by Katie May
"Oh hell no," I muttered before I could stop myself.
She laughed, a pure, jovial sound that made my cock twitch. It was the first time I had ever heard her laugh, I realized. Genuinely laugh. A full-on belly laugh.
And god, did I like that sound.
It was music, spun gold, and elicited goosebumps up and down my arms.
"Why are you laughing?" I asked hoarsely. I didn't want her to know what effect she had on me. Hopefully, she attributed my raspy voice to irritation, not lust.
"Because you're so transparent, Bash, no matter how hard you try not to be."
I quirked a brow at her, confused by those words, but she continued on before I could question her further. "Anyway, I picked you for a reason. I need to talk to you."
"About?" I asked. The live orchestra was playing a chilling melody that spoke of love and loss. I didn't know why music spoke to me the way it did, but I could get lost in the noise. It reverberated through every pore in my body, intricate stories being woven together with each slash of the bow against string. Each pluck of the guitar. Each pound on the keyboard.
What we were doing couldn't be considered dancing - more like awkwardly swaying - but it felt right. It felt like us. Her tiny body melted against my own as if she was made for me, and I, her.
Did I hate it?
Or did I love it?
Her warm breath puffed against my neck as she spoke; each turn of her head had her silky blond hair brushing against my sensitive, pebbled skin.
Fucking hell. Love and hate were so close together. I couldn't tell the difference between the two terms anymore.
"They know," she said breathlessly. Those words caused her lips to brush the hollow of my throat, and my breath hitched.
Don't cum in your pants, Bash. Don't you dare fucking cum in your pants.
That was a motto I never thought I would use in my life.
The mate bond made it so I couldn't get hard around anyone but my mate. Not that I would ever dream of sleeping with anyone that wasn't Z, but it could get damn irritating when I was trying to jerk one off. Instead, I had to fall asleep and allow my dreams to assault me until I was rock-hard and desperate to sheath myself in her delicious cunt.
Because apparently, I had dreams of the future.
And in those dreams, I was always with Z.
Happy. In love. Happy.
But was it real? Or was it the mate bond forcing us to feel that way about one another?
I couldn't discern, and I didn't want to look at it too closely.
"Bash," Z hissed irritatedly, oblivious to the direction my thoughts had headed. "Did you hear me? They know."
"Who knows?" I asked. Driven purely by instinct, I brought my nose to the crown of her head and inhaled deeply. Her newest shampoo, a gift from Lupe, smelled sweet - an ironic feat considering who the smell was coming from. I couldn't pinpoint the exact scent, only that it did things for me. Things that shouldn't be possible through a mere smell.
"Your parents. They know about the mate bond."
Her words smothered me - an avalanche I couldn't escape from. The rocks settled heavily on my chest, pressing down and cutting off my breathing. I pulled away from her slightly so I could see her face. Surely, she was playing some cruel, practical joke on me.
They couldn't know. Not them. My brothers and I had survived this long because we had no attachments besides each other. There was nothing we cared about, no one we loved, that could be used as bait. And the Kings weren't stupid enough to use the other princes as leverage, in fear of starting a full-on war.
"You're wrong," I said snidely before realizing how much like an ass I sounded. I blanched when her eyes narrowed, hands leaving my shoulders to rest on her waist. She canted her head to the side.
"I'm wrong?"
Okay, when a woman repeated your words back to you as a question, you knew you were in deep shit.
Scrambling to think of something to say, something that wouldn't bring about Z's wrath, I tacked on, "My father doesn't notice anything besides where his bed is in the room. I doubt he would've noticed."
Her puffy lips parted, a rush of air escaping.
"That may be true, but the rest know. Of that, I am certain."
"Did they say something?" I asked anxiously.
The Kings knowing...
That was the equivalent of standing in a battle field, a double-edged sword hanging over all of our heads. We were just waiting for the sword to drop and kill us all.
"That's where you come in," Z continued. Her voice was still icy, but she had once more placed her hands on my shoulders. Progress, though small.
"Me?"
I couldn't stop thinking of the implications behind the Kings knowing. If what she said was true, the seven most powerful men in the kingdom now had something they could use against us, the princes destined to either save the world or destroy it.
And if Z's life was hanging in the balance?
Well...we were sins for a reason, after all. Not one of us would hesitate to watch the world burn to ensure her safety. The Kings would know this and would use it to their advantage.
"I remember Diego..." Her voice choked over his name before she continued on. "I remember that he created a spell that could latch onto a mundane object, such as a flowerpot or a teacup, and you could hear everything from the room that item was in. Could you make something like that? Or more than one of something like that?"
I eyed the crazy girl warily.
"You want us to spy on the Kings?" The disbelief was evident in my voice. And the fear. Because what she was suggesting...it went beyond crazy. It was fucking suicidal.
"That's the only way to know what they're up to," she insisted. From the determined set to her chin and the steel glint in her eyes, I knew there was no talking her out of this. She would either do this with or without my help.
As much as it pained me, I knew what my answer would be. I would follow her through the fire if that was what she so desired. I had been burned before, after all. What was one more inferno?
"You stupid, crazy, reckless girl," I muttered beneath my breath. I rapidly shook my head from side to side, almost as if I could un-hear all the crazy nonsense she had just spouted. At this point, I wondered if she was trying to get herself killed.
Was it to teach me a lesson?
To show me how shitty of a mate I was?
"Will you help me?" she asked.
"Fucking hell," I cursed, piercing her with a glare. "You're crazy and psychotic, you know that, right?"
Her smile was luminescent, splitting her face in half.
"And I think you're crazy too. Maybe that's why the universe made us mates?"
God help me, the world was going to burn because of this damn girl.
SIXTEEN
Z
There were two things that the ladies of the ball liked to do: gossip and drink wine. While I wasn't the biggest fan of the first facet, I was a huge proponent of the latter one.
Smiling coyly at the women before me, I took a tentative sip from the glass. It had a strange, bitter tang to it, but it wasn't horrible. The bitterness was immediately soothed away by something sweet. Berries, if I remembered correctly.
Devlin had given me the drink himself, so I knew it hadn't been poisoned.
Poisoned. I scoffed at the word. Zack had claimed to have poisoned me at the fatal dinner, but I was beginning to believe it was the ramblings of an insane man. At the beginning, I had felt slightly light-headed and had coughed up blood, but the pain had long since diminished. I felt fine.
Poisoned. Zack had been full of shit all the way to his death.
Or had he?
Denial was a funny thing. You could bury the truth beneath layers upon layers of sand, but like with any treasure, it would always be uncovered. I, however, chose to stick my head in the sand, ignoring anything and everything that might have been contrary to what I believed.
I didn't want to think about Zack or poisons, cho
osing instead to take another sip of the sweet liquid.
I wouldn't have put it past the Kings to attempt to off me during this grand ball in my honor. Poetic justice. Even as I chatted, I kept one eye on the seven men converged in the center of the room. The Mermaid King had his arms wrapped around two petite females. One, I recognized as his wife, or at least one of them, but the second I knew to only be a noble lady. At least for the time being. There was no question that the Mermaid King coveted her. The Incubus King was sucking face with an unknown man, and the Shifter, Vampire, and Genie Kings were deep in conversation. I recognized the thick cloak of shadows as belonging to the Shadow King, and he stood directly beside the Mage one.
Bash's father's eyes were heavily lidded, head lolling against his chest. He looked as if he was seconds away from falling into a deep slumber.
I couldn't help but snort, a rather unlady-like sound, at the scandal that would cause.
"So, Zara...I haven't seen you around." The lady who spoke had orange-tinted hair cascading just to her waist. Her violet eyes indicated her to be a Genie. She had introduced herself as Cassie, the daughter of one of the nobles.
At my mates' urging, I had introduced myself as Zara. The world knew Z as the assassin. It was for my own safety, and my mates', that I kept my true identity as a secret. That wasn't to mean that the world wouldn't ever know - nothing stayed a secret for long in this fucked up game of cat and mouse - but it was vital that I didn't paint an even bigger target on my back.
For the time being, I was Zara, a rich heiress. The only people who knew differently were the Kings, their sons, and Axel, the old assassin to the kingdom.
"That's probably because I haven't been here before," I stated dryly. Cassie pursed her lips further. At this point, I was afraid they'll get stuck in a perpetual pout.
"I saw you dancing with Bash earlier," another female piped up. She had the glacial beauty and features that could only be descended from a Vampire. Her dark skin was unblemished, and her cheekbones looked as if they could carve ice. She was beautiful, they all were, and I felt insignificant standing beside them.
For only a brief moment.
Then, I remembered I could kill them in a variety of ways using only a butter knife as a weapon. Any and all self-consciousness diminished at the thought. Call me a masochist or a psychopath, but I felt myself preen at the mere thought.
That preen turned into actual fantasies of murder when the Vampire added, "He was a rather attentive lover. God, his cock was so long. And his hands..."
The ladies erupted into damn titters as my breathing sawed in and out.
Out of my peripheral, I spotted Bash standing against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest. He looked handsome, no surprise, with his blond hair slicked back and his suit accentuating each and every muscle. I yearned to memorize every inch of his body through feel alone. Every dip and crevice. Every bone and muscle. Every hair.
I also knew, without a doubt in mind, that he wished to do the same to me.
There were hundreds of beautiful women in the room, and nearly half of them were vying for his attention, yet his eyes were only ever trained on me. I watched, unbeknownst to him, as a simpering female put a hand on his arm and batted her abnormally long lashes at him in what she probably thought was a seductive manner. Before, he might've talked to her. Flirted. Flashed her a sultry smile that would have any woman throwing their panties at him. And then, he would've had no problem with taking her up to his room and lavishing her with all of his attention. Come morning, he would forget her name and dismiss her like yesterday's trash.
Now, Bash glared at the woman's offending hand, shrugging it off. She pouted prettily, said something inaudible to me from where I stood, and he responded with another incandescent glare. With what looked like a huff of indignation, she stomped in the opposite direction.
Towards Killian.
I didn't even bother looking at my Incubus Prince. I knew that both he and Lupe, who was standing beside him, would dismiss the female. It wasn't them that I was worried about. It wasn't them that I was focused on in rapt interest.
I knew in my heart that Bash would never do anything to hurt me. He may not have known it yet, but he was mine as surely as I was his. He may fight it till the very end, but there was no faking it for me. I could see it in his eyes when we danced.
With Bash...it was complicated. He was a sword that repeatedly threatened to be rammed straight into my heart. He wanted to hurt me only because he cared for me. A man like him wasn't used to having those types of feelings, so he hid them away. Brick after brick, impenetrable wall after wall, he hid himself from the world. Buried his head so far in the sand it was impossible to reach him.
Until now.
I didn't have weapons, but what little I did have was forged from steel of my own making. I was determined to break down his defenses as the other princes had done mine. Maybe, together, we could learn how to love.
I hated the direction of my thoughts. How cheesy they had become. How cliché. If anyone was to hear me, they would think I was a hopeless romantic, constantly sprouting sappy love poems.
Fucking Bash.
"Zara," Cassie asked coldly. "Are you listening?"
That was all said with feigned nicety. I had no doubt in my mind that she would say one thing and then do the opposite. Two-faced bitch didn't even begin to describe that woman.
"I'm sorry," I said, mimicking her tone. "I must've zoned out. What did you say?"
I knew that I had infuriated her. It wasn't often, I imagined, that people didn't listen to her. If she hadn’t had the signature violet eyes of a Genie, I would've suspected her to be an Incubus. That term could be used interchangeably with males and females, just as a Mermaid could be used for both a man and a woman. And Cassie fitted the requirements of an Incubus to a T.
"I was telling Odessa that I plan to...I suppose you could say seduce one of the princes."
This time, I didn't see red. There was no jealousy in my heart, only grim amusement. Taking another sip of my drink to hide my smile, I batted my lashes innocently at the Genie female.
"Why would you do that?"
"Because The Matching was a fuck-up," Cassie retorted, as if it was obvious. "They didn't find their mates, and all of their prospective wives ended up dead.” This was said crassly, carelessly, with no respect at all given to the innocent females who had died. Females who Cassie might’ve even known and befriended. It made me hate the bitch more. “They're probably so lonely, so sad, so scared. Especially since they haven't taken a lover in months."
"Oh really?" I asked, quirking a brow. Cassie nodded seriously, seemingly pleased that I was showing interest into what she deemed as important.
"Really. Bash over there used to have a new girl - or two - every night. Sometimes a man. He hasn't even looked at a female since the incident. Rumor has it, Bash was in love with one of the contestants that had died and now is unable to be with anyone else."
I nodded my head decisively, but my mind had latched onto the thought of Bash with a man. Why did that thought make me feel so hot and bothered? My nipples were beaded nubs, straining against my dress.
Clearing my throat, I nodded again. And again. I was practically a bobblehead at this point.
"That's very strange," I agreed, but internally, I was squealing. I knew Bash hadn't taken a lover in awhile, but hearing it confirmed made me warm and tingly. He may have claimed that he hated me, but behind that hate was desire too. Desire and kinship, two broken souls desperately reaching for one another in the dissonant chaos that was our reality.
"And same with Lupe and Ryland. Not a lover in months," the Vampire, Odessa, added.
"So which one will you try for?" I asked Cassie, just barely keeping my laughter in check.
"Obviously Bash," she sneered. Giving me a dismissive once-over, she nodded towards the far wall. "Go stand over there. I don't want to be seen with a human. I don't think even Bash would stoop that low."
/> I bristled, hands clenching into fists, but flashed her a singularly beautiful smile.
"You're right," I said softly. I wiped beneath my eyes with the pad of my finger, sniffing. "None of the princes would ever look at a pathetic human like me. I'm no one. Just a girl who happened to inherit a lot of money. Just a girl who wants to support her kingdom."
Sniffle. Sniffle.
"I'll just hide my face in the corner of the room, away from sight. Bash only danced with me because he pitied me. He doesn't care about me."
I turned away and marched towards the far corner of the ballroom. Only when I was out of sight did I release a twinkling laugh.
Just who did that girl think she was?
Insulting me, when I had walked in on the arm of the Shifter King?
Wanting to seduce my mates?
She was going to get what was coming to her, and I would have a front row seat to the show.
A masculine chuckle greeted me, warm breath coasting over my earlobe. That breath was replaced by teeth nibbling lightly, and I gasped, goosebumps erupting on my skin.
"If you choose to retire from killing people, you'll have a career in acting," Ryland whispered, amusement ringing his voice.
I snorted. "I don't kill people. Well...I don't kill people who don't deserve it."
I watched Cassie sashay up to where Bash was standing. He glanced over at her with distaste before turning his attention once more towards where I was standing.
"Do you want to get into an ethical discussion about killing?" Ryland asked teasingly. "When is killing justified? Does war justify killing? Does revenge?"
"Let's not," I suggested brightly, spinning in his direction. As always, there was nothing but shadow, misting over the floor and vaguely resembling the shape of a person. I reached a hand forward and was surprised when my fingers touched solid flesh. For some inexplicable reason, I had assumed my hand would seep right through. That touching Ryland in this form would be like trying to touch gas.
His breath hitched, heart hammering.
"Why do you always hide?" I asked softly. My hand crept up his shoulder, curving around the length of his neck. I knew his skin would be dark, nearly as dark as the shadows themselves. It felt like silk beneath my fingers, and I carefully moved my hand further up, until it reached his jawline. "You don't have to hide from me, you know that right?"