The solution to everything was simple: I would never love again.
Everybody I had ever loved was brutally taken from me. Death had claimed them all, and I was helpless to stop it.
My parents, murdered in front of my eyes.
S, the man I had loved, killed by rogue Shifters.
Diego, stabbed trying to protect me.
Mali, my best friend who had betrayed me by quite literally falling into bed with the enemy. Zack. The last man I had killed with a single, unceremonious stab to the heart.
Even Devlin, despite him sleeping soundly in my room, had left me. He was the first man I had ever loved, the man I had thought I would make a life with, and he had left me under this delusional belief that he needed to protect me. It was only a few days ago that I discovered our entire relationship was built on a lie. He had been Devlin the crowned prince of Genies, not Lin, the man I loved.
And I was Z, the human assassin who killed his kind for a living, not the timid, innocent girl he had believed himself to love.
There was nothing beautiful about our relationship. It was a ferocious snow storm with no hope of relief. It was tumbling in a riptide, desperate for fresh air before you were pulled back under. It was death in the truest form.
I ripped my eyes reluctantly off of Lupe’s, surveying the rest of the men in the room. Of course there were only men. Of freaking course.
The Mermaid King caught my eye. He was sitting directly beside the Shifter King, lips curved up into a malicious smile. His glacial eyes grazed the other kings before landing and staying on me. His smile grew significantly. He might’ve been handsome with his golden hair and lightly tanned skin, but there was something cold in his eyes. Something that made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end. I had the sudden urge to escape, to run, to leave this hellish room with the many eyes that seemed to see too much. I felt vulnerable standing there. Not at all like the fierce warrior I was expected to be. In that moment, I wasn’t Z the assassin, but Zara the fragile human girl.
There were three men surrounding the Mermaid King. They all had the same golden-spun hair and ocean blue eyes. There was no doubting the similarities between them and the King. Them and Dair.
My heart kick-started at the thought of my sweet, gentle mate. He wasn’t present in the room, but I could sense him nearby. Perhaps a few rooms over. I didn’t know how I knew it, only that I did. That damn mate bond between us. The bond that I somewhat refused to acknowledge.
This bond didn’t guarantee love, but it was almost always present. And love, I had come to find out, was immensely dangerous. It strangled you. Choked you. Falling in love with one person made me off-kilter, but falling in love with more than one was damn near suicidal.
Briefly, my eyes flitted around the remaining kings. Besides Lupe, none of my princes were present.
Not my princes, I scolded myself.
The Shadow King was clothed in darkness, hidden in the corner of the room. I wanted to chuckle at the similarities between Ryland and his father. As descendants of Pride, they refused to show their faces to people they didn’t deem as “worthy” - a word I hated intensely. That definition was skewed by bias and prejudice.
A female and a human? Most definitely not worthy in their eyes.
The Incubus King, descended from Lust, sat directly beside him. On his other side was the King of Vampires whose line originated from Gluttony.
With a confidence I didn’t feel, I turned my attention towards the King of Genies. As a descendant of Greed, he fed off the selfishness of others. My heart hammered at the similarities between him and his son, Devlin. The same olive-toned skin and violet eyes, shining as if there was a candle lit beneath the surface. The same curly brown hair. The same broad shoulders leading down to tapered waists. The King, however, had streaks of gray in his shoulder-length hair.
And his eyes…
They were what I imagined standing in freezing water would feel like. Numbness would begin in your toes, slowing snaking upwards until it clamped around your heart. Your breathing would turn shallow just as unconsciousness claimed you.
While the Mermaid King’s eyes were malicious, the King of the Genie’s were empty. Cold. Frigid. The eyes of a man who had his innocence chipped away by time and environment.
Would that happen to Devlin?
The mere thought filled me with unease.
I tried to picture Devlin as cold, untouchable, evil...but the thought eluded me. It just didn’t fit with the man I knew and once loved. Still loved. Maybe.
“So this is the winner,” the Mermaid King said, diverting my attention. He was watching me with narrowed, piercing eyes. I was fully dressed, but it felt as if I was naked. With one glance, I could tell he wanted to tear me apart, rip me to shreds. Piece by piece.
I resisted the urge to bow sardonically. The last thing I wanted to do was show any type of reverence to these monsters.
Planting my hands on my hips, I waited, a quirk to my brow.
It was the Vampire King that moved first, gliding across the distressed wood until he was nose to nose with me. Out of my peripheral, I noted Lupe stiffening imperceptibly. His nostrils flared at the other man’s proximity to me. It wasn’t jealousy. No, it was fear. Fear for me. There was no mistaking the predatory intent in the King’s beady
