He laughed, like out-loud, grab-at-his-belly laughter. It hurt my ears and gave me those tingles down my spine in the bad way. The really bad way.
“Come,” he finally said when his eerie laughter ended. “Let’s dine together. In the meantime, someone will be in to fix up your room.”
He held out a hand for me – like just held it out, expecting I would take it. Worst part, a very small part of me did want to take his hand. The dragon mark on my back, which was large enough to encompass my entire side, was warm, like it knew its master was close by. The dragon king basically owned all of the dragon marked; we were his little army of brain-dead minions. He could control us, communicate with us, and lots of other joyful facts.
So far I’d heard or felt nothing of him in my head, I wasn’t sure if he hadn’t bothered to tap into the mark yet or if it was only something he could do in the Earthly realm. Either way, I was hoping like hell he would not use this connection between us. I would fight him to my dying breath, but if that control was wrested from me … shit. I was really hoping that would not happen.
I stepped closer, my booted feet kicking up a few planks as I plowed through them. I was still dressed in my dirty, torn clothes from the prison. I’d only been in Faerie for about a day, but it already felt like a year. Time moved so differently here; I wondered how much time had passed on Earth. I had no doubt my family was losing their shit. Braxton had probably already razed half of Romania to the ground. The other quads wouldn’t be far behind him.
I forced my expression not to change, eyes motionless on Larky as he waited for me. I managed to swallow down the flood of hatred that wanted to pour from my mouth. Acting nice might be my one chance of catching him off guard.
“I’ll show you where you can get cleaned up,” he said.
“A shower?” I asked with a dickish level of false enthusiasm. Like he could soften me up so easily.
He nodded. “Yes, of course. Shower, clean clothes, and then food. You don’t need to live like an animal. You’re my beloved, and we’re going to rule over the five races.”
Oh, like wow, he was really pulling out the big guns today.
I forced myself to smile, just a little, as if the thought of being his beloved and ruling over the five supernatural races was a pleasant thought for me. Reality was, I’d rather cut my own head off than be in the same room as this slimy piece of crap.
Actually, scratch that. I’d prefer to cut his head off.
When I was close enough to touch him, I pretended I was about to reach for his hand, but just as his fingers were about to wrap around mine, I leaned back, kicked up a long board from the floor, and using every ounce of my strength swung it directly into his face. His eyes had been locked on me, so he was a beat too slow to get out of the way. I clocked him directly in the temple and actually knocked him down. I was over the top of him faster than he could blink, straddling him and slamming my elbow directly into his throat. He wheezed out, his cheeks and eyes darkening. He was not a happy camper, and I gave zero fucks.
I knew I couldn’t kill him. I’d stabbed him directly in the heart and the bastard had just pulled it out and went along his merry way. But I was still going to enjoy causing him pain. His nose crunched as my fist pushed it to the side. Blood poured from it, which told me he was real enough to bleed. Of course it basically healed in an instant, which was very annoying. He reached for me, and I sprang backwards, my boot landing in his gut. Despite that lame grab attempt, he wasn’t fighting back. He was just sitting there and letting me hit him.
What the hell?
“Fight back!” I growled at him. “Don’t treat me as weak.”
He gracefully arose, sort of levitating to his feet. “This would not be a fair fight. Even though I haven’t tapped into the thousands of marked souls at my command, I’m still much stronger than you. And once I do draw upon the marked power … there will be no stopping me.”
I had some scary thoughts racking me then. Is he actually saying that…?
“If the dragon marked are alive, you can’t die? I would have to kill every single dragon marked before I can kill you?” My tone was low, mingled with disbelief and what-the-fuckery.
He reached up and rubbed away the few drops of blood still lingering around his nose.
“Yes, which would be impossible, as you’re the strongest of all the marked, and would have to die also.”
This was bad, really freaking bad.
“I’ll just have to make sure we imprison you again.”
Larky shook his head, like he was feeling sorry for me. My hands clenched as I itched to punch him again. “When I tap into the marked power, there’s no one in any of the worlds who could contain me.”
I stilled. How could he be so sure there was no one? He’d been locked away for a thousand years. My mind flashed back to the sanctuary and the training hall where my boys had joined their powers for the first time. They had a calling – to fight and destroy the dragon king. I was guessing that even with this calling the boys would still have to figure out a way to break the ties between him and the marked. They’d never kill me, I knew that without a shadow of doubt. They would let the rest of the world and all supernatural races fall before harming me, and I’d do the same for them.
“Come, Jessa.”
Larky was blood free and on his feet. He turned and walked out the now-open door. I followed him, wanting out of this room. Plus, I could use this as an opportunity to get a layout of the castle. Intel was important.