Page 218 of Kingdom of the Two Moons

“Please, please let me go.”

The flames are smaller, as if muted. As if sad, it says quietly, “I cannot, my lady.”

Tears start to stream down my face again. I sink onto the ground, my fingers splayed against the door. “Please… he will hurt me.”Hurt me even more.

I know he won’t stop until he’s done. Not when he made his decision.

“I cannot disobey the wishes of my lord, my lady.” I swear the words are tinged with regret as the flames die.

I turn and spot Caryan in the doorway, his eyes crimson with my blood. I drop my gaze to the floor. I didn’t realize that he bit me. I bring my hands to my lips, finding blood there. I have the vague memory of sinking my teeth into his shoulder to stifle my cry as his magic shot and ran wild through me.

I wish I could recoil into myself, melt into the wall.

Instead, I get up and turn to him. Still avoiding looking into his eyes, I repeat the same words I’ve just said to the door, my voice sounding foreign to me.“Please let me go.”

I watch him come closer, his bare feet moving soundlessly over the ashy wood. He pauses a yard away from me. “I’m not yet done.”

I flinch at the sound of his voice. So deep. So raw.

The truth resonates within me, in every fiber, writhing along my bones and curling around my soul. I can feel his mind again, his decision as if it was my own. Feel this dark…bond,as he called it. This dark thing between us. Stronger than it has ever been. He will do this again and again. He only survived because he was an angel. I can’t get through this again. I’m only a half-elf.I won’t survive.

Or maybe I will, but it will be a broken survival. Shattered.

“Let. Me. Go.”

“I cannot.”

Fear renders me speechless. Fear so deep it is bottomless. It paralyzes me.

I can’t breathe.

I can’t think as he comes for me again.

And somehow, this is far worse than with Lyrian. Because Caryan is a force of nature. Nothing can stop him. I didn’t understand it fully, not really. But I do now, having learned it the hard way.

My gaze goes to the runes on his body, to the tattoo shifting over his chiseled, hard muscles that pressed against me just moments ago.

The runes on his chest, shifting, moving.Alive.

And I suddenlyknowtheir meaning. I can make out every individual character within the ornaments they’re embedded in. I canreadthe power they hold. The deep, raw, ancient magic that has been formed into symbols and bound by ink and blood. Almost as powerful as the flute I did not find.

I can make out those my mother tried to destroy. She picked the most powerful of them. The sad irony doesn’t escape me. I wonder whether she felt the same before she tried to kill him. Whether she felt so helpless, so lost, as desperate as I?

“Do not—”

The words die in my throat as Caryanstretches out his hand, running his knuckles over my cheek, his magic curling around him like dark flames made of smoke. Tender, gentle, as it had been in so many other moments.

“I cannot let you die, do you understand?”

I shake my head, unable to find my voice.

He clenches his teeth, his eyes flickering. “You almost died on me on that mountain because you’re so weak. So fragile. I cannot allow this. I cannot let you live in a world as dangerous and cruel as this one, defenseless as you are.”

“You said my magic showed. That I would learn. That it would become stronger. We can wait.” My voice sounds strained, shaky. Pleading. Desperate.

“It can take a century for a fae to fully develop their power. War is coming. I do not have the luxury of time. Forgive me.”

His hand runs along my neck, down to my collarbone. So gentle I feel sick.

---