“I killed…” Her nostrils flared, her pulse jumping in her neck. “Necros—”
“Will have no idea what you did,” I finished for her. “After tucking you into your bed, I went back to Lavios’s quarters to draft a note about taking a week of leave to procure his own toy. Then I compelled two of his men to leave on a false mission. They’ll return in a few days with the news that their commander was killed in another realm.” Not the best of cover stories, but it beat informing the king that Valora’s powers were awakening.
Her mouth worked without sound, her brow crumpling in confusion. “I…” She cleared her throat, trying again. “Who are you? No, what are you?”
I smiled. “I’m the one who is going to help you kill them all, little bird.”
“That tells me nothing.”
“And yet everything at the same time,” I mused, cupping her cheek. “Together we can defeat everyone.”
Distrust cooled her features. “But I hardly know you.”
“True,” I agreed, brushing warmth into her skin with my thumb. “What would you like to know?”
She swallowed, her gaze dropping to my lips before slowly lifting back to my eyes. “What did you do to me?”
“Depends on which instance,” I murmured, amused. “Last night or tonight?”
“Both.”
“I tasted you last night, which granted me access to your mind and life energy. And tonight, I used that connection to help you recover after your burst of power.”
“T-tasted me?” she repeated, her cheeks pinkening.
“Your blood,” I clarified. “I’m a Prince of Noxia, remember?” Which was technically only a partial explanation. Yes, my father’s side of the family possessed vampire-like tendencies that allowed me to pass as a member of Noxia. But my kind embodied a much darker purpose, one underlined in death.
“Vampire,” she breathed. “You can compel?”
“Yes.” I caught the flare in her nostrils and cut off her accusation before she could even word it. “I only compelled you to sleep, not to kill Lavios.”
She narrowed her gaze, her expression so easy to read. “How would I know the difference?”
“You chose how he died,” I said simply. “Had it been up to me, I would have slit his throat with a blade and watched him bleed out. You turned him to ash in a wave of power unlike anything I could control.”
“Because I heard you in my head telling me to ‘cultivate my fury.’ ” Fire simmered beneath the surface of those words, her energy swimming around us in a lethal wave of warning. One wrong move and she’d ignite again, her grasp on her gifts too fragile and new for her to understand. “You’re commanding me about like a puppet.”
I very slowly shifted back to my knees, my legs straddling her hips while my hands hung loose at my side. “My intention is not to demand anything from you, Valora. I only meant to help.”
“By forcing me to kill someone?”
“Would you have preferred him to fuck you?” I countered, arching a brow. “I merely meant to embolden your resolve, to encourage you to realize your inner strength. Never once did I recommend killing him. That was your choice.”
Flames licked across her skin, singeing the air. “You manipulated me. You… you made me kill him.”
I shook my head. “No, Valora. I simply encouraged a queen to put her subject in his place.”
She blinked. “But you’re part of all of this; you’re one of them.”
“Am I?” I asked, placing my palms upward on my thighs. “Do you think I’m like them?”
“You’re worse.”
“How?”
“You’re in my head.” She shook it as if that would be enough to force me out. “You… I don’t know you.”
“But you could,” I pointed out. “From what I’ve observed, you need an ally, Valora. I can be that ally.”