Page 93 of The Curse of a Kingdom
“Devon . . .” Arkimedes warned, but the Crow continued.
“We could have been gone a day after we arrived at this place! Just get this thing off me.” He lifted his hand and shook the bangle.
“We can’t remove it from you or I would have done it already, Devon. It will poison you.” Arkimedes took a step closer to her. She was shaking, the adrenaline of all that had happened in that circular room and the pent-up tension finally catching up to her.
He stood a bit too close to her, but instead of calming her nerves, it made them flare up. She knew he didn’t want to be close to her. This was his own nature telling him to be so when he so desperately wanted space.
At this point, Nava wasn’t sure her pride could let her enjoy it, not when her gut told her something was wrong.
“So, what then? We stay in this castle?” Devon lifted both hands over his head and dropped them in frustration. “And what’s with the demons? How long have they been attacking the kingdom?”
“A week or so before I was brought back. The king thought they were fires from a particularly warm summer. Then it was thought to be arson by the Fallen Crows . . .”
Devon cursed, and recognition tainted his pale features. Nava turned to Arkimedes, her lips parting as her mind went into overdrive. The Zorren had been attacking this kingdom for a while, not because of her and Ari being here. Had they been waiting? Was it a coincidence?
Not once had Aristaeus told her that they needed to go back to the Grey Island so the demons would leave this kingdom. Did this mean the three of them were where they were supposed to be, against all odds?
Had she been the only one trying to be out of here when she should have been focusing on something else?
“You are right, Devon.” Arkimedes’s eyes burrowed into her instead of looking at the Crow. His forehead crinkled as the color drained from his features. “You two are in danger here. If the king doesn’t know you are my soulmate, Nava, he will soon. It would have been easier for me to protect you had you been a regular human. Even though there is a stigma, the king doesn’t hate humans.”
“He hates soulmates? I heard around here that he and the queen were soulmates.”
“Before I knew about us, I didn’t believe in the whole concept of it myself, so I brushed it off as hallway rumors.”
“What are you saying?” She turned to face him. He was so close, his scent wrapped around her like the hug he wouldn’t give her.
“You and I have to go, while he stays here playing prince.” Devon’s voice was like a bucket of ice over her, and Arkimedes’s warning gaze flashed over her head to the man behind.
“You can't seriously consider this,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest. “We can’t be apart. It will hurt us. It almostkilledme. Plus, I’m not leaving when the Zorren are wrecking the forest. You . . . you know better.”
“I don’t intend for you to leave the city. You will be close but removed from the king’s reach.” He raised his hand toward her but hesitated before his fingers reached her shoulder. “I will be coming often to see you, and it will be easier to plan where to go from there.”
What he was not saying was how he needed space away from her. Arkimedes wanted to keep her close enough so his soul wouldn’t hurt, but far so his heart wouldn’t get too attached. Nava wasn’t sure who she had pissed off in a previous life, but she must have done a mighty good job at it.
Devon’s voice broke the silence. “Are you thinking of us staying in the Society’s safe house in town?”
Nava turned her head to the Crow, and her back crawled. She would rather stay in the forest than step foot inside a Society of Crows’ house. She had grown more accepting in the last year, but not this much. “Absolutelynot.”
“My father is bound by the treaty he signed not to enter that safe house. He can’t destroy or harm the property either.”
“Ask me if I care. I’m not stepping a foot inside that safe house.”
Arkimedes pinched the bridge of his nose with two fingers. “Why not? Your mother was part of the Society.”
“Yes, and I ran away from the two of you for a whole decade, just so I could keep my freedom from the Society. You seem to think you have control over me.” She took a step closer and tapped her pointer finger over the hard planes of his chest, waves of anger burning in the pit of her stomach. “I’m not serving myself on a gold platter to them.”
His hand captured hers in a gentle move, holding her as he studied her features with a puzzled expression. “There won’t be any Crows there, other than Devon.”
“My answer is still no.”
“Nava. There is no other place I can think of where the king can’t just pluck you from while in the city.” His gaze turned wild and pleading. “I can’t leave the city to burn.”
She swallowed and pulled her hand away from his grasp, taking a healthy step back as her heart stuttered. “Wouldn’t it send an alarm to the Society if nonmembers enter?”
“You will be invited by one of us.”
“I’m not talking about me, Ark. Can either of you still walk in there? You deserted them over a decade ago, and Devon has been a prisoner for a year . . . which might have made them start their pursuit of another possible escapee. We all know how much they love those.”
