Page 63 of The Book of Legends
“I can’t stand the thought of you in another’s arms,” he says, his voice velvet and steel. “Not warriors, not Fae... not even your kind.”
“I—”
“It doesn't matter if you hate me.” His thumb traces the corner of my lips with unbearable softness. “It doesn't matter if you run. Because if you do... I will find you.”
And just as his mouth brushes mine?—
“Your Highness,” a nasal voice slices through the haze, shattering the moment like glass.
We both stiffen.
At the edge of the courtyard, a guard bows low. But his posture is tight—tense. Afraid.
Kainen doesn't move.
“What?” he growls.
“The northern wall,” the guard says. “It’s been breached. One of the Watchers reported... the forest moved.”
The forest.
A place of living shadows, of magic gone wrong—ancient and vengeful. I’ve only heard whispers. I never thought it could shift.
Kainen’s jaw flexes. Fury simmers beneath his skin like magma beneath stone. His whole being vibrates with it.
He takes a step back from me, and the cold rushes in like a severed spell.
“Go to your room,” he says, his voice hard as iron.
“Where are you going?” The words leave my throat softer than I intended but pant grips in its clutch.
His gaze pierces me. “To kill whatever dares enter my kingdom.”
His eyes linger on my lips, my throat—like he’s memorizing what he hasn’t yet claimed.
And then—he’s gone.
Ash swirls in the silence he leaves behind, the wind biting at my exposed skin. I’m alone.
But for one second, I wasn’t his prisoner.
I wasn’t the spy. I wasn’t the threat.
No—I was something else entirely.
Desired. Marked. Feared.
And gods help me...
One day, I might become all three.
Asoft thud marks the door closing behind me, and silence follows—thick, unnatural. Too quiet. Too heavy.
I lean back against the wood, exhaling a breath that trembles through me.
The hearth burns low, casting a dying glow across the stone walls. Shadows dance like ghosts, stretching long and thin. This tower, this room, is supposed to feel safe. Familiar by now.
But it doesn’t.
