Chapter 11 Chapter 11
KILLIAN
From when vampires were old enough to understand— if they were born vampires— or after they were turned, they were taught to fear or avoid sunlight.
It never got completely drilled into me though because I grew up watching my mother spend as much time as she could under the sun most of the time. She wasn’t unaffected by it; she could just spend a lot of time under it without the help of a sun amulet before it began to affect her.
I inherited that ability from her, along with her enjoyment of the sun.
I wasn’t enjoying it right now though because my skin had started to sting badly, but I refused to get out of it. I wanted the pain to keep my hijacked mind occupied.
Heaving a sigh, I rolled onto my back on the chaise lounge and lifted my arm to shield my eyes from the sun’s light just as that scent tickled my nostrils once more. I scowled. She had been teasing my senses ever since she ran into me last night and unfortunately, I relished it.
Damn witch. I should have killed her then.
I immediately felt like I was wrong for having that thought, courtesy of the nasty presence in the back of my mind, and I gritted my teeth.
I hated having my mind toyed with.
“Are you asleep?” came Fabien’s voice from my bedroom.
“Do you think I’d answer if I were?” I bit out, irritated at the unwanted feelings I was experiencing.
“You’ve done stranger things.”
I dropped my arm and turned to look into the room through the wide-open double doors. Fabien was standing as still as possible in the darkest corner and I raised a brow.
“Why are you just standing there like a messenger of darkness?”
“I’m not interested in being burnt to a crisp,” he replied, and I lay back once more to stare at the sky.
“Come over. The weather’s nice.”
“Sweeping my ashes off the floor won’t be.”
I glanced at him again. Then I got to my feet and headed into the room, shutting the double doors behind me, before he finally stepped out of the corner. When he let his hands drop from behind his back to his sides, I saw that the sun amulet around his wrist was glowing a bright red.
“What happened?”
He set his mouth in a hard line and fiddled with the amulet’s stone for a moment. “I fell asleep,” he said and I lifted a brow. “My windows were open when I woke up.”
I took a deep breath, clenching my jaw. I couldn’t think of who had done it between my father, my stepmother, and Sennet, but all of them would feel the consequence. Going after me was one thing but going after people I cared about was something I would not tolerate.
As I moved to walk past him, he stopped me with a hand on my shoulder. “Don’t. We just got back.”
“Is there ever an appropriate time to remind them that I’m insane?”
The corner of his lips turned up and he shook his head sideways. Then he cleared his throat. “The McGuire girl you asked me to look into,” he started and I slightly raised my brows.
I’d found out the witch was the human my father had ‘given’ me last night. Apparently, she didn’t work for my father—she was just the illegitimate daughter of a werewolf my father disliked, and that explained why he’d said I could have her.
It didn’t explain why she had been in my dream though.
“There’s absolutely no trace of spellwork around her. Not even the kind a werewolf has. I’m confident she’s not a witch, nor is she in contact with one.”
“What the fuck?” I’d expected that to be what he found, but I still didn’t want to believe it because there had to be a reason why she was in my mind.
It couldn’t be that I was just attracted to her. These feelings were too invasive and I didn’t even know her. I mean, sure, she was incredibly beautiful, smelled like a miracle, was as soft as the rain… I wondered how she’d taste.
Fucking hell!
“Are you going to tell me what she did to you?” Fabien asked while I shook my head sideways, trying to get my mind back on track.
Invaded my head.
How bright she’d been when I first saw her came to mind, and I frowned.
“Do you want me to take care of her?” he added.
The thought of him taking care of her—getting rid of her—horrified me. “No!”
Fabien’s brows snapped together at my outburst while I slapped my hand over my mouth.
Oh, no, no, no. I had to get a handle on whatever she was doing to me. Fast.
“Your Highness?” Fabien called, a hint of confusion in his voice, as I walked past him, heading towards the door.
“It's alright, Fabien. I'll take care of it myself.”
The largest painting that hung in the great hall was of my mother, and it was my father’s favorite. It was also one of my favorites, and it was the first thing I walked over to after I entered the great hall.
I must have been staring at it for a minute or more before I heard that grating voice.
“What are you doing here?”
My frown was instinctive, and I looked over my shoulder to see my stepmother walking toward me with her personal guard in tow. “You’re not to approach me,” I stated and her jaw clenched, but she stopped.
“Your father’s going to be speaking to some people here soon. He doesn’t want you here,” she gritted out, and I snorted before glancing around the hall.
All of the paintings here contained my mother. Even outside the great hall, most of the paintings contained her.
There was no painting of my stepmother in the palace.
“And the same goes for you,” I replied, lightly trailing my finger down the painting’s frame.
There wasn’t even a speck of dust on it. My father took care of everything that belonged to my mother like his life depended on it. And when my stepmother tried to take down the paintings of her after he married her, he’d taken her left eye.
Sadly, she hadn’t taken to wearing an eye patch. She used a marble eye instead.
For a moment, my stepmother looked like I’d struck her while her knight shifted nervously. After she regained her composure, she said, “You should leave.”
“You don’t even have a seat on the dais,” I sighed.
The dais in the great hall and throne room had four thrones on them—one for the King, one for the Queen, and two for the princes. My father had never let my stepmother sit on the Queen’s throne. He’d told her that as long as he was King, that throne only belonged to my mother.
“Maybe you should be the one to leave,” I added.
Anger instantly clouded her expression, and she opened and closed her mouth a couple of times while her eyes began to glisten with tears.
“Mother.”
I glanced at the doorway to see Sennet there and he stood straighter when his gaze met mine.
“Brother.”
I clicked my tongue, irritation pricking me at the interaction I'd witnessed between him and my witch just a few minutes earlier. Watching him touch her had angered me more than her toying with my mind did, and I hadn't realized just how much until I found myself burning his face.
He'd dashed indoors, obviously thinking his sun amulet had been drained, and I wondered if he'd figured out it was me, not the sun.
I headed for the double doors, pausing next to him. “If you took anything from the Queen’s vault, return it.”
I’d gone to my mother’s vault before coming here with the aim of finding something to rid myself of the blight that witch had put on me
The only thing I found was that several enchanted objects were missing from it.
My mother had left everything she owned to me, but my father also had access to the vault, so I figured Sennet had gotten his hands on his key somehow. He was the only one who would dare take something from it.
“I shouldn't have to tell you to keep your hands to yourself.” I wasn't just referring to the enchanted objects and this time, I didn't mind the possessive feeling brewing in the corner of my mind the witch had made her mark in.
She was mine, after all.