What Lurks Between the Fates (Of Flesh & Bone, #3)(51)

The cream of the soup was pleasing, thick and flavored with a subtle hint of cheese as I ate it spoonful by spoonful. Around the table, small talk resumed as the Fae ate, but I ignored them in favor of making quick work of my meal. I wanted to eat my fill and return to my rooms as quickly as I could.

I sputtered as a hand touched my thigh. The thin fabric of my dress did next to nothing to keep the violation from sinking inside of me. My spoon clattered against my plate as I dropped it, turning an incredulous look to Malachi, who smiled at me as he leaned in. Turning my head away, I flinched back from the feeling of his lips brushing against my jaw. The faintest bite of his teeth touched my skin, hard and threatening, as I chanced a concerned glace toward his queen.

“He wants to fuck you,” Mab said with a shrug, bringing another sip of wine to her mouth as I did the same. The wine went down hard as I swallowed, fighting back the urge to vomit up my dinner. “And they want to watch.” She nodded to the table, to all the guests who I realized were watching Malachi rub his nose against my jaw.

It felt like a tease, like he meant it to be affectionate. But he and I both knew it was a deception; we both knew how much he hated me for killing his brother.

Fucking me wasn’t about sex. It wasn’t about my body or any sort of desire. It was about violating me, about having the part of me his brother hadn’t successfully taken.

“That didn’t work out so well the last time,” I snarled, leveling him with a glare.

His eyes were hard as he stared back at me, his mouth twisting into a cruel smile.

“This is a formal event. He won’t be attempting to achieve that in the same manner his brother did. All you need to do is say yes, and he’ll make it feel good for you. He’ll lay you out upon the table, and your pleasure will become our dessert,” Mab said as Malachi slid his hand higher on my leg.

His fingers brushed against the highest part of my thigh, making me reach down to still his hand with a tight squeeze. I dug my nails into his hand, relishing the feeling of his blood beneath them as I broke skin.

“And if I say no?” I asked, pursing my lips. Saying yes would never be an option, not when the thought of anyone but my mate touching me made me both murderous and sick to my stomach.

Mab shrugged. “Then he’ll hurt you. Dinner requires entertainment, wouldn’t you say? As the new Fae to join our table, it is only natural that you should provide it tonight.”

She stared back at me, her will pressing down on me. She wanted to command me to allow myself to be violated, and I suspected it had even less to do with me than I’d originally expected. Allowing myself to be violated would punish Caldris. It would hurt him and break him.

Silence passed between us as she waited for my answer, as the table of Fae I didn’t know watched and waited for the answer I would give.

“I will never willingly allow anyone to touch me who is not Caldris. You know that,” I said, raising my chin to her in defiance.

Malachi sighed, lifting his hand from my thigh. He pulled a dagger from his sheath, cutting the fabric of my dress sleeve and tearing it off my body as the shimmering feeling of magic coated the air.

The last time I’d felt something similar, Caldris had revealed himself at the battle in Calfalls, dropping his glamour for the first time. I glanced around the room, looking away from Malachi as he pressed the tip of his blade into my wrist. As I watched, Mab waved a hand toward a male on her other side. The glamour faded off him, disappearing into wisps of shadows that floated away. My mate’s eyes stared back at me; the other Fae male having vanished as the glamour melted away to reveal him.

“You two are dreadfully boring, always choosing loyalty,” Mab said, the faintest hint of a pout in her voice.

“Then perhaps you should move on from this tedious game,” I said, wincing as Malachi slid his blade beneath my skin.

He cut through it carefully, making a circle around my entire wrist as I bled onto the white plate beneath me.

“Perhaps we should cut the bond from your skin. Will you still be Fae Marked if we do?” Malachi asked.

He slid the flat edge of the blade into the gash he’d cut in my skin, slowly fileting it off my wrist. Nausea swirled in my gut. The bright, searing pain of his blade sent a ripple of fire straight to my head. My arm felt as if it were on fire, the agony so intense that my vision went white.

I gritted my teeth, swallowing against the pain and refusing to scream as my skin was folded over itself and he made quick work of taking it in a layer back toward my elbow.

“It will grow back,” I said, my voice hitching with a pained moan.

Caldris remained silent on the other side of the table, his hands gripping it tightly. He would have fought Malachi had Mab allowed him to move. I could feel the fight in him, his interest in defying that command and the bond that kept him still.

I forced myself to smile at him through my pain, though I was certain it was more of a grimace. My eyes rolled back into my head as the knife carved closer to my elbow.

The vision that burst through my mind was of the night sky surrounding me, that void where I’d seen the golden eyed man. But it wasn’t him who waited for me in the flash of that moment. My mate’s face stared back at me in shock as he spun through the darkness.

I slammed back into my own body a moment later, Malachi’s voice hitting me over the ringing in my ears. He was oblivious to the shocked stare I turned to Caldris, to the open-mouthed expression he gave back to me as the pain returned in a single breath and tore it from my lungs.