Page 74 of A Kingdom of Shadow and Ash

‘What?’ Alina blinked, startled.

Kai’s lethal smile was like the edge of a dagger catching the light. ‘I am not letting you out of my sight today, princess. Not after what I saw in that room. So, think of something we can do together.’

Alina’s chest constricted. ‘You do not have to babysit me. Nothing else will happen, I promise.’

Kai leaned in, close enough that she could feel the warmth of him, his voice dropping into something dangerously soft.

‘Let me put it this way, princess—if I do not stay withyouand reassure myself that you are safe, I will followhim. And by the end of the evening, this castle will have one less guard patrolling its halls.’

Alina swallowed hard. Her throat felt dry as sand.

An image stirred through her mind, a place untouched by the weight of duty, of expectations, of memories that cut like broken glass. Without thinking, she seized his hand—cold as thewind before a storm—and pulled him forward.

‘Come along, then. There’s one place I wish for you to see.’

She wove through the halls with hurried steps, the firelight casting their elongated shadows against the stone. Kai followed, silent but watchful, his curiosity evident in the slight arch of his brow.

The moment they breached the castle doors, Alina lifted her chin towards the sky and pointed.

‘There. That’s where we are going.’

Kai’s gaze followed the line of her finger, his dark eyes widening slightly as they landed on the towering cliffs in the distance, their jagged peaks piercing the sky like the teeth of some ancient beast.

‘Youwant to go upthere?’ Laughter rumbled from his chest, low, rich, intoxicating. A sound that curled around Alina like silk, sending an unfamiliar warmth blooming beneath her ribs.

She wanted to hear it again. Wanted to find things to make him laugh like that.

Kai moved behind her, close but never touching.

And yet…

His breath ghosted along the shell of her ear, and every single hair on her body rose, electrified by the sensation. ‘And tell me, princess. How exactly are we getting there?’

Alina’s lips curled.

‘We fly.’

I sometimes wonder if princess Aithne really truly loves prince Sorin, or if she chose him because it was a form of escape. She would never be free in her own land where women are of little consequence except for bearing male heirs. I’ve seen the way Sorin adoringly looks at her, as if he had been gifted his own sun and was not entirely sure whether he deserved it. But princess Aithne sometimes looks away into the distance as if the only thing she wanted in life was to disappear. I guess she must love him or if not she would never have agreed to marry him.

Tabitha Wysteria

Kai’s wyvern appeared like a specter from the heavens, slicing through the clouds with the grace of a shadow untethered from the earth. Its roar shattered the silence, deep and rolling like a brewing storm, a call to its master that made the very air tremble.

And beside him, Alina Acheron stood utterly still, her brown eyes wide with something he had never seen before—wonder.

They had climbed the barren hillside at his insistence, pausing when the wyvern’s cry echoed through the sky. Now, they both watched as the magnificent beast—a creature ofblackened steel and midnight storms—descended upon them. Its scales gleamed obsidian in the sun, and its wings, vast and razor-edged like a bat’s, stretched wide as it plummeted towards the ground. The force of the landing sent dust spiraling into the air. The earth shuddered beneath them. Instinctively, Kai caught Alina’s arm, steadying her before she could be thrown off balance.

‘Nisha, play nice,’ he chided, his voice thick with amusement. Alina’s gaze darted to him, then back to the wyvern, her brow furrowing.

‘Nisha?’ she repeated, incredulity laced in her voice. She tilted her head, studying the wyvern with renewed interest. ‘She’s a female?’

Kai’s grin sharpened.

‘Can’t you tell by her temperament?’

Alina’s eyes narrowed.

Kai chuckled, wisely refraining from pointing out how eerily similar she looked to the wyvern in that very moment. He suspected she would not take the comparison kindly. She would probably feed him to his own beast.

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