Chapter 5: Terms of Surrender

The agreement hadn't been written down—it'd been an ink-and-blood collar. I believed signing it to be the end. That once I'd given up my vial of blood, Kael would be returned to his cold, perfect world and I'd be background—nothing more than a pretty servant behind palace walls. But I was mistaken. They brought me to him that night.

Not to the parlor where the bargain was made.

Not to the council chamber.

His bedchamber.

Velvet drapes fell from each corner of the room like mourner clouds trying to escape the moonlight. Candles capered in gilt candelabras, painting gold shadows across marble floors. The fire glowed low and slow, scented with sandalwood and something malevolent-earth. Him.

Kael leaned back against the fire, a cup of the thick, dark liquid that I didn't even think to ask was blood under an arm and his other wasn't; long fingers drumming rhythmically on the leg as if he was working too hard.

He'd turned sharply when he heard the door behind me shut.

His eyes. God's eyes. Once more stop-heart red, but this night they were fuller. Weightier. Guilt.

"You summoned me," I warned, hunching forward on my shoulders over jangling nerves that curled down my body.

"You signed a contract," he snarled, his voice as silky as the sash around his waist. "You are here now."

I nibbled on the inside of my cheek. "Being captive and belonging are two different things."

"Isn't that what you humans do when you're married?"

His lips curled up into a sneer. "A gilded cage?"

"You find it amusing?"

His smile erased itself. "No."

There was quiet between us, the air thick and heavy as a knife poised suspended, and then he moved closer to me—slow, deliberate, out of control.

"You don't know what you are yet," he told me, softly. "But you will."

"I know what I am," I growled. "A contract. A blood servant."

He was inches taller than me. I could sense the cold of his authority emanating from his body.

"Think that's all I purchased?"

"What else?"

I struggled for air.

Kael did not say anything. He leaned forward, his fingers along the edge of my neck, just below the tip of my jaw. I forgot to breathe.

"You've dreamed," he told me, a growling tone in my ear. "Haven't you?"

I was immobile.

Nightmares. Visions. Chills of cold at the edge of my eye for rock and flame, for voices that I couldn't quite make out. For blood. Always blood.

"I don't—"

"You glow when you sleep."

My gut dropped. "What?"

"Your blood," he repeated, his voice on the verge of reverence. "It vibrates. Like a hum that I have not heard in centuries."

I stepped back, but he moved in closer, pushing me toward the bed in his sinuous, silky glide of a predator who knows his prey won't get away.

"You're not human, Scarlett."

"Lying."

His eyes narrowed. "I don't have to lie."

I lashed out at the bed, the yielding mattress swallowing me as I fell.

Kael towered over me, holding me, but not touching me. Not yet.

"You signed the treaty," he groaned. "But that was not the true capitulation."

I stared at him, my heart thudding in my chest. "Then what is?"

His lips were on my neck. "Granting me permission to taste you."

I didn't breathe.

"You drank." "Sample.".

There was something so personal in the way he had talked. Like he had to suck more than blood. Like he had to have something from me that I didn't even know I had to give.

"I didn't agree to this," I babbled.

"You didn't refuse," he said. "But you can still."

It was thick with emotion between us, and I couldn't breathe it. My skin stung, my mind curled up, and my heart pounded in my chest.

But I didn't step back.

I didn't refuse.

Kael stood me off for a moment, and then. He leaned into me.

His teeth on my skin first—a pressure for a moment. Then his fangs pushed in, slow-burning that arched my back and stole my breath.

Pain.

Pleasure.

A thousand candles lit in me.

Hands on his shoulders, naturally, fingers curling around the silk of his robe as grounding myself to frigid reality. His mouth tracing the curve of my neck like he was tasting my own existence.

And gods save me.

I let him.

His lips were cold, but where he kissed me, I burned. I had no idea if it was the bite, or the bond, or demented with captivity for so long and no will—but I didn't fight.

When he released me at last, his lips were flushed. His eyes glowed bright, red nearly masked by black.

"Scarlett…"

The way he whispered it was low as a secret. "You taste of fire."

I shivered. "You… you didn't take much."

He rubbed his lip balm softly, moistening his lips with the back of his hand. "Didn't need to."

Hesitation clung to the air, something old, something binding. I felt it like a chain closing about my ribs—and knew without knowing:

This was the moment the contract was truly sealed.

Not on vellum. Not with my blood.

But here, in this bed, in this intimacy.

My body did. My soul did.

And so did he.

Kael stepped back, his eyes slowly closing. He approached the fire, setting down his now shattered glass as if he hadn't shattered something holy between us.

"From now on," he spoke, a voice cut short. "You'll be with me at hearings in court. You'll live in the west wing of the palace. You'll listen to me without question."

"And what if I don't?"

His eyes went cold. "Then I'll show you the value of belonging."

I stepped back.

He must have sensed it—because his jaw clamped tight and his eyes dropped.

"You can go."

Dismissed. Like a servant. Like a child.

But I didn't move.

"I hate you," I said to him, my voice raw.

Kael did not look my way. "Good."

"Because I won't be your plaything. I'm bound, but I'm not broken."

He stood before me, his expression blank. "Not yet."

And so. I moved away from him.

My chest was a roiling cauldron of anger and bewilderment and something much, much worse—curiosity.

Even as I hated him.

As much as I wished to burn this whole city palace to the ground.

A corner of my mind—ill, deep, and unyielding—aches to think of the why of why his bite reminded me of sensitivity in a week and more.

Maybe the deal was not the end.

Maybe it was the start.

To be continued…