Page 53 of Ruined Kingdom

“I'm sorry. I'll come to bed in a moment,” I replied, my mind still in a daze.

“We can sit here for a while.” He lowered himself down on the bench next to me and peered up at the moonless sky. “I love looking at the moon hanging in the sky, but there is something special about seeing all the stars up there without the moon taking up all the glory.”

I couldn't bring myself to fake a conversation with him, so we just sat there at length, the silence getting louder with each passing second.

“Why don't you tell me what's on your mind, Soph?” His voice was so smooth and trusting that I was almost able to relax.

“Why do I have to say it? You already know,” I continued, staring up at the sky, refusing to make eye contact with him.

“It's not about what I know. It's about what you need to get off your chest.” He moved his arm behind me, grabbing the back of the bench on the other side of my hip.

“The Fae King doesn't just want to take over your kingdom. He wants to devour everything and everyone in it,” I reiterated, my lips cold and shaking. “That was why he was collecting all of those creatures… Our friends, the Centaurs, and Sharra’s sister.”

The knowledge was eating away at me. I worried there would be nothing left by morning.

“You have every right to be frightened, my love,” he said softly, bringing his hand to my chin and grasping it between his pointer finger and his thumb as he drew my gaze to his.

The despondency in my eyes met the dark rage in his and found itself outmatched. The wild flames that burst forth from his soul were far more potent than the fears possessing me.

“Do you think, for one second, I'm going to let that happen?” His face displayed unwavering determination. It almost made me believe him.

I wished I could bring myself to believe that he had control over such things, but in truth, all we could do was fight it with everything we had and pray it would be enough.

“How do you do it? How do you still retain your belief that everything will work out the way that it should after everything you've seen and been through?” I asked with a breathy, humorless laugh, tears welling up and blinding the starry sky from my eyes.

“The trick is that I've never known anything else. I learned violence at a very young age. It was the only way I could survive growing up as the Alpha King. You were very lucky to have been raised with a different perspective. I know how to be calm during times of war because I was raised that way, but you have known times of peace. A man who has only ever known war only knows how to fight. I believe you can take my Kingdom beyond that. You think that I'm strong and you are not, but it takes true strength to create peace from strife.”

The way he said it, his voice so infinitely deep and gentle, and his words so full of faith… My throat tightened up, and I couldn’t hold it in any longer.

Everything I had been keeping inside this whole time came pouring out of me. I felt like I was coming undone. My hand clasped over my mouth as I attempted to silence my sobbing, but I was inconsolable.

“I’ll sit here with you until you’ve cried it all out. Don’t hold anything back.” He pulled me into his side with one arm and held me there, keeping me together as I fell apart.

“I wish you could see yourself the way I see you,” he said after waiting for my sobbing to dissipate. He drew my face to him as he wiped my tears calmly. “There’s absolutely nothing you can do or say that would change the way I feel about you.”

His words should have made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but instead, I felt a pang of guilt. “Hold that thought.”

I pushed him away and collected myself so that I could tell him the truly terrible thing I’d been keeping from him. He watched me with all the love and patience in the world, which made this harder.

“When I was captured by the Fae King… He told me something that I believe now to be true…” I said slowly, partly stalling in the hopes that something or someone would come along to save me from this. “Yenisey…”

I hadn’t even confessed everything to him yet, and the air had already left my lungs.

And suddenly, my lips were too dry. My throat too tight. My heart beating too fast.

My eyes danced around Kaine, buying myself as much time as I could, but as soon as I met his gaze, I knew that I couldn't keep it a secret any longer.

Sharra’s words from this morning floated through the forefront of my thoughts, convincing me that I had no right to keep this information from Kaine anymore.

“When you made your deal with the Dark Fae King to bring Lilliana back from the dead, he stayed true to his word—he just never told you…” I felt myself hesitating, but I took a deep breath and continued. “Yenisey is Lilliana's reincarnation. He planned to use her against you later, after gaining control over you and your kingdom. He intends to use her to torture you,” I explained, finding myself unable to look into his eyes for too long.

He sat stone-faced, taking everything in but letting me know nothing of how he was feeling.

After I finished talking, I wished that I could find more to say, if only to delay his response.

Was he angry? Did he feel like I’d betrayed him?

Would he want her back now, knowing that she truly is the soul of his first mate?

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