31. Thirty-One

This was the Under Cloud.

It took me a while to figure it out, but there was no denying the smell. I was just too weak earlier. The sulfur was from Aryn.

As soon as he left, I could pick apart the lingering scents. Why did he bring me here, of all places? And better yet, what did a demon want with me? The Queen wanted me for obvious reasons: to rid her womb of infertility and sire her children. I highly doubted Aryn suffered from those ailments.

There were two exits from where I sat: the front door and a side door to the right. Where did that door go? I wasn’t sure. No one had come or gone from it, but all I’d need was a window.

My strength returned ten minutes after Aryn left. My fangs ached for blood, and I grew angrier by the second. Atreyis would never be so weak as I had been. He would fight and fight until he couldn’t. I guess that was one of the many things I adored about him.

As much as he pretended not to care about anyone, that man’s heart was bigger than most. Whatever trauma he suppressed kept people from seeing it—but not me. I saw it time and time again. I saw it in the way he looked at me, the way he touched me.

I’d threatened to leave so many times, but he refused to allow it. I wasn’t a fool and knew that man cared for me. Was I going to sit here, obey the one person who sought to torment him, and do what he asked?

Or would I fight?

“Fuck fate,” I growled and ripped free of the leather instantly.

On my feet, I darted for the front door. A barrier of some kind prevented me from even reaching the handle, magic sizzling against my fingertips. Hissing, I retreated and went for the door across the living room. That one opened and revealed an office—a single window perched behind a black desk. I punched out the glass and hopped through it. Relief swarmed through me, but I wasn’t free yet.

Rounding the manor, I entered the street and froze.Every muscle in my body had grown rigid, paralyzed by whatever demonic magic Aryn had thrust upon me.

“You will submit,” Aryn growled, and I levitated off the ground. The black on his hands stained his forearms now. He’d eaten a heart.

Immobilized and solidified in the air, I couldn’t even blink.Vampyr hearts didn”t beat like human hearts, but mine definitely pumped quicker.

“You will obey.”His words cast a hue around me, sending me back to that cellar—back to Damien.

You will obey me, Vastian. You will do what is required. You will fuck the Queen and still come to my chambers. Say it! SAY IT!

As if reliving the memory wasn’t painful enough, Aryn slammed me into the side of the manor. My face grinding along the brick, teeth scraping into the grout. Then he flung me to the floor, my jaw cracking under the impact. He worked me like a ragdoll. Unable to do anything to stop it, I was levitated back into the manor, and a demon stood in the foyer, holding yet another tether.

The tether latched on instantly as I was dropped to the floor. “Maybe a few more hours with this on will help you reconsider.” Aryn crouched before me, looking me over.

“Why? What do you want?” I managed to croak.

“Oh, didn’t Atreyis tell you?” he paused to lean closer, “I want to be King.”

I suppose the demon learned his lesson because I was no longer in the living room, and he kept the tether on me. This one must’ve been the type I was used to, but it didn’t make it any less painful.

As I sat in the painfully bright room, I realized that Atreyis was safe.

If Aryn’s attention was on me, it wasn’t on him. That was about the only comfort I had, seeing as, sooner or later, I”d have to use my power on two people who didn”t deserve such a horrendous fate.

After several hours—days, who knew at that point, a door opened behind me.

He did this often. Come in, tell me things, and it would fall on deaf ears.

However, I knew this scent. It wasn”t Aryn who”d entered the room this time. I’d been close enough to her more than enough times to never forget her spicy floral perfume.

Alora.

Her warm fingers lifted my chin, and I made out some of her features through my haze. Her hair was green now. Eyes to match. She wore a grim expression. Maybe she wasn’t as bad as I thought. Indeed, she was here to help me. That was the only thing that made sense. Her lips moved, and the sound pricked my ears, but I still couldn’t decipher her words.

Suddenly, the tether dropped. When the tether leaves its victim, a thousand pounds are lifted off your skull and heart. The air was palpable, and the world became ignited with color again. There were no screams. There were no indicators that any Vampyrs were near. How did she get it off?

“Get the fuck up,” she ground out, words clear as a bell.

Alora”s arms tried to wrap around me, but she was a small woman. Determination was all I had left, and I used every inch of it to force myself to stand.

Kicking open the door with her booted foot, I flinched. She made so much noise, surely we’d be caught. I couldn’t take another round with the demon—his words… the helplessness.

“Alora,” I whispered, trying to keep up with her quick steps.

“Move!”

I could see why Atreyis cared so deeply for her. She was risking her life to save me. A man she didn’t know and had no reason to help. I’d have to thank her once we were free of this place. Once I found Atreyis. Moving through the manor, I realized we were on the second floor. I didn’t remember going upstairs, but I was lucky to remember anything at all, given how long I was tethered.

“Can you jump?” She led me through another door.

“Yes.”

“Once you hit the ground, do not go to the front. The alley will take you down to the unnamed district. Go left. Do not stop until you hit the residential district. Atreyis is there.”

“Thank you, Alora.” I squeezed her tiny hand.

She nodded and slid open the oblong window.

“Go, quickly.” She helped me climb up, and I didn’t hesitate.

Leaping from the landing, I landed with a painful thud on my heels and ran as fast as I could, not looking back or slowing down. I wasn’t at full strength, but I moved quicker than most.

Atreyis…Gods, I couldn’t wait to get that man in my arms.

I got bloody lost.

Even with clear instructions, I somehow managed to find myself in front of a bar. Truthfully, I didn”t know why it surprised me. Having lived the pampered lifestyle I had only coddled me and left me worthless in the world. I never needed to locate places before.

Incredibly frustrated with myself, I continued to wander. There were no brownstones anywhere in sight. Debating on asking for directions, I decided against it because Aryn would know I’d left. He’d be hunting me now.

Raking my hands through my hair, I tried to remember the route Atreyis had taken that night when he said we were prowling. The sky was manufactured, so I couldn”t even rely on the stars in the Under Cloud—not that I”d ever used stars to determine where the bloody hell I was.

Landmarks. I could do this. What looked familiar?

“Nothing,” I mumbled to myself, and I decided to head south—or what I presumed to be south. Gods, I was terrible at this.

At the very least, I wasn’t heading in the direction I came from. Hope was fleeting as I passed building after building until I noticed a sign.

It said: Potatoes and Ale. I knew that sign—knew that establishment where those cruel humans drugged me and smashed potatoes in my face! Sprinting forward, I kept my course.

The street blurred around me.

I’m so close—so bloody close.

Honing in on my senses, I tried to locate him by scent or the shifters that lived in that brownstone. It had to have been sometime later that I found it. Ursids were very potent, like a forest of pine and honey. But then I detected something else—an odor I hadn’t come across in centuries. Halting before the brownstone, I tried to free my nose of it and make sense of what I knew to be true.

An elf was in their home. Female. Young. And Atreyis was interwoven in her scent.

What?