CHAPTER 43

Bliss rained through Faye's body, soft and gentle, echoing a pleasure she'd never experienced alone. She stretched her arms overhead, dragging her legs together. She would need him to show her what he liked so she could return his affection. She knew a lot in theory and eagerly wanted to apply them to Rune.

Faye curled on her side with a lazy smile, still catching her breath. Her brow pinched. He wasn't at the edge of the bed. Faye twisted to glance behind her at the bathroom. The door opened to a darkened room.

"Rune?" Faye called, sitting up. An empty silence rang within her as she stood, covering herself with her towel. Her euphoria faded with each step. Leaning into his bathroom, she found a darkened room staring back at her.

Faye rocked back on her heels as her face fell. He left. Hurt and shame warred within her, colliding so fiercely it eclipsed her anger. She pulled her towel tighter around her. Faye left his room needing to get away. From him. From his scent.

From everything that reminded her of him.

She made her way back to the south wing, holding her tears at bay. Not caring who saw her as she walked. She'd been so happy just minutes ago. He'd left without a word, leaving her feeling used and dirty.

Soft light filtered into the room through three tall arched windows. Faye trudged past them, her begrudging steps leading her to the bathroom. Faye closed the door and let her towel drop to the floor.

She turned the shower on and sat in the spray. Hot water sluiced over the back of her neck and shoulders. Faye hugged her shins, lowering her head to her knees. Her tears fell, hot and silent, as she hugged her legs tighter.

"Bitch?"

Faye stared at a tile beside her, letting the tears fall from her unblinking eyes. She didn't fight the misery threatening to consume her. Didn't respond to the knock at the door. Didn't acknowledge her sister as she stepped into the bathroom.

Sparrow opened the glass door and crouched into Faye's vision. "Hey, are you— What happened?"

Faye met her sister's gaze, and her tears somehow came harder.

"It's okay, you're okay," Sparrow said, getting to her feet and awkwardly stepping over her. Her sister sat down and wrapped her in her arms, pulling her close. Sparrow rocked her, resting her cheek on the top of her head as she stroked her back.

"Did he hurt you?" Faye vaguely registered the viciousness in her sister's voice.

Yes! No.She squeezed her eyes shut, clinging to Sparrow's arm. Her voice came out with a broken plea, "What's wrong with me?"

"Nothing is wrong with you," Sparrow said against her hair.

"He's fated to me," Faye sobbed.I feel it."Why am I not enough?"

"Oh, honey," Sparrow said, squeezing her tighter. "You are more than enough. This is that shadowy fuck's damage, not yours."

Sparrow held her as she cried. There was something wrong with her. Some integral piece she was lacking. Faye knew it. Rune knew it. Even fate knew and carved away so much from her because of it.

"Did he say something to you? I'm about to stab his bitch ass."

Faye took a shuddering breath. "We were intimate," she said, blinking through the hot rush of tears. "Then he left."

"You blew him, and he left?" Acid dripped from Sparrow's words, a burning promise of pain.

Faye shook her head. "I didn't touch him," she whispered. She didn't understand. He yearned for her. She saw it stirring in his dark gaze. He came to her. Pleaded at her door. Went to his knees— for her. Then he abandoned her without a word.

"Fuck him. Fate tied you to an idiot. If he doesn't appreciate you, it's his loss, not yours."

Faye leaned on her sister in silence, muttering, "I wish I didn't care."Or want him. Or see him when I thought about the life I wanted.Faye exhaled and so much more left her as she said, "He's going to haunt me for the rest of my life."

Sparrow snorted. "No, bitch. I won't let him. I guarantee you his ass is haunted by you." Faye remained silent as her tears slipped down her nose, lost within the misted spray of the shower. The hot water washing over her did not drown out the feel of him. The way his hands carefully left a trail of his embrace. She wanted it gone. Needed it stripped clean. Cast away his touch and abandonment. Her sister squeezed her, holding her through her silence and misery.

"I know he's thinking about you right now. You consume his every waking moment."

Rune materialized in his father's crystal line palace. The vast hall stretching before him, its arching walls rising into a vaulted ceiling, constructed more like a chapel than a throne room. Large crystals lined either side of the hall, encapsulating the unfortunate beings who garnered his father's wrath.

They stood as eternal sentries, broken in mind and body, condemned as ornaments his father used to decorate his palace. Time stretched past them, holding no meaning. Those encased were unable to die and return to the Darkness.

Rune's image flickered several times, and he bared his fangs. His head whipped to the side as he demanded, "Cease this!"

Return to her!The Ra'Voshnik roared, raising through his mind, fighting for dominion of his body.

Fury roiled through Rune. "You brought her to my bed. Desecrated what I would offer my queen!"

She is our queen.

"She is not my queen!" Rune bellowed as the crystal beneath him cracked, splintering from him in every direction. The cracks deepened, widening as they split the walls of the throne room.

She was not his fate. She couldn't be his. Fate would not condemn him so thoroughly. Not like this.

Chest heaving, Rune surveyed the damage he caused. He mastered his powers millennia ago. He hadn't lost control since his youth. Before he could mend the damage, the Ra'Voshnik sank its claws into his awareness and dragged his consciousness into the depths of his mind.

Rune descended into himself, meeting it. He had enough of the fool creature and its incessant want for the mortal death awaiting him. Desire was as fleeting as pain. Wanting the minx was irrelevant when the cost was his life.

Pain sank into his throat as he stood before the Ra'Voshnik. A replica of himself that could not be more different. It sank its claws deeper into either side of his neck. Pain was a fleeting thing, and the creature finally found the end of Rune's patience.

His will did not bend.Not for a spell. Not for a peasant. And certainly not for the Ra'Voshnik who invited their very death to his bed.

"Your will is already hers. You didn't mind her in your bed when you were feasting between her thighs. She is everything we've dreamed of,and you left her!" The Ra'Voshnik's claws connected behind Rune's windpipe as it hissed, "I will return to her and mend things."

Rune seized its wrist and squeezed. Crushing bones until the grip on his throat slacked and fell away. He speared his other hand into the creature's chest in a practiced motion, and tore its heart free. The Ra'Voshnik's dark eyes clouded as it collapsed at his feet.

Rune kicked it onto its back. Pausing for the briefest moment as he gazed down his own dead form.

He'd always imprisoned it in his mind, viewing the bothersome creature as the cost of his power. It would continue to heedlessly court his death. The spell must be tied to the Ra'Voshnik. If he killed it, would he still be a Pure Blood? He would remain a Shadowman like his brothers. Like his father. Become lesser as a turned vampire perhaps?

It mattered not. The consequence was a necessity, this spell had gone on longer than Rune could tolerate. Killing the Ra'Voshnik would sever the tie the minx held over him. The leash she unknowingly held. Yanking him closer with every exchange.

Rune knelt beside the fallen creature taking it by the throat. He took a final breath bracing himself for pain he was sure would follow. With a twist of his wrist its head separated from its shoulders.

He'd expected agony. A tearing of some kind when he ended the creature. But Rune felt nothing. He got to his feet, the Ra'Voshnik's head lying on its side, its long white-blonde hair staining red in the growing pool beneath it.