Chapter 15 #4
“Protective wards. Be it a royal palace or a humble dwelling like those over there...” He gestured at the row of awnings attached to the shore of the closest island to our right.
Each awning housed a small platform under it with a few furnishings but not much more.
Ramps descended into the water, suggesting there was more to those dwellings than met the eye, but they certainly weren’t of the same size as the royal palace either above or below the surface.
“Every owner tries to protect their home with whatever magic they possess. The magic of the royal family is usually the strongest, infused by generations of status and power. It’s inherited with the crown passed from one monarch to the next. ”
“But you broke the crown,” I said.
“I did,” he echoed, his gaze hardening. “And the royal magic has been weakening ever since. The wards in the palace are failing, and I’m the one to blame.
” He swallowed, lifting his chin and holding his back rod-straight, as if challenging his gods to shell out whatever punishment they thought he deserved.
“The creatures of the Abyss can surface with little to stop them now. You will be much safer at Arnon’s. ”
“But what about you?”
“What can possibly happen to me?” he dismissed.
I sensed the challenge in his voice again. He wasn’t afraid. He even welcomed the danger. If the monsters came for him and won, he’d probably take it as the retribution he’d been expecting all along for all his sins and transgressions.
“Stay with me at Prince Arnon’s tonight,” I said before I could even think it through.
He laughed, swaying toward me, then stopped from touching me by placing his hand over my head against a carved wood bridge pillar behind me. The pillar proved thick enough to remain standing after turning to glass, and I pressed my back to its hard surface.
“You don’t want me to face the monsters alone?” he teased.
But I didn’t smile.
The truth was, I worried about him being alone. I didn’t want him hurt or suffering. Despite all the horrible things he’d done in his past or what he’d done to me, I wanted him happy and free. I wanted him to stay alive.
“No. I do not,” I replied honestly. “I want you safe too.”
A gentle ocean breeze played with my long skirt. The breeze snuck under the light material of my bodice too. The fine silk moved against my body like a caress, stroking my skin with my every breath like a brush of careful fingers.
His expression turned serious too.
“Does that mean you care, my darling?” His voice was guarded, as was the look in his eyes as he peered at me intently.
Stirred by the breeze, a long strand of his hair fluttered across my face, brushing along my lips, and I whimpered from the sudden sensation.
Tingles of pleasure scattered along the sensitive skin around my mouth.
Heat rippled downward, sending sweet shivers along my arms and through my chest. Desire surged in me.
It tightened my stomach, zapping through my lower belly with heat.
And he hadn’t even touched me. He never would.
“I do. Kye...” I exhaled his name like a plea.
He leaned over me, dangerously close, yet still so far away. Lifting his hand, he sketched the outline of the side of my face with his finger, inches away from actually touching me.
The wind blew the end of a ribbon in my hair. It touched his pinky and shattered to pieces, raining in a sprinkle of shards down my bare shoulder. He jerked his hand away, and still I wished he’d come closer.
My lips parted. His did too. His fresh breath fanned over my face. With my eyelids fluttering, I focused on the caress of the air from his lungs against my face. I stole and relished every bit of his warmth and closeness that I could get without an actual touch.
From behind my lowered eyelashes, I slid my gaze down the sharp ridge of his jaw to that place on the side of his neck just above his shoulder where I imagined his skin would feel smooth and warm, where the scent of him would be the strongest. If only I could press my nose to it and breathe him in.
Straining my senses, I caught a tendril of his masculine scent in the rich smell of the ocean. The two complemented each other perfectly—salt, sunshine, fresh air, and that potent musk of a male that would drive a woman insane if only...if only this woman could get just a little bit closer to him.
He sucked in a breath, as if hunting for my scent in the evening breeze too.
“I’ve never felt so in tune with someone else’s desires, so aware of them, yet so helpless to fulfill them,” he groaned.
“I care disturbingly little about my survival when I’m with you,” I made my own confession. “When it comes to you, I’ve lost my instinct for self-preservation.”
The breeze shoved a strand of my hair into my eyes, and Kye blew on it gently, moving it away for me. I licked my lips, unable to stop looking at his. They were perfectly shaped for a kiss right now, slightly parted and ready to receive mine.
A light moan fluttered from my lips like a butterfly as I reached for him. In a graceful gesture, Kye brought a finger to his lips, blocking his mouth from me. Pushing away from the pillar, he straightened, and I could see it on his face how much it cost him to take a single step back from me.
“There are moments,” he said, “many of them, my darling, when I would gladly die for a single kiss from you. I am, however, not prepared to let you die for it, no matter how devastating my desperation may be.”