Page 73 of A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash

‘Well,’ she hissed, jabbing a finger into his chest. ‘That makes two of you, doesn’t it? Neither of you willmarryme.’

His hand shot out, iron wrapping around her wrist. His grip tightened, biting into her skin, the pressure laced with desperation.

‘I wanted to marry you, Alina.’ His voice was quieter now, hoarse. ‘I still do.’

She tried to wrench her wrist free, but his grip only held stronger.

‘You’re hurting me.Let go.’

A sudden cough behind her sent a shockwave through the room. Hagan flinched as though burnt, stumbling back from where he had been standing beside her.

Alina stilled.

Her wrist throbbed where his fingers had been wrapped around it only moments ago, the skin burning from his toxic touch. Slowly, she lifted her eyes.

Kai Blackburn lounged against the doorway, his dark, unreadable gaze fixed on them. But there was something else in his expression—something that prowled beneath the surface.

A predator sniffing out its prey.

He did not speak.

He didn’t need to.

His black eyes swept from Alina to Hagan, latching onto the Red Guard like a blade slipping into flesh.

And then he moved. A slow, unhurried stroll across thechamber, his footsteps a whisper on the polished floor. He stopped mere inches from the drakonian, so close his breath must have brushed against Hagan’s skin.

Kai’s lips curled, revealing the flash of sharp, white fangs.

A warning.

A promise.

‘If you ever lay a finger on her again,guard,’ it was barely above a whisper, yet it sliced through the space between them like the edge of a blade. Hagan went rigid, ‘I will take my time cutting off each of your fingers, one by one.’ Kai’s voice was silk-wrapped steel. ‘Then, I will move on to the rest of your limbs. And when I am done, when you are nothing but a bloodied, ruined mess, I will feed what remains of you to my wyvern.’

Hagan’s breath hitched, though he did not move.

Kai tilted his head slightly, his whisper turning even softer—almost gentle. ‘I do not care how well-trained the Red Guardclaimsto be. I am a demon born from darkness, a beast carved from shadows. You touch her again, and I will show you what the afterlife looks like.’

Then—he turned away. Without looking back, he extended his hand towards Alina. A silent offer. But never a command.

She hesitated for only a moment before placing her golden fingers into his pale, waiting grasp.

Kai’s touch was firm, assured, unwavering, as he swept her away from the chamber, away from the man who had once held her heart only to shatter it into a thousand jagged pieces.

‘Thank you,’ Alina whispered as they descended the grand staircase, the air thick with the scent of red roses twining through the gilded railings.

‘You should not allow him to speak to you that way. Or touch you.’ Kai's voice was edged with steel, the remnants of hisfury simmering just beneath the surface.

‘I know… It’s complicated.’ She hesitated at the foot of the stairs, suddenly adrift. The castle was alive with the final frenzy of wedding preparations, servants bustling from corridor to corridor, arms laden with silks and golden-trimmed banners, murmuring anxiously about florals and seating arrangements. And yet, not a single one of them needed her.

‘Did he hurt you?’ Kai's voice was quieter now, but all the more dangerous for it.

‘No. I’m fine. I promise.’ A lie. The truth was in the absentminded way she rubbed her wrist, as if trying to erase the memory of fingers that had no right to be there.

Kai’s eyes veered to the motion, and his jaw tightened like a blade being sharpened.

‘What shall we do this morning?’

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