Aed Ruad’s head was spinning even as he tried opening his eyes. His head still felt like a rock and his tongue appeared too swollen to talk. He swallowed saliva down his throat. And when he opened them, he couldn’t believe what he was seeing in front of him. Ileus and Anastasia were standing over him, watching his movement.
His senses stiffened, as uncertainty mixed with sourness and bitterness seized his chest. And fear. His fear was directed at Anastasia. Suddenly he knew that he was going to die and die at the hands of the woman he had enjoyed torturing. His eyes fixated on her.
Anastasia’s cool sapphire gaze shifted to her husband, but before she could say anything, Aed Ruad muttered, “I’m sorry,” his voice carrying tremor. His entire body had frozen not only physically, but mentally too. How did he end up like this? Where was he? And why was it that his hands and feet were tied, yet he couldn’t feel the bindings? The room he was in was too dark, save for a lone candle burning on a table, standing on its own melted wax. He heard feet shuffling and realized that Ileus had gone to sit somewhere.
“What are you sorry for?” asked Anastasia, a smirk forming on her lips.
Aed Ruad didn’t speak, his throat burning heavily not only with pain but with the bitterness and disgust that came with the failure of his plan. Where was his spy and the witch? He found her looking straight in his eyes.
“Did you think that it would be so easy to get to Iona?” she said, scoffing.
His gaze followed her as she walked up to her husband and sat in his lap. Ileus’s arms curled around her waist. His head turned over his shoulder and his black wings came into view. They were sprawled on the floor, limp less. He couldn’t even feel them and he wanted to collect them, tuck them on a basic instinct. How did he get into this situation? What about his disguise?
“If you are wondering how you got in this situation, let me tell you that it was very easy to recognize you,” said Anastasia as Ileus leaned against his wife’s shoulder and watched him. “The dagger that you had in your possession—the one tipped with poison… Well, it took merely two seconds for Ileus to steal it and poke you with it—in your buttocks.”
The sting of the bee. He stopped breathing. But he was disguised?
“We had come to know about you as soon as you entered the banquet hall with the trays of food. Ileus was over cautious about my safety and he had scanned the room again and again to find the threat. And just as he had expected, we found the danger lurking so close to us. Rest was just… fun.” She looked at her husband who pressed a kiss to her lips and then looked at their captive.
“What do you want to do with him, love?” asked Ileus, his golden eyes burning with fury. The man had dared to touch his mate, torture her and also forced her to marry him. Surely, his punishment was going to be slow and painful and he was going to be very creative with it.
“Anastasia…” Aed Ruad tried to say something but ended up licking his lips. Talking was too painful. The poison in his blood was lethal enough to kill the werewolf, but him—it would not kill him, but he didn’t know what effects it would have on him.
“Why don’t we make him an immortal like his mother?” said Anastasia, tilting her head to her side, exposing her neck to her husband.
Ileus kissed her there and inhaled her scent. “Not a bad idea.” He sucked on the marks given by him while glancing at Aed Ruad. Anastasia giggled. “Will that be all or anything else, love?”
“Hmm…” her feet dangled in the air. “We will send him to the celestial prison in Vilinski.”
“No!” Aed Ruad moved his head in a semblance of shaking it. His father must have reached the prison where his mother was. He didn’t know what he was doing to her. Watching his mother would be a torture. He wasn’t sure how far the wrath of his father extended. It was highly possible that Seraph might torture him too.
“Are you sure, cousin?” Anastasia said in a cold voice that carried a thousand ice crystals.
“Yesss…” He took a breath. “Please…”
Anastasia tipped her head back and laughed softly. She got out of her husband’s lap and went to the mantle. And right over there was her Evindal sword, in a cross with her husband’s sword. She drew it out, metal clinking against each other, small bursts of green and blue lights crackling. A smile came on her lips. “Do you know where Iona is?” she asked as she ran her hand over the blade. “She is with her husband, in Galahar, where she should have been—the queen of the demon kingdom.”
Aed Ruad’s eyes became wide. What was she going to do with the sword? And Galahar—Iona was in Galahar? But she was right here a day back, his spy had told him.
Anastasia ambled to him with her sword. She looked at his wings and then his hands. Her gaze was so dark that he quivered.
“We hadn’t revealed it to anyone that Iona is leaving. Ileus had asked us to keep it a secret. And why would anyone know what we are doing in our family?” she shrugged. “It’s no one’s business, isn’t it?” Her eyes went back to his wing—his right wing. He had slashed her right wing when they had just unfurled, cutting his blade through her bone. It bled and it bled for days. She had cried, she had suffered, she had broken.
Aed Ruad moved his head again in a semblance of no when he caught her gaze directed at his wings. “My mother—” he breathed out with a lot of difficulty.
“What?” Anastasia strained her ears. She knelt beside him, his wings near her knees. She swayed her sword over the wing carelessly.
Terror exploded deep inside him. “My mother— she wanted… your wing…” he somehow explained to her what he wanted to convey. It was his mother who wanted to slash her wing.
“Oh, I see!” she said with indifference. She dipped her chin and then fury rose in her eyes. The violet eyes speckled with silver behind them, her magic purring inside with revenge. “But you could have countered her.” She placed the Evindal sword in her lap, and as it laid in her lap, she once again brushed the blade softly. “Your own greed was far more than hers. You became ruthless enough to slash the wings of a fae that had unfurled for the first time. And then— and immediately after you took me to the Elders to shackle my wings. Do you know the pain I experienced?” Her wings rustled recalling the pain. The silver in her eyes became intense and pulsed out of them.
Ileus straightened in his chair, his breath lodged in his throat, feeling the frantic heartbeat of his wife.. He snapped his fingers.
