I cracked my neck as I waited for everyone to leave, running my tongue across my teeth. I’d put a subtle detection spell in place the moment I’d cast the silencing bubble. I didn’t take chances on being spied on. I also knew exactly who had spied on me because I recognised the magical signature the spell had sent back to me.

I moved to block the exit then turned my head to where I knew Elise was hiding behind the boiler.

A dark smile pulled at my mouth. “Come out, come out wherever you are.”

She shot forward in a blur and I lunged sideways, catching her arm and throwing her against the wall. I boxed her in against it, dipping my head as I stared down at my prey. And fuck I was already hot for her. My knuckles curled up and the word pain throbbed as keenly as lust. But I knew exactly which one I wanted to give to her most right then.

Her lips parted and her pupils were dilated. I didn’t know if that was because I’d caught her or if it was because she was turned on by how close I was to her. Probably both.

“Spying on me for the Oscuras, little lamb?” I snarled. “I gave you a free pass at that shithole club the other night and this is how you repay me? You should be down on your knees begging to suck my cock in exchange for your life.” Now there’s a sexy as fuck image. Not that I’d get her to kneel for me with any real ease. But the look in her eyes was worth the comment.

She stood up straighter, gathering herself together like I wasn’t effecting her, but it was too late for that. I’d seen the fear, the lust, the temptation.

“I’m gonna guess that’s what you were hoping for with this little stunt,” she said airily.

“My little stunt?” I scoffed. “You’re the one who snuck down here to listen in on a private Lunar meeting, baby. Maybe you should remember who you’re talking to.”

“And yet you didn’t call me out in front of your friends, oh mighty Lunar King.” She twisted a lock of lilac hair around her finger and I had the urge to grab hold of it myself and tug. “If you knew I was here the whole time, then why not punish me in front of them and stop me from hearing your diabolical plans?”

“Maybe I want to punish you alone,” I growled, crowding her in so her chest was crushed by mine. She licked her full lips and a groan almost escaped me as I imagined her tongue rolling around my dick.

“Or maybe you just hoped to keep up the pretence that you don’t trust me,” she continued. “Because let’s be honest, you know I’m not Oscura aligned, Ryder.”

“So why are you spying on me?” I demanded, pressing my hands flat to the wall either side of her.

“I saw you sneaking down here and got curious.” She shrugged like it was so simple. But it was anything but that.

“Do you think your pretty face is safe from my fists, Elise?” I growled close to her mouth, because fuck I wanted to see her quiver. I wanted her to feel my power right down to her bones. “I’d beat you like I’d beat any other Fae who betrays me.”

“Who said anything about betrayal?” she asked sweetly, biting down on her lower lip.

Fuck, I swear she was doing it on purpose. She arched her back so her tits pressed against me and a groan of longing escaped me.

Her mouth twitched victoriously. Shit, did I just show her my cards?

“Want to know the truth?” she whispered, tip-toeing up to speak in my ear. Her breath on my neck might as well have been a handjob for how hard it got me. I was going to need my blue balls surgically removed soon if she didn’t do something about them. But oh wait, she can’t fucking do shit about them, can she? That deal with Inferno was fast becoming the bane of my life.

“Tell me,” I commanded, only I didn’t. It sounded softer, like a purr instead of a roar. It was unlike me at all.

“You didn’t turn up to class and maybe I was one percent worried you’d gotten yourself buried in a ditch somewhere last night,” she said, leaning back and letting me see the truth of those words in her eyes.

I battled the shit-eating grin that wanted to take my lips hostage. “I’m the one who does the burying.”

Elise was worried about me. It made me feel warm. Too pissing warm. What the fuck is wrong with me?

I pulled at my collar, stepping back. “So you have a soft spot for me, do you? Do you have a wet spot for me too?”

“Fuck you,” she laughed then she gave me a curious look. “So why do you even care about going after Felix so much? Isn’t he the Oscuras’ problem?”

I pressed my lips together, frightened of her hearing the truthful answer to that question. The fact that Felix had offered me Mariella made me certain he knew where she was. And rather than doing his dirty work to pay for her, I planned on hunting him down and torturing the answer from his lips.

I shrugged at Elise. “He’s an Oscura. I want them all dead.”

I stepped back but she caught my arm to stop me, a knowing look in her eyes. “Really? Because I owe you a thank you over an Oscura.”

“Why?” I grunted.

“For Dante,” she breathed, her eyes searching mine. “You spared him.”

A hiss escaped my lips. “I wouldn’t use those words.”

“Then what words would you use?” She gave me a stern look and I ground my jaw.

“I was after Felix last night, not him,” I said simply. But why had I spared fucking Inferno? I’d firmly decided not to think about it or deal with it since it had happened. Maybe it had been the desperate look in Elise’s eyes. Or maybe I knew on some level that the only Oscura who deserved to be calling the shots in their clan was Dante. I wanted an equal opponent, not an underhanded piece of shit like Felix. I’d gutted men like him amongst my own people. They were worthless rats who lived for blood no matter whose it was they spilled.

“You could have gone after both,” she pointed out.

“Drop it, Elise,” I snapped and she rolled her eyes.

I turned my back on her and started walking out of the room. I wasn’t going to punish her anyway. She was right, I’d let her listen in on the meeting. Because for someone unknown mindfuck of a reason, I trusted this girl.

“You coming?” I called.

“Oh is the mighty Lunar King inviting me somewhere?” She shot to my side with a taunting grin.

She might have been calling me that sarcastically, but fuck if I was going to make her stop.

“I need you for something,” I said with a shrug.

“Well I’m gonna need a bit more information than that, Ryder.”

“Your loss then.” I upped my pace and she kept to my side with ease as I headed up the stairs. I threw the door open, marching across the foyer and causing a couple of freshmen to scatter like ants around me.

I headed along the ground floor corridor toward my room and was surprised when Elise followed me all the way there.

She leapt into my way before I could open the door, tilting her head to one side as she stretched her arms across the doorway.

“Tell me,” she demanded playfully. “Or you’re not getting in.”

“I’ll just force my way in,” I said in a low tone, moving up into her personal space. “Or is that what you want?” I eyed her full lips with a hundred filthy thoughts racing through my brain.

She took my hand, drawing it to her mouth and grazing her fangs over my knuckles. The sensation daggered right down to my dick. She’d picked the word lust to toy with and I wondered if she’d done it on purpose. A groan of longing escaped me and I leaned in closer, part of me on the verge of forgetting this deal with Inferno and just taking what I wanted. What she clearly wanted too.

She lowered my hand, twisting away and pressing my palm to the door so the lock admitted me. Then she shot inside with her Vampire speed and I grunted in irritation before following her into my room.

“So what is it you want me to help you with?” she asked and I looked up to where she was lying on her back on the bunk above mine, her legs bent and her skirt having slid up her thighs.

“With my aching balls ideally, but that’s not an option.” I headed to my desk, opening the bottom drawer and taking out the kit I kept there.

“Maybe you should put them on ice?” Elise teased as I turned to her with the box in my hands. Her gaze fell to it and she sat up with an inquisitive look.

“Come here,” I ordered, placing the box down on top of my desk and flipping it open.

She shot past me, looking into it while I pulled my shirt off behind her. I might not have been able to fuck Elise, but this was going to come pretty damn close in my books.

Elise gasped as she realised what was in the box. “You want me to-”

“Add a new tattoo to my collection, yeah,” I said with a smirk.

“I’m not a tattoo artist,” she laughed, turning to face me. Her eyes immediately fell to my naked chest and I swallowed as her gaze raked over the myriad of scars which covered my skin.

“Ryder…” She walked forward, lifting a hand and pressing her finger to one near my collar bone. She traced the crescent shape with a look of pain in her eyes. “How did you get these?”

I shrugged, my heart tearing open and weeping blood as the truth washed through me. But she didn’t need that truth. It was in the past. Done. Forgotten.

Her lips twisted as she continued to brush her finger over my scars, the touch feather soft, but agony raced through me at the memory of each one. I drank it in, letting my magic reserves feed on it, but this wasn’t the kind of pain I liked. Especially not when it came from me.

I took hold of her wrist, guiding it over my heart and using her outstretched finger to paint a cross there. She glanced up at me under her lashes, remembering the moment up on the hill overlooking the lake when she’d painted a cross on my heart in a promise that said she wanted the real me. Not just the venomous creature everyone else got.

“That’s what I want the tattoo to be,” I said.

Her eyes widened as she nodded in understanding. This tattoo was for her. It didn’t need to be said. It was fucking obvious.

“I know it’s just a cross, but I’m not gifted with art like my brother…” she trailed off, chewing on her lip. “I don’t want to fuck it up.”

“You won’t,” I growled firmly.

She shifted closer with a thoughtful look, her hand moving to my sternum where a jagged line marred my flesh. “I’ll do it on one condition.”

“What?”

“You have to tell me where you got these scars,” she whispered

I tried to swallow my tongue and when that didn’t fucking work, I nodded, giving in. Because fuck it, if she really wanted to know, she could. I just hoped she didn’t see me as weak when I was done.

She spun away from me, moving to the tattoo kit and I stepped forward to help set it up. Once it was ready, I taught her how to hold the needle gun and figured that was good enough. I trusted Elise. And frankly, so long as she was causing me pain, a shitty tattoo was going to be worth it.

“Lie down then.” She pointed to my bed and I fought a grin so hard I nearly popped a blood vessel.

I dropped down onto my bunk and Elise brought the tattoo gun with her, the canister swirling with black ink and the glitter of magic. I waited for her to decide how she was going to do this and when she swung her leg over me, straddling my hips, I just about came.

“Fuck, Elise,” I breathed and she gave me a mischievous look. She leaned forward, using the cleansing wipes to clean the area of my chest she was going to brand.

Of all the marks I had, I wanted this one more than I wanted to breathe in that moment.

She held the needle over my heart and I inhaled as I awaited the kiss of pain.

“Start talking, Ryder,” she purred, switching the tattoo gun on and skating the needle through the air, never letting it touch me. She dipped lower and the sweetness of her breath made me hungry for her mouth. A mouth I could never claim so long as the deal stood.

“You’re a prick tease,” I said.

“By the stars, was that a joke!?”

“No,” I said immediately.

“Yes it was,” she sang, grinning from ear to ear. Fuck, it felt good making her smile like that.

“Just get on with it,” I demanded. The buzz of the needle set my skin alight with need. I wanted to bleed for Elise.

“Not until you start telling me about these scars,” she insisted.

A hiss of frustration escaped me. “Fine,” I snarled. “An Oscura gave them to me.”

“You’re going to have to be more specific.” She held the needle poised and a sharp pinch in my chest made me desperate for it.

“I need pain to talk about it,” I said seriously and her brows stitched together.

She lowered her hand, pressing the needle to my skin and I sighed as it bit into my flesh and gave me the relief I needed.

“My father was murdered by the Oscuras,” I said, watching her for her reaction but she kept her expression neutral and her eyes on the needle. “A few months after Inferno’s father lay in pieces, the Oscuras set a trap to catch my father. They rounded up every woman and child amongst our people that they could and demanded my father come and give his life in exchange for theirs.”

Elise’s brow creased, but she didn’t say a word. I guess she knew I didn’t want her pity. And I was glad.

“He never told me the truth,” I said darkly, my insides twisting. “I found out everything that had happened a long time after. Most of the Brotherhood walked with him to his death to support him. He sacrificed himself to save our people.”

“The Oscuras let them go?” Elise asked, the needle slicing into me once more.

I nodded, but my jaw was tight. “They had another angle,” I growled. “While the Lunars were away and I was left at home, Inferno’s aunt, Mariella Oscura, came for me.”

Elise remained quiet, waiting for me to go on.

“A group of Oscura assholes broke into my house and I fought for my fucking life against them. But my magic hadn’t been Awakened, I didn’t even have my Order.” My skin prickled from the memory. Who I was today pivoted on that moment. If I’d been faster, if I’d escaped…maybe I wouldn’t be so empty now, so broken. “I was thrown in a van and taken to Mariella’s house on the outskirts of Alestria. And that’s where I stayed for fourteen months.”

“Ryder,” Elise breathed in horror, her hand halting.

“Keep going,” I demanded and she pressed the needle to my skin again, making me relax. These memories could only be relived through pain. I needed the outlet. I hadn’t spoken about this since I’d told that bitch of a school counsellor, Miss Nightshade. And she’d never gotten the details, only what was necessary. I’d told her over months, giving her pieces here and there. But Elise would get it all at once. I had no fucking clue why, but telling her this didn’t feel like being eaten alive by hungry ants. That was how it had felt telling Nightshade. She’d had no right to know my past, but it almost felt like Elise already owned it.

“I was put in a room with no windows…” I shuddered as I remembered it. It was a room I knew like no other. Every corner, every mark on the wall, every tile on the floor. “It was as if she’d made it for me. There was a slot in the door for food, a metal toilet and one blanket.”

Elise pressed her free hand to my chest and the warmth of her palm spread into my icy blood. “Let me see,” she breathed, placing the tattoo gun aside.

I flicked my eyes up to hers and showed her the room through a vision, letting her into that cold, nightmarish place for a few seconds. I felt her body stiffen and a growl left her throat. When I released her from it, her fangs had extended and there was a savage look in her gaze.

“Go on,” she hissed, continuing the tattoo.

I cleared my throat, focusing on a spot over her shoulder as I continued. “She started torturing me daily. At first, I thought she wanted information on the Brotherhood, but it soon became clear she just wanted to break me.” My heart cracked like aged stone and I ignored the sensation, hurrying on. “She’d burn me with fire crystals, freeze my cell and leave me in it for hours with no clothes on, she’d cut me with a blade made of sun steel then leave my skin to scar.” It was one of the few metals in the world that could leave a permanent mark on Fae. The FIB were the only fuckers permitted to have blades made of it; it was created for killing Nymphs. But the Oscuras had always been able to get their hands on anything they wanted. “She never went far enough to kill me with any of it, and she healed me any time I got close.”

Elise inhaled deeply, tracing her fingers over one of the scars on my chest. “Fuck, Ryder…”

I bit down on my tongue hard enough to draw blood and let the sweetness of the taste roll through my mouth. The needle wasn’t enough. Nothing was enough.

“Eventually, she started letting me out of that room. But I had to behave. I was so fucked up by then, I was just happy to get out. She gave me better food when I was out of there, and she started…” I frowned, suddenly fearing what Elise would think of me when she knew all of this.

She cupped my cheek, making me meet her eye. “I won’t judge you,” she swore, painting a cross over her heart and the gesture meant everything to me. It was ours. It meant trust.

The rattle in my body buzzed in time with the needle. “She started being nice to me. She’d stroke my hair, kiss my cheek and embrace me when I was well behaved. But if I ever upset her, she’d put me in this wooden box in the garage. She’d fill it with water until I half drowned, let her car engine run until I almost choked. One time she put razor beetles in with me.”

Elise sucked in air between her teeth. “How did you escape her?” she begged, her eyes glistening. A tear slid down her cheek and I frowned, reaching up to rub it away.

“Don’t cry for me, Elise. I’m not worth your tears.”

“You’re worth every one of them,” she insisted, pressing down harder with the needle and drawing a groan from me as pain scattered through my body. Her hair fell forward to caress her face and shadowed the agony in her eyes. “Keep going.”

I took a heavy breath because this next part was probably the most fucked up of all. “You may judge me for this, but after a while Mariella became the centre of my life. She’d trained me like a fucking dog and I started begging for scraps from her. I craved her soft touches and gentle kisses. And after a while…her touches became sexual.” I pressed my lips together, anger rising in me like a tide. Disgust. I’d only been fifteen for fuck’s sake. “For a while I’d been so broken, I’d forgotten who I was. I forgot she held me captive.”

“I don’t judge you,” she breathed. “I can’t begin to understand what you went through.”

“The day I escaped, I was lying in the box, waiting for her to start her torture. She started humming this tune-” I stopped, swallowing down the rage which was biting at the insides of my flesh like a hungry fire. The rage that had never left me since that day. “It was a lullaby my mother used to sing to me. The Mountain Boy.”

Elise’s eyes widened. “My Mom used to sing that to me too. On top of Fable, he lives alone, with only the mountain to call home,” she spoke the words.

“But when the wind howls, he hears them call. His family waiting in the squall,” I finished for her, darkness washing over me. “I snapped when I heard that. It was like a switch flipping in my head. Anger consumed me, clinging to every nerve in my body until it felt like my soul was burning its way out of my flesh. But it wasn’t that. My Order Emerged. A ten ton snake ripped through that box, crushed Mariella’s car and coiled her up in its scales. I had her. But I was disorientated as fuck. I couldn’t get a handle on this new beast I had control of. I hissed at her and spat venom, pure fucking Basilisk venom. It burned into her skin, her face. It would have scarred her for life, but I wanted more than that. I wanted every bone in her body broken, I wanted her screaming until I drank in every drop of pain she had to offer. My Order needed it. I could sense it in me, this new dark desire. But she was a trained Fae. She cast a shield of ice and made her escape out the door. I knew if I didn’t leave then, she’d capture me again. So I broke my way through the garage door and made it down the street before I managed to shift back into my Fae form. Then I ran until my feet were bleeding and I couldn’t fucking breathe. I ran until I found my way home and discovered everyone there had thought I was dead.” I took a deep breath, returning to the present. “Felix came to me recently and promised he’d give Mariella to me if I killed Dante.”

Elise inhaled. “Holy shit, and what did you say?”

“I said yes,” I growled then I barrelled on before she lost her shit over that bit of info. “But I don’t like being told what to do. So I changed my mind. I’m going after Felix instead and when I catch him, I’m going to torture her location out of him.”

Elise’s lips parted and she turned the tattoo gun off. I eyed the black X across my chest with a swell of pride; I’d wear this mark for her.

“You definitely undersold yourself, this looks fucking perfect.”

Her mouth pulled up at the corner and she tilted her head to admire it. “It does look pretty good actually.”

I went to get up, but she shook her head, her eyes commanding I stay in place.

“Don’t move,” she whispered, leaning in so close I could count every freckle on her cheeks, see every fleck of tropical green in her eyes.

I couldn’t fucking breathe.

She brushed her lips over mine and it took everything I had not to reciprocate that kiss. A kiss that would break my deal. But she’d never made any promise not to kiss me. The feather light softness of her mouth sent warmth into the deepest regions of my body.

It felt like healing.

“One day you’ll kill her,” she said as she drew away. “And I’ll stand at your side while you do it.”