Page 37 of The Illuminated
I set my mug down on the table, noticing the slight shake of my hand. A numb kind of sadness snaked around my heart. The wholeness I’d felt in the park wasn’t enough to stave off this feeling. I was with my hot witch boyfriend in the most romantic city on Earth, and a part of me waslonely. Daelon was right; Lucius’s darkness infected every moment, no matter how much we tried to ignore it.
Daelon disappeared into the bedroom, his aura as unreadable as ever. I waited in an agonizing stillness for him to reemerge, but as the minutes passed, I could feel anxiety weaving its way into my chest, where it nestled in an unshakeable mass.
I rose slowly from the couch, taking long steps across the black carpet and up the three steps leading to the bedroom. I leaned my head against the door, hesitating.
“Can I come in?” I finally asked.
A torturous pause only wedged the gap between us, pushing us further apart.
Yes,he answered in my mind.
As I stood motionless with my hand on the doorknob, my mind only continued to betray me. I thought of Christine, waiting on Lucius’s permission to enter his chambers. To kneel. To receive marks from god knows what that needed to be mended by Mary. I thought of Renata, and how Daelon had been dominating her without even touching her. I thought of Daelon’s words, that Lucius had tainted everything and that his reach was inescapable.
These thoughts should’ve driven me away. I should’ve felt sickness in my gut, removed my hand from the doorknob, and walked right out the front door and down into the streets below. This course of action made sense. It was what the savior of the world would’ve done.
But that wasn’t what I did.
I entered the dark room, and I knew what I wanted to do. What I had to do. But I wasn’t sure how to let him know that he was my everything, and that he had the power, not Lucius. Never Lucius.
“You think that Lucius has tainted everything, including me,” I whispered, and it sounded somewhere in between a statement of truth and a question.
Daelon lay on his back a moment longer before moving to his feet. “Yes. I mean no—not—”
I dropped to my knees before him.
I leaned back on my heels and stared straight ahead, and I swore my heart had never beat faster. I didn’t dare look up as he approached, focusing on the curve of his legs in his dark jeans and the sound of his beige lace-up shoes against the wood-paneled floor.
I heard him inhale slowly, and at the sudden touch of his hand on my hair, I flinched slightly. His chuckle drove away the hope he hadn’t noticed.
“What are you doing, Áine?” he asked slowly, but his voice had already transformed. It roped me under a spell so effortlessly, and when I looked up, his darkened eyes sealed my fate. I clung to his authority like an anchor against the world’s many storms, and I wanted to drink his commands like they were elixir.
“Tell me what you want,” he demanded.
Our freedom, I thought. I lifted my head to meet his gaze—a gaze that mirrored my own intensity. “You.”
At first it was slightly unnerving to kneel before him like this—a physical representation of the exchange of my power into his hands—but as I moved deeper into his trance it only felt natural. Fated, even.
He bent down, grasping my chin. “You already have that.” His breath hitched. “You have no idea what seeing you like this does to me.”
“Maybe that’s the point.” I waited in breathless anticipation, and as the seconds grew longer, I knew he only reveled in my unknowing.
He cocked his head. “What am I going to do with you?”
Chapter12
He offered me a hand. In an effortless dance of movement, he pulled me to my feet and into his arms. Soon I was in the low, king-sized bed, and Daelon was untying his shoes. Very, very slowly.
I sat up on my forearms, watching him undress.
His eyes flashed to mine, and suddenly he was on top of me, pushing me back down. He leaned in, his eyes holding mine in a way that stilled every part of me. I thought he was going to kiss me, and I realized I’d never wanted anything more, but when I moved to meet his lips his hand was on my throat. His thumb brushed against my bottom lip.
He leaned into my neck, and his kiss was nearly painful. I reached for his hair, but he was quick to catch my wrist and press it into the bed.
“Mmm.” He kissed my cheek. “No more clothes.”
He had me out of my dress so quickly I nearly giggled at the absurdity of it. And when he stared down at my body, it was almost angrily. His lips met my bare skin, leaving a trail from my neck to my stomach.
“You have no idea how much I’ve missed you,” Daelon growled, back at eye-level.
