Chapter 31: Thorns on Her Skin

It began as a rumor.

Poisonous, spoken filth slithering down the halls, arcing into my ears before I even reached the point of seeing their faces.

"She thinks she's better."

".a bloodwork, nothing remarkable." "Did you notice that mark on her neck?" "A toy-playing queen."

I attempted to disregard them. I strode down the hallways with squared shoulders and head held high, just as I had watched Kael do naturally throughout the palace, an inviolate man, icy cold. I wasn't Kael, however. I bled. I cracked. And courtiers here sensed weakness like wolves' scent wounded prey.

I had been warned, of course. Servants grumbled that my presence at court was causing a stir—that Kael's favor toward me, whatever that was, had stirred up jealousy, wrath, and danger.

I hadn't expected it to be so.

Not so.

I entered the garden alone—Kael had invited me to dinner of diplomacy that night, but I'd needed some fresh air. Purple twilight colors coalesced in the air me, and moonflower thorns stabbed me as I stepped past them.

And then they were standing there. Footsteps. Laughter.

I had turned too late.

A hand shoved me firmly against the stone wall at the back of the rose arbor. My shoulder impacted with it, pain radiating down my arm. Sweet, saccharine, high-cost perfume attacked my face as a group of women closed in, silken clothes the promise of silk and arrogance, fangs not even visible but quietly concealed.

Lady Cerys stepped forward. I knew her in an instant.

Lady Cerys.

Vampire duke's daughter. Ex-suitor of Kael's bride. A woman whose eyes always appeared to sparkle like a blade when she regarded me.

"Well," she came near, honey with hemlock's voice,

"Isn't that a sweet little puppy out of her kennel?"

"Move." I said to her, my own voice as silky as the shaking continued in my legs.

"Oh, she speaks," another lord growled. "Don't you have somewhere you can get on your knees, human?"

Cerys' smile faded but never ceased. "You've crossed the line, Scarlett. Whatever you were playing at with the prince is over."

I glared at her icily. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Oh, but you do. You've got your claws in me." I'd had no idea what I'd done—witchcraft, poisoning, or simply badly timed groaning—but Kael did not see anyone else. He was once mine. You've ruined him.

I'd wanted to laugh. Broken? Kael'd been broken many years ago before I'd ever entered his throne room.

But before I had a chance to get a word in, her hand shot out and slapped me in the face. The pain spread to burning sensations across the cheekbone. My knees buckled, but I did not collapse.

"You don't get to look at me like that," she growled. "You don't get to think you're better than us."

Another lord pushed me into the roses. I struggled, outflung arms flailing, but the thorns ripped into my skin before I stabilized. Blazing pain shot down my forearms as I pressed my face into the trellis, brambles deep in my skin.

I gasped for air, Making a scream as blood trickled in thin rivulets down to my wrists.

They laughed.

I stood, panting, thorns in my skin.

"Bleeding makes you stronger?" Cerys snorted. "You're nothing. Kael will get bored with you. They always do."

I was in pain, but I glared at her too. "If you think that you frighten me… you need to practice."

Her red eyes blazed. Briefly. Long enough to recall that I wasn't the monster. Yet.

She flung up her hand again—but this time I was prepared. I wrapped my fingers around her wrist, digging my gore-tipped nails into the white wrist.

"I'm not some wimp you trick," I snarled through gritted teeth. "Do it again, and I'll teach you the quality of a human bite."

She snarled and pulled back on her arm, glaring at me, but the crack did not react. The others did not.

And then—such as light severed by darkness—a low, enraged voice spanned the air.

"What the devil is going on here?"

Kael.

The garden was still.

All the women rose. No one shifted, no one spoke.

Kael's eyes seethed as he took in the appearance of me—hair disheveled, cheek red, arms streaked with blood and thorn scratches. He'd not breathed in hours.

"What have you done to her?" he growled cold death in his voice.

Cerys struggled to keep herself under control. "It was an accident—"

"Touch her again," he snarled, "and I'll take your hands for you."

The nobles disappeared into thin air like mist, fleeing as I drew near him. His hands rested on my arms, his face devastated.

"Scarlett…"

"I'm fine," I lied, but my voice trembled.

"It's bleeding."

"It's happened before."

His jaw hardened. "Who did this?"

You know.

Kael's eyes flashed, air between us charged with anger.

I recoiled from him as he stumbled towards me, but he wilted, shaking his hand on mine.

"Don't," I panted. "Don't play dumb now."

His eyes snapped back at me. "You don't think I care? That I don't feel like drowning on hot coals when you get hurt?"

"You didn't even call me after the summit. Or the kiss. Or the night you had me in your bed and then pushed me away like nothing."

Kael moved, his face contorted. "I hold you at arms' length because I do care. Because if I let myself do all the things I want to feel for you, the kingdom will be lost."

I looked at him, naked and wounded. "Maybe it should be destroyed."

He didn't respond.

He leaned in slowly and grasped my hand—gently as if I would shatter. His thumb grazed my battered knuckles, and what was left of his face collapsed.

"Let me make you whole," he said.

I nodded once, too exhausted to fight.

He wrapped his hand around my arm and held my arm to his lips. I tensed for cold, familiar bite, for the vampire's kiss of wholeness.

But his lips brushed against mine, and it was not hunger.

It was reverence.

Blood rose in my arm. His tongue drew a new course, tracing the blood, and I felt the magic pour in, reconnecting my flesh piece by piece with each kiss.

It was close. Blinding.

And I hated that I craved it.

Once he'd passed through me, he refused to release me. His hand closed around mine, holding tight as if he wasn't yet ready to release me again into the world.

Neither was I.

"Kael," I gasped. "They'll never stop."

"I know."

"They're going to kill me."

"I won't let them."

"Even if it means I'll have to lose you to them?"

His fingers closed tightly around mine.

And still, not a word from him.

His silence was deafening.

To be continued…