CHAPTER 18

Rune knocked once against the doorframe before entering. The peasant sat in the window staring out over his realm. He wondered what she thought of it. If she found the ever-twilight sky as soothing as he did and immediately growled at himself. He cared not if she found his realm pleasing.

Her torn robe offered him a view of the smooth skin of her back. The Ra'Voshnik rose, frantically circling his mind.Our queen is upset with you. Mend things with her. Rune dragged it down, silencing it. The fool creature would invite his death to his bed if he allowed it.

She watched his reflection. A defiant mask settled over her features as she straightened her back. "Are you going to keep me in this room forever?"

Ra'Voshnik seized on her word.Ours forever,it feverishly whispered from the depths of his mind. Rune muttered a curse in High Tongue. The way the creature fawned over this mortal was unacceptable. "Cooperate, so I can be rid of you."

She turned towards him then. The lightning in her midnight eyes flared, prepared to strike. "You do need me."

"I do not need you." The Ra'Voshnik fought him viciously, struggling to surface. It purred its desire, wanting her splayed beneath him. The misted veined shadows crept from beneath his eyes as he clenched his jaw, drawing it back. Rune thinned his lips. "You try my patience."

She raised her chin as though to claim she'd won and turned to stare out the window once more.

"What is your name?" When she refused to reply, he added, "Would you rather I keep calling you mortal? Or perhaps a pet?"

Her attention snapped to him. Her lovely lightning-streaked midnight gaze met him. She remained silent, likely debating her reply. Scheming minx. After long moments, she reluctantly answered, "Faye."

Faye, the Ra'Voshnik purred her name, savoring the feel of it on its tongue.

"You need to eat."

She glanced at the food then back at him. "I'm not hungry."

"If you are attempting to wait me out, you will find I am quite the patient man."

Her eyes narrowed at his remark. "You're not a man."

'No," he supposed he wasn't. "Not in your sense of the word." He glanced over the untouched food spread over the table, aware she watched his reflection. "Nothing offered appeals to you?"

"I don't eat any of that."

"Finish a meal, and I will allow you to pen a letter to your sister."

"I'll eat when I'm at my kitchen table."

His gaze flicked upward for a moment before settling on her again. "You will eat here. You have no choice in the matter."

She squared her shoulders and the corner of Rune's mouth lifted. Such a proud thing for having so little.

"You need me more than I need you."

Rune bristled. "I don't need you."

Faye leaned forward. "Then let me go."

"You shall be freed after my task is completed."

"What is the task?" His lips thinned at her question.

"You will eat when you are hungry." Rune turned. "I've arranged clothing and essentials to be brought in for you."

"I don't want it."

Rune spoke over his shoulder as he left her room. "You will wear the clothing I purchased because I need to look upon you."

Her spiteful words followed him into the hall. "No, I won't."

Rune stalked down the hall, away from the mortal. The Ra'Voshnik thrashed, infuriated to be out of her company. Tension filled him, his body taut and aching. Betraying him for her. Darkness helps the person who wields this spell. He would spend weeks drawing their death out.

He ignored the aching need gnawing at him. The desire to coax the fiery minx to bed and learn every inch of her. He wanted to blame his desires on the Ra'Voshnik he'd dragged into the depths of his subconscious. In truth, she affected him just as strongly.

Rune sat at his desk pouring through tome after tome long into the night. He closed the last book and rolled his neck, no closer to finding a race with her unique characteristics. He phased into his room, and his body went rigid.

Her clean, subtle scent intoxicated him. A night breeze through plum blossoms tempted him past reason. His fangs lengthened, sharpening for her. He closed his eyes and inhaled, resisting the urge to purr his contentment. He opened his eyes and exhaled, hating his body's reaction to her.

Rune couldn't help but wonder if he would miss it when she was gone? A foolish question. Her scent would be like every other after he freed himself of her. He stripped and got in bed. Tucking his hand behind his head, Rune stared up at the ceiling. He grew more restless and taut with each breath. Her scent lingered too near. Too familiar.

You long for her as I do.The Ra'Voshnik crept through his mind, prowling slowly, seemingly searching for the object of its lust.Give her the sister. Ask forgiveness.

You are too simple to see her for the death she is. This is artificial. A spell bound her to me. Rune closed his eyes, descending into himself. Meeting the Ra'Voshnik in his mind. Rune had not conversed with the creature in this manner since his youth. It unnerved him, now as it did then, to speak with the Ra'Voshnik separate from himself yet shaped and mirrored in his image. Their gazes were the only discernible difference. Where Rune's eyes were a pale blue, the Ra'Voshnik peered at him with its veined, misted shadowy gaze.

The Ra'Voshnik prowled closer. "Your pride and jealousy turned her away from us. You squander our gift. I will ask her forgiveness if you're too proud."

"You will do nothing." Rune would never surrender dominion over his body to it.

"You blame me, but at least admit the truth. We both grow hard, wanting our dark queen. I see your thoughts just as you see mine."

"You are depraved."

"I'm honest." It shrugged. "If you returned her sister, we could have our mouths on her soft flesh. Bring her into our mind." It smirked before continuing, "I would share her with you."

Rune's fangs sharpened. "You will not touch her."

It parted its lips and leaned closer, inhaling. "You taste jealousy. Hardly an emotion dignified of the great Shadow Prince."

"Be silent," Rune grated. It laughed as he returned to his physical body. Whispering even after he confined it to the recesses of his mind.

We are halves of the same whole. You will never be rid of me. It would be best if you learned to share, polished fool, because I will be taking our queen.

The thought of Faye beneath the Ra'Voshnik set him with a heated tension without an outlet. He may not be able to destroy the Ra'Voshnik living within him, but he caged it for thirty centuries and had no intention of allowing it near the young mortal.

He glanced to his side, remembering the dreams of how she curled to him in her sleep. Rune pulled his gaze from the empty place in his bed and closed his eyes. She could not be his. He couldn't have such an ill-suited pairing.

Fate would not slight him so badly.