Page 59 of King of Fire and Flames

“Learn to behave,” he growled, breaking the kiss and thudding my head against the wall, his fingers braced behind my skull to take the impact. “I love you,” he mouthed, then pushed off the window frame and strode out of my room without a word.

Another shock of cold air rushed over me, and I swayed, dizzy and disoriented. What the fuck had just happened?

The guards smirked at me before following Arrow, slamming the door so hard the windowpanes shook from the force.

I slid down the wall until I hit the floor, covering my Aldara mark with my palm. The place where Arrow had bitten me pulsed with each beat of my heart—a slow, soothing rhythm, a stark contrast to the chaos whirling inside my mind.

I tried to sort through my racing thoughts, desperate to make sense of what had occurred.

Arrow had said… he said he loved me.

Or had I imagined that part?

I wracked my brain, wondering if he’d ever said those words to me before, part of me longing to believe it was true. Wanting to trust that he had always cared for me, had never stopped, just as he claimed.

I shook my head, dipping my face into the cradle of my hands. It would be a death sentence to believe him. To nurture hope, like a fledgling in a nest, waiting for its family to return before a wild storm set in.

Arrowyn Ramiel was a compulsive liar.

And life had taught me that, eventually, everyone betrayed me.

Arrow’s attempt to regain my trust was nothing more than a part of his plan to maintain power over the gold, destroying me in the process—a future queen of the race he so despised.

Or was it?

When the guards’ vision had been obscured, he’d touched me so tenderly, looked at me with such sweet longing that I’d believed him.

But now, I hardly knew what to think.

One thing I did know was that I’d wasted the opportunity to ask him where the Fire Court was likely to be holding Orion.

Tomorrow, I would find out for myself.

And in the meantime, I would try to make sense of every wonderful word that Arrow had said tonight—both aloud and through our bond.

Chapter 18

Leaf

“Zali, wait,” Esen called out in the distance as I picked my way down a steep path in the rain, heading toward the sea.

Taln Palace loomed above like a giant black crow hunkered on a cluster of treacherous rocks, and behind me, Esen swiftly approached. Unlike me, who slipped and slid every few steps, her fae speed and grace allowed her to cover the difficult terrain with ease.

Plowing onward, I waved my hand over my shoulder in greeting, but didn’t stop, determined to find the fire cave I’d seen from the cliffs when I was with Ruhh at the moat two nights ago.

“Where are you going in such a hurry?” Esen asked as she leaped off a rock wall to walk beside me.

This morning, the weather was wicked. Steady rain pelted the cliffs and churned the sea into wild, frothy waves that mirrored my agitated mood.

“Exploring. And I absolutely love starting the day getting drenched and whipped by a brutal sea breeze,” I said, grimacing as I swept wet hair off my face. “It’s very refreshing, don’t you think?”

“No, not really.” Esen laughed at the soaked state of me, then threw a ball of fire magic at my chest. It whooshed over me from head to toe, drying my hair and clothes in an instant and lashing them around my body.

“Nice,” I said, straightening my tunic. “But tell me, do I have any hair left on my head to braid tonight?”

“Don’t worry. Perfumed oil, a circlet, and a few ribbons do wonders for partly bald heads.”

I patted my skull, finding my unruly brown mane mostly intact. “Not much point wasting your power to dry me off, Esen. The rain’s not letting up any time soon.”

---