“What is this?”
For just a moment, a sharp flash of pain lit his gray-blue eyes, then his gaze shuttered. An easy smile replaced the brief look of pain. “Just something I’ve kept with me a long time.”
And there it was again. Adonis keeping secrets from me, even if he could hear some of my own thoughts.
Chapter 30
Curled up in bed, I’d given in to sleep, to the bone-deep tiredness that gripped my body. In my dreams, I’d wandered through the grotto from the pictures in the book, surrounded by the sound of a rushing river echoing off stone walls.
A hand at my throat woke me, powerful arms pinning me to the bed—one encircling my neck, the other gripping my wrists.
My eyes snapped open with shock, and I looked up into Adonis’s eyes—not icy blue, but the cold hardness of obsidian. His midnight wings spread out behind him, ready to fight, and his magic thrummed over my skin.
For a moment, fear gripped my heart. What the hell was he doing? Instead of his soothing presence whispering through my mind, I felt claws of rage, of panic.
“Adonis,” I whispered.
His powerful body completely pinned me down, one of his legs pressed between mine. His hand enclosed my throat—but he wasn’t pressing down. All I knew was that he had complete control here, and I had no idea what was going on.
I searched his eyes, expecting to find rage. Instead, I found only confusion. He hadn’t fully woken yet, and his breath sounded ragged in his throat. He’d been dreaming of something terrible.
Within my mind, I called to him. Adonis. Now would be a good time to help me. With my hands pinned, I couldn’t gently jostle him to wake him. Instead, I stroked one of my legs up the back of his. Slowly, I felt those claws of rage begin to recede, replaced by a soothing calm.
“Adonis,” I whispered again.
He blinked, his muscles relaxing, and his eyes began to focus, returning to pale gray-blue. He pulled his hand from my throat, searching my neck. Gently his fingertips brushed over my skin. “Ruby?” he rasped. “Did I hurt you?”
“I’m fine,” I said. “You were having a nightmare. I think.”
Frowning, he glanced at my wrists before pulling his hand away from them. He rolled onto his side, propping up his head to peer down at me. “I was dreaming of the fae.”
I swallowed hard. That made sense. He was in bed with a fae. “Not a good dream, I take it.”
He shifted, sitting up in bed, his wings disappearing from view. Dim torchlight danced over the savage scars on his chest. He stared at the bed, looking lost in his thoughts. “More of a memory.”
He’d shifted his body away from me, and the loss of the heat from his skin made me want to press up against him again. “Of what?”
His magic sliced the air around us in vicious swirls. “About when the fae king imprisoned me when I was young.”
My throat tightened. “What happened?”
A deep, searing pain flashed in his eyes for a moment, before he masked it again. “After my parents died, the fae captured me. The king gave me as a gift to his consort. She used to say she wanted to surround herself with beautiful things.” His voice had a sharp edge to it. “Most of the time, King Oberon kept me imprisoned within an oak grove. He used a certain magical enchantment to trap me there, and Devil’s Bane to weaken me.”
I tightened my hand on his, just a little. “Fae magic. Devil’s Bane. Was that really enough to trap someone like you there? You’re a god of death.”
He searched my face, as if he might find the answer there. Then, his familiar charming smile curled his lips. “Maybe I wasn’t always the powerful being you see before you today.”
“What happened to you there?”
“At night, I slept outside on a bed of moss. When King Oberon brought humans to his realm, he’d command me to enchant the air, so the women were out of control with lust. They used me as an agent in their lurid rituals. They worship euphoria, ecstatic states. It doesn’t sound so terrible, does it?”
Silver flecks, like starlight, shone in his gray-blue eyes. I almost thought I could get lost in those arctic depths. “Except there’s a dark side to that ecstasy.” His fingers flexed on the bedsheets. “The violent, primal side of ecstatic states. The fae euphoria.”
Seemingly lost in his thoughts, he reached for me, brushing his fingertips over my hips, stroking up and down. “Sometimes, the fae turned on each other in their frenzy. But they mostly went after human females. They dragged women into their forested palace, seduced them in their frenzied states. Fae males like to dominate women.”
“Yep. And that would be why my parents left the realm.”
“Some fae feed from humans, just like vampires. Except instead of blood, they draw power from heightened human emotions. Ecstatic or devastated states. The humans’ frenzy fed King Oberon’s magical ability. The hunt filled him with power.”
A cold shudder danced up my neck. “What do you mean ‘the hunt’?”
He idly traced over my hip, lost in his own memories. “Another form of fae entertainment. They’d let human females loose in the forests, pretending to free them. The women would run, naked, thinking they’d been given a chance at freedom, thinking they could get home again. King Oberon drank in their terror. His body glowed with power. The fae males would work themselves up into an ecstatic, feral frenzy. Their eyes would gleam with silver, their canines would lengthen. Claws and horns would sprout from their bodies.”
Shadows darkened his eyes, and his voice had taken on a haunted tone.
I swallowed hard. “And the women were the prey.”
“Exactly. Their deaths were brutal, savage. The fae would tear them limb from limb. They’d feast on the women like beasts.”
My stomach turned. “You obviously don’t approve of the fae. You have your own moral code—punish the wicked and all that. So why stay with them? Why take part? You’re a death god. You could have survived the Devil’s Bane.”
He didn’t answer.
Compelled by a sharp need to touch him, I ran my fingers over the savage scars on his chest.
Ice glinted in his eyes. “I am the single most lethal creature to have ever walked the earth. I was never meant to be here. I can kill just by thinking, just by feeling. It’s in my nature. It’s what I am. When given the chance to slaughter the unworthy, I enjoy it. My captivity kept me from killing in greater numbers.”
My fingers froze. “Do you actually kill people just for fun?”
“Not anymore. That was a long time ago.” His features softened as he looked at me. “I was like you, once. In love with beauty. Every now and then I remember that feeling. I get glimmers of it, and it makes me feel alive again.”
“When?”