102. Arran

The attack ended as abruptly as it had started. The succubus were gone—dead by our amorite blades, or returned to their realm by Veyka. I could hardly begin to think about what that meant for the future struggle against the succubus. If she'd encountered any succubus there… what form they took without human or fae vessels.

I held my mother's hand as she sipped fortified wine and tried to regain herself. I'd tried to get her to go to her rooms, but she'd insisted she was the Lady of Eilean Gayl. She would stay to see her people tended, even if she could not do it herself.

The healers worked quickly and efficiently. My father was fine, the wound on his side already knitted back together. But Isolde was the true godsend. No longer a novelty—not with that mystical, pure white healing power that poured from her hands.

Less than a dozen terrestrials had died

It was a small relief, at least. The succubus were a formidable foe, but we were hard to kill.

Osheen moved through the crowded hall. Servants had begun to bring food out again. Chairs were set upright. In the far corner, someone strummed a fiddle.

Against all odds, the feast was resuming.

What better way to defy death than by celebrating the rebirth of the world around us?

Osheen looked me up and down. When he was satisfied I was uninjured, his eyes went to my mother, resting against the stone wall behind me. "Go to Veyka. I will see her safely to her rooms."

To my surprise, my mother nodded her acquiesce.

There were few I would have trusted.

I nodded my thanks and retraced the path he had taken as he guided my mother and father out of the great hall.

Veyka was at the middle of it all. Isolde lingered at her side, eyes lined with exhaustion but bright. Veyka had stayed at her side as she moved from terrestrial to terrestrial, healing each with no regard to kingdom or power. As had Veyka.

She'd earned their respect. And now, the terrestrials showed it. They moved to talk to her. A handsome male bowed, inviting her to dance. Veyka shook her head; she could deduce where that would lead.

The low growl that reverberated between us probably helped.

It took too long for me to arrive at her side. To pull her close against me, reminding myself that she was alive. Well. Mine.

She breathed me in with the same fierce need.

She let me lead her away, back toward the head table where we'd been sitting when the succubus attacked. But instead of resuming our seats, we stood in front of it. I knew there were hundreds of terrestrial eyes upon us, but I did not care. Not as I lifted her chin and held her blue gaze.

Her eyes had dimmed slightly, the adrenaline of battle ebbing away. But there was the faint ring, the glow of desire that ignited just from being in one another's presence.

I had to speak to her here, now. If I waited, held the words inside, they would start to gnaw at my soul. I could not have that. I could not have anything between us, not now, after all we'd been through and somehow survived.

"I am meant to stand at your side, to tear down any who might threaten you." Every muscle in my body ached at what came next. "I failed you. I should have shoved amorite into those males myself. This is my fault."

My fault.Veyka's words slid into my mind. I recognized them immediately for what they were—a chant she'd been saying to herself for months.

There is no time for blame. We can only move forward.

But with her mouth, she said, "Was that an apology?"

I growled.

She laughed in my face. "I shall have to ask Maisri to record it in her book."

I growled again. This time, I buried the sound in her neck. She'd washed away the black bile of the males' souls, defiled by the succubus. All that remained now was her plum and primrose mixed with the scent of the wine she'd sipped as she tended to our subjects.

Veyka inhaled sharply, her body arching into mine.

Around us, the sounds of the festival had begun in full thrust. Females, being worshipped once again by their males. Females worshipping each other. All determined to declare that they had survived—that they would survive this new threat.

"Should I take you now, in front of your subjects?" I breathed into her ear.

"Our subjects," she squeaked as I spun her around. The staccato beat of her pulse against my mouth, in time with the rush of her arousal, was all the answer I needed.

"Tonight, they worship you." Her back pressed to my chest, I was free to explore her breasts. And our subjects watched me. I tugged one breast out of her gown, letting it spill into my palm before I pinched the nipple tight between my fingers. Veyka threw her head back, letting out a delicious moan that drew even more eyes to her.

Good. They should see me worshipping her, this powerful, magnificent female, the way she deserved to be worshipped.

"Their queen," I moaned against her ear as my other hand parted the folds of her gown, dipping inside to find the folds of her cunt. Dripping, ready for me.

My cock throbbed with demand as I pulled my trousers loose and lifted her skirts, her leg, until my cock nudged at her entrance.

Veyka's whimper of need shredded the last remnants of my control.

I shoved myself inside of her as I growled the words into her ear—"My queen."

Queen of the Void. Queen of Annwyn. Queen of every shred of my broken, twisted soul.

As I took her, again and again, words began to echo in my ears.

Your rest has ended, Brutal Prince. She needs you now.

Familiar, but not quite clear. They hovered at the periphery of my understanding, muddled by the haze of need, the intensity of my feelings for Veyka, the feeling of being inside of her. Of what this claiming meant—me, claiming her as my mate. But also the terrestrials of Eilean Gayl, claiming and worshipping their queen.

The High Queen of Annwyn.

Veyka screamed the pleasure of her climax, the walls of her pussy gripping my cock hard. I was a second away from spilling, right there with her, tumbling over the cliff. I threw my head back and howled, beast and male, as that final ecstasy roared through me and I came inside of her.

As the words solidified. A voice I recognized. That spoke with perfect clarity.

The forgotten line of the prophecy.

Together they must stand, to defeat what once thought dead. Together they must give, if any shall live to the end.

Forgotten, until Accolon had given it to me in a dream.

And cursed me and my mate forever.