Page 14 of A Fate of Wings
We walked past the stall vendors set up outside the colosseum for the day, hoping to make good on their wares with the extra immortals in the Autumn Court. The smell of baked goods made my stomach clench with hunger. I perused the items, then thrust the notion aside, for I couldn’t accept food from a stranger. We returned along the damp path. The fallen leaves squelched under our feet and sent up the aroma of vanilla mingled with the terracotta mud. Our mud-covered boots and splattered dresses swished against our legs as we walked under the grand arches of the portico into the castle. The high, deep gray stone walls were home to the siren royalty, but more, they hid our greatest treasures, the rich tapestries hanging on the walls depicting our past. Our story of origin. Power hummed around my neck as though the castle filled me with even more of our alluring singing. A clatter rang on the red-tiled turrets. The air shimmered, a luminous aquamarine, the same color as my eyes, in the otherwise azure sky.
Inky black wings tipped with talons burst through the shimmering kaleidoscope of air. The sight was familiar to the one I’d witnessed before the trials began as a silhouette in the stormy sky. A prickle of awareness skittered down my neck. A crimson object fell from the sky and landed at my feet in a wet splat, spraying the skirt of my dress with dark red splotches. The metallic scent of blood hit my nostrils as the heart rolled closer to me. I lifted my boot and placed it on the squishy organ.
My personal guards lifted their swords and readied themselves for an attack.
A great whoosh of wings proceeded the winged immortal’s landing. The Beast dipped another bow, his horns, and wings on display now. He’d kept his wings a secret in the fight. One glanceat them and I saw why. His talons were razor sharp. Perhaps he hadn’t trusted himself to not use them on his opponent instead of the sword?
“A chimera heart as you requested, my queen.”
I took in his blood-splattered body. The gore covered the lengths of his arms, sprayed across his muscular tattooed chest, and even across his cheek. His lips spread into a feral grin.
“Stand down, he’s the clear winner,” I said to my guards. The first contestant to make it back to me with the impossible task completed. I kicked the heart toward him. “Now put it back.”
He cocked a thick eyebrow, threw his head back, and laughed.
“Come.” Melanie tugged at my arm.
“No.” I wrenched out of her hold and closed in on the Beast. “What’s so funny?”
“You.” He inched his face to within millimeters of mine. “You set these ridiculous trials to choose a mate when you don’t need to.”
“Oh, don’t I?” I licked my lips as I set my hands on my hips.
“No, you don’t.” He snagged my waist in his large, firm hands and hauled me toward him.
His touch sent my heart racing and a pulsing need straight to my core. I was a siren with the luring power in my voice, but this immortal was more powerful. He enticed me to take him to my bed. To claim him as my lover. To tie him to me for eternity.
“What makes you say that?”
“This,” he said, a scant millisecond before slanting his lips across mine.
He tasted like sin. Like the best thing I’d ever had in my mouth. And I’d had a lot over the many years of my life. This Beast swept his tongue inside with the same strength he held my body against his. I was hopelessly addicted to the sensations to stop him. My head swam, a buzzing rang in my ears and all the while he kissed me as though I was already his.
I wrenched my mouth from his and slapped him across the face.
A bright red mark exploded with the ringing slap, my finger imprints branding his cheek. His ebony eyes glittered, but not in anger, if anything in more arousal than before, which only sent an answering surge of desire pulsing through my veins.
I narrowed my eyes and lifted my chin. “Did I permit you to touch me? Kiss me?” I hissed.
Melanie giggled. I ignored her and kept my focus on the Beast. Beast he was. Beast he’d always be. He stirred an answering animal inside me.
Chapter eight
Rozronuuk
Cossgarth
Queen Thea Callixera tastedlike a small slice of demon heaven. Considering I was a Rage Demon, that was saying something. The presence of her lips still tingled on mine. If only sirens understood what it was like to have a fated mate. Alas, they didn’t. I’d recognized she was mine. I’d known the fact for years since the day I’d first seen her in the Spring Court, but I hadn’t bothered with attempting to claim her. Sirens were unpredictable at best. At worst, they’d eat your heart, then hand it back to you all while singing merrily to make you smile while they did it.
Once she announced her preposterous quest for a king throughout the realms, then I had no choice but to claim her, and at least she’d be willing to accept me now. If I’d come to her before, then who knows how it would have turned out forus? Her trials had been a touch of fun. The fighting and pitting skills were nothing new to me. It also gave me a chance to see the threats hanging over my mate’s head. Fetching her a chimera heart was nothing but sport even if she’d intended it to be difficult. Now she was being ridiculous with her requests that as her mate I couldn’t touch her or kiss her.
I snorted. “I won the quest. Therefore, I’m your mate.”
“Not yet, you aren’t.” She advanced on me with the staff, ready to clobber me over the head.
I laughed and snagged her wrists, wrenching them behind her back, and she fell into my chest.
“I told you this idea of yours was stupid,” her twin said.