Chapter Forty-Six
***King Keiran***
There is no one in the world that I hate more than Ryder.
And that’s saying a lot, considering I put up with the Demon Slayer. And the twins.
I haven’t seen him in centuries, but he pisses me off all the same. Back in my court, he used to hang around Xaden a lot more, in the shadows. And I suppose I could relate to them both in that way, for a while at least.
Ryder has always been the sick and twisted side of me.
I’ve walked a line, but even from a young age, he never even bothered with it. He’s done things that make my stomach twist in a knot, and we’re both immortal.
He’s been out for my blood ever since I claimed the Black Pearl. Each aisle is only granted two, and the other one had been lost for some time.
The Black Pearl is considered dark magic, but when I claimed it, Ryder went searching for something more powerful, something darker.
It’s hard to put into words just how twisted and cruel the essence of what he found out there is.
Whatever magic my half-brother possesses…it’s dangerous.
And again, that’s saying a lot. Considering my chosen brothers and I are professional mass murderers.
With this new magic, my brother is quicker than I am. He’s darting around me, and making fast and quick cuts through the mesh of my fighting leathers.
Alone, they feel like papercuts.
But again, and again, tearing into my flesh.
I’m going to lose my shit.
And if I lose my shit, so does my power.
And unlike my brother, I don’t care much for what comes out of me when I let my magic take over.
Or what’s left of it, anyways.
I have one blade poised to kill Ryder. He will not stand between me and my Black Pearl and ultimately my throne.
Twilight House, and its people, are not for his taking.
My Inner Circle makes quick work of the lesser males until only the one remains.
“Give it up,” Vienna says, as Xaden and the twins circle. “It’s over.”
From the blue lighting in the air, Xaden just barely has control of his own magic. His own deep and dark monster. I sense it in the air, and can nearly taste its urge for blood and fire.
“It’s not,” Ryder says, then turns to the twins. The one who’s in charge of them both. “Rhodes,” he continues, “If you want to finally leave him, like you told me all those years ago, now’s your chance.”
Dead fucking tension drops over the forest like a boulder.
“I’ve heard from my sources that the Witches are dead.”
He’s wrong about that. We have the last one cut up to pieces and barely alive in my dungeons.
“Come with me to my ship, back to the Lands Once Lost, I’ll give one of you a Pearl I’ve stolen, and the other,” my brother's blue eyes zone in on me. “Keiran’s.”
My fists nearly clench. How fucking dare he?
Kallias and Rhodes keep circling Ryder, weapons ready, but my magic is strong enough to sense that they’re talking together in their minds, considering their options.
I have always said in my court it’s every man for themself.
But still…would they really leave me?
If they turn on me now I swear to god.
Before either of them can answer, there’s a breath of spring air.
We all sense her before she arrives, even Vienna.
“K-Keiran,” her voice is as sweet as cherry wine, innocent as a zephyr. Beside Remi is her sister, Rose, a stark reminder of who she used to be before I came and stole her.
A pure white dress and a few flowers in her hair.
Remi will be happier here. Away from this violence and drama.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever felt love, but seeing my little doe with her innocent sister and a glowing white box in her hands…
My Pearl.
I’ve searched for it for so long that I almost don’t want to believe that it’s real.
“Are you sure?” I ask.
Remi comes closer. The box is etched with a language I once knew, but have long forgotten. I swear I can still sense the Witches on it.
The ones who came before the imposters.
When I found out what they’d done, masterminded stealing my Pearl to control an entire population, proclaiming themselves as lost gods, I’d gone and attempted to kill them.
It was then that they showed me the power of the conduct. What killing an Offering feels like.
I almost died from the first one and then had to spend the rest of my days drinking their blood.
To take what little the false witches offered me.
For so long I’ve felt so pathetic.
“Should I open it?” Remi asks, shaking the box upside down.
I take a quick note of Ryder. Rhodes does, too. “Not here,” he answers for me, eyes staring down at my half-brother. “We’ll open it back home.”
Remi nods at me, and everything is well. Except for the lingering tension in the air of what to do with Ryder, that and the fact that Rhodes just called Twilight House our collective home.
All I wanted for so many years was to have my magic back. And now that it’s nearly in the palm of my hands…I haven’t given much thought.
Kallias sighs dramatically. “Another prisoner for us to cut up.”
“Dude,” Xaden hits his ribs, “shut up.”
From the way Remi is staring at me, at the box, I don’t think she caught on to the fact about what we do to people who wrong us.
Let’s just make sure she never visits the Prison.
“Is that it, then?” Rose says. From her stare, and her tone, I know instantly she’s a bitch. “You're going back with them, with what’s coming?”
Remi seems to struggle to place her subservience. Me, or her older sister.
What the fuck did they do to her here? And why is she so suddenly…broken?
Remi plays with her hair when she talks. “I-I want to go back with them if they’ll have me.”
Fuck. Of course, this falls on me.
I do not feel like dealing with this Rose cunt.
“Well?” she prompts, crossing her arms over her chest. Still, I take note of her clothing, how simple and dainty it is.
Like Remi was.
“You’re home now,” I finally say. A King is a King because he must make hard decisions. A King breaks little girls' hearts. “Thank you for helping me restore my power.”
When I extend my hand to the little doe to take the box, she tucks it under her arm.
“I’m Commander of the Solis Legion now,” Rose says as if it’s some statement of great importance. “I took over for my sister after you murdered her.”
I examine my nails. “Oh, right.”
“Rose says that her spies report something is coming,” Remi says. “A war of blood and ash.”
I flick a piece of lint off my shoulder and look a foot and a half down at the little girls. “I’m familiar with the prophet, and Remi’s place in it.”
Both their eyes widened in shock. It’s adorable, really, save for the wave of questions that flow my way.
I physically turn away, but they follow, and to make matters worse. The mother has arrived, with another.
“What do you mean my daughter is a prophet?” The Queen of Solis asks.
Gods, I just want to go home, get my magic back, and beat up my well-restrained asshole half-brother. Is that too much to ask?
“Remi has magic,” is all I say, then go over to Xaden to help him clean up gore and bones and blood.
A heated argument ensues behind me as we work, and doesn’t fade, nor stop, not even as we bury the fourth body.
Finally, the twins, Xaden, and I have nowhere else to hide. So we turn to the four women who remind us so much of the ones we’ve loved and lost, and put our hands on our hips.
“You’re taking my daughter back,” The Queen issues. For some reason, she’s speaking to Xaden, not me.
“Last time I checked you wanted your daughter…not to get stolen?” I say.
The Queen’s expression does not let up.
“You’re going to train her,” the eldest says, "I think her name is Requaqua. Relala. Something like that.
I raise a brow. “Is that so?”
Four high-cheekbones nod.
“And what makes you think I’ll be willing to do that?”
“Because we’re keeping this,” the Mother says, taking the box from Remi. “And my firstborn daughter is your conduct.”
Something low and hungry growls in my gut.
“If you want to visit your pearl, you have to see my daughter.”
Absolutely fucking not.
I take one step forward, but Remi blocks my path.
“I’ve seen visions of war from Rose’s head, the memories, and projections she’s inherited as future ruler,” she presses her hand into my face, and I gasp. To touch me so publicly…
Visions flood forward.
Visions I’d soon wish to forget.
“I saved your people,” Remi says, straightening her back. “Now it’s time you teach me how to save my own.”
I eye the box of glowing white in the Queen’s hand. There’s no way I’ll be imprisoned again. No way I’m trading three false witches for three members of Remi’s family. I’ll kill every fucking one of them.
“I’ll train her,” Kallias says. “One week of the month, if Keiran allows, I’ll come here and train her.”
Something like jealousy flashes in my gut. And I never, ever get jealous.
All I can see is Kallias fucking Remi in this forest, in the throne room we wrecked with Vienna’s ship, her virginal, white bedroom.
“I’ll offer a bargain,” I suddenly say, just as Xaden is about to start forward.
From the moment I met her, I knew she was different. I don’t know what it is, but it’s changing me.
Changing all of us.
We all want her.
And the only way to play that out is to let the best man win.
“Two weeks of the month, she will come to my court and train with all four–five of us.”
Vienna smiles at me.
“In exchange, I want direct access to Rose’s memory. Every sighting she sees from whatever power she possesses. And all spy information.”
Besides me, Kallias slackens. Checkmate.
None of them can offer what a King can.
“And what do we get?” The Queen asks.
“A daughter who’s a weapon,” Rhodes answers, just quiet enough for us all to hear. “Strong enough to protect your people.”
“We want your army, too,” the cunty sister says. Remi seems disappointed that she's not valued.
“I won’t offer my armies,” I say back, “but I’ll set up a window for you in your castle so that if you’re ever under attack, you can travel directly to my lands.”
The Queen seems pleased with that, the sisters, too.
How typical is it for royalty to only truly worry about themselves? As soon as they hear about their own safety, the royal discards their youngest and walks back to the castle.
Guess we’ll really have to train Remi.
“I have rules,” I tell Remi. “Rules that are meant to be followed.”
“I can follow rules.”
“Yes, but will you?”
I am not a good man, nor have I ever claimed to be. But having her in our house two weeks every month. I want to train her to crawl on all fours to my cock.
And if I have my Black Pearl, the possibilities with her are endless.
“Fine,” I tell her. “You can come back with us now to gather your stuff.”
She smiles triumphantly up at me.
“Don’t get too excited,” Xaden says. “We’re all hard trainers.”
“I’ll just plan on making my trainers hard.”
Kallias reaches around and smacks Remi’s ass. She yelps in a cute way, then clings onto Rhode’s arm.
From a safe distance ahead, Vienna's audible groans.
How has it only been a few weeks of us knowing her?
She fits right in.
“Here you go,” she says to me when she passes. I smile when I feel the weight of the box.
There’s so much writhing energy in it I’m surprised the Offering could hold it at all.
But then again, Remi is no longer an Offering, but the Prophet.
“Thank you, my abducted,” I wink to her.
Remi laughs and throws her head back. “You’re welcome, my savior.”