Sixteen

ELLIS

"Morning, sleepyhead."

Fallon rolled over in bed next to me, a teasing grin on her face. The covers fell away, exposing the swell of her creamy hips and her full breasts.

It was becoming harder to find reasons to say no to the fae princess who'd taken such an interest in me.

Her hands against my cheek were cold, but the sensation of contact with another being was so needed that I closed my eyes and relaxed against the pillows. "My handsome prince. What wickedness shall we get up to today?"

My lips had barely parted before she was already on top of me, straddling my hips while her breasts hung in my face. Her fingers brushed against my cock, barely needed since I was already hard.

There was only so much a man could resist, after all.

What wickedness shall we get up to today?

Oh, if only she knew. I groaned as she slipped me inside of her, sinking down and covering me with her heat. Her hips moved in a sinful, slowly gyrating pattern as she took charge. My fingers balled in the sheets.

"Poor prince. Is it too much?" she cooed, her smirk belying her sympathetic tone.

If she thought me reluctant or afraid, then I wouldn't correct her. Let her mistake my reticence for inexperience; it didn't matter either way. What mattered were the connections I would gain from this … dalliance: connections that would keep Eve and me safe.

Thoughts of death and blood filled my head as Fallon took her pleasure with me, her breathing growing more erratic and her thrusts harder. Her inner walls clenched and squeezed, and I thought of Peri's dead face. I thought of my dead family. I thought of anything that would keep me from exploding and disappointing her. I needed Fallon on my side and happy. If I could get the king's favored daughter under my thumb, I would.

That meant dead eyes, unstaring ahead of me. It meant my family in a tangle of limbs, dead on the floor. It meant—

"Surely I am not that awful at it," grumbled Fallon.

I jerked, and realized with embarrassment I'd done too good a job at distracting myself; I'd nearly gone limp inside of her.

"My apologies," I rasped out, focusing on her breasts. They were round, with perfect pink nipples. Her waist nipped in before flaring out, with thick thighs that looked like they could squash my head if I ever dove between them.

"There we are. Stay focused, darling,"

Focus. Right. And what was I supposed to focus on again? She was so wet, so hot, and it had been so long since I—

"Aaah!"

She cried out and tightened around me, inner walls clenching and bearing down hard on my cock. I couldn't have stopped coming if I'd wanted to.

A shudder left my lips as my body convulsed, every muscle clenching and tightening as I came hard inside of her.

Sticky bodies clung together as we came down off our highs, our panting breaths intermingling until I wasn't sure whose air was whose.

Lightly she slapped my cheek, grinning. "That's a good boy."

Before I could react, she slid off me, hopping off the bed and shrugging on a nearly sheer black robe.

"Father wants us in the throne room by noon for a strategy session. Must be big, because even Feyanna was invited," Fallon noted dryly, tugging on the tie around her waist to ensure it was snug.

"Tidy yourself up and eat."

She breezed through the doorway, letting a guard shut it primly behind her.

"I'm not a child," I protested to the empty air, resentment brimming in my veins. I didn't need to be instructed to bathe and eat, for the sake of the gods.…

A strategy session. This is what you wanted, wasn't it? Access to the king through Fallon, and being able to have an impact and save Eve.

Reluctantly, I got up and started my day. It wasn't like I had any control over any of it at all.

"Ah. Sleeping beauty arrives." Fennis lounged lazily on his throne while a dozen figures sat on the floor on pillows below his dais. Based on their features and coloring, all were children of his. I only recognized Fallon and Feyanna. The males eyed me with disdain.

"I told you that I only left him in bed, Papa. Not that he was sleeping." Fallon smiled coyly at her father from her pillow at his right side, the only child sitting on the same level as him.

Perhaps I wasn't the reason the males looked so stony.

Feyanna was regulated to the end of the row on my left, as far away from the throne as possible. a

Fennis grinned at me, flashing his fangs. "Are you ready to work, my half-breed friend? You may sit at my daughter's feet like the dog you are."

He gestured vaguely to a pillow so threadbare and moth eaten that I would have been better served sitting on the hard marble. Fallon giggled and patted the step just below her.

Rage bubbled beneath the surface of my veins, but I squelched it down. Closing my hands into fists, I kept my face blank as I sat down on the step, staring down the rest of his children sitting in front of me.

The faces of each male went red with rage. I may be Fallon's pet, but the message was clear: I was still above them.

I wondered a bit at that. Did the king want to anger his children into fighting? Or was he trying to send a message?

Could be both.

"Where's Shyllon and Alihandro? I'm shocked you're daring to start anything without them," bit out a male in front of me, his long black hair straight and held away from his face with two sapphire pins.

Fennis waved a hand dismissively at him. "They are occupied with my little gift to them." He grinned nastily at me. "I hear she's quite good. Isn't that right?"

Smoke curled up from between my hands. Glancing down, charred marble spread out from the ground where it came into contact with any part of my body. I couldn't be bothered to care.

"That's not what I heard. I heard Shyllon and Cassus spirited her away to one of Shyllon's mansions right under your nose before any fun could happen." The son who'd spoken was next to Feyanna, his hair a dark brown instead of the jet black of the others. His eyes were vivid blue, but a clear mark of human heritage.

"When I want the opinions of a half-breed, I'll ask Fallon's pet. Certainly not you," Fennis spat back, not bothering to glance at the son who'd spoken.

The male fae stewed where he sat, but went silent. Feyanna shot him a sympathetic look, putting a soft hand on his back.

"We're not here to talk about the children actually worth something," Fennis began again. If he noticed the flinches and angry tension building in front of him, he didn't care. "We're here so this half-breed will tell us all about his visions and what he sees. He will trade all information about the prophecy for the life of his human pet."

The eye of every fae pivoted straight to him. My mouth went dry.

"What?" I protested, turning toward him as well. "How do you know what—"

"My guards heard you and the human girl talking in your cell and in your sleep. Tell me what visions haunt your dreams. At least they will be of use to you and the girl." He settled back in his throne, clearly satisfied that I'd happily hand over all of my information.

But he'd just done a little bit of that himself, unknowingly.

"Prophecy?" I asked. This was the first time I'd heard of a prophecy, but it made an aching amount of sense. Was that what all of my visions and Viana's whisperings had been about? The dreams of fire and ash, of death and destruction, were they part of the screams that dogged Viana's dreams as well?

The feeling of powerlessness threatened to drown me completely. A prophecy? No wonder I'd felt so hopeless and without direction. A prophecy meant there was nothing I could do.

Completely powerless, just like you thought.

I wanted to believe it desperately, if only to finally have answers.

Plus, I didn't see any harm in telling him about them—I didn't even understand them. How could anyone else?

"Just … just fire. And ashes and death. Everywhere there are bodies piled up, charred and burning. The stench of burning flesh—" I broke off, bile rising in my throat. I could still smell it if I thought about it. Taking a breath of air, I continued.

"There is a figure of a woman. I don't know who. I've never known who. She stands among the rubble and those left alive flee before her. That's … that's all I know," I ended abruptly, feeling like it all was a bit anticlimactic. I kept that last bit to myself; the voice that drifted over the entire scene, telling me it would all burn.

"And this woman in your dreams … Do you believe it to be the human traveling with you? This … queen?" Fennis asked intently, leaning forward while both hands gripped the edges of his throne.

I had thought about it constantly since meeting her on the balcony when I was drunk and desperate. Her voice had jarred my soul, because I recognized it from my dreams instantly.

But Fennis couldn't know that part.

"Based on what I've seen, it is impossible to confirm who she is," I said truthfully, my face straight.

Fennis's eyes narrowed. "Very well."

His attention turned on the rest of his children as the discussion devolved into politics, who was marrying whom, and other court drama that dulled my wits and numbed my senses.

"Don't fuss. I hear Shyllon and Alihandro have taken quite the shine to your companion. She'll be well taken care of," Fallon assured me, giving me a patronizing smile like I was a child in need of cheering.

My answering grimace had her roll her eyes and turn away, leaving me to my melancholy.

I didn't know how I could stay in Fennis's good graces other than keeping Fallon happy, but I did know one thing: he could never know that the voice of fire and brimstone in my dreams was the same voice Viana had heard her whole life, intermingled with the screams of the dying and burning.

"It will all burn."

Eve's voice.