Page 2 of The King is Dead
“You would give me your Kingdom?” He sounded scandalized.
I bristled. “By our customs, God already gave it to you. That is, if you accept me as your mate? If you trust our bond is real?”
Our eyes locked then and his heavy, dark brows drew down. “Is it?” he growled.
“Yes! Unless you have somehow possessed me?” I tried to joke, but it fell flat.
One of those glorious growls rolled in his throat. “Ofcoursenot!”
Thank God he wasn’t denying it. “Then once again, you have a choice to make. Because if I claim you, if I tell them you’re my mate, youareour King. There is no other option.”
Melek’s breath rushed out of him. He shook his head slowly, eyes still locked on me. Yet he was trembling.
My heart went out to him. I leaned into the bars, would have walked the shadows and passed through them if only he’d softened. If only he’d let himselfwantme close.
But the longer he stared, the longer he shook his head, the higher the flames of anger blazed in his eyes.
“You knew,” he seethed. “All that talk of crowns and purposes—”
“Yes, I did. And I could have forced you. I could have brought you here and proclaimed you while you slept. You would have woken with a crown on your head and your people already gathered.”
“Instead, youtrapme so you can tell yourself I chose it?”
“Isavedyou! Fromyourself!”I hissed.
“You drugged me, abducted me, and now you’ve put me in a cage—” He cut off when I arched a brow, his lips thinning as he clawed a hand through his hair. “Our circumstances arenotthe same. I didn’t know you were my mate when I—”
“You’re right. Neither of us knew then. But now? Here? Ido.”
He glared, but I met his gaze evenly.
“Melek, I will not apologize for taking you away from that shitshow—a King who was trying to take you down and rivals who’d turn on you the moment they saw a weakness. You know they’d have executed you for Gault’s murder! If you expected me to let you walk to your death for the sake of some ridiculous sense of honor—”
“I was trying to save your life and Gall’s!”
“Well, you didn’t need to, as you can see,” I said.
“Gall,” Melek breathed, his eyes widening. “Where is he? Did youleave him?!”
Of all the things he’d thrown at me tonight, that was the most offensive. “Of course I didn’t!” I hissed. “He’s perfectly safe! I would never have left him. I can’t believe you’d eventhink—”
“You don’t want to know half of what I think of you right now, Yilan,” Melek said darkly.
My breath left me in a rush, and I felt cold. I licked my lips which suddenly felt very dry. “Melek, I know this has been a shock—”
He hacked a sharp, humorless laugh. “This isn’t a shock, Yilan. A bird startling from a bush is a shock. An unexpected visitor is ashock.This is… This isunforgivable.”
“Truly, Melek? You want me to believe that if I’d been the one running away to get myself killed, you would have just sat back and waved goodbye? Taken Gall, and gone on your merry way? You want me to believe that if the roles were reversed you would have leftmein Nephilim hands?” I hissed.
He glowered, but didn’t reply.
“That’s what I thought. At least you have the decency not to lie to my face,” I muttered.
“I’m trying to set an example,” he shot back.
I was about to snap at him again—remind him that he’d been the stubborn martyr unwilling to listen toanyplan beyond his own—when I saw his fingers tremble. He quickly closed his hands to fists to hide it, but he was a blink too slow.
My heart ached. Worse, my soul was throbbing with pain. I had to tell him. Had toremindhim. But he was so angry!
