Free Web NovelChapter 79: The Calm After The Storm
SAMANTHA
A voice was worried speaking besides me and someone gabbed my arm, her fingers digging into my sleeve. Her voice was urgent and desperate.
"Miss Samuels, we have to go! Now!"
I did not move.
My feet were still glued to the floor. My eyes were still fixed on the beast at the end of the corridor. Finnian. The nonchalant one. The cold one. The one who watched everything from the shadows.
He had turned into something else. Something monstrous. His skin was grey and cracked like stone. His body was massive, hunched and his claws scraped against the floor. His horns curved upward like a demon’s crown.
"Miss Samuels!" Joanne came back and tugged at my arm. "Please! We cannot stay here!"
Finnian roared. The sound shook the walls. It rattled the windows. It made my bones tremble.
Finnian took a step toward us. Then another. His black eyes were fixed on me. His nostrils flared. He was scenting me. He wanted to make sure I was delicate enough before deciding if I was to be eaten?
"Run!" Joanne screamed.
She let go of my arm, turned and fled. Her footsteps echoed down the corridor.
I stayed.
I could not move. Something in me kept me rooted. I could not run, my body would not obey.
Finnian reached me. His massive hand reached out and his claws brushed against my shoulder. They were cold, rough and they tore through my sleeve.
I flinched.
He grabbed me. His grip was firm. Not painful. Just... firm.
He lifted me off the ground watched me dangled in the air like a doll. His black eyes stared at me. His breath was hot against my face.
Then he opened his mouth. His fangs were long, sharp and glistening with saliva.
He lowered his head toward my neck.
I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain.
It did not come.
Instead, I felt his teeth graze my skin. Lightly. Almost gently. Like he was tasting me. Testing me.
Then I felt something wet. Warm.
Blood.
His tongue touched the wound. He licked the blood from my neck.
And then....he went still like he had just tasted something delicious.
The tension in his body melted, making his grip to loosen. His breathing slowed.
I opened my eyes.
Finnian was staring at me. His black eyes had softened. They were no longer hollow. Something else was there. Something almost human. It seemed his reasoning had come back to me.
He let out a low growl. It was not aggressive. It was not angry. It was... confused. Curious.
He licked my neck again. His tongue was rough and warm.
I felt my blood on his lips.
And then he began to change.
His grey skin lightened. His muscles shrank. His horns receded into his skull. His claws became fingers. His fangs became teeth.
Within seconds, Finnian lay on the floor. Naked and human again. His chest was heaving. His eyes were closed and his body was covered in wounds. Scratches. Bruises. Gashes that still bled.
He was battered. Broken. But human.
I knelt beside him.
"Finnian?" I whispered.
He did not open his eyes.
I heard footsteps. Many footsteps. Guards. Servants. Someone shouting orders.
King Lionel appeared at the end of the corridor. His face was pale. His eyes were wide. He took in the scene—the empty corridor, the broken windows, the blood on the floor, Finnian’s naked, wounded body, me kneeling beside him.
"Samantha," he said. His voice was sharp. "What happened?"
I stood. My legs were shaking. My hands were shaking. Everything was shaking. ƒгeewebnovёl.com
"Your Majesty," I said. "I do not know. He was—he turned into something. A beast. He chased everyone away. He grabbed me. But then he stopped."
Lionel walked toward Finnian. He knelt beside his son. His fingers touched Finnian’s forehead. His neck. His wrist.
"He is alive," Lionel said. "Barely. But alive."
He looked at me. His eyes narrowed.
"Why did he stop?"
"I do not know, Your Majesty."
"You do not know?"
I shook my head. "He just... stopped. He let me go. Then he turned back."
Lionel studied my face. His eyes moved across my neck. The wound. The blood.
"You are bleeding," he said.
"It is just a scratch."
He stood. He walked closer. His hand reached out. His fingers touched my neck. I flinched.
"Do not move," he said.
I stood still.
Lionel examined the wound. His eyes were cold and calculating.
"He did not kill you," Lionel said. "He tasted your blood. Then he stopped."
"I do not know why, Your Majesty."
Lionel was silent for a long moment. Then he stepped back.
"Guards," he called. "Take Prince Finnian to the infirmary. Now."
Two guards stepped forward. They lifted Finnian gently. They carried him down the corridor.
Lionel turned back to me.
"Are you okay?" he asked.
I nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty."
"Are you sure? He could have killed you."
"I am sure."
Lionel’s eyes softened. Just a little.
"You are brave," he said. "Or foolish. I have not decided which."
"Both, Your Majesty."
He almost smiled. It was a small thing. Barely there. But it was there.
"Come," he said. "I will escort you back to your penthouse."
I shook my head. "That is not necessary, Your Majesty."
"I insist."
I walked beside him. The corridor was quiet now.
"Finnian has not lost control like that in years," Lionel said. "I thought he had learned to suppress it."
"Suppress what, Your Majesty?"
"The curse. The beast within. All of my sons have it. Some can control it better than others."
I thought of Jayce. His cruelty. His hunger. His need to hurt.
"And those who cannot?" I asked.
Lionel was quiet for a moment. "They become what you saw today. Monsters."
"But he stopped."
"Yes. He stopped." Lionel looked at me. "Why do you think that is?"
"I do not know, Your Majesty."
We reached the door of my penthouse. Lionel stopped. He turned to face me.
"Rest," he said. "I will send a healer to look at your wound."
"It is fine, Your Majesty. It is just a scratch."
"Take the rest. That is an order."
I nodded. "Yes, Your Majesty."
I opened the door and stepped inside. I leaned against the door, my legs giving out. I slid to the floor.
My neck was still bleeding. My hands were still shaking. My heart was still pounding.
Finnian had tasted my blood.
And it had calmed him.
Why?
What did that mean?
