*Kieran*
I can still feel the sharp rips in the skin of my back where that fucking cat sunk it’s claws in, and my hands ache from the scratches that forced me to let it go before I ripped it in half. I don’t know what the fuck is happening in this place, but something is wrong, and I don’t like it.
I rush past Nessa and her cronies where they still stand in the hall. One of them calls out to me, but I wave a dismissive hand. I don’t give a fuck if Nessa Winters is bleeding to death all over the Goddessdamn marble floor. What I do care about is my stupid sister getting herself into trouble again. How many times does she have to be told to stop fucking with Nessa? Last time, I thought Mother was going to break her legs. She came pretty damn close. Mother and her fucking fireplace poker. Thank the Goddess she never turned that on me or any of my other siblings.
Why is it okay that she beats the living shit out of Blanca then?
I don’t have an answer for that. It’s just always been that way. My parents have always treated her like garbage, except for the few times they’ve put a nice dress on her and made her stand with us on the platform to wave at the people below the balcony. The rest of the time, she’s treated worse than trash by them. By everybody.
By me.
A spark of electricity washes over me again, but I refuse to acknowledge it. That woman has gone too far this time. She’s been down there talking to Blake, finding out about his magic, and I don’t like it. Father told me a long time ago to keep an eye on her. She’s my twin, older than me by a few hours. She could try to claim the throne.
My throne.
“Where are you off to in such a hurry?” My best friend and will-be Beta, Taner, asks as he falls into step beside me. Thankfully, he’s walking on what will now be considered my “good” side and can’t see my fucking eye.
“Nowhere,” I tell him. “My room.”
“Did you hear about the Haze? It’s moving in so fast, it’ll be here before the full moon. It’s wild. Of course, nothing will happen until the moon is full, but it’s kind of crazy not to be able to see anything more than a few yards away.”
He continues to babble on about the fucking weather as I storm down the hallway. I fully intend to go to my room, but with Taner refusing to shut the fuck up, I storm right past the hallway. I have another idea of where to go.
Taner moves in front of me before I reach the dungeon door. “Hey, your room’s that way. Oh, fuck. What the hell happened to your eye?”
“Move, Taner. I have important matters to attend to.” I try to sidestep him, but he moves in front of me, fascinated with the condition of my face.
“Looks like a Goddessdamn bird tried to fucking peck your eyeball right out of your skull!” He chuckles, the mop of blond hair on his head dancing around as he does so.
“Get the fuck out of my way, asshole.” I push him aside, throw open the door, and take the steps two at a time. It’s dark down here and smells like body odor and shit. I have no idea why anyone would want to come down here, especially not a princess.
Not that we’ve ever treated Blanca like she’s a princess.
Thoughts of what happened between us in the hallway come to mind again. What the fuck was that? Something about being so close to her stirred my wolf in a way that I’ve never experienced before. Rather than squeezing her throat so tight she couldn’t breathe, I just stood there, staring into her black eyes.
They aren’t black, though. I noticed then that they have little flecks of silver and blue in them. They’re actually quite beautiful. My sister is beautiful.
“What the actual fuck?”
I say it aloud this time. My mind is all kinds of fucked up. I don’t know if it’s the Haze, the animal attacks, or the idea that there’s a psychotic magician living in our basement, but I need to seriously get a hold on myself.
“Your Majesty?” one of the guards says as I briskly walk by him. I don’t acknowledge his existence as I make my way down the dark corridor to Blake’s cell. He’s leaning against the far wall, his tattered clothes even more a mess since he was given a lashing earlier. I can hear the blood dripping on the stone floor. He doesn’t turn to face me, but I know he senses my presence, and I can assume he knows it’s me.
“Whatever the fuck you did… whoever the fuck you are… you need to leave Blanca alone. Life is already awful for her, if you haven’t noticed. If you continue to play your mind games with her, you’re going to end up getting her beaten–to death.”
He’s quiet for so long I think maybe his ears are ringing so loudly from the punishment that he can’t hear me, but then he speaks, in a low growl of a voice. “I have done nothing. But I find it amusing that you, of all people, pretend to care what happens to her.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” I grab hold of the bars between us and shake them. Certainly, I have never been kind to my sister, but I haven’t beaten her like my mother has or locked her up without food or water for days like my father has.
He turns slowly, and I can see not only did they give him the lash, but his eyes are swollen to slits, dried blood caking his crooked nose and lips. “You have done nothing to help her, and that makes you just as guilty as the others.”
A squawking sound at the windows has me turning my head up. Four large ravens sit there on the sill, staring down at me. I want to dare the bastards to come at me so I can shift into my wolf and rip them in half, but my conversation with Blake is more important.
“It’s never been my place to question the king and queen–her own parents.” I feel weak speaking the words, knowing they aren’t the truth. As a child, I could’ve done nothing to help Blanca, but we are twenty-one years old now. In the last several years, I could’ve done something.
I could’ve done anything.
Blake wheels around to face me, and even though he should be weak from the punishment, he stalks toward me on steady legs. “You may think you know who I am, boy. But you don’t. Your father has filled your head so full of lies, you wouldn’t know the truth if it tried to peck your eyes out. This haze that’s accumulating right now will change everything for you, and when it clears, I hope your eyes are no longer blinded to the truth.”
“What the fuck are you–”
He interrupts me. “None are so blind as those who choose not to see!” Behind him, the birds begin to squawk. He takes another step toward me. “If something sounds false, looks false, and feels false, Prince Kieran, how can it be the truth?”
“Hey! Get away from the prince!” I hear a guard shout as Blake is practically nose to nose with me through the cell bars.
I want to reach between them, grab his throat, and squeeze as hard as I can. I want to feel the life evaporate from him, to leave my father’s mortal enemy that he captured on the battlefield over twenty years ago nothing but a rotting carcass lying on the floor of this dungy, Goddess-forsaken dungeon.
But this close to him, even in the dim light casting shadows from the lantern on the wall, I can see his eyes. They’re black like obsidian, deep, pools laced with insanity–and power.
But that’s not what catches my attention.
Dancing around in that black pool of nothingness, I see something familiar, something that sends a bolt of shock down my spine.
Little flecks of silver and blue.
*Blanca*It’s been five days since the incident in the dungeon, which was followed by the incident with Nessa–and then the incident with my brother.I’ve hardly left my room since then. I have chores I must do every day, like muck the royal stables and scrub the toilets in my parents’ bathrooms. I’ve done those things and then swung by the kitchen to take a little food. The chef there is nice to me. She never scolds me for plucking an apple or even a turkey leg.That’s it, though. The rest of the time I’ve spent sitting on the edge of my thin mattress staring out the window at the disappearing landscape. The misty fog has continued to roll in, its thick fingers moving mysteriously to intertwine around every building, every tree, every creature that dares to step out into it. It’s not a normal fog. The first time I went out to make my way to the barns and encountered it, I could feel it wrapping around me, the energy inside of it pulsating, moving. Breathing. I had to close my eyes f
*Blanca*I rush down the hallway, my bare feet slapping on the stone that makes up the floors in this dreary part of the castle. I don’t dare look behind me as I hurry toward the closest exit before someone discovers I’ve left my room.Someone locked me in there. Someone who wanted me to miss the Haze. Someone who wanted me to miss my only chance at escape.I can’t think about that right now, though. I have to find him.I need to find my mate.Pushing through the closest exterior door, I step outside and into another world. The Haze pulsates around me. No longer the milky white shade it has been the last few days, it is a shimmering silvery mass that engulfs me immediately. I can’t see anything, and with every breath, it sinks into my soul.My wolf cries for freedom, letting out an excited, primeval howl as I leap into the unknown. My clothes shred, my bones pop, my skin disappears into my body as black fur takes its place all over me. It doesn’t hurt; in fact, it feels incredible, li
*Kieran*I can smell her. I don’t open my eyes yet as flashes of memories from the night before wash over me. I haven’t seen her yet, but it doesn’t matter. I feel her warm body pressed against me, her flat stomach beneath my palm, her small hips situated so that her perfect, round ass cradles my hardening cock.She tasted like strawberries, like a warm summer’s day. The way she’d moved beneath me was perfection, even though I quickly discovered I was her first. This makes me smile because I never want anyone else to claim her. She’s mine.My mate.In a moment, I’ll open my eyes and look upon her beautiful face, maybe for the first time. I wonder who she is. Maybe a princess from a distant land or the daughter of a noble. I’m the Crown Prince of Dun’s Crossing, so she must be someone majestic. Someone important.It doesn’t matter, though. She could be the lowest scullery maid, and I would protect her to my last breath.I feel her stirring beneath me, breaking me from my reverie. I ima
*Blanca*Vomit rises up my throat as I wait as patiently as possible for Kieran to leave the tent. I can’t allow myself to think about what happened last night–what we did. If I do, I’m likely to throw up everywhere.Tears sting my eyes for so many reasons, I couldn’t possibly name them all. Here I was thinking the Haze would be my ticket out of this hellhole, that I’d meet my mate, and he’d sweep me away.Instead, the Moon Goddess made me the butt of Her own sick, twisted joke. What the hell will our parents do to us if they find out about this? They’ll kill me. Like Kieran, they’ll assume I’ve learned some sort of magic that would make this possible.I truly don’t think there’s any magic in the world that would make this happen, but nothing makes sense at the moment. I need to do some research.I turn around to look at the unzipped tent, wondering if Kieran is gone. I see his legs through the flap and then hear another voice.“Oh, Goddess no!” I whisper. I never would’ve thought tha
*Kieran*“Wh-what?” my father stammars as he stares at me standing in front of his desk, holding Nessa’s hand in mine. “Nessa is your… mate?” His face is ashen, his jaw slack, and in his eyes I see the disdain I feel in my heart–along with a great deal of uncertainty.I, too, know how that feels. Another shudder goes down my spine at the thought of what happened last night, but I can’t let my father see that. He has to think I’m happy about this. I cannot, under any circumstances, let Nessa have a reason to tell anyone what she stumbled upon.Or was she stalking me?“Well…” Mother, who is standing behind Father’s chair, one hand on his shoulder, clears her throat and makes a little face like she’s swallowing down her own vomit. “Isn’t that… lovely.” She doesn’t mean a word of it, I know. Nessa is the most annoying girl any of us has ever met. Even more annoying than my fucking sister.Oh, Goddess. I’d better stop using those two words in the same sentence!“Have you told your father
*Blanca*I awake sometime in the middle of the night. When I first got back to my room, I took a long shower and scrubbed my flesh raw. Then, I got dressed in as many layers as I could and fell into bed, exhausted. My mind had gone crazy, even in my dreams, trying to sort out everything that had happened.I’d lied to my parents.Father asked me if I’d found my mate, and I’d said no. Even as I’d spoken the words, the mark Kieran had left in my flesh began to throb. My wolf, my soul, seemed to want to claim him, even though it made absolutely no sense.Curled up on my bed, I stare out the window, trying to ascertain what time it is. Judging by the placement of the stars, I guess it’s around 2:00 in the morning, which means I essentially slept for sixteen hours. I don’t want to get out of bed. I just want to go back to sleep and will this all away.None of it makes sense to me, and lying here isn’t going to fix that. I have to figure out how this happened.When I consider who might be ab
*Kieran*The library smells like binding glue and old paper. I have no idea why anyone would ever want to spend more than a few moments here. When I was younger, our governess used to herd all of us in here–Anwen, Candace, Finn, Ingrid, and me. We’d sit next to her and listen to her read from storybooks. Every once in a while, I’d see two big black eyes staring at us from the doorway. Why Blanca was so keen to join us, I never could figure out. It was just a damn book, nothing to get excited about.As I approach the section of the library designated for books about magic and wizardry, it occurs to me for the first time that it probably wasn’t the book Blanca was so interested in. I swear under my breath. How am I so stupid? Of course, she likes books. I know that. She has a dozen of them in her room, the ones Mother will allow. But she didn’t want to listen to the story.She wanted to be included.She wanted to be part of the family.I let out a breath and pull out the first book that
*Blanca*“And if you leave this room without my permission one more time,” Mother says as she stands next to her henchman, Ardesia, “you can rest assured I will break your legs so that you cannot leave again.”The lash hits my upper thighs, my back, my bottom as I stare at the wall above my bed, trying not to cry. The last thing I need is to break down and let her know how badly she’s hurting me.It’s not the lash so much, although it does sting. But this isn’t the same kind of whip they use in the dungeon–the kind they use on Mr. Blake. This one is leather, but it doesn’t have anything like bits of glass or metal on the end. Nevertheless, after twenty-five lashes, it breaks my skin. I know I’ll have welts and scrapes for the next several weeks.I keep my eyes focused on the wall as it continues, my arms folded over my breasts. She allows me to wear my bra and underwear while I’m being whipped, but if my arm wasn’t over my breast right now, she’d see the place where Kieran marked me.