Page 104 of The King is Dead
As the final drumbeats pounded the air, I lifted my head to find Melek staring at me over the crowd in front of him, his eyes dark with need, and his entire body tense. Poised.Aching.
My heart swelled. I smiled as the women at the front parted, because my soul knew he was coming for me.
I was disoriented when a smaller, leaner figure broke through the line and threw himself at my feet.
I blinked, staring, uncomprehending.
Turo,my mind said.It’s Turo.
I grieved as I was forced to watch Turo stumble to his knees, drop his head, and plead his case.
“…beauty and strength. I know I haven’t given you everything you’ve needed, and I am so deeply sorry. But I see it, Yilan. Iknowyou are no naïve girl. Please… let me prove myself to you once and for all.”
He lifted his head and his eyes were bloodshot. His hands clawed into the grass just a few steps from my toes. His rugged face was tight, tormented.
“I have the strength to bolster your strength, my love,” he rasped. “I have the skill to protect you in yours. I have the desire to-tocelebrate you.Do not deny me this opportunity. No matter what has passed before, I have remained. I love you, Yilan—do you hear me? I am the One. I willserve.Do not let anyone else erode what we have built—”
Sucking in a breath, I blinked and instinctively looked up—searching for Melek, a weak moment of needing his reassurance and support as I was about to break this man’s heart. But just as my head snapped up and I looked for my mate, there was a shadowy movement at the back of the crowd.
I thought the deep, dark silhouette of wings unfurling, framing dozens of men was Melek. But as my mouth dropped open our eyes locked, and it wasn’t the gleaming green of my lover’s joy, or even his warrior ferocity that met me.
It was the gleaming, glowing gold of a Fallen Angel looming over the men, a saucy half-smile on his stunningly handsome face.
Mine.
The word echoed in my head as his tongue darted out to lick his lips.
And I screamed bloody murder, scrambling back and away so fast I almost plowed right into the bonfire itself.
But as I drew up short, those same golden eyes appeared in the flames, and that laughing evil echoed in my head again.
Mine.
Despite shrieks of protest, and bellowed pleas, I fled like a cat with its tail on fire, the only sound was my heart pounding in my ears, my feet slapping the earth, and that sinister laughter bouncing in my skull.
Please, God. Save me. Don’t let him touch me. Don’t let him near. I can’t… Iwon’t!
As Isprinted back towards the Palace, a chorus of shouts and warnings bouncing off the air behind me, I continued to pray. To plead with God never to leave me in the hands of thatmonster.
Never.
~ MELEK ~
It was mayhem when she fled. There was no time to think.
Here and there around the circle, different men had been allowed entrance to the space nearest the flames and they were pleading their cases, begging the women to choose them over others.
I’d been about to roar forward and rip Turo away, force him to watch me throw myself at her feet and demand she choose me—but as I took the first, staggering step, her eyes came up and locked. Not on me, but on something over my shoulder.
And she screamed.
Adrenaline shot through me and I roared, shoving forward at the same time half the men in the crowd shouted and turned, those nearest deciding that the threat wasme.
But there was enough confusion and enough bodies that I could hide in the chaos. Using my wings to obscure me in the darkness, I twisted and sank to a crouch so my form was below the level of the other men, then I got the hell out of there.
I was too big and going to attract too much attention if I took off after herthroughthe crowd and that line of women. Instead, I was forced aside and away, wide of the gathering, to dart between trees and finally make my way back to the Palace.
I ran on pure instinct, knowing that something had frightened her, that she’d run to her safest space. I needed to be there to hold her and soothe her. I didn’t know what the fuck was going on, but I knewthat.
