Page 46 of Hidden Kingdoms

I felt alive, my magik responding in ways it never had before and stronger than anything I ever felt back home.

That didn’t mean I wasn’t human, that I belonged here.

It couldn’t.

He reached for my hand and energy flared as our fingers met, but my heart slowed a fraction, and I blew out a shaky breath. None of this made sense.

“I don’t have all your answers, but I promise you I will help you find out the truth.” Now holding my hand in both of his, he spoke quiet words I couldn’t catch as a flash of light grew from our intertwined fingers. Something deep inside me stirred, reaching towards him until it connected with a thread that was so familiar and yet foreign at the same time. The light grew for one blinding second before fading away.

“What did you do?” I whispered, tilting my head to look at him. He was so close, he almost blocked out the light, shadows clinging to his silhouette.

“I made a promise,” he said with a shrug.

That was more than just a promise. I had felt it in my soul.

How would I even find answers? How wouldhe? My parents were dead. The only person who could know anything would beNanna, and I had no idea how to get home to her. I doubted they were going to let me leave anytime soon.

“Have you done that before?”

“Once.” Kaius nodded. “Next question, or have you run out?” he teased, releasing my hands and stripping the seriousness of what had happened with a wink. I stepped back, needing the space between us.

“Definitely not,” I scoffed, attempting to ignore whatever connection formed between us.

“Tell me about the thing that chased us, that was in my room.” It came out in a whisper, as though speaking it out loud would call its terror down on us. It could be another question he wouldn’t answer, but I was desperate to understand. I held back on telling him it had appeared in my dream that night, too. This time, Kaius didn’t hesitate with his answer though his body tensed as he began to speak.

“We don’t know.” My body sagged in disappointment before he continued. “We call it The Darkness. We don’t know what it is or where it came from. Only that since it first turned up it’s grown immensely in size and power, and we think it feeds on the energy of Fae. Not many escape it once it’s found them. The more powerful you are, the harder it will try to get you.”

It feeds on people.

It was hard to swallow past the lump of remembered dread in my throat, now a hundred times more grateful to have escaped then I had already been.

“So, the ward we passed through...” Remembering how it crashed against the invisible shield, I looked up at the sky, the faint iridescent shield rippling reassuringly as the light caught it. “It can’t get through?”

“Not unless it finds a weak spot, and the bigger the ward the more likely there will be one. But it is constantly testing it. It must be how it found us outside the city walls. At the moment,every Fae living here is required to aid in its strength, and they do. It used to be only those from the Royal Lines who fed their energy to it as they could afford to expend the amount required, but now everyone adds what they can.”

“Royal Lines?” I asked, unsure how much more I wanted to know about The Darkness but relieved I was safe within the wards.

“There are seven of them. Each line holds power over a different Kingdom of Avelin. They have a King, or Queen, who holds the High Position. Those who come from the Royal Lines are considerably more powerful than average Fae, though there are always exceptions to the rule. Magik is funny like that.”

His face smoothed out from the frown that had been there. “It seems to have a particular taste for those from the Royal Lines.”

“Bastian. That’s why it chased us. Because he’s the Prince.”

“NotjustBastian,” he murmured, not meeting my eyes for the first time since I’d met him, fingers running along the hilt of a dagger at his hip.

“Oh, you’re a Lord, aren’t you? Is that why?” I remembered from the time he had held me, and my heart ached a little at the memory.

“Here, I’m a Lord,” he added cryptically.

“Kaius.” Annoyed by his sudden reluctance, I only realised I hadn’t said his name out loud before as our eyes collided. Like two pools of liquid moonlight, they blazed into mine in a way that felt like he was searching my soul. I knew he was deciding how much he was willing to tell me.

“Here, I’m a Lord. But… I am also a Prince, from a different Royal Line.” My mouth opened into a silent ‘oh.’ I wasn’t expecting that.

He was completely different to Bastian in every way. I took in his angelic face and the dark beard that covered his jaw, theintricate tattoos that wrapped across his skin. He didn’t look the way I expected a prince to look, but therewassomething about him that screamed regality. Maybe it was in the perfect curve of his lips, or the air of otherworldliness I couldn’t put my finger on.

A hundred more questions burned in me. “You’re a prince.”

“Yes.” He watched me intensely.

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