Draconess
Chapter 22

“Are you nervous?” Rey asks, his hands so still by his side, it gives me the impression I’m in even more danger. It would be far more comforting if he fiddled with something, or looked away from me. You know, so I didn’t feel like the absolute centre of the universe when he stared at me like that. It was unnerving. His unexpected presence in my room was also unnerving. I didn’t know what to think, other than I was at my wits end.

“Of course I am,” I respond smoothly while slowly walking to the fire... one step... another... I glance at Rey and then at the fire, then back into his silver, black inked eyes, “...you’re my new King and I wish to please you.”

My whole plan was simple since storming from the dinner with Zarcar and Lixar, just to meet Rey alone in the bed chamber, completely unexpected.

So. I had to bluff. Everything. Even though I knew nothing; thanks to Zarcar’s limited teachings.

“...and why would you be nervous if you never heard of my army or kingdom before Zarcar over ran Swendula?” Rey asks with the slightest jut of his chin. This was a test.

“People fear what they do not know,” I answer quickly.

Rey doesn’t respond right away. He watches me as I keep glancing at the fire, hoping it provides some sort of distraction. I watch the flames lick over the logs and I feel comforted. I was drawn here. It felt safer than the icy cold aura leaking off Rey’s entire physique. His pale skin was deathly white. His black hair was well kept, his suit just as un-offended by the weather or the earth.

It’s like nothing touched him

Or he wasn’t of this land. This earth.

Rey strolls towards the window and my eyes zone in on his steps. Quick and simple, he looks up at the night sky and one of the eeriest smiles I’ve ever seen, tugs at the corners of his mouth until he’s smiling at the Moon.

I wait, licking my suddenly dry lips... as Rey continues to stare at the Moon like I would. My fascination with the moon was something only I enjoyed. Watching it for hours at a time.

“Rey,” I speak his name, lightly and he turns to me with a sexy smile and a raised brow.

“...yes?” he seems extremely pleased that I’ve asked a question. That I’ve been forward and decided to direct the conversation.

“Are you a demon?” I try to keep it a light question, as I was genuinely curious. I knew he was described as the bastard son of a demon but that is all I knew.

As the words leave my lips... the masculine chatter on the rooftop seems to come to a dreary halt as if magic encases our conversation to hide it from prying ears.

Rey’s lips twitch down, for a second. He watches me as if I’ve probably asked the very question that would get me killed. I stop breathing as I witness him glare at me with such hate. Such loathing, rolled into arrogance and disbelief... until he pauses a moment longer as if realising I was indeed innocent in asking the question.

“...do you feel it...?” the Immortal King whispers the question, but it hits my ears in a direct hiss.

“Feel what?” I ask, too tightly.

“The Awakening?” the King tilts his head further to the side, his locks of hair strangely unmoving in the wind before he starts closing the distance one step at a time.

My eyes zone in on his feet, covered in black shoes that were so shiny I could almost see the moon reflected back at me. I only glance up when he stops just in front of me, enough to give me the slightest feeling that I could jump away if I wished to try.

But I had the inner knowing that it was the very reason to stay still and prove him wrong.

I didn’t know what the Awakening was, other than Rey mentioned it when he half choked me at the throne in front of thousands of Swendula citizens.

I say nothing and Rey’s eyes flick over my face, reading every movement of my eyes, how many times I blink or pause my breath.

“Chyronex,” Rey continues for me, “Do you truly know nothing?”

“I know I am your Slave Queen,” I answer promptly, “...and I must do as you say.”

Disbelief, again, strikes across his features as if Rey is fighting his need to hate every part of me.

"Then why don’t you kneel and prove it to me? You didn’t kneel when you saw me, did you?” Rey’s voice is animalistic. It’s not rough, it’s purely words loaded with promising death.

Quiet. Obey.

I drop to my knees without question and I lower my head.

“...why do you lie... Chyronex?” Rey asks, in a completely different tone, “Why are you lying to your King?”

“Do you wish me to defy you?” I ask while staring at his boots, “I wish to only please my King, my Warlord and my captors in war.”

“Captors in War,” Rey catches onto those words as I stay kneeling at his feet, “...that is indeed appropriate. I need to know you will be willing to do as I ask. For any task. At any time.”

“...yes,” I fight the one word response out past my lips. I wanted to yell and scream that I already knew this. I wanted to ask why the hell he was in my room and why he doubted every word that fell out of my mouth.

“You promised me you’d be a good little Slave Queen... I expect you will be in time. I have a task for you,” Rey changes his tone, to professional, “You’ll learn to shift with Lixar tomorrow and then you’ll show me tomorrow night. I wish to see you form completely for the first time. I need to see your real intent. Your truth is not present in this form. You’re a lie right now. Pathetic.”

My hands clench into the bottom of my red dress over my knees and I grit my teeth together. I don’t say a word. I can’t or I might just break apart.

Rey squats in front of me and I dare look up to see him, levelling his face with mine, smiling warmly.

“...how... badly... do you want to slaughter me?” Rey asks, raising a brow, “Have I angered you, my Queen?” I open my mouth and he holds up a hand and one finger, waving it side to side, “...be honest... or else...”

“I... do not... understand...” I murmur the broken response, a growl permeating through each thing I say, “Anything you say. Everything about you confuses me.”

“That’s because every part of you that wants to kill me is reflected in my own blood, every part of me, Chyronex, wants to kill you,” Rey informs me gently, as if speaking to a child, “Instead, I’ve chosen to generously keep you as a pet.”

I pause as he does, his eyes... for some odd reason... replace my lips and his own pulse from light pale pink... to a full red bloom of blood.

Blood.

He drank blood.

This was getting dangerous. He was too close.

“Perhaps we can be friends,” I gulp as I say that and for once Rey seems taken aback, he even jerks his head back with my words, holding in the start of a loud scoff of confusion.

“...excuse me?” Rey asks, quietly, “Are you damaged?”

“What?” I ask, confused.

“Your mind, is it damaged...?” Rey is truly curious as he leans in, his nostrils flaring as he sniffs my hair line at my forehead, “...no...”

What in the world?

I wait.

I purse my lips as he eventually stops sniffing me.

“Don’t worry,” Rey laughs over the top of my still and kneeling form, “...I’ll leave you be now...” Rey starts to rise, but then his hand reaches out and a cold palm brushes under my chin, his fingers curling and pulling me up with him, to stand opposite. I huff out a breath and face him bravely as Rey leans in to my trembling lips. He smirks, hovering inches... then eventually a hairs breadth from my face... he just watches how I squirm internally. Say something. He does, but not before Rey sneaks in first. My whole spine nearly jumps out of my skin when he brushes his lips against mine. I shiver visibly, my whole soul distraught by the action, “That feeling,” Rey doesn’t blink, “Is what I felt when you said we should be friends. One last thing,” Rey pretends to go in for another peck and I jerk back. He holds my chin tighter but he doesn’t fulfil the second kiss. He just wanted to see me jerk away. Rey drawls as a final order, “You’ll fuck my Warlord tonight... keep him happy... and focused... won’t you, Draconess?”

What kind of question was that?

“...uh...mmm...,” an easy, awkward, answer from me. A truth and a lie.

“Good enough for now,” Rey finally unhands me, like I’m disgusting and hard to be around for too long. He backs off a few steps, “...over time, when I suggest you fuck them, you’ll obey without any kind of...” he seems to realise how my eyes widen when he said ‘them’ as in plural, and not just - “...hesitation.”

Rey’s eyes focus on my neck as it pulses... it’s his version of a farewell and then he just stalks past me.

Getting away.

Quick.

I can’t even make words pass through my windpipe, my throat is so tightly shut.

His words hit too close to home to all my insecurities.

...over time, when I suggest you fuck them... you’ll obey without any kind of hesitation.

Them.

It all makes sense now.

I hear Zarcar and Lixar finishing off a conversation above, oblivious to what happened down below as if Rey had been the one to use magic to seal off our own private conversation.

I head to the door and shut it tight.

Rey was building a large, unconventional Venatores with plans to have three Mystifyers present, yet only one could be my mate of choosing.

Except that was what it was meant to be.

Traditionally.

And Rey had other ideas.

I was not happy.

I wasn’t sure if it was abhorrent... or just overwhelming.

A Slave Queen.

In Rey’s eyes, I was going to do more than just fight for him.

I turn to head for the bed, raising my eyes... that’s when I see it.

The black rose.

On the top of my wardrobe.

From Rey.

The last time I was given a single rose from Zarcar, I knew what that entailed.

To make matters worse, that reaction from Rey pecking my lips wasn’t disgust as I had first thought. Even Zarcar assumed Rey had certain ‘types’ of women. Mages. Mortals. But that tiny kiss was filled with disgust at himself.

Rey wanted me badly. I knew it. But he was going to play with his food first. I knew it wasn’t his top priority, however, and that was my only advantage.

I could focus on what it meant to be an Awakened Draconess... and try to make that seem like the most important thing for all of them.

But... there was also the final pathway.

I could run.

It was seeming like my only options were narrowing down to that one alternative.

Escaping; before I became a mindless toy for all of them.