Malum: Part 1 (The Elite King's Club 4)

But Bishop beats me to it. “Deal.”

Tillie

Pregame

“Love is savage, love is blind, love is something they may not find…”

Droplets of water slide down the glass, reminding me of that one time my sister and I stayed up late, waiting for my mom to come back from grocery shopping. We sat near that window for two hours. I may have only been four-years-old, but I remember the memory so vividly that I could replay it in full HD inside my head for the rest of my life. On repeat. Constantly. With every detail, every scent, every gentle tick of the old clock ringing inside my head.

Tick.

Tock.

Tick.

Tock.

When she walked out on us, she didn’t just take herself, she also yanked away diminutive parts of my sister and me, and more viciously, my father.

That’s when the beatings began.

That’s when he morphed from a deferential father to impertinent evil.

I don’t remember much of him prior to that day, only the good things, but every single day after that day is imprinted in my head like a boulder cemented into the ground after a volcanic eruption.

“Are you okay, Puella?”

Releasing a thick inhale of breath, my shoulders relax and my muscles release tension at the mere sound of his voice.

Licking my lips, I turn to face him, my hand resting on top of his. “I’m okay, Daemon.”

His eyes drop to the baby in his arms, my baby, and then come back to me. His beautiful eyes light up when they rest on me, like they’ve been dead all his life until this moment.

“We’re not too far away from being done, Tillie. You’ve done really well,” Tinker assures me softly from somewhere between my legs. I’ve managed to numb out the pain, or maybe it’s because I’ve just pushed out a monstrous-sized baby girl, but whichever is correct, I know that I wouldn’t have the strength to do this if it wasn’t for him.

Daemon looks back at me, his eyes glimmering in a way that I pictured her father’s eyes would twinkle. “She’s beautiful, Puella.”

I chew on my lip nervously as he places her small body onto my chest. She lets out a small crackle of a cry, her fist going to her mouth as her little head shakes from side to side.

Tinker comes up beside me, removing her surgical gloves. “Oh, sweet girl. She is hungry.”

“I don’t know how to do that?” Because I don’t. I actually didn’t think I had one maternal bone in my body until this very moment. This moment that sheer panic set into my bones from the thought of not being able to effectively feed my spawn. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I will protect this child until the day I die.

“It’s okay,” Tinker says, propping the baby up so she’s closer to me. Her little face looks squashed against my boob. “She will know what to do. It may feel uncomfortable at first, but it should not be painful. If it’s painful, hook your pinkie finger into her mouth gently and unlatch your nipple from her, and then start again. Her mouth should cover all of this part.” She gestures over my areola.

I do it again, this time following closely to Tinker’s instructions, and her little mouth latches on. My nipples turn hot, like water is rushing to the tips of them, and then her loud drinking breaks the silence.

Tinker giggles. “She’s hungry!”

The other nurse who was helping stitch me up downstairs packs up and leaves. It’s not until she’s out of earshot when Tinker says, “They’re coming, Tillie. They’re all coming.” Her tone remains balanced and even, she could have been talking about the weather that’s how calm she was.

I freeze. “What?” For months now, my brain and my heart have been in a tug-a-war of feelings where Nate Riverside-Malum is concerned. Some days, the bad ones when I’m locked in my room in Katsia’s mansion in Perdita, I have nothing but the memories of Nate and I playing on repeat. I’ve used our time together, the feelings I had for him, as comfort. I undoubtedly fell in love with Nate, my heart and brain know this, right down to the very veins that run through me. It has and always will be him, but I’m not naïve. I knew what I was getting myself into the day I allowed myself to open the gates that contained my feelings toward him.

Nate is a player.

I have no doubt at all, that he would absolutely despise me. Not because he probably thought I ran from him, but because I have now, in his mind, hid his own daughter from him.

“Tinker,” I whisper-yell, my grip tightening around my daughter. “What do you mean they are coming? The Kings?”

Tinker runs her finger down my daughter’s face and smiles lovingly while answering, “Yes. You don’t understand, Tillie. Katsia wants to hurt this baby.”