Page 69 of Of Nightmares & Fire
I knew of renders, having learned about the magick before my parents passing. It was magick that was said to run in my family, as were the black shadows that mark my skin. It had been generations since all the elements of our magickal line passed to one person. Itseems I was the one destined to carry it all.” He swallows and looks down at me.
“Mavros doesn’t have the same magick? I thought you both had the shadows?” I ask.
“We do. Mostly the same. Much to Mavros’ dismay, he is unable to rend portals.” He smirks when he catches my lips curling.
“I’m sure he was hell to be around after that. I can't see him taking the news well.” I say.
“His ego was big even back then; it could take the hit.” He chides, swapping our hands and placing a hand on my low back. He helps me climb as the path we take becomes steeper. “When I rendered the portal there, right in the middle of the woods, I knew that things were about to change. I felt a shift in the air. Almost like I knew my purpose was about to find me. I stepped through the dark arch I had created, not knowing where I was going to come out.”
I didn’t realize how far up we had climbed until we reached a particularly steep edge, where Kyros had to lift me before he followed behind. My breath catches as I turn around to face him, and I am instead left wide-eyed at the scene beyond where he pulls himself over the ledge. He comes to a stop at my side and slides his arm around my waist. He pulls me in front of him, his arms draped around my body like they were always meant to be there, and leans in so his breath brushes the shell of my ear as he continues his story.
“This is where I stepped through that portal. All this time, I thought that was the moment that the divine deemed me worthy of something greater.” I lift my gaze at the same moment that hespins me in his arms. Our gazes collide, and that familiar warmth bursts in time with the fluttering wings in my chest. Like wind making a flame on a candle flutter and crackle, my soul seems to do the same dance. My skin is on fire as the sun crests overhead. The sun showers us with golden light and makes Kyros look like one of the gods given form. “I was wrong.” He says, lifting his hand to cup my face, he brings his mouth to hover over mine. My breath stalls in my lungs, waiting for his next words, his next move. I cannot breathe as my thoughts twist and turn into one another, every thought losing meaning. I can only see him.
“The moment you crossed my path in the streets of Eathian, I felt the fault line of my reality shift. Not just the air around me, but the very ground I stood on shook, and every moment since then I have been trying to catch my footing. Trying to get back to where I thought I was meant to be. I don’t think I can do that anymore. Watching you with my people, my brother, Zinya? I realized.” His thumb brushes strokes along my heated skin, sending prickles of energy through my entire body. I close my eyes. A coward, unable to see his face as he says what I think he is going to say.
“Don’t,” I say quietly. All my life has been mapped out and ruled by men. He can’t be just another. I can’t be feeling the same way that he is, just as I have found my freedom.
“Look at me, Shula.” I clench my teeth, my brow pulled down taut, and feel tears prickling at the back of my eyes. While I don't want to do as he says, my heart seems to be peering out of the cage it's kept in. The wings that buzz with it are about to burst open the bars to my heart.
I swallow, taking a deep breath, and I do as he says.
When my eyes flutter open and they collide with his. The scent of sweet honey and the bite of fire and smoke fill my senses. He consumes my every breath. He rules my vision. Blocking out even the masterpiece painted by the divine that makes up the scene behind him. He is all that I see, smell,feel. The look on his face is like I have stepped right through the divine fire and into the embrace of Runerth. “I am a falling man, and it’s only you that I want to be there when I finally hit the ground.”
Chapter forty-eight
Kyros
Thereisnogoingback for me. She may not know everything, but this confession gives hersomething. My eyes are lost to the endless moon in her gaze. Her lips part, and the bottom trembles with unsaid words. She doesn’t have to acknowledge what I’ve said. I just want her to be here with me. Everything else will come on its own time.
“I—Kyros,” she says with her voice shaking. Everything in me softens around her. Every sharp edge dulls. I give her a sad smile. After everything that I have been through in my life, it's only fitting that I would fall for someone who is meant to be my enemy.Someone whose whole purpose was to take everything I ever cherished away. And now?
She is all-consuming.
The one thing that I don’t want to escape. I’m not ready to hear her words. I’m not willing to accept that she doesn’t feel the same. How could she?
Cupping her face I press two fingers to her lips, silencing whatever it is she was going to say. Right now I just need her to be here—I'm selfish, but I don't care. I lean in. Slowly dragging my fingers away, I replace them with my lips. Surprising me, she opens herself up, sinking her tongue into my mouth, inviting mine to dance with hers. Her taste floods my senses and lights my blood on fire. My fingers sink into her hair, tilting her head back and giving me more of her.
The moan that releases from her throat has me lifting her from the ground. Her arms wrap around my neck and her legs around my waist while the sun heats my back. She digs her hands further into my hair, pulling it from the tie at the back of my head and letting the strands fall loose. I press her into the flat rock of the mountainside, unable to suppress the groan building in my throat as I grind my hard cock into the center. Thin fabric is the only thing that separates us. She whimpers, and I feel it everywhere.
Our skin sears where it touches. Our bodies seem to meld into one, with hands wandering, gripping, and pulling. I want nothing more than to rip away the little clothing we have covering our bodies and sink into her, but I pause when I feel her hesitate. Her fingers at the tie of my breeches, but she breaks the kiss.
“Kyros,” she says breathlessly, and after a moment of deep breaths, I nod. I know what she is saying even without her voice. We need to talk about more than she even realizes, but we are running out of time.
“I know you have questions, and I want to give you all the answers. I do, but Shula, we are running out of time. We have days until we leave. Days of traveling before we have an audience with the Queen of Diemos.”
“Are you going to tell me what the man, Karnnen, meant?” The question comes out like a blade. The passion of the fire grows between flashes of the anger and hurt in her eyes. “I will be the death of you? The death of everyone?” She asks, locking her eyes to mine. My jaw clenches hard enough to crack bone, and I take a deep breath.
“I wasn’t meant to be a suitor for your father’s games.” I say, loosening my grip around her and allowing her feet to settle back on the ground. She keeps her hands against my bare chest, and I know she can feel the same pounding beat of my heart as I tell her some truths. “Mavros was meant to be the only one playing his games. I was there to be support.” Her blue eyes brighten a little as the sun casts its glow over both of us.
“Something changed?” She asks, the venom in her tone gone, and my lips curl at the corner in a half smirk.Softening for me, too, Shula? It seems we are both doomed.
“Everything changed,” I say, and pink rushes her cheeks. “The moment I stopped that cranky old skin dealer, Martier…” I can't help but smile at the memory. “When you clearlydid notneed myhelp.” She rolls those bright eyes, and my smile widens before I’m serious again. “I may not have known right away, but there was something. Something I couldn’t place. Then again, when we ran into you at the tavern... Something I have never felt before rose in my chest every time I saw you. Every time your wicked mouth bit back at anything I said. You were a wildfire. Reckless and deadly, but like a moth to a flame, I was drawn to you.
I tried to stay away; tried to get Mavros to stay away from you too. I think I knew you weren’t who you said you were, but I never imagined you were—well, who you are…”
“The Princess of Eathian. The one your brother was meant to court?” She asks, and I give her a wry smile. My eyes then narrow on hers.
“Something like that.” I say, tilting my head as I look at her. A gust of wind blows over the water and crashes into the mountain where we stand. Both our hair are blown across our faces. I shake it from my eyes before I tuck the unruly strands behind her ears. “Truth is, I lost all control when I walked into the palace and saw you at King Connard’s side.” I say.
