Chapter Sixty-Five

I can’t help but take pleasure in the way Remi’s eyes widen as she processes the significance of the bone knife. The shock that settles over her face is almost intoxicating. “That’s right,” I say, leaning in closer, my voice a low, dangerous whisper. “It’s carved from Riley’s bone.”

Her horror is palpable, a tangible thing between us. “I warned you,” I add, a twisted grin playing at my lips. The thrill of her fear is like a spark to dry tinder.

I let the moment stretch, savoring her reaction before turning away and sliding behind the desk. I begin to pen letters to various courts, my hand moving with a practiced, fluid grace.

Remi stands there, her voice shaking as she asks, “Who was Riley?”

I pause, the weight of the question hanging heavily in the air. Her gaze is locked on me, desperate for answers. I can’t ignore her, not entirely. “What do you know about her?” I ask, my tone cold but with a hint of curiosity.

Her reply comes quickly, “Only that she drowned two Priestesses during her ceremony.”

The memory stirs within me—a dark, twisted pleasure. Riley had always been fiercely defiant, even to the end. Kallias’s affection for her had been genuine, though tinged with his own bitterness. I remember the ceremony vividly, the way she fought so valiantly against her captors.

“You’re not wrong,” I say, my voice a mix of nostalgia and something darker. “Riley was like you—different. Fierce. But her defiance was a blade that cut through everyone.”

I lean back, my gaze distant. “She was unyielding, angry, and relentless. Except with Kallias. To him, she was like a sister. We all cared for her because of her spirit. But that ceremony...”

My hand absently caresses the knife’s hilt, my touch lingering. “By that point, we were all weary. Watching her spirit break under the water, held captive by those priestesses—it was brutal. Especially for me.”

I reach out and take Remi’s hand, tracing my fingers over her palm. “Riley was powerful, fearless until the end. The strength in her bones—it was incredible. Yet, despite her might, we couldn’t channel it properly. I wish we could have helped her fight instead of breaking her spirit.”

I shudder at the thought, then look at Remi, my gaze softer. “I’m grateful to have you here,” I admit quietly. “You bring a balance—fearlessness and gentleness intertwined. It’s why the witches were eliminated and why the Ceremony ended.” I turn to her, my voice firm yet soft. “Your softness, your ability to balance courage with kindness—that’s what made the difference. You cleared the curse from my lands, and for that, I’m eternally grateful.”

Remi's eyes, powerful as the ocean, rise to meet my own. "You're grateful for me?"

Such insecurity in those words. Such fragility.

I tuck a strand of hair behind her ear, my touch lingering. “You didn’t let your strength consume you. You’re beautiful in that way. It’s why I’m glad you’re here and not lost to anger.”

Remi’s voice is tinged with sadness. “It sounds like you cared for Riley a lot."

"I won't lie to you," I say to her. Remi is young and naive in many ways I take pleasure in, but she is not dumb. Nor lacking in emotional intelligence for that matter. "I did care for Riley, more than any before."

I sense heartbreak in my little girl's eyes. Heartbreak and something I can relate to more than most. The fear of losing somone you love. The dull gaze of someone who's experienced centuries of lonlinesess.

How Remi has experienced such turmoil in her eighteen years is a mystery I will never solve.

The Offering crosses her arms, then points her nose to the ceiling. "Maybe she could have helped you find your Pearl," she says with disgust, and the cuteness of it all has me trailing my palm over my cock.

"Jealous, sweetheart?" I probe, rising from my chair. I will the shadows in the room--my shadows, to curl and bend around my form, darkening the corner in which my scared little doe has run off into.

She shakes her head like a scolded school girl, a terrified one at that.

I tsk-tsk her, eyeing her evening attire. "Such adorable little things you've found rumaging through my closet."

The Offering looks terrified, beautiful blue eyes wide, but her gentle defiance still cuts through all the same. "I believe if you check in the inseam it will read the name Riley."

My tattoo'd hands rise on either corner of Remi, locking her into the corner. Her gasp comes out at the same exact time as the candlelight, all thanks to my imposed fear and power.

I lean over her trembling form. "Perhaps we should tear this one to shreds and fill up the wardrobes in my room full of new lacey things tomorrow."

I can feel her desire in the air, and her scent of wild bluebell, jasmine, and wood salt mingles in the air between us, all mine for the taking.

She tastes exactly the way she smells.

Grabbing her chin in my left palm, I tilt her head back and run my tonuge over the soft skin of her beating throat.

The Offering's moans make even my immortal heart stop.

I will claim her tonight, over Kallias, I'm sure of it.

"Your room?" Remi muses to the stars, "I'm afraid your brothers have already asked me to move in with them."

I stop my kissing immediately.

"They did what?"

Remi giggles in a way that makes my cock throb. She trails away from me, definetly trying to stick her ass out, and playing fucking innocent as she trails her fingers along the edge of my desk.

"I thought the desk in East Wing was your desk."

I throw my mental sheilds up to keep Remi out. Fuck our magic soul bond.

"Every table and chair and peice of furniture on this entire isle is mine by birth right."

"Really, Keiran?" The way she says my name as she bats those eyelashes threatens to send me spiraling. I'm swimming in rage and jealousy, barely able to keep my emotions in check and from shoving my cock in her cunt, before the tiniest sliver of dawn light sobers me right up.

"Do you own the twins beds?" The Offering pushes her hands into my chest, then pulls away. She's nothing more than a phantom wind on my favorite part and it's fucking breaking me apart.

Sunlight peeks over the horizon. I have sixty seconds, at best.

"Rhodes and Kallias, their beds specifically," a low growl rumbles in my throat. Daring little Offering Whore, she knows exactly what she's doing--exactly what she's doing to me, "those aren't yours, right Keiran?"

Remi eyes the sunlight, then me. "I guess nothing is really yours in the sunlight," she says, right before the world around us explodes in light.

Oh, she wants to die tonight.

And she just might.

In a flash of shadow and lighting, I gather all my power, throw my arms around Remi, and trip her with my right foot.

Together, we crash down, falling vertically to the floor as she screams and braces for impact.

But impact does not come.

Faster and faster we move throughout the portal, winnowing with the Offering shrieking and wrapping her arms around my body tighter.

Good.

I like them terrified.

I let us freefall until I'm pretty sure she's wet herself in fear, then finally crash us into our destination.

Remi's pink-cheeked from the humilation, but I couldn't give less of a fuck. I'm darker than Xaden when it comes to other males, the dumb little Offering was asking for it.

I am her King, her primary cock.

She doesn't move as she takes in our surroundings.

My tomb, sealed from the sunlight beyond, the tapestry of stars, and a four poster bed that does not belong.

Remi gasps, then sits up.

And before she can say a word I bare my fangs and bite the Offerings neck in my room, in my tomb, in Rhodes' bed.