Chapter 32 #2
They were falling again, only this time it wasn’t over a cliff. It was through a damn building.
The two of them crashed down to the floor on its opposite side, but then that too collapsed beneath them. Time slowed as the boards caved like snapped bones, and she caught a glimpse of moonlight through the broken slats.
Esmyra’s breath caught in her throat as both she and Draevyn tumbled in a chaotic knot of limbs and magic. His hand tangled in her hair, her elbow embedded itself between his ribs, and she couldn’t tell which way was up. They were just falling, lost in a spin of heat and fury.
They landed in the basement with a thunderous crash that knocked the air out of her lungs, and pain shot through her hips and spine. Esmyra creaked her eyes open, and at first, all she could make out was the dust as it fell around them, glittering like stars.
For a moment, the only sound was their ragged breathing.
Esmyra’s eyes burned as she took in the scene, trying to push herself up. She was mortified when she looked down and realized she was straddling Draevyn. Her thighs wrapped around his waist as her palms were braced on his chest, the heat of his body throbbing against hers.
Her magic crackled beneath her skin in response, and she gazed down into those maddening whiskey eyes.
What the hells are we doing to each other?
Draevyn peered around her as they both worked to catch their breath. His hands fell to the tops of her thighs, and her body stiffened at the contact. “Look what we’ve done, Wildfire.”
That name. That dreaded fucking nickname that once made her heart sing.
“I hate you,” she whispered, voice shaking.
But it wasn’t Esmyra’s hate for Draevyn that made her dizzy. It was the way he looked up at her like she was salvation wrapped in ruin. Like he’d tear the world apart to reach her—or whatever he thought was still left of her.
Perhaps he already had.
She hovered over him, her chest rising and falling with uneven breaths. And then, his hands slid up her thighs until his thumbs brushed her hipbones, as if holding her in place.
Her lip snarled. “Release me.”
“No,” he said, his voice strong and commanding. “Not this time. You’re going to listen.”
“I don’t owe you—”
“You don’t owe me anything,” he cut in, jaw tight. “But I owe you the truth. And by all the fucking gods, I will make you listen. I don’t care that you’re one of them.”
Esmyra tried to push off him again, tried to break free, but he held her firm. It was the way he held on to her that had her considering. It wasn’t with force, but with something heavier.
Grief. Rage. Desperation, even.
“Syrena crept into my room the morning you found us,” he rushed out, as if he didn’t know how long she would cooperate.
Her eyes slowly widened. That was exactly what Naerysa did to Irah. She had waited for Kaelypso to leave before she crept in.
“She tried to seduce me,” he continued. “Several times, if you would like honesty.”
Nausea rolled through her, a sickening wave that made her stomach clench. I think Draevyn tried to seduce me, Syrena had said that day at the lagoon.
His confession was nearly word for word.
“What did you just say?” she whispered.
“First it was at night. I had been walking about the halls when I heard… moaning.” The last word came out as if it disgusted him. His fiery gaze lifted back to hers as she remained straddling him. “I…I thought it was you, Esmyra. It sounded like your voice. So, I went to investigate.”
She lifted a brow.
His laugh was bitter and raw. “I can’t even lie and say I wanted to make sure you were okay.
I was jealous. There’s no other word. The thought of you with someone else sent me into a fit of rage, and I nearly stormed through those throne room doors to haul your ass out of there over my shoulder myself.
But what I saw when I got there was something else entirely. ”
“Well, what was it?”
“It was everyone. Nearly the entire castle staff was participating in a scene I’ve only heard of occurring at brothels. And Syrena sat on her throne, in the arms of several of them. Their mouths, hands, and tongues were all over her.”
Esmyra’s head reared back, jaw falling open. “What?”
“I didn’t believe my eyes at first either.” He reached up and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as his other hand remained on her hip. “When Syrena noticed me, she invited me to join.”
Esmyra’s jaw locked, her nostrils flaring as she stared down at him.
“There’s that Wildfire,” Draevyn said with a chuckle, but it faded when her furious expression remained in place. He cleared his throat. “When I declined, she was less than pleased.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” she shot at him, brows furrowing. She couldn’t even help the snippiness. He should’ve fucking said something.
“When exactly was I supposed to? The next thing I knew, you no longer wanted to speak with me.” He cocked his head to the side, and his infuriating dimple appeared as he smirked.
Her lips parted, realizing it was because she never gave him the chance. Because of what Syrena had said to her that day, lying about who came on to who.
Draevyn moved to sit up, but his arms wrapped around the small of her back, keeping her in place on his lap as he sat face-to-face with her. His eyes fell to her lips, and they parted as she sat beneath his stare.
“I meant what I said that day in my chambers, Esmyra.”
The way he said her name sent a shiver through her.
“If it was your sister I wanted in my bed, I would’ve made it known,” he admitted. “Though I thought I had made it more than clear that wasn’t the case.”
When she went to protest, he cut her off by pressing a calloused finger to her lips. She considered biting it off as her eyes narrowed on him.
“It’s you. It’s always been you. Since the moment I laid eyes on you in that tavern in this godsforsaken place.” Draevyn gestured to their surroundings. “You, Esmyra Blackwood, are all I want. All I need and crave. Every waking and sleeping moment of my days.”
Esmyra’s breath caught in her throat at his confession.
“I told you before, those talons of yours sank into me, and they refuse to let me go. And I don’t want them to,” he continued.
Everything was too much. His closeness. His hands on her. The crackling energy between them. It all was becoming suffocating. She hated this man. He was responsible for every heartache she’d ever felt.
And yet, the worst part about all of this was that she believed him. And believing the words of Draevyn Rowe was what got her in this entire mess in the first place.
“That day you walked into my chambers, what you saw was a man compelled beneath a siren’s song. That kiss was at no will of mine.”
The moment the words left his mouth, a blistering silence filled her ears.
Rage pulsated through Esmyra’s veins like a venomous acid, searing through her.
It surged up from her gut like a tidal wave cracking against her ribs, a hot and bitter flood that stole her breath and replaced it with flames—Draevyn’s flames.
That kiss. That betrayal. That blade to her heart that shattered her love into a thousand pieces… None of it was real.
Her sister’s sweet smile had only been a mask of benevolence the entire time. And she had committed the ultimate betrayal by playing puppet master to the man Esmyra had been falling in love with.
Her throat burned as lightning danced beneath her flesh in silver veins of light, her power twitching along her limbs.
Draevyn sat beneath her in silence, watching her as her mind worked through everything he’d been trying to say.
Their time in Maerinys played through her mind.
Every encounter she had with Draevyn, Syrena, them together, and everything in between.
He had constantly tried to warn her that something wasn’t right, but her desire and need to find where she belonged blinded her to the strange new world that oddly felt like home.
Her sister had entrapped him in a velsinyte cuff until the night before his betrayal.
The morning he shattered her heart, his magic was free, but so was his mind. It was wide open for a siren to take. With that cuff, he was powerless, but Syrena also wouldn’t have been able to compel him.
For Maerinys will not be raised by blood alone, but by strength, unity, and sacrifice.
That was what Syrena had announced to their people the night before everything went to shit.
Was Draevyn the sacrifice made to get Esmyra to where she needed to be?
To trigger that rage and power to raise the kingdom from the depths?
“Wildfire…”
“You’re saying Syrena compelled you?” she cut him off, her voice shaking. “You’re saying you had no choice?” She needed him to say it again. She needed to hear the words and the truth in them.
His gaze held hers, unflinching. And that only made it worse.
Draevyn swallowed. “Syrena made me believe she was you. When I looked down at her, golden hair turned to waves of midnight. Amber eyes morphed to vibrant blues. I thought I was holding you in my arms.” He paused for a moment. “It was as if I held my entire world.”
Those words may as well have been a velsinyte bullet straight through her immortal heart.
Esmyra felt betrayed all over again, but not by him, or even Syrena, but herself.
“And then you walked through those doors, and everything shattered,” he continued. “The compulsion’s trance, your heart, and mine. It felt like the world crumbled beneath me, and I lost you before you were ever truly mine.”
Tears stung the back of Esmyra’s eyes, her lower lip trembling.
“And when you ran away, she made sure I couldn’t get the truth to you.
I can only imagine the lies and the way she twisted everything when she spoke of this.
Syrena turned you against me. Syrena—” He broke off, his jaw clenched.
“Syrena used me to break you. She said so herself, and it was her plan all along. She needed me to get you right where she needed you.”