A Throne of Ruin (Deliciously Dark Fairytales – B&tB Book 2)

I pointed at the other two, their faces both square with the same dark brown eyes, the same points at the tips of their long noses—they looked like identical twins with different-length hair. One male, one female. “You two, let him go.”

They offered me the same sort of smile, delighted and condescending. They thought they were at the top of the hierarchy in this room.

“I don’t think we will,” Male Twin said. “He is giving us just the right amount of terror.”

“Hadriel, if you get access to your animal, will it make you stronger?” I asked.

“I think I do have access…” he answered in a quavering voice. “I feel him.”

“Will it make you stronger?”

Feathers drifted against the wall, trying to trap me between him and Female Twin. He moved slowly, as if I were a flight risk. I ignored him for now.

“Y-yes,” Hadriel answered, palming his chest. “Yes, it will.”

“Good. Don’t let them throw you out of that window.”

I fell into the fire pooling in my body, pulling it up and yanking it through my being. More power gushed in from Nyfain’s dragon—he’d clearly sensed our activity through the bond and was quick to help. Full to bursting, I ripped out my dagger and launched at Male Twin. He thankfully let go of Hadriel, who then tried to rip out of Female Twin’s grasp. As long as he didn’t go out the window, I didn’t care. I’d be on hand to help him when he needed me.

Male Twin pushed forward, reaching for me with outstretched hands. Claws curved down from the ends of his fingers. He was clearly trying to grab me. What an idiot.

I sliced his forearm as I happily accepted his open-armed embrace. Once within his reach, I stuck my blade into his side and ripped across. Skin parted and insides dumped out. I stuck him again in the breastplate and used my other hand to shove him back.

His expression was one of surprise. He staggered and then slumped, falling to the floor.

Hadriel struggled with Female Twin, slapping at her hands. It was a very odd fighting style. Great for distraction.

Feathers ran at me, his claws out and face a mask of violence. I stepped in at a diagonal, closing the distance between us. He slashed through the air, and I dodged the blow easily, faster by far. I struck, missing the kidneys. It would still hurt like the bejeebus, though.

He squealed like some sort of wild boar, bending and slapping his hand to the wound. I left him there and darted to Female Twin, who had just about gotten Hadriel turned around and her arm around his neck. That was exactly what I wanted to avoid. We didn’t need a hostage situation.

I ripped Hadriel away. He rolled across the floor, not much better at falling than he was at fighting. I shoved Female Twin against the wall and laid into her, stabbing multiple times in quick succession.

I felt the presence of the other being closing in behind me. A glance revealed that he was readying to slash me with his claws. In a moment of pure genius that I couldn’t have planned if I’d tried, I ducked and rolled. His hand sailed through the air, nearly raking across the slumping center of Female Twin. I popped back up and stepped forward, stabbing him in the back and dragging my blade across his spine. Steel hit bone. Damn, it was good to be super strong.

I pulled the blade free, adjusted my positioning, and got it right this time, sinking the blade into Feathers’ kidney. Then, because this was good practice, I dropped the dagger and palmed his chin the way Nyfain had taught me. I grabbed his head with my other hand and ripped up and to the side. The vicious crack gave me chills. He bonelessly slid to the ground.

Nice! my animal thought. Now you’re not so embarrassing.

I had to agree.

I retrieved my dagger and advanced on Female Twin. She groaned, struggling to stay to her feet. Fire still pumped through me. More power came in steady gushes—Nyfain’s dragon was going a little overboard, and my animal was not sending any back. The thrill of it sang in my blood. It filled me to bursting, stretching my skin.

I let out an inhuman sound, like a baby animal roaring, and struck her again with my dagger. It wasn’t enough violence, though. The rage burning in me was almost a palpable thing. Was this what the dragon felt all the time? Because it was intense.

I pulled the dagger back, dropped it to the ground, and grabbed her person. I ripped her into the air, held her over my head—because it basically felt like she weighed nothing—and tossed her from the open window. She didn’t even scream as she sailed, likely already dead. I rounded on the others, thinking of doing the same thing, when my heart fluttered. It left my body for a moment, then returned to beat. Left it again, and returned.

Nyfain was on the scene. He was coming in hot.

“Unlock the door, or it’ll get busted,” I said, a thrill of excitement coursing through me. I grabbed my dagger, used one of the demon’s shirts to clean it, and stowed it in its sheath.

Hadriel stopped staring at me with a slack jaw and moved to get up.

Too late.

The door blasted open, ripped from the hinges. The wood thunked as it crashed down, nearly hitting him.

Nyfain’s powerful frame filled the doorway. His eyes glowed, and I felt his power fill both of us. His dragon lurked near the surface, his presence throbbing. Man and beast set eyes on me as he crossed the space in a rush and wrapped me in his arms.

“Are you hurt?” He pulled me away a little to look down my front. Blood splattered my new top, heavier in some places than others.

“No. It’s not mine.”

He half turned me to look at my back before nodding and pulling me tightly against him again. I felt his shudder as he took a deep breath.

“Come on. Let’s get you back to your room.” He swung me up to carry me. “Get this cleaned up,” he told Hadriel. “Dispose of the bodies. Try to conceal their deaths if you can.”

“Easy for you to say,” Hadriel muttered, looking at the bodies. “They aren’t bleeding all over your floor. Hey!”

Nyfain stopped in the doorway and turned.

Hadriel met my eyes. “Thanks, Finley. I don’t know if they would’ve actually killed me, but they were certainly considering it. You saved me from a really bad night.”

“No problem,” I said. “Next time you get in trouble, just go ahead and scream again, and I’ll come help.”

“Oh great, yeah. Rub salt in the wound,” he muttered.

Nyfain walked past the onlookers that had pushed to the other side of the hall with wide eyes. Continuing down the hall, he held me tightly. My eyes drifted shut, our combined power still thrumming in my middle. His scent tantalized my senses, calling to me. His heat bled through my flesh.

I grazed my lips from the base of his neck on up, stopping by his ear and doing everything in my power not to run my tongue along the outside of his earlobe. He took the stairs quickly, and anger burned through what was left of his fear. He’d been afraid for my safety, something I hadn’t felt when in the thick of things. And now…

At the tower, he didn’t put me down, but held his hand out. He wanted the key.

“I can do it,” I said, coming to my senses and wriggling in his hold.

His anger fanned higher, burning through the bond. He left his hand out, waiting, not commenting.

“Nyfain, I can do it. Put me down.”

He dropped my legs, and my body swung down after them. He caught me before my feet hit, set me down incredibly gently, and then slammed me against the wall. He grabbed both of my wrists, pinning them above my head in one of his hands, and shoved his hand in my pocket.

“Are you serious right now?” I demanded, struggling to get out.

“When are you going to learn?” He found my pocketknife and moved on to the correct pocket.

He dragged me sideways against the wall so he could reach the lock and open the door. That done, he flung me over his wide shoulder and marched me through the door.

“When am I going to learn that you’re an overbearing prick?” I parroted. “I’ve already learned that lesson, actually.”

He shut the door behind us and then fit the key in the lock. He didn’t turn it, though. He didn’t lock us in. He crossed to the window with me still draped over his shoulder.

“Put. Me. Down,” I commanded through gritted teeth. My power pulsed.

His body froze, and the muscles flared on his large back. His arm came away from me slowly, struggling against my command.

“Now,” I said, adding more power.

His arm continued to peel away. He shook with the effort to ignore my command. I just pumped in more power, receiving an extra boost from his dragon.

Why is his dragon helping me boss him around? I asked my animal.

Probably payback for something Nyfain pissed him off about. Or maybe he thinks it’s hot. I get the feeling alpha dragons like their females strong. This one does, at any rate.

Nyfain’s whole body quivered now, but his arm still pulled away. His body bent to the side, and I slipped off, catching myself on the ground to keep from sliding along my belly and onto my face.

I stood and released my power, squaring off with his big body. He turned as well, his eyes golden furnaces. Rage blistered through the bond.

“What the fuck did you think you were doing leaving this room?” he demanded.

“Oh, nothing, just possibly saving the life of one of your staff.”

“I’m not talking about that. You were out with the everlass, weren’t you? Alone.”

I lifted my chin a bit. “Yes. We need more leaves, and you’re being a dumpty cunt. The job needed to be done, so I did it. I’m not in the habit of men escorting me around like I’m breakable.”

“Finley, your involvement with me has made you a target. Anything could happen to you out there. It’s not safe. I trusted you to stick to your room at night. If you continue to defy that trust…”

“What?” I curled my hands into fists. “You’ll lock me in here? Keep me hostage until your mood improves? Because you’ve been in a terrible fucking mood for sixteen years and counting, and I don’t want to wait another sixteen for you to get your thumb out of your ass.”

A vein throbbed at the side of his jaw. He stared at me with barely contained aggression. His imposing presence hammered into me.

I ignored the fear sparking within my gut. Fuck, he was intense. Instead, I wrapped myself in power and held my ground.

“You will let me escort you out,” he ground out.

“I will do what I want, and you will fuck all the way off. If I hadn’t been out there, Hadriel might be dead. Those demons might have moved on to terrorize someone else. I will not live in fear, Nyfain. I will not cower in my room and wait for you to hover around me like some sort of poltergeist fart. I can handle myself, and you need to step out of the way and let me. If you can’t live with that, tough.”

He leaned toward me a little, invading my space. Rage bled hot through the bond, spicy sweet. Electricity crackled between us, running across my flesh and pooling hot in my core.

“You will do as I say,” he growled, his rough voice tickling me just right. My breathing sped up, and liquid heat throbbed between my thighs.

I leaned a little toward him, our faces now inches apart. Rage and lust pushed its way through the link to me. From me.

“No,” I said through my teeth.

We stared at each other for a solid beat, and then his lips crashed onto mine. He ripped at my shirt desperately, yanking it over my head. With harried, desperate hands, I unbuckled my sheath and let it drop to one side, quickly working at my pants. His tongue swept through my mouth, and I tilted my head, keeping the contact as I bent and pushed my pants and underwear down. He spun me around and worked at the binding around my breasts. It was fashioned after my older set, something I could put on myself, and he got me out of it easily.

It fell down my front, freeing my breasts, as I bent to undo the laces on my boots.

He couldn’t wait.

His hands slapped down on my hips and he swung me around and forward. My palms hit the wall. He instantly thrust his cock into me, searing into my wet depths. He used his hands on my hips for more momentum, pulling back as he rammed in, slamming into me with hard, bruising thrusts. Taking out his anger. Giving in to his rage.

Tingles ran through me. Primal urges surfaced—the need to flee or fuck.

I chose fuck.

“Yes, Nyfain. Harder,” I said as I fell into my own anger and rage, basking in the unfinished violence of a moment ago.

Power bulged within the room. Our beasts pumped it higher.

He snarled savagely, pulling me closer with his hands as he thrust in deeper, his hips slapping off my butt. I used the wall as leverage to increase the pushback. The sound of skin meeting skin filled the room. His cock pounded, and I dropped my head as I soaked in the delicious friction.

One of his hands curled around my shoulder, and he held me against him while his other hand reached around and down, his fingers finding my clit. He massaged me, and his grunts of pleasure slithered across my flesh, heightening the rapture building within my body.

I arched, reaching back for him. He pulled out and pushed me toward the bed. My pants around my ankles tripped me up, and I stumbled. He was there, lifting me and throwing me onto the bed. He made quick work of discarding my shoes and tearing off my pants before kneeling between my legs and pushing my knees up. He punched his cock back into me savagely, rocking his body forward to get more strength. The jolt hit me just fucking right, and I arched into it, running my palms over my breasts and stroking my nipples.

His growl was soft and sexy as he pushed my hands away and paused in his thrusts to fasten a hot mouth to one of my nipples. He lifted his head as he sucked in a breath, leaning more heavily over me and hammering his cock home.

Crying in delight, I grabbed his shoulders and pulled so I could get my hands on his back, could scrape my nails ruthlessly down his incredibly sensitive scars.

He groaned, lifting his head back and roaring. His dragon clearly helped, because the sound echoed through the room. He laid his body on mine, pumping his hips, sucking in my bottom lip.

“More,” he groaned.

I scratched down his back again, moving against him. He snarled, his hips swinging wildly.

He pushed back to sitting and pulled me up with him. I sat down on his cock, and he squeezed me closer with his strong arms, kissing me fervently. I bounced on him, reaching down to work my clit. The pressure increased. My ardor rose. Our movements got smaller and smaller until I could barely stand it anymore, so wound up and in need of release.

“Come with me,” I said against his lips, rocking my hips, fingering my clit. Pleasure pounded through me. The feelings were so fucking amazing that I could barely stand it. And then, inspired by my animal, no will to trap the words behind my teeth, I said, “Come inside me.”

Our animals rose in a frenzy, blasting out their power. Fire flowed over his skin and sizzled across mine. He crushed me to him, snaking his hand through my hair and gripping tightly to keep me put.

“Fuck, I want that so badly,” he murmured, and it sounded like it was to himself. “Why can’t this nightmare ever end?”

He buried his face into the hollow where my neck met my shoulder, his lips flush with my skin. His teeth played with my flesh but did not push down. He pumped into me reverently, longing rolling through the bond, along with something else. A softness, almost. A sweetness that broke my heart and brought tears to my eyes.

He thrust again and groaned, shaking as he finished.

“Finley,” he said softly against my lips, holding himself deeply inside of me. That feeling from before washed through the bond again, followed by a longing so intense my tears overflowed. My animal’s power pulsed, feeling his dragon’s need to mate. Despite my thoughts on the subject, with their fervor filling me, I couldn’t help but come violently again, shaking and vibrating against him.

“Your animal is riding you,” he whispered against my lips, breathing heavily.

“Yeah. Ever since the whole tea thing. Don’t worry, though, it’ll totally be fine. Even if we were true mates, which we obviously aren’t, or there was some hidden thing in the curse, I doubt the timing was right. Or wrong, I guess. It’ll be fine, much to her dismay.”

“My animal is riding me, too. I’ll admit…if it were a different time, I’d tell you not to worry about the tea and just see what happened. But we aren’t living a life where that is possible, Finley.”

A breath whooshed out of me. Something tight and knotted within me loosened a little at his admission. His reaction the other night had been about timing, the same hang-ups I had. He hadn’t been rejecting me. Nothing changed about our situation while everything changed. Somehow, his admission made this all a bit more bearable, made me feel like I wasn’t alone in waiting for a verdict. He’d still been an ass, and he’d deserved my anger, but he wasn’t leaving me hanging out to dry. We were in this, all of this, together.

I clung to him tightly. “I know.”

“And our animals shouldn’t be in a breeding frenzy, anyway. That only happens between dragon true mates when they’ve imprinted and the female goes in heat.”

That stopped me up short.

I tried to pull away from him a little, but he held me firmly, his cock still deeply inside me, his body glued to mine.

“In heat? Okay, I know we’re shifters, but using terms like ‘breeding’ and ‘in heat’ is crossing the line.”

He laughed softly. “It wouldn’t be if you’d grown up around such talk. The animal parts of us can be…”

“Gross? Pushy dickheads?”

“Intense. Anyway, yes, there is a heat cycle, basically, where the female isn’t satisfied unless she’s getting the male’s seed in her constantly. I’ve only ever heard of a couple of dragon true mates, and apparently the men were not complaining about being needed constantly. The ones I’ve heard about walked around with tired smiles. Growing up, everyone thought it was an urban legend, but everyone wanted to be the guy to experience it. It almost always results in a young one, though, I’ve heard. Otherwise dragons don’t produce as much as some of the other shifters. Wolves, for example. They have numbers, and we have more power. It balances out in the long run.”

He rolled to the side, laying me on my back, pressing me into the mattress. He kissed me languidly.

“Our animals are feeding off each other, I think,” I said before nipping at his lips. “Yours seems like a headstrong jackass, and mine is eager for him to get his way. They don’t really give a shit about logic. They just want to bang.”

He chuckled. “I think you’re right.” His mood sobered. “I worry about you going out at night without me. It’s why I act the way I do. I’ve never been good at dealing with vulnerability, and you are my greatest weakness. I don’t want to lose you.”

I ran my fingers across his muscled arms, utterly spent in the best of ways. An aftershock shivered across my skin, and I let my eyes drift shut.

“You can’t watch me all the time, Nyfain. You can’t be everywhere at once.”

“I know,” he whispered. “But…can we compromise? Clearly I can’t force you to my will. But I can’t handle making another mad flight across the Royal Wood because I think you’re in trouble. It rips my heart out. I’m a strong man, but I’m not strong enough for that. It’s a danger to me as much as to you, if you care about that. I’m never focused on my surroundings when I’m running to you.”

“Of course I care about that.”

“So meet me halfway. Please. Tell me what you plan and let me try to at least be close by in case something goes wrong.”

I opened my eyes and took in his golden gaze—his expression, open and expressive, imploring me to see sense, or his version of it. I kissed his soft lips and slid my knees a little farther up his sides.

“Fine. But if you’re in one of your moods, you might need to settle for finding out in a letter.”

“A letter is fine. Send Hadriel if you need. Whatever.”

“I wouldn’t do that to the poor guy.”

He smiled, his gaze roaming my face. “Did you harvest?”

“Yes, but I didn’t get a chance to put them in water to keep them from drying. I also didn’t get a chance to pick from any of the crowded plants.”

“We’ll pick from them tomorrow.”

“I thought you were just going to stay close.”

“I will. Very close.” He pushed off me with a smirk, quickly bending to run his tongue up my folds and then flick my clit. It was so decadently filthy that I couldn’t help getting turned on again.

In that mood now, wanting to see where it would go, I reached down and ran my fingers through my deliciously used pussy, biting my lip. I moved the wetness up to my clit and stroked lazily.

“Fuck me,” he whispered, grabbing the bedpost. His eyes flashed with heat, and his cock started to rise. He glanced at the bared pink flesh between my spread knees and groaned.

“Maybe just come back and spend what’s left of the night…”

“You’re going to be the death of me,” he murmured, and shook his head. “I do want to stay, but there are still a few things I have to do.”

He leaned down over me and kissed me, long and slow, rubbing his fingers over my clit and down, dipping them inside me.

“Pleasure yourself when I leave,” he whispered, his lips against mine. “I want to feel it through the bond. Think of me licking your pussy when you do. I want to hear all about your filthy daydreams when I see you next.”

His fingers pumped a little faster, and I arched, my breath hitching.

He swore softly and pulled his fingers away. “I do have to go. I’ll put those leaves in water. Sleep, princess. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

“Will you ever spend the night with me? Or, you know, what’s left of it?”

He paused next to the bed. He ran his hand up the side of my thigh, over a hip…and then his touch skimmed my stomach, longing ringing through the bond again. Our gazes locked, our connection so deep that I fell in and lost track of the world around me. My heart squeezed at the warmth I saw.

I wrapped my fingers around his muscled forearm just to have that connection. To ground myself in him. I knew then that he felt the same way as me. Wanted the same things. Was equally cockblocked by the difference in our situations and maybe fate itself.

“I wish things were different,” he whispered, his thumb stroking across my belly.

I nodded mutely.

“But for now, I take delight in knowing that this…” He ran his hand down and rubbed his fingertips firmly at the base of my pussy, collecting our combined release and gently pushing it back into my body. He left his hand on me, and his eyes lit with a possessive gleam. “This is mine.”

My heart fluttered. It was hard to breathe. My animal purred in ecstasy, basking in his words and tone, in his possessive dominance. His dragon, very near the surface, flooded the bond with pride and approval.

I didn’t grow up knowing the shifters’ ways, but clearly I was getting a crash course.

“Yes,” I said softly, not able to fight it. Not wanting to anymore. My animal nodded in approval. Maybe now she’d get off my back.

He bent and kissed my lips, his fingers trailing back to my stomach. “I will stay with you soon, yes. I want more time to properly fuck you. Rage-fucking is fun, thank you for that, but I want the next time to be slow. I want to take care of all your needs and destroy you for anyone else. I might not get to keep you in the end, but I’ll make sure my memory is etched into your body, if not your mind.”

“Do me a favor?”

“Anything.”

“Stop bringing up that you won’t be able to keep me. I know you’ll have to move on, but I don’t want to hear it until I have to face it.”

He shook his head slowly, pain eating through the bond. “You have it wrong. I won’t be the one who moves on. Not ever.”

“More lies, right? Of course you have to move on. You’re a prince. You’ll find a noble girl of good standing and fashion and whatever else you social elite do, and either I’ll get lost or I’ll be your side piece. I’m definitely not going to be the side piece, so…”

He chuckled darkly and ran his fingers through his unruly dark brown hair. “You’re daft sometimes, you know that? My side piece? As if your animal would stand for that. As if my dragon would allow me to lie with someone else instead of you. No, princess, that is not how this works, which I have explained to you repeatedly. Do me a favor and take it in this time. I refuse to be your ruin, and if you stay here with me, that’s exactly what will happen. The second the curse is broken, the demon king will move in and kill me and everyone close to me. He’ll take some of the villagers as indentured servants and likely kill the rest, or give them to his demons as playthings. He’ll either move his people into these lands, or strip them of any value and leave them to rot. To stay with me is death.” His voice took on a hard edge. “I will not do that to you. When the time comes, you will leave me to save yourself and anyone you can take with you, and I will let you. Do I make myself clear? You are not trapped with me. But I am trapped with you. I refuse to claim you because I worry that the demon king will be put off by my scent and it’ll take away your only chance at a better life. I worry that I’ll become too selfish to give you up. I refuse to claim you because I…” He paused, his gaze intense, as though stopping himself from saying something. “Because I respect you too highly to drag you down with me.”

My heart ached and more tears filled my eyes. My animal did the equivalent of pacing, unsettled at hearing him say he wanted us to leave him. For her to leave the dragon.

“What makes you think the demon king will barter with me?” I whispered, so many emotions flying at me that practicality was the only thing I could latch on to.

“Because you are everything he will want. Fierce and determined and smart, as well as incredibly beautiful. Furthermore, you’re a shifter, and he likes taking proud magical races and demeaning them. He will make a trophy of you.”

“Fantastic, yeah. That sounds amazing. What an incredible future you have chosen for me, Nyfain.”

“That isn’t your future, Finley. That is your means to an end. You’ll barter with him to get out, you will endure unwelcome treatment within your gilded cage, and you will escape and find freedom. It is within your power. That is the only way you can stay alive. Above all else, you must stay alive.”

“Why does it matter to you so much?”

His eyes grew hard. He stared at me with a set jaw. “Because I will not see another prickly rose torn out by the roots. This time, I will not take the easy road while the people I care about suffer and turn to dust. This time, if there is to be a funeral, it will be mine, and I will die happy knowing I could at least give you the chance at a better life. I couldn’t save my mother, Finley, but as the goddess looks down on me, I will save you.”