Beneath Shadows and Secrets

♔ 𝕱𝔬𝔯𝔱𝔶 - 𝕰𝔦𝔤𝔥𝔱 ♔

Horrifically nervous that I'm caught up on chapters. I need to go on a writing mission next week.

And Yes. You're reading it right. Expect a few additional POV's towards the latter part of this book, and then book 3 too. It'll make sense as to why when they come around.

♔ 𝔗𝔶𝔫𝔞𝔫 ♔

The moaning finally stopped about an hour ago. I should have guessed she'd be dramatic considering she's rather theatrical about most things. She could've picked her moments though – Calix doesn't need his ego made any bigger than it already is.

Above all, I certainly didn't need to hear it as I tried to enjoy my dinner. Nira's voice carries - likely through the whole Court.

I am sat in the lounge nursing a tumbler of alcohol when Calix finally shows himself. Put together again, but his clothes are creased and his hair is a mess. I raise a brow as he enters, pouring himself a large drink.

"Well, I suppose that is one way to put a stop to an argument." I comment with a snort, smiling in the face of his scowl. When he sits opposite me and pulls at his collar, I notice the faint stains of blood on his shirt. I shoot upright. "You let her bite you?"

He snarls at me. "I did not let her do anything."

"Just happened to forget she's got all the makings of an Umbra Demon when you were fucking her?" His frown deepens further.

"Of course I did not forget." He pauses to take a sip of his drink. "She did not use that venom." The way he lilts his words forces my lips to part in shock. I rush to stand, ignoring the way he bats at my hands to pull away his collar. There, clear as day, two dark circles that will stay with him forever. What a fucking moron.

"You let her mark you?" I exclaim, louder than I intended.

He curses, splaying a hand to muffle us within a silencing spell, keeping this conversation from being overheard by anyone else. He knocks away my hand and fixes his collar to cover what might be his greatest fuck up yet. "She does not know what she did. She transitioned a few months ago, and I hardly think anyone has spoken with her over the intricacies of Fae marking."

"Maybe you should have thought about that with your head," I snap, tapping his temple with a heavy hand, "before you let your dick take the reins." He doesn't argue back as I expect him to, because for once he knows of the two of us, I am right. I sigh, settling beside him and cupping my jaw in my hand. "What are you going to do?"

"There is nothing to do. A Fae mark is irreversible. It is done now." In that, he's right. Fae marking is usually reserved for couples, ones that do not wish to ever be parted. It is an odd sort of tradition, in which Fae will mark one another for an eternity, passing a fraction of their soul to the other. The power in those bites is so potent, that often, should one die, the other Fae will fall too. Unwittingly, Nira has tied herself with Calix.

"Well, there's no way you can enter the Equinox now." He raises a brow with confusion. "If you die, so will she."

"Who is to say she will not die first?" He counters.

I shake my head, falling back against the sofa, wings splaying to either side of me. "You and I both know that you'll never let that happen." He doesn't answer, again, because he knows that I'm right. So, I ask something else. "Did you mark her back?"

He pauses for a second too long, and my heart plummets. "I –"

"Tell me that you didn't mark her, Calix." I grab my face in my hands, hoping that this is some horrid nightmare that I'll wake from.