onto the courtyard, and a young man looked up from his book for only a moment to nod in his royals’ direction before he lounged back on the bench and continued to read his tale.

It was the home of their royal family, but it seemed to fit in so well with all the other homes that we passed.

The queen dismounted easily, and I tried to follow suit, but Evren’s magic refused to let me go. I shot him an angry look just as his feet hit the stones beneath us, but he simply lifted his hands as if he meant to help me down.

“Don’t touch me, Evren, and remove your magic.”

“Let me help you, princess.” He lifted his hands higher, and his magic tightened around me as if it was delaying letting me go.

“I don’t need your help.”

Evren sighed and dropped his hands to his sides, but his magic was slower to leave me. It slithered away from me inch by inch, and I trembled as it skated over my marks.

He opened his mouth to speak, probably to correct me on how obvious my need for him was, but he closed it as soon as the sound of a woman’s voice called out.

“Thank the gods!”

The sound pulled my attention away from Evren just as the woman’s body collided with his, and she wrapped her arms solidly around him.

“Evren.” His name was a plea on her lips, a damn plea of desperation as she clung to him, and my marks burned in a way they never had before.

I watched her as she clung to my mate. It hit me deep in my bones. He was my mate whether I wanted to admit it or not, and I could hardly catch my breath as I stared at the woman holding him.

She wore black leather trousers that fit tightly against her curvy frame and a cream top that highlighted her dark skin that was so lovely it battled with the night sky.

A night sky that was littered with stars.

Her star mark began at her elbow and moved around her bicep until it disappeared beneath her top. She was Starblessed. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, and I watched as some of the tension fell from him.

This woman—she was important to him. She was his Starblessed.

She pulled away from him, pushing her untamed curls out of her face as she stared up and ran her gaze over every inch of him. She was checking him, assessing him for any injuries, and my gut clenched when she reached up and ran her fingers across his cheek.

Jealousy swirled through me like a beast waiting to attack, but it became feral when I noticed the scars that were littered along her forearm. Scars where she had been fed from.

My spine went rigid as I stared at them.

It was just one more lie that had fallen from Evren’s lips. He told me that he had never fed from a Starblessed before. He had told me many things that I had no business believing.

A fool. I was such a damn fool.

Evren took her hands in his and held her out in front of him. “Thalia, I would like for you to meet someone.”

He turned toward me then, but I couldn’t take my eyes off her. And then she finally looked at me.

I could see the surprise in her wide eyes, the bewilderment as she looked back and forth between us. Her lips parted, but no sound escaped them.

“This is my Adara. Adara, this is Thalia.”

“I’m not his,” I quickly corrected him as I dismounted the horse, and this made her smile.

“Aren’t you?” She cocked her head to the side as she studied me. “I can smell his magic all over you.”

“You’re familiar with his magic?” I snapped.

Her smile turned into a full grin.

“I like her.” She chuckled and looked back to Evren, but his attention was on me. Watching, assessing, seeing far more than I wanted him to.

“Thalia is one of my oldest friends in this world.”

“As I can see.” I tried to push down the jealousy, but it was flowing from me like blood from an open wound.

Evren stepped closer to me, but I took a small step back.

“Are you jealous of my friend, princess?”

“Of course not.” I swallowed and tried to make my words sound believable even to my own ears. “I don’t care what you do.”

“Are you sure?” His mouth cocked into the slightest grin, and my stomach flipped.

“Why would I care?”

“Because I’m your fucking mate,” he growled for only me to hear, but she heard him. Her gaze met mine, and I held it. I let her feel the truth of his words even while I was trying to deny it myself.

“I am your prisoner just as I was to your brother.”

Evren jolted back as if I had slapped him. He studied me, calculating what to say, and I hated this game between us. “Thalia will be with you here in the Blood Court, and she will help you adjust to your life here. Allow me to show you to your room.” His words were clipped and full of anger.

He started to turn from me, but my own anger rose. I didn’t want his lover catering to me while I was here. I didn’t want anyone near me. “What? Are you too busy to see to me yourself?”

His shoulders stiffened, and he drew in a short breath. “I must return to the Fae Court within the coming days, princess.”