Page 42 of A Kingdom of Shadows

A chord of empathy lingers between us. I also know what it is like to no longer have your parents with you.

I stare at him, his eyes deep with pain. "Have you ever seen a shooting star?" I ask. He shakes his head. "Well... you only ever get to see a shooting star for a few seconds. But every time someone has witnessed it, they say it's beautiful, magical even."

He looks at me, and it's almost like a star itself sparks in his obsidian eyes.

I lower my chin and say softly and reassuringly, "Think of your mother as a shooting star because even though your time with her was brief, at least you still have wonderful memories of her. And that never goes away."

He doesn't say it, but I can see the gratitude in his eyes and how he smiles.

I turn to the window and think of my family, knowing I'd spent such little time with my mother and father before they perished.

My gaze settles on Darius again, and I wonder if he is the same regarding his mother.

"Do you like him?" Aias snaps me from the turmoil of thoughts, and I blink, turning to him. He clarifies, gesturing his head out the window. "Darius."

My whole face heats up, and I chuckle. "Why would you think that?"

He shrugs, repressing a grin. "No reason."

I press a hand to my cheek to cool down and clear my throat. "I'm going to get some fresh air," I say, waltzing to the double glass doors of the hall and stepping out onto the patio.

"Try not to kiss him," he shouts.

I freeze and look over my shoulder in panic. "What?"

He shoots me a devious smile. "I said try not to trip on the small steps."

The cheek of him, honestly. I scowl and start walking fast along the gravel ground until Faye approaches me with a gleaming smile and a colorful gown.

"Enjoying the stay so far?" she asks, her hands behind her back.

My eyes flicker to Darius unwillingly as I mumble, "It is definitely different from the forest." And Emberwell.

Faye must gather where I'm staring as she looks behind her and sighs in exaggeration. "He is ever so handsome, isn't he?"

My gaze jumps to her as she turns to me with a pout of her lips and a scrunch of her nose as if she's pitying me.

"Though it must be awful for you knowing that mortals and shifters can't have children together," she continues, and my bones tremble. She thinks we're together, yet her comments make me stiff and feel like I'm about to suffocate from the millions of thoughts knotting into a rope inside my head.

"He is not—" I try to correct, but it's useless; I'm just flustering myself more. "We are just working together on these tasks."

Her brows rise with shock as she pushes a strand of hair behind her arched Elven ear. "Well, you certainly had me fooled—"

"Faye," Arlayna's voice interrupts from behind, and I'm incredibly thankful for it as she walks up to us. "Must you always bother everyone?"

Faye rolls her eyes. They're emerald compared to Arlayna's grey ones. "And you just like to ruin everything, don’t you?" She walks around Arlayna, placing an unwanted kiss on her, and grins. "Farewell, big sister."

Arlayna glares as her sister walks off and wipes her cheek. Her waves droop to her thin waist, and I notice she still has the circlet on her head—a tiara. "You shouldn't listen to anything she tells you." She looks bored as she says it, like she tires of Faye's antics. "She loves to stir things around, mostly for attention."

"So, what she said—about mortals, is it true they cannot bear children with a shifter?" I detest the curiosity filling me by asking this. It shouldn't matter to me. I should be celebrating at the knowledge.

Solaris knows what a menace a child of Darius's would be like.

Arlayna's brows pucker, she's suspicious of my question, but she does not edge me on. "A mortal's body is not compatible with that of a shifter," she says, "if a human is to conceive from them, they will perish before the child is even born."

"Is that because, as humans, we are perceived as weak?" I chuckle scornfully. It is why Aurum once saw us as people who needed to be enslaved.

"I've never thought a mortal to be weak," she says, no joke or mockery. She is dead serious. "Sometimes having powers instead is what makes one weak. We can be too trusting of it at times."

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