Page 54 of A Clash of Embers

"Clara. We've had this conversation before. Stop looking at me when I sleep," he whispered softly.

All I did was smile and turn back over. I should have wanted to pull out of his embrace, but I didn't. This was pure bliss lying here beside him. Doing this with him made me forget all of the terrible things that he did.

"You really need to work on closing your thoughts."

I huffed out an aggravated breath. "I do close my thoughts. I am not trying to let you in."

He pulled back and sat up with the sheets covering his torso slightly. "You are an open book, Clara. Anyone who has this power could creep into your mind if you're not careful. You need to learn how to close it off."

I sighed, "Yeah. I know, but I've never had anyone teach me, and… can I tell you something?"

I could practically hear his sinister smile as he answered. "You can tell me everything."

I sat up alongside him and scooted back into the bed leaning against the headboard and he joined me. "Under the curse, I practiced all of the powers, but the one I just couldn't seem to conjure up and I didn't bring it up because...honestly I don't want to know the future."

"Ah. The oracle power. To see the future. 'Madok's' power."

I sighed and looked at my hands. "Yes. That one."

He moved closer to me, his feathered wings brushing my shoulder. "I think it's because you are scared of the future, and I also think part of you thinks that the oracle power is too much. You don't think anyone should hold that power.”

"I think you could be right," I answered with defeat in mind.

I felt his finger touch the bottom of my chin lifting my eyes to meet his. "Not wanting to use that power doesn't make you weak. It makes you responsible. It solidifies everything we expected you to be. You are full of goodness, Clara. Goodness none of us could ever achieve. That's what makes you so special. It's what makes you the most powerful goddess to walk among us because what you do every day isn't for yourself. It's for everyone else."

The tears in my eyes were a response to how Leo made me feel after the battle versus how Eros was making me feel rightnow. They were complete opposites. I understood that, but I had an overwhelming clarity of why I fell in love with Ev in the first place. And a fit of frustration as to why we ended to begin with.

"Why are you crying, darling?" he asked me softly as he wiped the tears from my eyes.

I tried to look away from him, but I just couldn't. "I... I am crushed by all of this. I don't understand why you pushed me away after the curse. I thought you weretrulydead. I thought that something terrible had happened to you."

He pulled his hand back and stared intently with slow even breaths.

"Something terrible did happen. I had to let you kiss Madok in the curse. It had to be broken by love. No other emotion could have destroyed him."

I scoffed, "So you think the love I had for you wasn't enough to destroy Theo?"

"No, I didn't think it was. You and I were just starting to trust one another. We had finally found a way to be together and then we were ripped apart. I knew that once you saw me here, I would never be enough for you. I had to push you towards Madok, so you could give him a chance. I— I couldn't be rejected by you. By my true mate."

"That isn't for you to decide. You can't make decisions for me. You pushed me away when I neededyouthe most," I yelled at him. As the tears were rushing down my face and the sunlight started to overwhelm the bedroom, I flung the covers off of me and moved to the side of the bed when he grabbed my wrist.

"We're not through with this conversation," he fumed.

I pulled my hand out of his grip and stood alongside the bed. "You might not be, but I am. I am through."

My steps were thunderous on the way to the bathroom and my mind was racing through everything at once. My powers were starting to flare and I knew if I didn't calm down that I couldburn this entire castle down. Once I made it to the door of the bathroom, I felt the soft breeze across my neck and I was shoved against the door frame. Hands gripped my hips and turned me to face the man who would absolutely destroy me.

His tall frame towered over me just as he had done before, but his wings expanded around us, enclosing me in his grip. His hands were pressing into my skin so tightly that I knew he would leave a mark.

"We are not through, Clara. Not even in the slightest."

Then he pressed his lips against mine and my entire body was lost. I was absorbed in his kiss. In his world. In him.

His hands coasted upwards into my silk shirt and pressed into my back, holding me in place. We were breathless and he was raging. Ifeltit.

He pulled back from my kiss just slightly, lingering above my lips. "I'll never be through, Clara. No matter how hard you push me away."

Chapter 27

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