Page 52 of The Illuminated
He stiffened as I melted into his chest, his arms tentatively wrapping around me.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered into his black uniform. “I was just really worried about you.”
He inhaled slowly, and his embrace didn’t quite feel right. Like he was holding himself back, putting up a wall between us. I pulled away, put off by his impassive features. A flicker of something resembling fear flickered through his eyes.
“Do you not believe I meant what I said? That I’d stand by you no matter what?” I asked.
He paused, and I read his hesitation as an affirmative.
“I meant it. I tried my best not to look, but I could hear them. The memories. I caught a glimpse of a few—like when Gregory made you kill someone for the first time. Or when Lucius murdered all those people after getting high on elixir. But even though I don’t know most of the specifics, I understand why you hid them from yourself. I felt how ashamed you were. But I know the true you, Daelon. That hasn’t changed.”
“Kneel for me,” he said.
I squinted at him in confusion. That wasn’t quite the reaction I was expecting. I recalled one of his buried memories, where Renata indicated he was avoiding his feelings with kinky sex. I supposed it wasn’t theworstcoping mechanism, but it didn’t feel great either.
“Daelon,” I sighed. “You’re going to have to talk about this at some point. Or it will eat you away inside.”
He carefully stroked my hair, his eyes pulling me into a trance. I knew I shouldn’t give in, but it was me who’d forced him into the integration, and if this is how he knew I was still committed to him, then so be it.
I knelt before him again, watching him closely for his reaction. His face was stony, but I saw a strange flash of anger in his eyes. I wasn’t sure what game we were playing, but it felt like it was a whole new kind of dangerous.
“Can I kiss you?” I asked.
He hesitated for a moment and then nodded, extending his hand. I wanted so desperately to drive the darkness from his eyes. I stood and met his lips, and he grabbed my hair roughly, guiding me quickly to the bed. He threw me down on the comforter, and my resolve not to let this escalate was slowly disappearing like sand to the wind. Not when he looked at me the way he did—like I was his, forever—and he wanted to do terrible, horrible things to me that I would somehow enjoy.
He stared down at my body hungrily, my midnight blue dress shifted up in the fall to reveal most of my legs. He straddled me.
“Who do you belong to?” he whispered close to my ear.
“You,” I said, his grip on my neck applying just the slightest pressure.
“I want you to know something, Áine. I always win. Always. And there’s nothing you will ever be able to hide from me. Not ever again,” he said, but his voice was different now, and when he raised back up, I could see I wasn’t really talking to Daelon at all.
It was Lucius, and he was angrier than I’d ever seen him. I suddenly felt the full brunt of his power as the glamour melted away, and it was suffocating, hungry, and as fiery and destructive as a hurricane.
His slow smile held no humor as I squirmed out from under him, my breath caught in my throat.
“You stupid, stupid girl,” he hissed, lifting up from the bed. “He’s done. He’s gone.It’s over.”
Each word was like a deafening strike of lightning, shattering every piece of me until I was nothing but rubble and fear.
“Please,” I found myself begging, but soon I’d lost my ability to speak as Lucius’s power suffocated me with its thickness. I gasped.
He stared me down for a moment before he turned and stalked away. I heard the door of my chambers close behind him.
I hurried to my feet, ridding myself of the last remnants of Lucius’s sickly magick in my airways. I followed him, reaching out into the castle for Daelon.
Daelon. Where are you? It’s an emergency.
The throne room,he answered.
Lucius is coming to kill you,I said, but now I wasn’t sure if he’d received it, or I’d just screamed it as a thought.
I ran down the hallway before remembering I could teleport, so I channeled my unhinged storm of power until I stood in the center of the room, where everyone had already been stunned to a still silence.
“You,” Lucius bellowed at Daelon in the middle of the space, while nervous witches dressed in their ridiculous red carpet attire gathered around like it was a live theater performance. Daelon ordered Renata away from him, stepping closer to Lucius and away from the others.
I sprang forward, but I was too emotional to build up my defenses. With a flick of his wrist and not even a glance in my direction Lucius sent me flying backwards into a standing paralysis.
