Page 54 of Between Despair and Hope

Mama pushed at the king, but he was too strong. Cyran nudged me forward, his palms resting on my upper arms.

When Cyran reached past me, he used his shadows to somehow overpower King Dryul. It made no sense. I’d been practicing my light with him, and he could barely hold me at bay. He wasn’t strong enough to do that. No one had ever taught him how to use them at that level of strength, afraid he’d overthrow his brother or father, and he hadn’t come to maturity yet. At least, that’s what he had told me. Mama sat up, using her light to cocoon around the king as she stood.

Cyran held my head back against his chest as he bent down to speak into my ear.

“We have more time,min viltasma.”

I turned my head toward him, surprised, and all I could see was his smile. I loved when he called me that. His little, wild thing. I couldn’t remember when he’d told me what it meant, but I felt a blush creeping up my cheeks and a buzzing in my chest as he spun me in his arms. Cool fingers grasped my jaw and he tilted my chin up, his eyes landing on my mouth. When I sighed, half in contentment and half in impatience, his hazel gaze moved back up to mine, asking for permission. When I closed my eyes and parted my lips, I felt him move closer, dipping down to meet me. Pushing up on my tiptoes, the touch of his soft mouth met mine, and I whimpered. His hand slid to the back of my neck as he kissed me tenderly, and I melted into his arms. His lips were warm as they moved, and it was everything I’d ever dreamed of in a kiss. Everything I could have wanted.

The characters from my books all spoke of kisses in a way which seemed unattainable to me. Especially after what had happened with Theo. But this kiss, it made me understand. The spark I felt with him was unlike anything I’d ever experienced, and I thought the air in my lungs must have been replaced with a swarm of buzzing bees. When he broke from the kiss and pressed his forehead to mine, I could feel his breath on my lips.

“Wake up, Elora.”

Chapter 21

Emmeline

Myhearthurtinknowing that during our entire time apart, Rain had thought Elora was dead. When I corrected that notion, he’d collapsed against me, freely sobbing into my back. Tears of relief and fear mingled as he held tight to my body. For a while, he’d thought I was dead too. He wouldn’t talk about the torture he’d gone through, what Declan had done to him, but I could tell it was brutal. I had seen the table in the corner of his cell; the straps on its surface and the injuries on his body told me its purpose. Seeing him kill the shifter made something so intense stir within me, I wasn’t sure I’d be able to concentrate on anything until he told me exactly what happened. But he had barely spoken since I told him about Elora.

Had the shifter assaulted him? Touched him? He’d flinched away from me a few times. Was being pressed against me on top of Irses too much for him? The idea I could cause him any sort of pain, mental or otherwise, broke my heart. I fought every instinct within me to ask him what happened. He’d come to me when he was ready. Rain had waited for me. Steadfast and true, he waited for my mind to catch up with my heart. I would give him the time he had afforded to me, the patience and enduring love he had proven in his actions and words. But it killed me to think I might unknowingly make things worse for him.

The worst part of this was, with our bond incomplete, I couldn’t feel his emotions. Was it a blessing to not feel what he felt? To not burden him with my worry? I could feel the bond’s presence once he was out of that cell, and as we flew toward the Cascade, the thrumming had become more insistent. I knew from what he’d told me in the past, the bond demanded the connection. Those remaining golden threads hummed in my periphery, desperate. Did the bond care that he might not want to be touched that way? I’d do everything I could to resist it until he was ready. I missed him desperately, every part of him, and I needed us to get back to what we were before. Craved it. But if my suspicions were correct—if the shifter had hurt him…

Gods help me, Declan would pay. He was not long for this world either way, but I would make his death horrific for what he’d done to Rain.

“What’s wrong with her?” He cleared his throat as he spoke, disuse making it sound rough.

“She—she’s asleep. She won’t wake.”

“You said you brought her back. What does that mean, Em?”

“I watched her die,” I whispered, head turned so he could hear. “Her throat was slit. But something happened, and I brought her back. My divinity.”

“Who?”

I hesitated a moment. “It’s complicated, Rain.”

“How is it complicated?”

“I’m afraid to tell you because of what you might do,” I answered.

“What the hell does that mean? What happened to our daughter?” A demand.

“Do you trust me?”

“Of course, I trust you. But—”

“I’m going to ask you to do one thing for me, for her, and that is to promise not to hurt the person who did it. Can you promise me that?”

“Why in the gods’ names would you want me to promise that? Whoever hurt her will bleed out slow; I promise you that, Em.”

“Even if he were a child in an impossible position, shown a vision of what would happen if he didn’t?”

He didn’t speak for a moment, but his arm wrapped tighter around me.

“The prince? The boy slit her throat?”

“Elora had to die for Ciarden to bless me,” I choked out. “The boy did it because he was shown a vision of what would happen if the Beloved didn’t—if I didn’t—” I gulped down a breath, struggling to get the words out. And just as I was about to break, when my heart felt like caving in, he laid his head against me and tightened his hold. “Elora died because of me. But—”

---