Shadowborn Royals

by G. Bailey

  As soon as Luke gives the go-ahead, I put my breakfast down and hurry after him to the infirmary. It’s strangely quiet when we enter the ward. The only doctor I see is one I don’t recognize, which in a way puts me at ease. Of course, Doctor Frank works here too, but I don’t like the thought of him being anywhere near Axel.

  “I’ll wait here,” Luke says a few doors down from Axel’s room. “You’ve got about an hour, jaybird before the nurse comes back.”

  I stand on my tiptoes and press a kiss to his cheek. “Thank you for doing this.”

  His hand lingers on the small of my back before he lets go and watches me enter Axel’s room. I find him lying in bed with his leg draped over the pale blue blanket and buoyed on a pillow. Relief fills me when I see he’s safe and well apart from his small injury. It was small, but if Scott hadn’t healed him, he would’ve died in the Trials.

  Half of me wants to slap Axel for risking his life for me. The other is glad because I get to spend more time with him again. I met him on my first day in prison and I really can’t see him not being a part of my life from now on.

  He looks my way when I enter the room, and I twist the lock behind me.

  “There she is,” he says, a great big grin spreading over his lips. “How you doing, cutie?”

  “Don’t worry about me. You’re the one who was hurt.” I walk over and sit on the edge of his bed, my gaze drawn to his leg. The bandaging is quite thick and there’s no blood seeping through. Again, I thank Scott for his quick thinking, otherwise, I’m not sure I’d be sitting here right now. “You saved my life, Axel.”

  He shrugs as if it was nothing. “Just doing what I had to,” he says.

  My heart squeezes. “I don’t want you to do anything because you have to especially if it’ll cost your life.”

  He reaches over and takes my hand in his big one. “I’m just flesh and bone, babe. All these years I’ve thought about what I’d do once I was free again, and you know what? I started to think I was better off rotting away in prison.” His lips tilt ever so slightly. “Until I met your feisty ass. You’re what matters to me now and I’ll do anything to protect you. Simple as that.”

  “I matter to you?” I whisper, my breath hitching. I may not have known Axel for long, but this is pretty much his way of saying that he loves me.

  “Damn straight you do,” Axel smirks, his eyes gleaming. “Now bring those sexy lips over here and kiss my wound better.”

  “You hurt your leg, not your mouth,” I say with a smile.

  He silences me with his lips, his strong arms pulling me over his chest. I practically melt into him, my hands threading through his hair, my body covering his. Thank the gods I locked the door.

  “You want me to kiss your wound better?” I grin against his lips, straddling his hips to look down at him. He arches a brow at my removal but doesn’t say anything, only nods. “Then let me do that for you. You’re not just flesh and bone. Not to me.”

  “Oh, yeah?” His deep voice is gruff, lowering to that sexy level that drives me wild.

  “You’re my Axel.”

  His cheeks dimple into a smile that makes my heart skip a beat. Fuck, he’s handsome. He could literally crush me with his bare hands and yet there’s a softness about Axel Mune that I get to see in rare moments like this. It’s addictive.

  I lean down and kiss his cheek, his jawline, then I trail my lips down his throat. A groan rumbles in his chest and vibrates against my lips. Gently I nibble his skin and leave a trail of kisses all the way down his arm to the bottom of his hospital gown. He sucks in a breath when I near his groin, but I move farther down to his leg and softly kiss the bandage that covers his knee and part of his shin.

  He groans, staring down at me with lust-filled eyes. “You’re killing me here, cutie.”

  While I continue gently kissing around his bandage, I reach under his gown and slide my fingers around his thick cock. He’s already hard and the moan he gives when I stroke him is deeply erotic. I work my way back up and pull the blanket around me so that the cameras can’t see what I’m doing. Axel’s hand slips under the blanket and holds my head while I take him into my mouth, swirling my tongue around his cockhead. He groans when I slide my tongue over his slit.

  “Fuuck yeah…”

  His moans of endearment quicken my pace and I take him to the back of my throat. His hand pushes on the back of my head and holds me there for a moment, forcing me to breathe through my nose and gag only slightly. His throaty moan is worth the momentary discomfort. He strokes my hair and I bob up and down again, sucking every inch of him until his legs twitch and his grasp on me tightens.

  I will never get tired of this, our bodies together, transmitting our feelings for each other through movements, taste, and sound. Axel’s hand slides down my back and lands on my hip with his other one. With a sharp pull, he rips my leggings between my legs and pulls my panties to the side. His fingers trace my lower lips while his thumb plays with my clit, circling and flicking until I can’t bear it anymore.

  Lifting the blanket and pulling it over us, I carefully position myself over him and slowly slide down onto his cock, my face pressed to his. We kiss the instant he fills me for the first time and I’m lost to the sensations, unable to restrain the moans that tear from me. I was terrified of losing Axel yesterday, and I thought for sure that I had. Now that he’s here, albeit a little injured, all I can think about is how much I need him.

  How much I love him.

  Without him and the guys, I’d be losing my mind in this place.

  But the only thing I’m losing here is control. Blissful, spine-tingling control as my orgasm builds like a crescendo.

  “Axel,” I breathe, my forehead falling to his. “Oh, gods…”

  “Let go, baby,” he whispers, slamming my hips down hard on his cock. “Let go and let me feel you cum around my cock.”

  I kiss Axel to smother my cries of ecstasy as pleasure soars through me in waves. He’s not far behind, and when I clench around him, he moans into my mouth as he spills into me.

  After a moment, he pulls the blanket down but keeps it draped over our waists. We stay like this for a long moment, pressed to his body with his cock still inside me. With our bodies entwined like this, I wish we could stay this way forever. But the reality is quick to dawn on us when a hint of magic creeps into the air and the door unlocks. Not a second later, Gold stands in the doorway, his gaze locked on us, the edge of his mouth twitching.

  “Izora Dawn,” he grits out, his eyes narrowing into molten slits. “The Governor wishes to see you. Get yourself cleaned up. You’ve got two minutes.”

  Gold doesn’t say a word during the long walk to the lift. When the doors close and seal us inside, I look up expecting him to speak, but he doesn’t. His hands clench into fists at his sides and he keeps his focus on the dial slowly working its way down. Once it almost reaches the last floor, I slam my palm against the emergency stop button. The lift jolts as I spin around to look at him.

  “What’s wrong?” I demand, folding my arms over my chest.

  His gold eyes cut right through me like metal shards. “Nothing’s wrong.”

  “Uh-huh. Then why do you look like you want to kill someone?”

  At that, he trails his gaze up and down my body; the muscles working hard in his face. “I’m just annoyed I don’t get to spend time alone with you. And whenever I do see you, I’m unable to protect you as I wish. The other men do not seem to have this issue.”

  My chest tightens at his pained expression. “You’re doing what you can to protect not only me, but everyone else in this prison. You have a lot on your plate, Gold.”

  He looks away. “It’s not enough.”

  I cup his hand in mine. “It’s all any of us can do right now.”

  If Gold agrees or disagrees with me, he doesn’t say. Instead, he reaches out to run his knuckle down my cheek and slides his fingers under my chin, tilting my head up. I always forget how mesmerising his eyes a
re until I’m this close looking into them. I can see my reflection in his vertical iris and my breath hitches when they dilate, intent on me.

  “Soon this will all be over,” he whispers, rubbing his thumb across my cheek, “and I’ll get you out of here. Perhaps you should enjoy your time away from me, because when I’m alone with you again, I will not be able to stop touching you.”

  A smile slides over my lips. “Are you feeling a little possessive over me?” I ask, recalling how livid he looked when he saw me with Axel. “You do know there’s room for only one dragon in my life, and that’s you.”

  Ever so softly, Gold leans down and brushes his lips over mine. I savor the warmth of him against me, the feel of his hand wrapping around my waist and pulling me to him. For a long while, we stay like that. It’s not until his watch beeps does he let me go with a frustrated groan. He brushes my hair behind my ears, then reaches for the emergency button and reactivates the lift again.

  “If I didn’t have to keep up this pretense, I’d lay you on this floor and make love to you so passionately that the air will be fucked out of your lungs.”

  Heat rushes into my cheeks as I grin up at him. “You know what? I think I’d like that.”

  He kisses me again before the doors open, and like the flick of a switch, his soft expression hardens into ice. He’s all business again as he leads me down the hallway and past the guards into the infirmary. My heart picks up its pace and only intensifies when I see Doctor Frank whispering into Eva’s ears.

  Her eyes slice through me the instant I enter the room. “Izora. How good of you to join us.”

  I roll my eyes and follow Gold over to her side. “Didn’t have much of a choice.”

  She ignores me and turns to the doctor. The door at the other end of the room, the one where Sage is being held, opens and my mother walks in. Her feet root to the spot upon seeing me and I meet her gaze, surprised by how ghostly pale she looks. My mother has always had a milky white complexion, but now she looks deathly and it’s made worse by the dark bags framing her eyes.

  A hint of smile graces her lips, but it falters when I don’t return it. Turning her attention back to Eva, my mother sweeps across the room.

  Doctor Frank pulls out a drawer in one of his many cabinets and slaps on a pair of latex gloves. When he turns back around, he’s holding a tray with a familiar syringe, and my stomach clenches.

  Gold stands at my side and watches the doctor approach me. I flinch at the size of the needle again. To my surprise, Gold presses a hand on my shoulder, and while it looks firm to the untrained eye, I know he’s just trying to support me.

  While Doctor Frank slides the needle into my wing and extracts blood, I grind my teeth and snap my head toward Eva, more to distract myself from the pain burning through me.

  “What are you even doing with my blood? I’m obviously not that important to you”—I glance at my mother pointedly—”otherwise you wouldn’t have me running around your playground trying to survive. So what’s the deal?”

  I hiss when the doctor yanks the needle out and Eva smiles at me. Turning to my mother, she says, “Meira, would you care to show Izora what her blood has accomplished?”

  My mother hesitates briefly before moving to the computer. I watch her scroll through the touchscreen, type in a series of passwords, then tilt the monitor towards me. Thousands of names chase each other across the screen. I don’t recognise any of them, but something tells me whatever the names mean can’t be good.

  “Many have died in preparation of the Age of Light,” Eva says, nodding at the hundreds of names marked in red font. “But with your blood, and the blood of someone like you, we have been able to erase the infestation that is shadowborns by transforming them into light fae.” She turns to me, her smile widening almost manically. “It was thanks to you, Izora. You helped us achieve what I have longed for my entire existence. No more shadowborns.”

  “Bullshit.” It’s all I can say as I shake my head in disbelief. “There’s no way you’d be able to do it. In your fucking dreams, more like.”

  Eva doesn’t look at me. “Go stand by the door,” she snaps at Gold, making my blood boil. She then looks back at me. “If you don’t believe your own mother’s research has been successful, why don’t you follow me?”

  I glance at Gold before following Eva and my mother into the other room. He’s looking right at me, his eyebrows drawn tightly together, and gives a reassuring nod. It helps as I walk into the next room to see what horror awaits me. Or rather, what horror has been done to my friend.

  Sage is still trapped inside the water tank, but there’s one major difference this time: she’s fae now. Silver wings float softly behind her along with her pink hair.

  Horror twists my stomach in realisation of Eva’s success. She has killed hundreds of innocent shadowborn just to get this. And what for? Because she hates us?

  “It has taken me multiple prisons to achieve this,” the princess says, standing beside me with her eyes on Sage. “But your blood has made their deaths worth it. There’s no sacrifice I am unwilling to make to protect the Forest from shadowborns.”

  “Why?” My voice comes out small, and I’m unable to take my eyes off Sage. Tears sting my eyes at the thought of her being tortured. She doesn’t deserve this. No one does. “Why do you hate us so much?”

  Now Eva looks at me, her smile vanishing. “It’s funny how you shadowborns were born from darkness and yet it was people like me who lived in your shadows.” Turning back to Sage, she says, “All my life, I lived in the shadow of a girl my father wished I could be, even before I was born. When the light is put up against that depth of darkness, there is no way to triumph without falling into the darkness yourself. In essence, I had to become what I am today to be seen.”

  “So you’re doing all this because of your daddy issues with King Ulric?” I laugh at her, much to the distress of my mother. “You’re a psycho bitch, but I’m not buying it. No. There’s more to it than that.”

  The black veins darken and pulse underneath Eva’s flesh. “I am doing what I need to do to ensure the safety of my kingdom. Shadowborns are a virus that must be stopped from spreading. It was a shadowborn who destroyed my life long before I was born. It is only fair that I return the favor by wiping out the very species she comes from.”

  I swallow the fear rising into my throat. “Corvina.”

  Eva nods. “Long has her existence haunted me, however that is all about to change. I’m going to put an end to Corvina, then I will crush every shadowborn that gets in my way.” She steps closer, bringing her nose inches from mine. “And guess what, Izora? It’s because of you I will be successful in doing that. I suppose I owe you my thanks. You are the one who made this happen.”

  My mouth opens to reply, but at first, no words come out. It’s like they’ve abandoned me as much as my mother has.

  “I won’t let you hurt Corvina or anyone else I love,” I tell the princess, looking her dead in the eyes.

  Her smile returns, even more patronizing than ever. “You already have.”

  At breakfast, a girl in a dark grey jumpsuit and wings like my own hurries past my table. Just as I stand to leave, she slides me a note and rushes off before I can ask her anything. I frown down at the parchment before quickly reading it while Luke puts my untouched food away:

  I barely finish reading when a guard kicks the side of my table.

  “Give me that,” he growls, snapping his fingers.

  I fold the note and look him up and down. I haven’t seen this guard before. Then again, it’s hard to tell since they all look the same with their uniform and helmets. However, based on his build, I’d say this the first time I’ve come across this delightful asshole.

  He pulls his taser out. “I said give me that, scumbag!”

  “Oh, look,” I say, ripping the note and blowing the pieces at him. “Magic.”

  I’m expecting his hand when he reaches out to slap me, allowing me to jump to the side. Wh
at I don’t expect is the boot that collides with my stomach and knocks the air from my lungs. I stumble back onto the table, gasping for breath while tears spring to my eyes.

  Sonovabitch got me right in the gut!

  Before I can react—because of course, my stupid ass wants to fight back—the guard is tackled to the ground. All six-foot of Axel hits the guard and his fist smashes down again and again until the guard’s face is covered in blood. Everyone gathers around to cheer.

  Guards rush to separate them. Luke included, though I see him kicking the guard in the nuts while trying to drag Axel off him. Everything’s happening so fast at first I don’t see the tendrils of smoke wrapping around Axel like a bullwhip. They pull him away from the guard and hold him immobile in the air.

  Another tendril snaps around the guard’s wrist and pins him to the floor.

  I look across the hall to see Gold standing with his hands raised, a look of murder burning on his face. His eyes move to my stomach, back up to my face, and then down to the guards.

  “Stand back!” Every guard in the room falls back at the sound of Gold’s voice. “Arrow, take that trainee to the infirmary and then bring him to my room. I’d like to have a little chat with him.” His words, dripping with venom, make me smile.

  I watch one of the helmeted guards, Arrow, drag his colleague off the floor and out of the mess hall. Hoping the asshole doesn’t fall and break his neck with all his stumbling.

  Gold releases Axel and sits back in his throne, his knuckles blanched white from clenching so hard.

  I’m okay, I want to shout at him, but I know I need to pretend to hate him. So I glare at him instead.

  “You should be resting,” I shout at Axel, marching over to check on him. I’m more concerned than angry to find him away from the infirmary.

  His face still flushed, the muscles working hard along his jaw, fluttering like crazy. “Now I’m glad I decided not to.” He spits blood out and wipes his swollen, bloodied hands down his white shirt, leaving a dark red streak.