27. Chapter Twenty-Seven
27
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
KAIUS
A s the door slammed behind me, all I could do was cross my fingers that Elodie would do as I had asked and not take off, trying to find her room herself.
My hopes weren’t high. It didn’t matter; I’d soon find her.
I’d find her anywhere.
Bastian whirled to face me as the door shut, fire dancing in his eyes. This was the second time I’d seen him lose his shit after being with Goldie, and while it amused me to see him riled up, it couldn’t continue. He needed to get a grip and not give in to her antagonising. It was funny as hell, but no one was benefiting from it.
“Well, that was pointless,” I said as he frowned in anger, hands still fisted at his side. “Why didn’t you just tell her?”
“I’m surprised you haven’t already. The two of you seem pretty cosy.” I rolled my eyes at him.
Yeah, I’d answered her questions, but he knew I hadn’t told her why she was really here. I wouldn’t be waiting much longer, though.
“Don’t be so dramatic.” He hated that. Gritting his teeth, he forced his power back down, rolling his neck to ease the strain of controlling it.
Bastian had always had a temper, and out of the two of us he was the quickest to anger, but being out of control was something he despised, and he had worked his ass off as we grew up to keep his emotions in check. His duties wouldn’t allow him to fly off the handle and yet, the tiny white-haired girl we had brought to this palace was breaking through that control at every encounter. After this little lunch date, I could see she enjoyed it, too.
“It makes no sense, Kaius,” he growled.
“Nothing much does, Bas, but regardless of whether it makes sense, we have to deal with it now.”
I understood his frustration. I really, really, did. All that time spent searching and when we finally think we have the answers, we’re thrown another obstacle. This time in the shape of a feisty woman who wanted nothing to do with us.
I was planning on changing that.
I could win her over. I was sure of it, because fuck did I want to.
I think I already was, maybe a little. I meant what I said when I told her I’d never lie. I would give her whatever she wanted, and I’d do it gladly as long as it kept her here with me. Telling her why she was here might push her further away, and I couldn’t risk that.
I wasn’t planning on letting her go yet.
But there were other things I could give her, like the other answers that she needed. That we all needed, really, if we were going to figure out why we were led to her.
When I’d sealed that promise with a soul tie, I hadn’t even thought twice about it. While my duties kept me busy, any spare moment I had I’d been putting into finding out who she was. It wounded me to admit I had found nothing. There was a lot of shit to comb through across Avelin and seeing as I had no idea what kingdom her family was from, I had too many places to start.
I knew the goddesses were laughing at us from wherever it was they watched over our lives, playthings for them to poke at when they got bored of doing whatever it was they did.
We’d taken Elodie; it hadn’t been planned, but we’d still done it. I knew that even if The Darkness hadn’t shown up, if she hadn’t thrown herself at us to escape from it, we still would have taken her. The thought made me sick. I wasn’t a fucking kidnapper.
Except now that’s exactly what I was.
“You were there with me, you heard what Nova said just as clearly as I did.”
“I wouldn’t exactly call it clear,” Bastian scoffed, and he had a point. Fucking seers and their riddles. “This cannot be what she meant, Kaius.”
Prophecies were notoriously difficult to interpret even when you knew what you were doing. And we didn’t. But Nova did.
“It has to be. This is it. All that time we spent searching, the people we lost. Elodie’s the answer—she can help us.”
I couldn’t explain how much I knew I was right, that we needed her.
“I do not need the help of a human who has no idea how to use whatever magik it is she has.” His anger flared again, heat lashing out into the room.
“This isn’t about you, Bas! Everyone is in danger, and you being an idiot about this is going to get more people killed!” Fucking stubborn bastard. “Also, I’m like ninety-nine percent sure she’s not human.”
He ignored my very important point and continued to rage. “I was the one who was supposed to fix this!”
“It was for both of us, and you know it. You may be the Prince here in this castle, but do not forget that I am your equal in every way.” I could feel magik stirring within me, the dark energy I contained within my skin pushing to be let free. I wouldn’t let it. Not here. And never against Bas.
“She is not the answer, we got it wrong. We should go back to the house, search it.”
“For what?”
“For whatever she’s hiding. Go and get her. I’ll question her. She’ll give it up after that.” His words were erratic as he made to step past me towards the door, but I intercepted him with a hand hard against his chest.
“No,” I growled, as the shadows reared in anger.
“No?” His brow arched at me as he swept my hand away.
“I won’t let you question her, Bastian. The Commander will not touch her, we both know that, which leaves you and me, and I won’t let you hurt her.” The thought of her in his hands made my blood run cold, he could be a cruel bastard when he wanted to be.
“Why? I’ll make sure to leave her face. She’ll still be pretty enough.”
Magik shot into my hands at his words, crackling across my palms, but I was in control of it.
I always was. I’d had to be.
Except… my mind went to last night when I’d lost that control. I still had no idea how it had happened. One minute I had been holding Goldie, trying to heal her arms that were burning, and the next thing I knew our energies had collided. It had been a rush, a pure high that I didn’t ever want to come down from.
Our powers had merged together until I had felt the raw force of her in every part of me, and fuck did it feel good. I didn’t want it to end. I wanted to be holding her, against her, inside her. Her soft body was pressed against mine, and I had been moments away from taking her right there. But that would have been wrong— so fucking wrong .
She had spoken my name like a prayer to the gods and then it had stopped. I didn’t even know which one of us had managed to pull away first. The connection had broken, and I had been left empty. Like her magik had found a place inside me, an empty hollow I’d kept tucked away that it exposed, and I still couldn’t find a way to put it back. I needed more. More of her.
No, I wouldn’t let him touch her.
She was mine.
I wasn’t sure at what point I’d began to claim her as my own, but I wasn’t looking to question it.
“You saw the power that runs through her even if she is untrained. I’ve never felt anything like it.”
Let him think it’s about magik. My dick hardening in my trousers was hardly going to convince him my only interest was in her power, and as I tried to ever so subtly rearrange myself, his eyes burned.
“So, you have been fucking her then,” he spat at me.
“No Bastian, I haven’t. We kidnapped her. Of course I haven’t fucked her.” But fuck did I want to. Thinking of her wearing those lacy sets I had been sending had been keeping me and my cock company at night. He scowled at me as if he could read my thoughts, and I pushed the half-naked image of Goldie to the back of my mind.
I’ll revisit that later.
“You need to pull your head out of your arse and stop being such a dick.” I didn’t care I was pushing him. He knew as well as I did that this whole room would be torn apart before either of us managed to get the upper hand if it came down to a fight. Maybe that’s what we needed to do to rid him of this extra anger he was throwing around.
Being one of the few people who dared speak to him like that was always fun. As the Crown Prince of the kingdom, it was a small list, and satisfaction flooded me at the thought that Goldie had added her name to it.
“I will find another way,” he snarled. My own anger raged because, while, yeah, I wanted her, I also knew she was somehow the key to everything.
“If anyone else dies while you’re trying to find another way when Elodie is sitting in this very palace, then that’s on you. And believe me, Bas, I will hold you accountable.” I stormed to the door, yanking it open and stepping out into… an empty corridor.
Obviously, she didn’t wait.
Had I really expected her to? Not even a little bit.
Most of my anger dissipated as the door closed, replaced now by a dark excitement at the thought of stalking through the castle to find her. Stretching my magik out, I searched for a hint of hers, finding it quicker than I thought.
Inhaling the faint smell of honey and cinnamon that lingered in the air, I set off down the corridor, eager to be closer to her.
She had gotten further than I expected, and I couldn’t help but laugh when I realised where she was headed.
The dungeons weren’t where I imagined she wanted to end up, although I wouldn’t have minded catching her down there in the dark. A smirk crossed my face as I wondered if I should let her continue this way for that very reason, until I remembered the guards she would come across, and fuck knows what they would do with her.
There weren’t many people who even knew she was in the palace, and some of these guards were shifty bastards.
I quickened my pace, knowing how pissed the Commander would be with me if I killed more of his guards, and I didn’t need that sort of distraction right now.
I just needed to get to her.
Her scent grew stronger and as I turned the corner, there she was. The slight bounce to her curvy little body in those skin-tight trousers made me want to forever walk behind her. There was no way she knew where she was going. And also, no way she wouldn’t know someone was behind her, but she didn’t bother to look back and I bit back a grin at her stubbornness.
On her, it was fucking cute.
I followed behind for a moment, eyes glued on her peachy ass before the corridor began to subtly change, and I forced myself to catch up or risk her wandering too close to the darker places of the palace. Brushing my arm against hers as I did, I delighted in the hum of energy that pulsed through me.