Page 68 of Hidden Kingdoms

I was planning on changing that.

I could win her over. I was sure of it, because fuck did I want to.

I think I already was, maybe a little. I meant what I said when I told her I’d never lie. I would give her whatever she wanted, and I’d do it gladly as long as it kept her here with me. Telling her why she was here might push her further away, and I couldn’t risk that.

I wasn’t planning on letting her go yet.

But there were other things I could give her, like the other answers that she needed. That we all needed, really, if we were going to figure out why we were led to her.

When I’d sealed that promise with a soul tie, I hadn’t even thought twice about it. While my duties kept me busy, any spare moment I had I’d been putting into finding out who she was. It wounded me to admit I had found nothing. There was a lot of shit to comb through across Avelin and seeing as I had no ideawhat kingdom her family was from, I had too many places to start.

I knew the goddesses were laughing at us from wherever it was they watched over our lives, playthings for them to poke at when they got bored of doing whatever it was they did.

We’d taken Elodie; it hadn’t been planned, but we’d still done it. I knew that even if The Darkness hadn’t shown up, if she hadn’t thrown herself at us to escape from it, we still would have taken her. The thought made me sick. I wasn’t a fucking kidnapper.

Except now that’s exactly what I was.

“You were there with me, you heard what Nova said just as clearly as I did.”

“I wouldn’t exactly call it clear,” Bastian scoffed, and he had a point. Fucking seers and their riddles. “This cannot be what she meant, Kaius.”

Prophecies were notoriously difficult to interpret even when you knew what you were doing. And we didn’t. But Nova did.

“It has to be. This is it. All that time we spent searching, the people we lost. Elodie’s the answer—shecanhelp us.”

I couldn’t explain how much I knew I was right, that we needed her.

“I do not need the help of a human who has no idea how to use whatever magik it is she has.” His anger flared again, heat lashing out into the room.

“This isn’t about you, Bas! Everyone is in danger, and you being an idiot about this is going to get more people killed!” Fucking stubborn bastard. “Also, I’m like ninety-nine percent sure she’s not human.”

He ignored my very important point and continued to rage. “I was the one who was supposed to fix this!”

“It was for both of us, and you know it. You may be the Prince here in this castle, but do not forget that I am your equal in everyway.” I could feel magik stirring within me, the dark energy I contained within my skin pushing to be let free. I wouldn’t let it. Not here. And never against Bas.

“She is not the answer, we got it wrong. We should go back to the house, search it.”

“For what?”

“For whatever she’s hiding. Go and get her. I’ll question her. She’ll give it up after that.” His words were erratic as he made to step past me towards the door, but I intercepted him with a hand hard against his chest.

“No,” I growled, as the shadows reared in anger.

“No?” His brow arched at me as he swept my hand away.

“I won’t let you question her, Bastian. The Commander will not touch her, we both know that, which leaves you and me, and I won’t let you hurt her.” The thought of her in his hands made my blood run cold, he could be a cruel bastard when he wanted to be.

“Why? I’ll make sure to leave her face. She’ll still be pretty enough.”

Magik shot into my hands at his words, crackling across my palms, but I was in control of it.

I always was. I’d had to be.

Except… my mind went to last night when I’d lost that control. I still had no idea how it had happened. One minute I had been holding Goldie, trying to heal her arms that were burning, and the next thing I knew our energies had collided. It had been a rush, a pure high that I didn’t ever want to come down from.

Our powers had merged together until I had felt the raw force of her in every part of me, and fuck did it feel good. I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to be holding her, against her, inside her. Her soft body was pressed against mine, and I had been momentsaway from taking her right there. But that would have been wrong—so fucking wrong.

She had spoken my name like a prayer to the gods and then it had stopped. I didn’t even know which one of us had managed to pull away first. The connection had broken, and I had been left empty. Like her magik had found a place inside me, an empty hollow I’d kept tucked away that it exposed, and I still couldn’t find a way to put it back. I needed more. More of her.

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