Page 27 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
‘No, it isn’t, Croinn.’ He brushed my lose hair behind my ear as if it was something priceless.
‘Gideon said the Council—’
‘You don’t have to worry about that.’ He shook his head, a coldness creeping into his eyes that told me he’d be having words with his brother. ‘The Council are too busy trying to find evidence that isn’t there.’
‘Fairfax … the seal.’ My fists curled into his shirt.
A soothing sound slipped from him. His fingers curling into my hair. That dark gaze didn’t break from my face, seeming to watch every breath. Cautious, as if they could stop at any moment.
‘The chamber collapsed. The house with it.’
It couldn’t be that simple. My sins couldn’t be concealed so easily.
‘Was anyone hurt?’ I shouldn’t care. Not about those horrid people, and yet I couldn’t stop.
‘You,’ he answered without hesitation. As if that was all that mattered. Settling me further into his arms as I dragged in another beasam bark breath, feeling the shy brush of his magic. Cautious as if I wouldn’t want it.
A warmth pooled in the pit of my stomach from the tonic as my limbs became weightless.
Kat.My name from his lips. How he had called it over and over. I remembered it. Remembered it tethering to something deep within my chest.
I curled my fingers into the hair at the nape of his neck.
‘I heard you. You were calling for me,’ I whispered, my words feeling slurred. My tongue too heavy as my eyes kept drooping shut.
‘I was.’ His voice was quiet, almost unsteady.
Because I’d asked him to. Even if he didn’t know the power of that word. He’d done it all the same.
Something in that made me sink back into the warmth of him. The shadows not so dark and the oppressive weight of my fears no longer lingering.
You thought you could keep him, Tauria?That voice kept coming back. Bringing with it the truth that clawed at my heart. How desperately that darkness wanted him. How I knew there would be nothing left of him if it did.
I held him tighter. Feeling the gentle thump of his heart against my cheek and the reassuring brush of his magic.
Real. Here.
He was here with me.
The thought settled me, enough to close my eyes for a moment. Only then I couldn’t open them again as I rested more heavily against his chest, but he didn’t move. Just kept hold of me.
‘Stay,’ I whispered instead. ‘Stay here with me. Please.’
Here where it was real. If only for this moment.
‘Where else would I be, Croinn?’ He pressed those words against my temple in a whisper of a kiss. His finger tracing the shape of my ear as he had once before. Seeming to be drinking in my scent as I devoured his.
‘Tauria.’ It came so softly, the brush of a kiss against my brow, but as I turned towards it, sleep pulled me back, and there was nothing waiting for me in the darkness of my dreams. As if they were too fearful of him to linger.
Chapter Ten
Kat
There were once vicious beasts in the north. With scales thicker than any Kysillian armour and teeth as sharp as blades. They hunted for treasure and ruled the wildlands. Only for their greed to lure them further beneath the mountain. Gluttonous and old, they grew too tired to fly, and so they rested.
Only they rested too long, becoming nothing more than another piece of stone that formed the great mountains. Then how easily those treasures were stolen from beneath those once powerful wings that made even the kings in the north cower.
The Northern Ballad – Unknown
