Page 134 of A Kingdom of Shadows

"Kirian," I call him, and he twists halfway. "Why be this kind enough to let us go?"

His chuckle sounds rich within the chamber walls. "Sweetheart, do not mistake this for kindness. I am anything but that. Consider this a one-off."

Chapter Fifty-One

I hang my tunic up to dry on a branch and sit on a log beside a stream. Huddling my legs up to my chest, I try to keep myself warm with my thin chemise. From someone else's perspective, I might seem callous to my emotions as I stare blankly at the pebbles sweeping beneath the water. In complete honesty, in the past year, I've shown more emotion than I have before. But every time I close my eyes, I see my brother, Darius, and Sarilyn telling me to choose.

Even if I passed the final test, the aftermath is still more present than ever.

I don't move from my position as someone sits beside me. I know it's Darius. I always do. Just breathing in his rosewood scent is enough for me to know.

He doesn't say anything as he rests his elbows on his knees, relaxing a breath, and for a minute or so, we stay like this, staring ahead. We are so far out that I can no longer hear Tibith's excitable voice or Arlayna and Aeron bickering. Instead, I hear the burbling sound of water tumbling over rocks and branches.

A deep breath escapes me. "What did you see?" I'm the first to ask, the first to always be too curious. Did he go through the same as me? Did his fears involve him having to choose too?

He sighs, and I'm not sure what he wants to say.

I glance over at him. His hands are joined together, pressing against his forehead. He's as traumatized as I imagined he would be.

"You were in mine," I say, trying to encourage him. As he turns to me with a silent look for me to go on, I do, "I had to choose either to save my older brother or kill you." A knot forms in my throat just remembering I couldn't so much as reach them.

Darius stares at me for some time, and I consider mentioning that I saw Lorcan too, but he gets there before me, "Lorcan's father told me the only way out is if I were to give a dragon shifter bite to everyone I cared for." He pauses, his eyes a fierce amber gold, making me understand that I was one of those people he had to bite. His one worst nightmare. "When I refused, he locked me in the cellar beneath our home. He always did that when I was young. Sometimes he kept me down there with no food or water for days. Once Lorcan tried to get me out, he could never get the keys from Rayth."

I shake my head just imagining it. "What did you do? How did you pass Kirian's test?"

He plucks a piece of stray hair off my cheek and pushes it behind my ear. He seems fixated on it for a moment. "Before... Rayth used to tell me I was a pathetic dragon, that I had the power, if I wanted to, to break out of that cellar, to do anything I wanted, yet I was too stupid to try because I knew if I did, I might not have been able to stop. And when Rayth was dying, he told me no one would love me, that I deserved to be hated, that I was a murderer, a disgusting dragon."

I blink back on a blurred vision at the memory of Darius telling me that night in the castle's kitchen. My hand automatically flies out to rest on his arm, and I edge nearer to him. He hardly notices I'm touching him. It's like he's sucked into his own thoughts.

"So, this time, I broke out," he says, his voice stiff and tight with unclenched anger. "I faced him again, and I won."

A kernel of pride buries within my gut, and I'm suddenly smiling at him.

He notices, his brows knitting as he asks, "What is it?"

I shake my head. "Nothing, it's just... you deserve so much more than what the world has given you."

His gaze softens. It has a boyish charm as he rolls his eyes over my face and lips. "The world gave me you."

"Yet you thought you did not deserve me either."

He lets out a quiet chuckle. "I do not think anyone deserves you, Goldie. You're the reincarnation of Solaris. Not even the most powerful beings in Zerathion can beat who you are."

"And you are the reincarnation of Crello," I remind him, nuzzling my nose against his bare shoulder. Looking up at his face, my chest burns like wildfire every second I stare at him. "This world may be cruel to us," I say, "but we were always meant to find each other, Darius, regardless of who we are, and I would take fighting you a million lifetimes in that jeweler's shop if it meant we got to be where we are now...together."

We hold each other's gaze, and a silence full of charged energy buzzes anew between us. I have poured myself out to Darius in a way I have not with others. I have shown him parts of me that an outsider would consider weak, but it was strength to him. I love him with every notion in my soul, and I am not afraid to acknowledge it, unlike before.

As my hand travels up his chest, resting on his heart, his breath hitches, and I lift my eyes to his. All it takes is a hooded glance from me to get inside his head and for him to devour the tiniest space between us as he kisses me. His hand curves around my neck, pulling me toward him with such hunger that it makes me moan against his mouth.

A rush of power beckons before me. It floods my veins, wanting—no, needing to pour out of me. I mount onto Darius's lap, straddling him as I deepen our kiss, and heat festers inside me. I rock against him, and his kisses become possessive as he hardens beneath me.

"Take me into the river." My body is battling for air as I pant through the words. "I need you to take me into the river."

Whether it is a desire to quench this aching surge of fire and power doesn't matter, as Darius doesn't even question my odd request. He stands, lifting me up like I do not weigh anything. I slowly untangle my legs from his waist, my chemise riding up my thigh as we stay so close to each other, breathless. His hand never leaves my back as he leads me toward the stream. He gets in first, holding my hand before grabbing my hips and carefully guiding me into the river. My teeth chatter at the cold impact of water hitting my waist the further I get in though the fiery throb inside my chest does not yield. I wind my arms around Darius's neck, and he holds me, letting the warmth of his skin soothe each part of mine.

What is left of sunlight dapples through the trees and onto the stream. Shadows carve parts of Darius's chest and face as he swims backward with me in his arms. He has always looked so handsome, but something about being in the water has his skin glisten like starlight as if it is that side of Crello within him.

His hand strokes my back, and I hum contentedly, tilting my head back as his fingers skim through the fabric of my chemise and then up my right thigh. He hitches that leg up to his side, and I release a gasp, breathing out his name.

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