Page 74 of The Discovered
We’ve run out of time.I couldn’t shake the words away. They clung to me like the sticky strands of a spiderweb.
I swallowed, turning from him to rifle through my dresser for clothes. “How much time do we have?” I asked, my tone flat. I grabbed some leggings and a sweater, not really concerned with what I wore at the moment.
“I don’t really know,” Daelon sighed. He crept closer to me, concern in his eyes. “What are you thinking?”
I dropped my towel, watching as his eyes traveled my exposed body, flashing something intense before returning to mine. I pretended not to notice the change in his breathing as I dressed myself.
“I’m thinking that I don’t know what to think. Because how could I when I don’t even know what’s happening right now?” I snapped.
Daelon strained, fighting an internal battle that I wasn’t privy too. He let out a breath, his jaw unclenching.
“I can’t protect you from him much longer.”
Lucius.“Why?”
Daelon hesitated. “He’s too powerful. I was always meant to train you for as long as I could. Until you’d have to face him.”
“What does Nathaniel have to do with it? Or us being together, for that matter?”
Daelon shook his head, his eyes burning with anger. “You were right, Áine. You’re a threat. And we were in a place with a lot of complicated history. You are so… powerful. I knew you were incredible but feeling it in the ocean…” he trailed off, averting his gaze. “It was bound to set things into motion. To force Lucius to make his move.”
I slammed my dresser drawers shut with my magick, which made Daelon startle. His anger had dissipated into something more mournful.
“You’re saying thatIcaused this? By simply existing, I guess,” I muttered. “And now Lucius is going to come and kill us, I presume?”
Daelon was unreadable now. “I will never allow him to hurt you.”
I nearly asked what he’d do about it if Lucius was that much more powerful than him, but I knew that those words would hurt Daelon more than anything else. By the look on his face, he was probably already thinking it.
Suddenly all the times he’d allowed me to read his energy came rushing back, and it was as if I was currently reading him all over again. The soft golden and pink hues of care, devotion, and awe swam around me, reminding me of the man I knew he was—underneath all the secrecy and front of perfect control.
“Whatwillhappen when he comes, Daelon?” I asked. “Why are you still hiding so much when you said you’d tell me everything when the time came? The time has come, sotell me.”
I begged with my eyes, pleading for him to earn my trust. I didn’t want to lose him. I didn’t want to believe Lucius’s whispers of betrayal. More than anything, I didn’t want to beout of time.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen. But I will be by your side, and we will survive whatever comes. I can promise you that. Because what we’ve been building toward these past weeks is so much bigger than all of this. I don’t know where our path leads, but I know you were destined for something great. Something that will change the course of history and restore this realm to what it once was. I promise that every single thing I have concealed has been for the greater good. I know that’s impossible to believe right now, but it’s true. All that I do is for you,” he said, the expression in his eyes so pure I couldn’t help but be melted by it. “Always,” he finished, softer now. And even though it was just a single word, it seemed like a promise forged by magick and fate.
I crumbled just enough to let him back in, though I knew rationally that we would never be the same. He was right. It was impossible to ask me to believe in him fully. Not now. Maybe not ever—and that thought was crushing.
With an impending battle on the horizon, I refused to squander these last moments on fear and anger. As foolish as it might’ve been, I walked to him, and I let him pull me into his chest. He relaxed as I did, and he rested his chin on my head.
“I will not let anything happen to you,” he repeated softly.
“Because I’m yourpet?”
After a beat he laughed, the sound welcome to my ears after the day we’d had. “Of course, that’s what bothered you most after all of that,” he chuckled, kissing the top of my head.
“I wouldn’t saymost,” I said, unable to match his laughter as I faced the impending storm.
He lifted me into his arms, and in a flash of movement managed to throw me on the bed and pin me under him.
“However, youaremine,” he growled, grabbing my face in his hands.
I nodded, breathless and so close to losing myself in his possessive eyes. But I didn’t.
I couldn’t.
He rested his head against mine. “But I am also yours.”
