Prince of Blood | 18+

Chapter 9: The Redder The Better

PATIENCE

"Has your mate always been such a prick?" Zeen asked. We were walking back to our room. An eery silence had settled over the camp, the quietness a shock after the wild cheering of the crowd in the arena. My mind was plagued with the thought of another fight with Wrath tomorrow.

"No," I shook my head, walking in after her. The throb in my ankle had already begun to ease but my limbs ached with a new pain.

Fighting against your mate was unnatural. It went against the laws of the bond. And both Wrath and I would suffer the consequences of breaking the rules. I bit my lip as I lowered myself onto my bed — every bone in my body hurt. It was my punishment — and tomorrow, after another fight, my body would hurt again.

Zeen raised an eyebrow. "So what changed?"

My chest began to tighten. "He was..." I swallowed. "He was good to me."

Her other eyebrow shot up as well, and a short chuckle escaped her. "Wrath? And good? Yous must have lost yous mind."

I laughed with her, too tired to stop myself. "In the Unholy Court, when a Sin and a Virtue mate the Nine Muses come to bless the new bond." I hesitated. "We were blessed. But falsely."

The yellow of Zeen's skin crinkled around her eyes in confusion. "What?"

It was like something in him snapped that day. He stopped looking at me and started looking through me.

As though I had become invisible.

As though he couldn't bring himself to care any longer.

"We hadn't mated when we were blessed. And it's like something in him snapped after that."

The disapproval was clear on her face. "Ugh. Who cares? Yous deserve better."

I laid down on my bed, too exhausted to sit up any longer. Desperate to change the subject, I turned to face her. "Tell me about your people, Zeen," I asked softly. "What's your home like?"

She sighed, sitting up against the wall.

"Well we don't have no court, that's for sure. My people come from villages on the outskirts of your realm." She smiled to herself. "Before the—the Seraphics, the suns would beat down on our land all day, but their arrival cast everything in darkness. Our crops died, our rivers dried up." Zeen nodded toward me. "Your Beast takes good care of us though. It's good to have our King back after the Seraphics."

Even now the name of the Seraphics left a chill in the air, like a ghostly reminder of the bloodshed they had caused.

Zeen looked at me knowingly. "But I knows what yous doing, sweet. If you want I can distract you with stories about my people all night, but," she paused, a glint in her eyes, "if you want a true distraction, you should go down to the Sapphire Rooms in the basement of the camp."

"What's in the—the Sapphire Rooms?"

A grin tugged at her lips. "It's the only place where anything happens in this dumb grey camp. Yous will find all the entertainment yous needs down there."

Something about the way she said entertainment made me pause. "Entertainment?"

Zeen began to rummage through her closet for something. The doors of the cupboard creaked on their final hinges. She hummed. "Tell me, yous have no commitment to Wrath before yous mates, right?"

The sky had begun to darken outside, from the grey of Althea and Penum to the pitch-black shade of coal. I had very little time before I had to go back to that sinful arena.

"No," I answered carefully. "But—"

"Ay, there is always a but." She closed her closet, a small gold pot in her hands. "I'm not saying yous has to go fuck somebody else, Patience." The bluntness of her words made me start. "The Sapphire Rooms offer other distractions as well. But Wrath does not seem as though he will get his head out of his ass anytime soon so yous may as well...enjoy yous self." She sat down next to me. "And, anyways, whoever you choose to...entertain yousself with will be hidden from yous by a glamour. Yous won't know who they are and they won't know who yous are."

I blinked as she twisted open the gold pot. "Have you ever...I mean, have you been down there?"

Zeen laughed. "Many a time."

I considered it.

And then cursed myself for considering it.

I wanted Wrath. The warmth in my core spread whenever I felt his Sin nearby—whenever the heat of his Sin crashed against my Virtue. I had tried to hate him and had failed. I had tried to keep my distance from him and had failed. I had tried to stop wanting him and had failed.

It was stupid that I didn't have it in me to seek someone else.

Zeen shook her head to herself. "Do yous know what they say about the Sins and the Virtues?"

I shook my head.

"That yous are forever loyal to one another. Well, ain't that right." She watched me carefully. "Loyal to a fault."

I looked away from her. It was true that I owed him nothing. Not even my loyalty. But my Virtue collapsed against my ribs at the thought of—someone else.

I wanted to be wanted. I wanted him to want me.

As though Zeen had read my mind, she extended the now-opened gold pot in her palm and a broken shard of a mirror. "Here," she began, "take this. Wow, him and then drop him."

I glanced down at the red pigment in the pot, and carefully applied some to my lips, using my reflection in the piece of glass as a guide. My scarlet lips made the red of my eyes brighter, stark against the iciness of my hair. I hesitated for a moment, and then let my hair loose, the waves cascading down my back.

Zeen whooped. "Girl, you look so good right now," she chuckled. "Wrath is gonna lose his shi—"

WRATH

Blood rushed straight to my cock when I saw her.

Fuck me.

•••

The second fight will be in the next chapter — from Wrath's POV!!

Turn that little star orange if you liked the chapter <3

What do you guys think about the Saphirre Rooms?

Love,
Laila.