Page 154 of Hidden Kingdoms

Instinctively, I raised my hands to shield myself, and the air in front of me wavered for a moment, the heat on my skinstopping abruptly before a tall figure stepped in front of me. One hand reaching back to hold my arm, the other out in front of him, physically pushing his best friend away from me.

“You don’t just go battering into someone’s mind, you lunatic!” Kaius yelled at him, his power crackling around us. A dark charge was surging over the skin he held in his grip, my own magik reaching towards it, eager for its touch.

“What the fuck has gotten into you?” he demanded as Bastian was forced backwards, his legs hitting the chair he had just been sat in. His gaze tore into me with such a viciousness, I unconsciously took a step back, breaking my connection with Kaius.

“She fucking knows something Kaius, she must!” He roared, and the heat in the room enveloped me, a suffocating blanket of magik that stole the breath from my body. Rising panic had my heart fluttering as his heat stole the air from around me, before I managed to send my own power flooding out, allowing my lungs to expand.

“Fuck you,” I spat, stepping around to Kaius’ side. “I’m not hiding anything. I didn’t do this to myself, you absolute asshole.”

“And how do we know that for sure? How do we know that you’re not keeping information from us!”

“Like what?” I shouted, furious that nothing was enough for this man. “I didn’t even know any of this existed before you brought me here.”

“So you claim,” he seethed.

“You are unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable.” I was exhausted, I had given enough. I needed to get away from him, thisPrince.

“I’m done,” I said, the finality ringing clearly through the room.

“You’re not done until I say so.” Menace laced every word with a danger that coiled around us, but I didn’t care as I turnedfrom him. The crystal glass balanced on the chair toppled, the solid glass thudding against the patterned rug, but it didn’t break. With the rock, now warm from my body heat, gripped tightly in my hand, I marched to the door, magik easing just a little with each step out of his range.

Four steps away.

“What the actual fuck is wrong with you?” I heard Kaius hiss.

Three steps and shadows bloomed beneath my feet.

Two more left, and I would be out of this stifling room. The mix of our magik a cocktail of energy that pounded against my skull, a relentless drum beat I was desperate to outpace.

One... I reached my hand out, not caring what was happening behind me. The taste of ash coating my tongue.

I was out. Slamming the door with a pulse of magik, the guards stationed outside flinched slightly at my unexpected exit. A quick scan of the corridor confirmed that Alouette hadn’t stuck around to wait.

I sucked in clear, fresh breaths as I took off in the direction I was sure I’d arrived in, despite knowing I was clueless to the layout of the palace. I had faith that someone would point me in the right direction, whether that was because they had taken pity on me, or because I had stumbled somewhere I wasn’t supposed to be. The guards kept to their stations, and I wondered just how far my anger would take me before I began to regret the decision to storm off.

Before long, I heard footsteps thudding on the carpet behind me, and the swell of a familiar magik brushed against me tenderly, evoking memories of a warm, hard body pressing against mine. This time, the heat it sent to my core was welcome.

“Am I even going the right way?” I asked quietly as he reached my side, finding me as he had before, the two of us together walking through the palace in a comfortable rhythm.

“Not in the slightest.”

We walked in silence. At some point, Kaius had twined his fingers with mine, and I had held on tight. Both of us lost to our own thoughts but grounded by each other.

I barely noticed when the coloured light danced across the floor, when Kaius pushed open the solid black door to lead me forward, across the circular chamber and down the corridor flanked by the burning women. When the sound of our feet changed from the sharp tap of marble to the muffled thuds of carpet. Nor when we stopped outside my newly appointed room, and without thought, I reached for the handle.

“Looks like I got my answers,” I said, letting go of his hand as we stood in the lavish room. The free space unnerving. The fire already high.

“Not all of them,” he said, reaching out to knot his fingers back with mine.

The same hand that had glowed when he promised to help me, clasped around the one that wasn’t clutching the rock that had changed everything.

“I’m not sure any of that matters anymore.”

“It all matters, Elodie.”

“Does it?” A small frown crinkled his brow above his steely gaze. As the heaviness of the day weighed down on me, my shoulders sagged. Yesterday’s rest wasn’t enough, not nearly enough. Kaius pulled me closer, our bodies close but not quite touching.

“Bastian, he’s...” He trailed off, searching for a word that I found easily available.

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