Page 11 of Moon Raven Rising
Again, he guides me in silence. When we reach my room, he surprises me again. Instead of just depositing me and leaving, he shuts the door behind him. Locking himself into the room with me. I take a step backward. The look on his face wiping the smug satisfaction from mine.
“Are you trying to get yourself killed?” He steps forward and asks sharply.
“No, I told you he—”
“Save the bullshit. I’m here to take what is owed to me and nothing more. Soren and my father have tied my fate to yours, but I will not go down with you, Moon Raven. You need to think before you act on these emotions of yours. You need to understand that your actions have consequences!” His voice raises as he continues to stalk toward me. When my feet hit the chair in front of the fire, I fall backward, sitting awkwardly in it. “If you make me lose what I came here for I will kill you myself.” He growls before picking up the table that sits next to the chair and throwing it like a child’s plaything across the room in a tantrum.
I’m in shock for a brief moment, gawking up at the man who has barely said anything to me since being held captive here. Now, he is yelling at me in full sentences. I blink rapidly, trying to dispel the surprise and letting in the festering anger.
“You speak to me of consequences? I AM THE PRISONER!” Against my better judgment, I cannot hold my tongue. “I am being kept away from my mate and the only family I have left. But you know that… It’s you who is my keeper after all…”
“Listen to your magic, and use your fucking brain. I have a feeling that you are smarter and more powerful than you let on. Soren may be blinded by the powerplay you showed in the field today, but I am not. I know more than you think of your magic, Moon Raven. This magic has not been buried in Valeska as it has been in Aldramani. If you honestly think to tell me all you could do was shield from Bracarva’s fire, I pity you. Even my dragon can sense the magic in you. It would be a shame if you could not sense it in yourself.” Leaving in a huff, he slams the heavy door behind him, and I swallow my heart that has crawled up my throat.
Closing my eyes, I let my head tip back and think about everything that has happened since I woke up and decided todayI would get out of this room. I never imagined that by getting that mere wish granted, I would also gain knowledge that the Prince of Dragons has something he is working toward that doesn’t involve me. He could very well be my gateway back to Dax, my family, and eventually vengeance for the wrongs against us.
Chapter eleven
Trent’s eyes follow meas I move through the motions of preparing dinner. Lifting a woven basket from the ground and dumping the contents onto the wood counter top. I stop a potato from rolling off the counter and make eye contact with Trent as I do. He grins as his eyes trail my body, and I continue to sort the food for cooking. All the ingredients to make shepherd’s pie, already readied for me by Naza, no doubt.
Maki had called for us to join him in the formal dining room, but with everything that has been happening and now having the gods bless Trent and me with a bond… When Naza came to inform us, I let her know I felt like taking a night alone with my mate. Just the thought makes heat pool in my chest and lower.
“You know…” Trent comes around the counter, wraps his arms around my waist from behind, brings his mouth close to my ear, and whispers, “You don’t have to cook to feed me…” His teeth graze my earlobe, sending chills to skitter across my skin and my nipples to pebble. Instead of swatting him away, I lean back further into his body. The warmth of his chest at my back adds to the gooseflesh down my arms.
“As much as I love that idea, I know how you get if you don’t eat…” His fingers squeeze at my ribs, causing me to squeal and spin in his arms.
“Oh, but I wouldeat.” He nearly purrs the words, the vibration going straight through me, but his fingers squeeze at my ribs again, causing me to jump.
“Trent! Gods! Stop tickling me in this godsdamned kitchen!” My breath catches in my throat as he stops his games and cups my cheek with his hand. His eyes flick down to my parted lips as he searches my face, settling on my eyes that are pooling with unshed tears. A happiness that feels light and heavy at the same time.
“I’ve always wanted love like my parents had.” His voice is low, and he drops his head so that his lips hover over mine. My heart feels like it’s going to jump out of my chest as I’m engulfed in the scent of him. An earthy combination of the woods in the rain and fresh-cut pine, and the heat of his body wraps around me like the warmth of a lit hearth in the winter. He’s caging me in with his arms with the counter to my back, and when his tongue rolls out to wet his lips, it rolls over mine too. Butterflies take flight in my stomach and instinctively my eyes close as his lips press to mine.
The kiss is like none I’ve ever experienced. Not that I’ve experienced many. I don’t think a peck on the cheek from the boy I got to know when my father took me to town as a young teen counts. And even kissing Trent before, nothing has been likethis. The slow, steady pace he keeps with his tongue and lips makes me melt into him. I never would have imagined Trent—the same man who I met laying on his back beat to hell and speaking nonsense about his dick twitching—could be this gentle. This… loving.
The tears fall over my lashes. The moment they do, he pulls back, but only far enough to look into my emotion-filled eyes. Ismile, and even though his lips twitch up to meet mine, his brow furrows.
“You’re crying,” he says and wipes away my tears with the pads of his fingers, causing a laugh to bubble out of my chest.
“I guess I am.”
“Why?” He whispers before kissing the path my tears have taken. I’m so taken aback that I laugh again. The sound caught in my throat.
“I’m… I’m not sure. I guess this is happy. Sorry, I’m never this sappy.” My smile widens as I let myself just feel the overwhelming joy.
“Never apologize for your happiness, Ambriel. You look beautiful, and I hope to bring only happy tears to your face for as long as you’ll let me.”
“I knew I always wanted a man like you, Trent Fornax-Ravendene. You are strong and passionate. You make me laugh.” The words to describe my admiration begin to pour from me. His grin broadens as he pulls me in closer, squeezing my ribs just the slightest again and he makes me laugh once again. “Your heart is always willing to be kind, even when your temper wants to get the best of you, you always manage to find the ability to stay true to yourself; to be a man of honor.” I say softly as my eyes get lost in his.
“You have helped. If it had not been for you…” His brows furrow as he thinks silently for a long moment. “I would have killed him. Your presence, you brought me away from the edge more than once.” He steps back, his fingers tugging at the front of my tunic. My smile falters, my sight begins to go dark around the edges as I’m struck in the chest with intense magic. The air whooshes out of me and my world blurs as the vision takes over in flashes.
Dax is shouting. Chaos has engulfed me—blood and gore fill my vision. Raelle stands on the hillside with a man I don’trecognize at her side. Bitter resentment fills my heart as I frantically fight off a Raskin just as another moves into attack. Men in metal-clad armor and Raskins seem to work together, trying to take us on—only we are not alone. Men and women fight at our sides, all clad in armor bearing the royal crest.
“Get down! I hear a man shout. Following what he says, I drop low just as a sword whistles above my head. Dax’s shouts come again, and as I stand, turning toward his voice, I see the man before me drop to his knees. Blood sprays my face; he sucks in a ragged breath, coughing and staining his lips crimson. My throat rips with my screams, and I feel as though the ground is ripped out from under my feet when I fall with him.
I come out of the vision with a loud gasp. My eyes are wide looking into Trent’s as we stand in the kitchen. His eyes are searching mine, and I realize in that moment he was not touching my skin when I was pulled into the vision. Fate did not allow him to see what it was I was seeing, and while we are mates—fate plays at different rules.
Hot tears fill my eyes and run down my cheeks without permission, but this time it is not happiness that drives them. No, my heart is breaking for what fate has shown me. A cruel curse. In one breath—breathing life and happiness into me—in the next death.
Trent has gone rigid in front of me. He knows I had a vision and can sense it was bad, but he has no idea that the future I was told could be the very end to the beginning we were just given. Pulling steel into my spine, I grip his tunic and pull him into me. My lips crash to his. The tears continue to fall, and while I kiss him without restraint, I curse the gods and fate for giving us this blessing of a mate bond only to curse me with the vision of his death.
