Page 119 of Crown of Chaos

“I will not create a son to fight Hecate,” I whispered vehemently.

“I don’t think it’ll come to that.” He smiled, studying my face before he sat up, exposing the sinewy muscles of his abdomen.

My fingers gently traced over the raven that had our daughters’ names within its wings, and tears pooled on my lashes. I started to pull my fingers away from the tattoo, but he captured them, pressing them back to where they’d been.

The raven pulled away from his flesh and flapped its wings, causing a shiver to rush down my spine. It opened its mouth and projected an image in the space before us, like a 4D movie, with me holding our daughters.

“Oh my God,” I whispered through trembling lips. Knox kept my hand pressed firmly against his flesh, holding me steady against the icy-grasp of loss that threatened to pull me in to its dark abyss.

Tears ran freely from my eyes, and I didn’t hide them or the pain rioting through me. The image changed to one of him holding them while emotions burned in his gaze. The next one was of him as he interred them into the tomb, and a sob cracked its way up my throat as the image moved, turning into a movie that exposed every raw emotion he’d felt sitting in that place of rest. How his hands refused to falter as he added their names to the mural, bracketing Sven’s.

“You did this for them?” I asked, watching as Knox placed his hands on the girls’ tiny and white caskets with their names etched onto the sides.

“I wanted them cherished in death as they’d have been if they’d lived,” he informed with something raw and vulnerable in its tone.

Tears swam in my eyes as finally the images stopped and the raven returned to his chest. My gaze narrowed on the other ravens, but before I could ask him, he was pulling my hand away.

“Each one represents someone I lost and holds the memories through time, so I never forget them,” he explained.

I wanted to see Sven, but I didn’t want to dig into that wound. Not unless he offered to let me see the image of the boy he’d once considered his son. Standing, I moved to where my dress hung abandoned over a chair and pulled it over my sore, sensually assaulted body.

Knox remained on the bed, studying me. There was so much to say, and yet, I said nothing I needed to. Once I was covered and didn’t feel so exposed, I offered him a tentative smile, which he didn’t return.

“You’re going into a place that I cannot follow you easily, Aria,” he warned. I caught the hesitancy in his voice, but I wouldn’t be swayed from the course, not even by Knox.

“If they try to hold me there, you won’t need to save me. They’ll be the ones who need to be saved. Besides, I have been rescuing myself for a long time now, and I’ve learned there isn’t much that can hold me down.” I returned coolly, holding his gaze. “I have to do this.”

“And if they try to force you to breed?” His gaze narrowed and a muscle ticked along his jawline.

“Ember won’t accept just anyone’s babe into my belly, silly man. Lennox is her mate, and she’s fully capable of handling anyone who thinks to force anything on us.”

He smirked in reply, unhurriedly leaving the bed completely naked. When he reached me, he slid his fingers through my hair to force my lips up. He kissed me as if he was saying hello and goodbye in the same earth-altering kiss. I moaned against his lips, chasing them when he pulled away, which had him smirking as if he’d just won some game.

Then, one by one, I watched him shutting down his emotion. His eyes turned colder, and his face hardened. There was no laughter or hint of the dirty man who had made me beg and scream his name long into the night left before me.

“You should go before I decide to hold you here against your will.” He swallowed as the words came out sharply.

“Why are you shutting me out, Knox?” I asked.

“This route you’re choosing, it’s a dangerous path and not one I can come down with you. I’m trying not to take the choice from you and put you in chains.”

His head tilted to the side, and then I was listening for whatever he’d heard. Hurried footsteps were echoing down the hallway and moving toward us. I grabbed the cloak he’d secured for me and draped it over my shoulders, rushing for the open balcony.

Whoever it was threw the doors to the outer room open and stormed straight to the room where Knox was. I slid into the shadows of the balcony, listening as heels clicked into the room.

“Where is she?” Aurora demanded coldly.

“Where is who, Aurora?” Knox asked harshly, and the sound of clothing being yanked over his legs sounded.

“My daughter,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “I scried for her, and it showed her here,insidethis very castle. The only thing that would draw her to this place isyou, King Karnavious.”

“Who the fuck do you think you are, witch?” Knox snarled, and I watched her color drain. “Have you been gone so long in your pathetic human realm that you’ve forgotten your place? I am the high king, and your place is on your fucking knees serving me. Not the other way around. I suggest you tread carefully, or your skull can join your sisters on my throne.” As he crossed his arms over his bare chest, I enjoyed the fear burning in Aurora’s eyes.

“Thrones come and go, or so I hear,” she hissed, drawing herself up as if the slight advantage of height did shit against Knox’s stature.

“So they do, but only one of our bloodlines has lost theirs in the last four thousand years. It wasn’t mine,” Knox stated coldly, hiking a brow on his forehead as she bristled. “As you can see, I don’t have your daughter hidden in my chamber or beneath my fucking cushions. I don’t see why you’d think she’d be here considering you plastered the news of the impending wedding throughout every village and city within the realms. Unless she came to kill us all, of course. Or maybe you, since you allowed her to be tortured as a child.”

“Do you think I wanted to hurt my daughter? You know better than most what sort of monster my mother is. My sisters and I weren’t aware that Hecate could jump to different bodies. By the time we’d figured it out, everything was already spiraling around us. I created her with the purpose of draining her magic and murdering my mother to free this world of her tyranny. She wasn’t supposed to live past infancy, and I wasn’t prepared when she did. Her father is an absolute monster, one who won’t hesitate to use her to his own gain regardless of what it does to Aria.”

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