Chapter Fifty-Two

***REMI***

After bathing and brushing my hair, I dress in a simple white nightgown and curl into a chair overlooking the city. The room is dark save for the glow of the moon and the flickering candles of Rhdoes bed. And I prop my feet onto the window and take a moment to myself.

Using my magic today, giving Kallias my blood must have taken more out of me than I realized, because at some point, I dozed off.

I wake a few hours later to the low lapping of the pool and the distant and ever-present rush of the river. The mountain air is cool and chills my skin like a healing balm.
Beyond the room, I hear the low drum of music and the inklings of a party in full swing.

Something dark and twisted curls in my gut.

The last time the boys had a party…I shudder, not wanting to remember what Kallias did to the girls in the maze garden.

I stand from the chair and walk across the huge room to the door. Beyond the wood, I can hear girls giggling, and it strikes a blade across my heart.

Did the twins really abandon me tonight for other women? For a party? After I saved Kallias’s life? Their life? Since I know that one couldn’t bear to live without the other.

And how the hell, in Keiran’s current state, is he hosting people right now?

Cold rage, unlike anything I’ve ever known, bubbles in my throat.

I’ve been walked on by people my whole life, used and discarded more times than I can count.

And for the first time in my life, I actually fucking care.

What did Keiran demand of me on this visit? That I sit still and be a good girl? I had been down for that when I envisioned us all…being together. But to come back here and have them fuck other women?

The disrespect…

None of them have been allowed to touch me without his permission, and Keiran made a huge spectacle of that. He even brought me before his men, the guards of the castle, and told them all one by one that they couldn’t touch me. That I’m his possession.

But of course, how foolish of me not to think that the same rules don’t apply to the Midnight King.

Rhodes had told me to wait in the bath until they told me to come out, then they went off and forgot about me, and I stayed in the water until my skin burned.
Not again.

I’m not a prisoner here, or to the bath, to the twins anymore. I’m here on my own free will and I will act that way.

I yank open the heavy door and step out into the hallway.

Smoke and debauchery immediately greet me, and I head straight towards the source.

When I pass by the study, Vienna is there, watching me silently. She says nothing as I stalk to the bar, pour myself a shot of whiskey, and throw it back in one gulp.
The redhead looks up from her book, then grants me a look that, drunk, looks something like either a warning or a ‘good luck.’

I choose the motivating interpretation, then head for the stairs with my chin held high.

It takes me six long, and cold minutes to reach the entrance of the throne room. I’m dressed in nothing but my usual nightgown, but the courtiers around me don’t seem to care or notice.

I have enough rank as Keiran’s whore for the crowd of vampires to part for me. And as I stalk through the crowd of people drinking and dancing, only one thought is on my mind.

War.

Because what do you know, on the raised circular platform at the far end of the room, surrounding Keiran and the boys, are at least a dozen gorgeous women.
A low growl burns in my throat.

The room goes silent as I walk to him, to them, walk up the sixteen steps that lead to the throne, and pause right before the couches.

The twins look up at me, not a flicker of emotion on either of their faces. There are several girls seated on or around the couches they occupy, but a healthy amount of distance between skin.

Xaden is leaning against a doorframe in the back, a cigarette between his lips. He looks utterly bored and is talking to a male I’ve never seen before.

He barely gives me any attention.

The Midnight King is on the throne before Xaden, a dark-haired girl on his lap The girl looks up at me like I’m nothing of importance.

Keiran and I lock eyes.

His face tightens are we take measure of one another.

I’m drunk. He’s drunk.

We’re all fucked.

I narrow my glare at him, crossing my arms, and trying to slow my heartbeat.

He leans in his chair, all too aware of the fact that he owns it, watching me with a mildly interested gaze.

He doesn’t have his Pearl yet. And although his magic is recharged, and somewhat restored, he’s not all-powerful. He relies on me, even though he won’t admit it, he needs my blood as a backup plan to drink if all else fails.

Which means, I realize, raising my brow at the King. That this whole court, this whole city, depends on me just as much as it does him.

At least for now.

Keiran widens his legs. I’m not sure if he’s doing it on purpose, showing off the bulge in his pants, but it’s enough to make me falter.

He has a cruel amusement, and I know he has a deep, almost primal want to make me his pet. To have me on my knees at his side and let him stroke my hair.

I push the vision back with as much force as I can. Keiran is in my mind, putting images of me and him fucking on that throne. Me watching him fuck the girl who sits on his lap.

My lips curl.

This is a dance of power. One of centuries.

And the King wants to see what I do.

There is a barely perceptible quirk in Keiran’s smirk as I hesitate, but then I straighten my shoulders and wipe the look off his face.

A slight curl of his mouth signals that he senses the shift in my demeanor.

He wants to play a game?

I’ll give him a war.

And with his temporary co-dependency on my powers, it’s now or never.

I run for the stairs.

Keiran tosses the girl from his lap to the floor, and she protests in a high-pitched yelp.

I can sense the Midnight King at my back giving chase, and the hairs on the back of my neck raise.

He’s twice the size of me, over six-foot-seven, and I am playing with fire. I can’t outrun him, not even if I want to, but I at least have the element of surprise.

When I reach the staircase for one of the exits of the castle, I tuck my dress under my butt and sit on the mahogany railing, then slide down its length.

When Keiran tries to snatch me, he misses me by an inch and I leap to the cold ground a few seconds later.

Darkness rumbles. And I swear, the mountain trembles as behind me, Keiran leaps from the second floor, to directly behind me.

I can feel him, just there, but I keep running, already set on my vengeance.

At the watchtower, there are six men on guard, dark and dangerous. Torches around us are non-existent, and the male I pick out is all shadow and edges.
I leap into the male's arms, wrap my legs around his waist, and push my hair off my neck.

“Drink from me,” I whisper into his ear, and the male beneath me goes rigid.

This isn’t about pleasure, or kissing, that would have never worked. But a vampire just inches between a pretty girl and her veins…any male would crumble.
Which is unfortunately for this one.

The male is seconds away from feeding from me, fangs bared when Keiran catches up to us and wrenches me away.