Page 63 of The Time Of Queens

Finally, I could breathe.

When I opened that carriage door and found her frightful eyes looking at me, it had felt as if my soul had centred once more. Because ever since finding her room empty, it was as if a piece had torn away from my heart. As if she had stolen the very core of my soul and ran away with it. I knew I would never be whole again had I not found her. Which was why I had ignored all else, including anything my sister had to say on the matter. For I had torn through the house until finding myself on the rooftop. Then without any other thought, I had released my wings and taken to the skies.

Now the irony wasn’t lost on me, as I had done the very same after finding my Chosen One gone. Yet strangely, the panic I felt wasn’t the same as when Keira had left me. And for the first time in my life, I had damned the Fates and turned against them, for I knew now that nothing could keep me from claiming her.

The prophecy be damned!

Because I had fallen in love with her, and it took nearly losing her to realise it. I knew, in that moment, that I couldn’t live without her. Meaning if it had taken me years to find her, then I would have scoured the Earth to do so. Be damned the amount of time it took me in trying to rectify the damage I had done, for I would do everything in my power to make her mine. As it was like I had told her…

Time was all I needed.

Although, time was something that I had in abundance, yet I knew that she did not. Not as a mortal. Which was why I was even more eager to get her home and create a reason as to why she had to stay there. So, in the carriage, I had formed my excuse, despite how callous it may have sounded to her. Yet despite this, I couldn’t help but smirk when I thought back on her outraged reaction. By the Gods, she was delectably cute and endearing. But even with that being said, her wit when verbally sparing with me had me both amused and lustful in equal amounts.

Of course, having her fall on top of me hadn’t helped the lustful part, for it had taken every shred of will I possessed to let her go. When all I wanted to do was strip her bare and feel her skin against my own. All I had wanted to do was kiss her and forget any other before her…my Chosen One included.

It was maddening as much as it was enticing, for I had never felt this way about another soul before. It was an abundance of newly discovered emotions for me to feel and experience. I felt as if I was reborn, and with it came the gift of so much more. The touch of another, amplified ten times over. The sound of her laugh and sight of her smile at my doing, felt as if I had accomplished some Godly task. The way she looked at me made me feel more alive than the thousands of years I had walked this Earth. Therefore, I knew that with the discovery of her body would also be not of this world. For I would create my ownHeaven in her name. A place I would find myself never wishing to leave as I found the divine in her arms.

But first, I had to get her home and under my care. So, for the rest of the journey, I allowed myself the simple pleasure of looking at her. Something she chose to ignore. Her arms remained folded, and that adorable haughty look remained on her face. Not that I could blame her for such… after all, I had bullied her into my demands and given her no choice but to comply. Of course, they had been empty threats, but my options had been limited, for it was better than outright making her my prisoner.

Something I was still prepared to do, if the need arose.

Yet that, in essence, was exactly what she would be. My beautiful little prisoner. Because even within the freedom she would find within my home, I would have her watched without her knowledge. I wanted her every move accounted for. I could not risk her trying to run and slip through my fingers again.

Which meant that I didn’t mind the silence between us as we made our way back to Witley Court, for it gave me the chance to plan. I knew I had to make up for my past transgressions against her. For the way I treated her and the things I said. I needed to atone and get her back to where she could trust me once again.

I was no fool, for I knew the damage my words had caused would be a wall between us that I myself had erected. But, piece by piece, I would tear it down so that there was nothing left between us.

A vow I would have verbalised by the time we arrived, had I believed she would let me. But with the way she was reaching for the door the moment we stopped, I knew she was eager to be rid of the sight of me. Well, she didn’t know me… this was one battle I would win, for I had something she did not.

The supernatural speed to aid me.

The moment she was reaching for her bag, I was out the door and waiting for her. A fact she seemed surprised of, if the sweet little yelp of shock was anything to go by.

Which gave her no choice but to allow me to help her from the carriage. It brought me back to my first day meeting her and how I’d had the urge to keep her, even back then. So, I took her bag from her with one hand and, with the other, I boldly wrapped it around her waist. This so I could lower her slowly to the ground so as she didn’t need the steps. Again, her little gasp of surprise was like a soothing caress to my soul.

Yet before her lips could form the words to argue, I released her, despite wishing how I had been free to sweep her fully into my arms and carry her inside. But alas, as soon as she was on her feet, she used them to step away from me, putting unwanted distance between us. Then she snatched her bag from my hand, shocking me enough to let her, before she promptly turned to face the entrance and stormed her angry self inside. Which left me with no other option but to follow, my much longer legs catching up to her with ease.

However, when she reached the top of the stairs, I knew I had to stop her, for I knew where she was headed.

“You go the wrong way,” I told her, reaching for her bag and snatching it back, so as she would have no choice but to follow me.

“What do you mean? My room is…”

“No longer the one you believe it to be,” I finished for her, grinning to myself when I heard her rushing to follow me towards my own room.

“Oh no… no way am I sleeping with you!” she declared, shocking me enough that I stopped dead. Then I looked down at her and raised a brow in question.

Did she really believe that I would have forced myself upon her that way? Did she really think me capable of being that typeof villain? The idea was abhorrent, but then I guess she had little left to think of me as being a gentleman. Especially considering I had, in her mind, kidnapped her and forced her into servitude. Which is why I snapped,

“No, you will not. You will, however, be situated in the room next to mine whilst your door is still broken, hence why we walk this way.” I held my arm out to indicate the balcony hallway that led to the guest rooms in the east wing.

“Oh… oh right, of course you were,” she corrected, blushing, and I had to declare that the sight was such a pretty one. It managed to rid me of some of my vexation her rude assumptions had caused. Hence why I said,

“I feel I must remind you that I am still a gentleman, despite what brutish things you think of me.”

“Says the man who kidnapped me and forced me to be his maid,” she sniped.

“Yes, and let it be known now, that is all I would force upon you!” I snapped back.

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