Page 67 of One Last Promise
“No, you’re not steering this conversation away from whatyou’vedone!”
“What are you so angry about?The fact I lied or that you almost fucked the Dylin princess?”
“Both!”My heart sank.“Alora, the things we’vedone...fuck!Zohar would skin me alive if he ever found out what I’ve done to his precious, innocent daughter.”
“I willnevertell anyone.How would he ever find out?”
“He might be able to work it out by your face.There isn’t an inch of each other’s bodies that we haven’t touched.”
“I’m more than aware of that!”I spat, holding my own by placing my hands on my hips.
“You might get lost in a daydream...”
“I won’t be daydreaming about you anymore!”
Darce blew off my comment, changing the subject.“What were you even doing in the Barren Lands that night we met?Doesn’t your father realise how dangerous it is?You’re the only bloodline he has left.”Realisation hit his face.“Duska, she was your...”
“Donotmention her!I don’t want to hurt you right now.My race and I lost everything that day.”
“All this pain and aggression is because ofher?”
“When I shared my mother’s death with you, pretending that she had been with Duska, it was the most real I had ever been.I bared my soul to you.”
“Your destiny is to kill the Noxlin that killed Duska?”When I nodded, his eyes dropped from my face.He looked out towards the valley.“You’re going to want to hurt me when you find out who I am.”Xavier’s comment came back into my mind.“But before I tell you, allow me one last thing.”
“Darce, you’re scaring me.”Taking a step closer, he cupped my face, running his fingertips across my bottom lip.
“This is goodbye, Alora.We will never move past this moment.I have to let you go.”
“No!We can worksomethingout, even if we have to lie low for a little while.I will talk to my father and explain that it wasmyfault.I put too much pressure on you to train me.I’ll make sure my race doesn’t go to war with yours.I’m sorry!I’m sorry I lied, but who I am doesn’t change how we feel about each other.”The thought of losing him, of never seeing him again, was crushing me from the inside.We had to be able to work something else out.We’d kept this a secret for over four hundred years!
“You’re wrong.This changeseverything.”
“Because we might have caused the next great war?”I asked, tears trickling down my face.
“This isn’t about an impending war.”Leaning down, he pressed his lips against mine.I savoured the taste of him, opening my mouth to welcome his tongue as it caressed my own.If this was going to be our last kiss, I’d hold onto it for as long as I could.I poured all my love into it, trying to show him what he meant to me.I was never going to be able to tell him how I felt.Our time had finally run out.
I had no idea how long the kiss lasted, but I was breathless when our lips parted.“Don’t do this,” I begged, inches from his lips.
“I have no choice.I need you to hate me.I won’t be able to keep my distance from you if I thought there was a thread of hope.You’re right, I have secrets, but there is one that has been killing me slowly from the inside.”
“What secret?”
“The Noxlin that killed your mother...”Darce’s voice was a soft whisper.“Do you remember when you asked me for a name and I told you it would be like giving my own?”
Taking a step back, I tried to look at his face, but his head was bowed.My body began to tremble, fearing what he was about to confess.“Darce, please don’t tell me you...”
“It wasme, Alora.I killed your mother.I’ve been too scared to tell you, knowing I’d lose you.Now I realise you were never mine to keep.I need you to hate me so we can both be set free.”
Power surged through me and my entire body began to glow as rage flowed through my veins.All this time!It had beenDarce.I had fallen for the Noxlin that had killed my mother.Pain seeped from my heart, fueling the rage.
“And you thinkIwas wrong keepingmysecret from you?You cold heartedbastard!You took everything from me.The pain I’ve had to suffer for more than a millennia.My father’s love turned cold the day we lost her.You might as well have killed him, too!”Channeling my light power, I aimed it at Darce.“You let me fall for you!That is the sickest joke of all!”
“Alora, Iwilllet you put a blade through my heart one day, if that is what you truly desire, but please, hear me out first.I’m not the heartless killer your kind believes me to be.”
“No!I’m done listening to Noxlinscumlike you!Everything you’ve told me has been a lie.You killedourqueen...mymother!”My words had wounded him.Dropping his eyes to the floor, he stumbled back.I took a chance as fury radiated through my body, throwing all the light power I could muster in his direction.I gave him all my pain and wrath.
Darce blocked my advances easily with his shadows, but I kept shooting light bolt after light bolt at him.Tears were streaming down my face as I screamed in agony.All the betrayal was soaking into my skin.Theyearningfor a male who no longer existed.Every moment we had spent together meant nothing now.These feelings weren’t real.Darce had been lying to me from the moment we met.
