Page 70 of Daman
“Gray forces everyone to watch Christmas movies with him, while Raiden bakes sugar cookies.” My chest ached at the reminder that I was so far from home. “Not quite as Hallmark as it sounds. A ton of bickering happens. One year, Castor and Galen got into a fight and killed the Christmas tree. Like legit snapped it in two and shattered all the ornaments. Gray screamed and pummeled them both. He lost energy mid-fight and asked Raiden to finish beating them up for him.”
Alastair had broken up the fight before Raiden jumped in, though, and sent us to our rooms like we were children. Definitely one of the more memorable Christmas Eves. Raiden had made his rounds and snuck all of us cookies and rum-spiced hot chocolate before we had returned to the living room to clean up the mess. At the stroke of midnight, we’d all been laughing again.
“Let’s spend the holiday in Echo Bay next year,” Warrin said, resting a hand on my lower back. “War permitting.”
“Sure.” His statement tugged at my heart. I had to remind myself that he’d made sacrifices too because of the marriage. Compromises. He’d given it his all, while I’d done nothing but make his life harder with my bad temperament and jealousy. Not that I could one hundred percent control Envy, but still. “The tree’s pretty.”
“It is.” His hand stayed on my back as we stepped back to admire our work. Softness touched his expression. “These ornaments belonged to my mother. She loved this time of year.”
He hadn’t spoken of her before now. Was he feeling more comfortable opening up to me? I’d opened up to him a lot earlier that day too, much to my surprise.
“Will you tell me about her?”
“Very well.” Warrin guided me to the couch and sat beside me, thighs touching. He bounced his knee. Twice, three times. Indecision crossed his face before he pulled me onto his lap.
“Hey there.” I threaded my fingers through the hair at his nape.
That familiar blush colored his cheeks. “Is this okay?”
“I would’ve scratched at you like the kitten I am if it wasn’t,” I responded, referencing the nickname he’d given me earlier.
As much as I told myself otherwise, I wanted him to touch me. I wanted him to do a lot of things. Touch me, fuck me… love—no.I shut down that thought before it could fully form.
“My mother was soft-spoken and kind but fierce in her love of her children,” Warrin said, resting his cheek on my shoulder. “My love of reading came from her. She’d sit with me in front of the fire and read me tales of knights, lost treasure, and sword fights. Father said she was filling my head with nonsense, but she always stood up to him. And he let her. They were fated mates, you see, and my father loved her more than anything, or anyone, in this entire world.”
“What happened to her?”
“The war.” Warrin’s fingertips slid beneath the hem of my shirt and smoothed along my hip bone. “Ryujin killed her.”
“Kyo’s dad? Really?”
“Yes. When my father refused to kneel to him, the water king pulled my mother down to the depths of the sea and drowned her. We were already in conflict at the time, and that was fuel to the fire. My mother’s death drove my father mad, and he became something dark and twisted, like a wound left to fester. Even after he killed Ryujin, he refused to end the war. He commanded us to slaughter every water dragon we could find. Women. Children. Everyone.”
Warrin’s body stilled. It was a part of his past he wasn’t proud of.
“You were following orders,” I told him, moving my fingers through his hair.
“That doesn’t matter.” He shook his head. “You called me honorable earlier, but there was no honor in carrying out those orders. I commanded the army that murdered so many innocents. I killed several of Kyo’s brothers. I…” He shakily exhaled. “I still dream of it sometimes. Their screams. The terror on their faces right before the life faded from their eyes.”
“Is that why you have trouble sleeping?” I applied pressure with my fingertips, massaging the back of his neck. The muscles were so tight it felt like a rock.
“Yes.”
My chest cracked at that one word. Warrin carried so much weight on his shoulders. He carried a lot of guilt too.
“It’s why tensions are still high between our two kingdoms,” he continued. “The new treaty has helped, so have the talks between Nikolai and King Tatsuya, but can peace ever truly reign when such atrocities were committed?”
“I don’t know. I’d like to think so. Then again, I’ve never been one for second chances. I have the mentality that if you fuck me over, I never forget it. I hold a grudge like nobody’s business.” I shifted around on his lap to fully face him. “Wait. If your parents were mates, why didn’t your father die when your mom did?”
“They never completed the bonding of souls. As the king, my father had obligations to the kingdom and didn’t want to put himself in jeopardy. A wise decision considering what happened.”
The subject of mates had my heart racing faster. Did Warrin know we were connected in that way? I was the first relationship he’d ever been in. Maybe he didn’t know the signs since he had nothing else to compare it to.
The vibrating of my phone on the side table gave me a much-needed reprieve from my budding anxiety. I grabbed it.
“What do you want?” I answered.
“Wow. I feel the love, D,” Bellamy said in a huff. “You haven’t heard my sexy voice in forever, and the first thing you do is give me attitude.”
