Chapter 73: Chapter 73

KILLIAN

The atmosphere in my study when we finally returned to the palace sounded rather lively—a stark contrast to the turmoil swirling inside me. Lenore wasn't there, though. I couldn't hear her voice among the others, but I could hear movement in the bedroom's bathroom, so after stepping into the suite, I headed for the bedroom while Fabien and Aurel went into the study.

The lights were off and the curtains were drawn, leaving the room in near-total darkness. The only reason it wasn’t completely dark was because of the light filtering in from the hallway and that would be gone the moment I closed the door. Darkness didn’t really hinder my vision—I would still be able to make out shapes—but I didn’t want Lenore stumbling after she came out of the bathroom.

Was there a reason she’d turned the lights off?

I flipped the switch, flooding the room with light, and the moment I shut the door, she called out, “Killian?”

“Yeah?” I answered just before the bathroom’s door opened and she peeked out. Then she beamed and I found myself tilting my head slightly, the corners of my lips lifting.

“Give me a moment.” She disappeared back into the bathroom, shutting the door, and I walked over to the couches, dropping the bag in my hand onto one of them. My lady had asked me to buy her something sweet on my way back, and I’d complied.

A knock came on the door the next moment and I glanced at it before heading over, opening it to find Lenore’s brother on the other side. I raised a brow before remembering telling Lenore I’d try to get along with him, and I blew out a breath. “Hey.”

It was his turn to raise a brow now. “...Hey,” he replied before glancing past me while the people in the study began to filter out, heading for the suite door.

“She’s in the bathroom.”

“Oh,” he muttered the same time Aurora said, “Goodnight, Killian.”

I nodded at her, and when I turned my attention back to Lenore’s brother, a slight frown had settled on his face. It wasn’t directed at me—it seemed to be directed at my bedroom.

“Is something wrong?” I asked and he blinked as though I’d just snapped him out of his thoughts.

“No, uh…” He glanced past me again before heaving a sigh. “Tell her I’ll see her in the morning.” He didn’t wait for a response before walking off, and the moment he shut the suite door behind him, silence settled over the room.

I let it wash over me for a moment before shutting the bedroom door and heading for the bed, plopping down on it. What Fabien told me had happened in the morning resurfaced, and I gritted my teeth before it dawned on me that the only parts my mind had latched onto was my father summoning her and Sennet touching her. I hadn’t actually dwelled on why her father had come to the city.

Lenore had said her father didn’t care about her getting hurt, but according to Fabien, he’d come to get her out of the city. Apart from the fact that he wanted to get her out instead of her brother—who he’d already tried to protect by sending her here as their pack’s representative—one would think he’d have had a plan for what he’d do if he was told no. Not necessarily a violent plan, but a plan that ensured he didn’t leave alone. He was the only one with two children in Eyrosa, after all.

The sound of the bathroom door opening caught my attention, and I lifted my head from the pillow just in time to see her flick the light switch next to the bathroom, plunging the room back into darkness. I frowned. “Isn’t it too dark, my sweet?”

“It’s fine,” she answered. “It was just a bit too bright.”

“You could have just dimmed them.”

“Eh…”

I watched her as she slowly made her way over to the bed, ready to rush over if she stumbled, but she didn’t. She pressed a hand to my upper thigh like she was checking where I was, and heat spread through me like hot wax because if her hand had landed a few inches higher, she would have been squeezing something I had no intention of thinking about right now.

…Now I was.

“There you are,” she said, a lilt in her voice, before she climbed onto the bed, straddling me. I placed my hands on her thighs, and when I found them bare, I slid them upward until my fingers brushed the hem of her very short shorts.

“Here I am.”

She trailed her fingers down my face and the corner of my mouth twitched before she leaned down, pressing a quick kiss to my cheek. Then to my lips.

“Hey,” I muttered and she hmmed. “Cameron dropped by to say goodnight.”

“Oh?” She adjusted slightly, and my entire train of thought threatened to disappear when she settled against my cock. I bit back a groan at how agonizingly warm she was.

Fuck. “Fabien told me what happened this morning,” I said and she pressed a kiss to my jaw. “Uh, Lenore…” Keeping control was getting hard and I already was. She wasn’t making this easier.

She kissed me again, her lips warm and gentle against mine, before grabbing my right hand and placing it on her breast.

…Yeah, the conversation could wait.

“Gods, you’re soft.” I squeezed, drawing a moan from her, but just as I moved to flip her onto her back, a sharp sting on my neck cut through the haze clouding my senses.

My brows snapped together and half a second later, the scent of blood hit the air. Human and vampire blood.

Blue flames burst to life in my palm as I drew on the magic that constantly twirled beneath my skin, lighting up the room, and the source of the blood became apparent, even though I already knew. Me. Her.

Lenore was smiling and crying. She had a dagger in her hand—the one my uncle gave me—and it was pressed to my throat, but her other hand was wrapped around the blade, like she was trying to stop herself. She wasn’t succeeding.

“Lenore…?”

“Please.” Her voice broke on the word, and she leaned down to kiss me again. I jerked my head away, letting her kiss land on my cheek, while my hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. The moment I stopped her, her other hand tightened around the blade before moving to the hilt, using the leverage to try to drive the dagger down.

What… What was…

“You’re going to kill me,” I said, staring at her like I was waiting for her to realize what she was doing. She could—she was one of the only two people who could.

“I would never,” she cried, shaking her head, and through the fragments of my crumbling thoughts, realization. seized me.

Her eyes were dull. Unnaturally dull.

Mine widened. “No.”

My hold on her loosened for a split second and she drove the blade down. I moved, but not quickly enough, and the dagger caught the side of my neck instead.

A ragged hiss escaped me, the pain blinding—not because of the cut, but because of what my father had done to her.

I knocked her to the side and extinguished the blue flames in my palm before rolling on top of her, pinning her to the bed. As I pried the dagger from her hand, she screamed, thrashing wildly beneath me, and the sound reached into my chest, squeezing my heart in a vice grip.

I screamed too, at the helplessness crashing over me, and tossed the dagger far from us before reaching up to turn on the soft lights above the headboard. “Lenore,” I choked out, but her eyes still had that cursed, unnatural dullness. Pain clawed at my mind like a caged beast. “Lenore, please. Please!”

Mind control was tricky. For vampires, enough bleeding or death broke it. For werewolves, only the former worked, but it broke it all the same. Witches had never been mind-controlled before. But humans… there was nothing. It could not be undone.

“Killian,” she sobbed, and it broke something in me because it was both my Lenore and not my Lenore at the same time.

Heavy, frantic banging suddenly battered against the door and I jerked my head towards it. “Fabien!” I called, desperation lending my voice a raw edge, just before the door opened to reveal Calley who had a mixture of confusion and panic written all over her face. “Get Fabien!”