12. Kian
Chapter 12
Kian
W hile running my fingertips over the raised white scars marring Vale’s perfect skin, I plotted Selene’s demise. I knew I wasn’t the only one contemplating the siren queen’s end, but my revenge would be the most permanent.
It would endure for decades until she begged for death.
And when I finally granted it, she would be sent to Orrus screaming.
Few deserved the fury of a curse such as Veythara , and certainly not Vale. My chest ached with the memory of her pain, of her tears, her fear. Every drop of blood and every mark she’d made on her skin was etched into my soul.
Too many times had someone tried to take her from us.
Too many times had someone threatened to steal my world, my life, my heart.
I swore it on Orrus himself that if another being hurt my woman, I would take their fucking head.
Just like the man who’d given her these scars.
He would die screaming, too.
I’d make sure of it.
My gaze shifted from Vale’s back to Xavier’s slitted pupils. His focus was on the raised flesh under my touch, and every few seconds, the muscle in his jaw would jump. Out of all of us, he’d been with her each time she’d nearly been taken from us, his mind, his soul twining with hers each time he’d healed her.
He likely knew more about Vale than she knew about herself.
And each bruise on her soul was engraved onto his heart.
Vale dozed across Idris’ chest while he twirled the soaked strands of her hair around his index finger. I had to admire the man’s restraint. If I had a naked Vale laying on me, there wouldn’t be a protocol in the world other than her lack of willingness that would stop me from taking her over and over again.
It didn’t make sense to me why he wanted to wait for their union before he bonded with her. But then again, there would probably never be a recognized marriage between she and I.
No ceremony.
No fanfare.
I wasn’t a king, and multiple mates were unheard of. The only people who would know about what Vale meant to me—to us—would be a select few.
Vale reached backward, her fingers opening and closing as if she were asking for my hand. Readily, I gave it to her, and she yanked me closer as she curled tighter into Idris.
“Why are you sad?” she murmured, rubbing her cheek on Idris’ chest.
Vale was barely conscious, and I couldn’t blame her. After Selene’s torment and how we had to break her spell, Vale was floating on a cloud. Xavier and I helped her wash up, her legs refusing to hold her in the opulent shower. She was blissed-out and dreamy, and she deserved to be.
“I’m not. Just thinking,” I replied, pressing a kiss to her shoulder.
“Bad thoughts—all three of you.” She lifted her head and raked the wet strands out of her eyes. “You all helped me through mine. Why won’t you let me help you through yours?”
Because she’d gone through enough—more than enough. She didn’t need our explanations or our begging for forgiveness. She didn’t need our plans for vengeance, either.
“It’s nothing, little witch. Rest. We have enough to deal with tonight without me adding to it.”
Pulling from Idris’ arms, she turned to me. Her loose black hair curled around her breasts, and I ached to forget why we were here. Ached to hold her, kiss her, to take her over and over again until she could never forget our touch, our love.
But there was also a creeping bit of misery there, too. I’d bedded someone who tried to kill her. Yes, my vengeance would be far-reaching, but she needed to know that what I—what we had with Selene was nothing compared to what Vale shared with us.
“Guilt?” Vale whispered, her brow puckering. “Is that guilt I sense? For bedding a woman ages ago? You know that was the spell talking, right?”
Veythara didn’t work like that. “Not completely. That particular spell can only exacerbate what is already there. Insecurities, fears, self-loathing, regrets—anything you feel about yourself—it takes it and twists it.”
I met Idris’ golden gaze, and though he was completely still, the flames of rage nearly melted the side of my face. He hadn’t known just how close we’d been to losing Vale—just how close we’d come to an eternity of loss and pain.
How close she’d come to burning out.
All because Selene was a vindictive bitch who couldn’t best her on her own.
Vale dipped her head, allowing her hair to fall forward and shield her eyes. “So I was a little insecure.”
The pitiful shrug that accompanied that lie made the whole of my chest ache.
“I know it’s not rational to be upset you had sex with another woman. She’s beautiful and powerful. It makes sense why you would want her. You said it was a long time ago, right? Then I can’t be upset with you—with either of you—about it. I can’t even be mad you shared her.”
“Yes, you can,” Xavier said, squeezing her ankle. “You’re allowed to feel however you feel.”
Of course he’d be the one to say all the right things. “Yes, it was a long time ago, and yes, we did share her.” I shot a glance at Xavier, my jaw tightening as I remembered the encounter. Telling Vale the truth about that night would only make it worse, but lying was off the table. She’d been lied to enough.
“I wouldn’t call the experience particularly memorable. It was at a party where everyone had consumed far too much Fae wine, and I don’t recall much of it.”
Not a lie. I wouldn’t tell her the part where that wine had been drugged and we’d been seduced by a woman too powerful to realize that not all of her partners were willing. Then again, why else would she have drugged us? Maybe she thirsted for more power still, and that was why she’d hurt Vale.
Just because she could.
Xavier moved closer, blue flames dancing on his fingertips as he ran them up and down Vale’s calf. It was his tell. If he used his magic and wouldn’t look anyone in the eye, he was bluffing his ass off. It was a distraction, a gimmick, a way to misdirect without lying outright.
“I remember very little from that night. The only good thing to come out of it was that it changed our bond as friends. It helped Kian and I understand that when we found a mate— if we found a mate—if Fate was kind, we would get to share.”
Vale’s gaze sharpened on the both of us, her green eyes glowing with a bit of her magic. She could feel the bluffs, the disguised truths, the veiled horrors.
She deserved more than that.
“When we were children, we were orphaned,” I explained, trying to make sure she understood. “Though, I suppose that isn’t the right term for it. Abandoned is closer to the truth. I was surrendered to a cruel orphanage when I was maybe eight years old. Xavier came along a few years after that. All we’ve ever had was each other.”
Vale’s parents hadn’t left her of their own free will. Even as poor and starving and overworked as they’d been, she’d been wanted. I wondered what it would be like to have a family like that.
I fought off the tremble of my lips, my jaw firming into granite. It was an old wound—one of many—but she needed to know who her mates were. “In our species, a mother can tell if her offspring is too weak to thrive. She deemed me unworthy of my animal as a baby. A dragon’s first shift typically happens between five and seven years of age. By the time I turned eight, she’d decided I was too weak—that I wouldn't be able to shift. I went back after I joined the King's Guard—after I had finally been able to shift, finally got my abilities. But by the time I got there, they were all gone.”
Xavier’s hand stilled on her calf, his story worse than mine. I’d always known my family hadn’t wanted me. He’d had the rug pulled out from beneath him.
“I had my healing abilities long before I learned to shift. But in a family full of dragons, healing isn't exactly necessary. My family deemed my gifts worthless, and when I didn't shift by the age of twelve, they were done with me. It was like night and day. One minute I was wanted, and the next I wasn’t. And unlike Kian’s family, mine stayed right where they were. When the curse hit Idris, some of the oldest of the dragons couldn't withstand the lack of power. Some died without their magic, many willingly met Orrus. Those of us who were considered too weak, stayed to live and breathe another day.”
I’d remembered that time. Xavier had been nearly driven mad with grief. His parents, his siblings—nearly all of them had chosen death. I’d always had a feeling that maybe mine had done the same, but I couldn’t prove it. It had been our weakness that had turned into a strength. Our weakness that had kept us breathing.
Until Vale, I’d considered us all cursed.
Until her, I’d thought we were the unfortunate ones—staying alive while the world burned around us. That at least Xavier’s family had understood when to cut and run.
Xavier’s smile turned bitter for a moment before he wiped it clean. “When I thought just Kian and Idris were your mates, it hurt so bad because I thought that not only would I never have you, but I would lose the life I’d always envisioned for myself. I would lose my best friend, my partner, the only real family I’d ever known—the only family I have left.”
His fingers sparked again, and I knew it was to avoid the real meat of the issue.
He couldn’t fool me. Xavier still felt that way. It was only so obvious because I'd known him so long. He worried one day he would wake up and it would all be a dream. That somehow, he would always be on the outside, always be looking in, always abandoned.
Just like me.
“But you do have me,” she whispered, covering the blue flames dancing across his fingertips. “I promised you wouldn’t lose me.”
We knew better.
People could promise a lot of things. They could promise you their hearts, their souls. They could promise their loyalty, but people like us never really believed in promises.
It was why we never made any we thought we couldn’t keep.
I hooked a finger under her chin, drawing her gaze. “Then promise us we won’t lose you over this, either. Trust me, if we knew then what we know now, we wouldn’t have stepped one toe in this place, let alone?—”
Vale’s grin turned wry. “Fucked her stupid? Yeah, I gathered. I can’t say that I will never feel insecure around her but,” She tapped her sternum, “I know better. In here. I won’t let her back in my head.”
Idris’ hand flexed on her hip. “I doubt you let her in the first time. She used our connection,” he growled, his fury lancing through my mind as if I were the one mated to him and not Vale. “She used our bond to hurt you through me.”
This hadn’t been the first time and I doubted it would be the last unless…
“Please tell me we get to instruct her how to treat our future Queen,” I asked, the list of Selene’s punishments growing by the second.
“No,” Vale chided. “We need her alive. We need her behind us. Or else all of this pain—all of this bullshit—was for nothing. I’m going to put on a damn dress and smile like she didn’t just try to kill me, and we will hash out whatever we need to. We didn’t come all this way for her to weasel out of helping us now. You three need to calm down.”
I knew my mate was being incredibly mature and sensible.
I also knew I didn't give that first fuck.
Apparently, Idris was of the same mind. He sat up, his hand capturing her chin as he made her look at him. “Selene doesn't get to do what she did to you and walk away without consequences. I told her who you were to me. She spelled you knowing that you were my mate, knowing that you were her future Queen, knowing what it would do to me and what it would mean to the continent if you’d died. There is no such thing as calm when it comes to people hurting you.”
“So far, she has attacked all of us,” Xavier noted. “The only reason you’re still alive is because we were here with you. Our King is correct. There is no walking away from this—not after what she's done.”
I was glad I wasn’t alone in this. “No one touches you and lives, little witch. No one. She's breathing borrowed air on borrowed time. I want you to know that.”
Vale’s eyes filled with tears before she blinked them away. She dipped her head, that curtain of dark hair covering her face once more. But I still felt pleasure coursing through her body at the three of us being ready and willing to protect her in any way, shape, or form necessary to keep her breathing.
We came here for an ally, but Selene had made an enemy.
She was about to find out exactly what that looked like.