“Blackwell?” I asked softly, my head rolling to look up at him.
He offered me a somewhat heated yet affectionate look. “Yes, love?”
“Why did you decide to not stay with your father? I mean, Damian and you both have entire kingdoms you could rule in Under, so why here? Especially when you are always putting yourself in danger?”
I figured tonight was the night for questions, if any, especially since we were alone.
Under was a realm where a lot of nightmares actually originated from, but unfortunately, they couldn’t stay there for long without risking growing weak from a lack of exposure to fear or terror. Unless, of course, they were extremely powerful.
It also happened to be the place where humans gathered and formed myths of Hell and the underworld. Although, they had been rather unhappy to find out the two were directly next to one another in the damn realm. Not only that, but there were hundreds of small kingdoms, and hundreds of thousands of nightmares. It was a safe place for them, but as I said, it lacked proper… nutrition.
Unlike humans assumed, their souls didn’t go there to be tortured following death. In fact, humans couldn’t survive down there at all. It was one of the pieces of information that had disappointed me the most, because I very much was interested in visiting.
Blackwell tilted his head in thought as his fingers brushed along my jaw, examining my expression as his voice turned soft. “Damian doesn’t have a good relationship with his father. He wouldn’t go back even if he didn’t have a reason to stay here.”
“Reason to stay?” I lifted my brows, wanting to know more.
His eyes darkened slightly as he nodded. “Yes, he has his reasons.”
And I very much wanted to know them.
“What about you?” I asked, wanting Damian to be the one to tell me about his father. I had a feeling Blackwell understood that.
I ignored the bartender as he sat down a large glass of red wine and a dark glass for Blackwell, the surface of it lit up with flames. I grabbed my glass of wine, the scent of berries surrounding me as I kept my gaze on him.
“Damian and I knew one another growing up. We even went to the same academy in Under,” he admitted. “When he said he wanted to leave, I figured it was time to make my exit as well. That was when we came here.”
“Your father didn’t want you to stay?” I asked, frowning. I knew that his father was Hades, Lord of the Underworld or whatever he called himself, but outside of Blackwell being the legend terror’s son, I didn’t know much else.
The sad flash in his eyes before his gaze turned indifferent had me suddenly wishing I hadn’t asked, but I also desperately wanted to know more about him. Maybe I should have asked this before now—maybe it was this simple with Blackwell—but I had been hesitant to pry. I could feel how tense and uncomfortable both he and Damian got when their heritage was brought up, making me really wonder how bad it was.
“My father has many children; one of his bastards is the least of his concerns. I am pretty sure my stepmother was perfectly fine with me fucking off,” he mused, taking a sip of his lit drink as I took a sip of my wine, absorbing what exactly he was saying. That was when the anger hit me, suddenly hating his stepmother.
“Is she a bitch?” I asked bluntly, wanting to know if she was the problem or if his father was. It was most likely both of them, if we were being honest.
Blackwell barked out a laugh. “Yes. She and my father both are individuals I would rather avoid. As for how we ended up here, I felt a pull and decided to follow it. We hadn’t exactly arrived Above with a plan. I was the one who suggested we come here.”
Interesting.
“Well fuck them, I’m glad you are here.” My body flushed as I took another large sip of wine, everything warming with the alcohol. Was it dangerous to drink with Blackwell? Yeah, probably. Would I still do it? Absolutely. I usually held my liquor fairly well, so I didn’t think anything bad would actually happen.
Now, fun stuff? Fun stuff may happen…
Blackwell examined my expression as I took another long sip and put down my drink with a determined thunk. “Let’s get drunk.”
“I haven’t been drunk in a very long time,” he chuckled.
“I need to forget today. Come on.” I nudged his side. “Get drunk with me.”
I, Arabella, was clearly a bad influence on the heir to the underworld throne or whatever.
“We could talk about—”
I shook my head at his words, and he stopped talking.
“Tomorrow,” I promised and downed the rest of my glass. You know, it took an expensive red wine to be able to drink it down so easily… that was this wine. I needed a bottle of it, probably. Especially so I didn’t have to keep getting up.
Blackwell stood up, and I arched a brow. “Where are you going?”
“If we are going to get drunk, we need something stronger.” My smile grew at his words. “I’ll order some food as well.”
This was exactly what I needed.
“I think I’m drunk,” I whispered, giggling as I stumbled against Blackwell, his smile infectious and far more prominent than usual.
For the record, I was not just drunk, we were drunk. After only two hours, we were stumbling back towards the dorm, ignoring that a very faint light was beginning to light up the sky in a soft hue of lavender. I let out a squeak as Blackwell suddenly lifted me up, wrapping my legs around him and clinging to his massive frame.
“Wow, so this is what it’s like to be this tall,” I quipped, looking around. “You must see a lot of interesting shit.”
“Mostly looking at you,” he admitted on a rumble that had me flushing as I examined his eyes that were swirling with a pretty gold.
“Why?” I tightened my arms around him, curious about his answer.
“How can I not, love?” He slid his hands from my thighs to my ass, making me squirm against him, my breath catching.
Before I could answer him, he let out a small growl as some nightmare ran past us on a morning jog. My smile grew. “So growly.”
“They were looking at your ass,” he snarled and then leaned forward, burying his nose against my neck. “Fuck, I may even have a hangover tomorrow. I clearly haven’t drank enough recently.”
“Do I have a nice one?” I smirked, referring to my ass.
“You don’t want me to answer that.” He brushed his nose against mine as a ding sounded, making me realize through my somewhat blurry, tipsy vision that we were stepping into the elevator.
“I do— Wait, where are we going?” I frowned.
“The dorms?” he offered, his eyes examining my face. “You did say you would sleep in our bed if we let Amun have that room.”
Had I said that? A goofy smile brushed my face, loving the excitement in his gaze.
“My room.” I nodded towards the elevator buttons as he typed in the code to get to the private floor. “We can’t go back to the dorms, they will get all pissy at us for being drunk.”
“That is entirely possible,” he murmured and then flashed a smile. “Your room it is, love.”
“Love,” I said in a sing-songy voice. “I love when you say that.”