CHAPTER 46
“The darklings are living proof of the evil done by dark magic.” - Book of Azure
THE FLAMES DISINTEGRATE, FLOATING BACK up to the dark sky as my weak body hunches over, my head resting against my Fireninze for a moment.
My eyes widen in disbelief, feeling the energy of the Gods radiating through my palms. I groan, wincing as I shut my eyes and flashbacks of my hands scorching everything in sight plays through my mind like a broken record.
How was that even possible?
Wielding from the God of Fire took everything I had, and now my body is weak. My flesh feels as if the fire itself scorched me. My heart is slowing down as if I might pass out right here.
Unsure if I could survive ever doing that again.
“What the hell were you thinking!” Koen roars, veins bulging against his temples. Dark-red blood streams down his forehead and arm, making my heart skip a beat.
He could have died.
And the Queen was going to allow it.
He angrily brushes off the ash clinging to his suit and hair, striding towards me. The sounds of bones crunching under his boots echoes in the slight breeze.
Gasping for air, I slide off my horse as the fire flickers out. “You mean…” I pant, “you can't even say thank you?”
“You could have been killed wielding power from the Gods like that! No one has wielded from the Gods since…” He chokes on his words. “Since the last Queen Deskyiara.”
His eyes blaze with pure intensity as he closes the distance between us. His breath trembles as he sucks in the smokey air that surrounds us.
My lips part, closing my eyes as I breathe out.
“What if you died!” The veins against his neck pulse rapidly.
“And you could have been dead if I hadn't!” I retort fiercely.
He rakes his fingers through his tousled hair.
“Damn it, Serene!” he shouts, kicking bones aside with frustration.
“Can't you just stay away from death! The Royals will hunt you down now! They saw the dragons! What you did, they consider it the deadliest curse, and they will have your head for it! No dragon shall live!”
“I am not afraid of the Royals. They should be afraid of me.” I step closer, feeling the heat of the moment, noticing how the chaos of fighting against pure evil only enhances the curls perfectly framing his face.
But also, the fear that consumed me as I watched him being ripped apart by the darklings made me realize that if I ever lost him, I'd lose myself.
My hand rests against my chest while I steady my breath.
But as my chin flits to catch sight of him once more, my knees buckle.
I suck in a breath as his emerald eyes meet mine.
His jaw tenses as his nostrils flare. The sounds of his knuckles cracking as his hands roll into tight fists echo in the air
My heart beats, the heat has yet to leave my body. Ash catches in the breeze, and I hear the whispers of the chosen—as well as the Royals—up on the hilltop. Unsure if their arrows are still locked on us.
Let their arrows soar through the sky, it would be the last thing they would ever do.
“I can hear them!” He points to his head with trembling hands. “I hear her! I feel her anger! She will have her revenge!”
“Tilly?” I step closer, raising my chin higher.
He nods. “She will stop at nothing to have the throne.”
“And I will stop at nothing to have my revenge on her.”
His eyes shut, inhaling deeper through his nose.
I breathe out. “And I will stop at nothing to save you from her. I will die, over and over again, just to free you from her grasp.”
He exhales, “Serene.”
“Do you love me?” My eyes burn, not from the scorching land and ash-filled air. But because everything inside me thought I could have lost him today. “Or is everything I remember a lie?”
His eyes flash within a matter of seconds from dark to soft. With exhaustion, he pulls his trembling hands through his tangled curls, letting his bottom lip tug between his teeth as he looks everywhere but at me.
His emerald eyes are lost in the sea of bones and fire that surrounds us.
I step forward with no fear.
“I said, do you love me?” My eyes flicker from his eyes down to his lips.
His chest rises, eyes closing as he pulls away from me.
“Koen!” I step closer. “I am standing here before you, asking you if you love me, and you can’t even look my way!”
He takes a deep breath. “Damn it, Spark!” His hands curl around his neck as he lifts his chin up to the ash-filled sky. “More than anything,” he breathes out, allowing his body to relax before his eyes drop to me, tracing up my body to meet my lingering gaze.
“I love you more than anything.” His eyes glisten, the fire behind him slowly sizzling out.
“Then kiss me.”
His brows pull inward, reopening the wound along his forehead.
“What did you just say?” His shoulders rise, stepping forward.
“Kiss me.” My chin rises as my heart slams against my chest.
His head shakes softly. “I’d burn.”
My trembling hands hover over his chest before allowing them to touch against it. My fingertips glide over the scales along his suit.
“I won’t burn you,” I breathe out. “Because my whole body burns for you.”
His eyes shut, inhaling deeply as if he is fighting every urge inside him not to do what I ask.
“Serene, we—”
But before he can continue, I lift myself on my tiptoes without hesitation, fingers entangling in his curls with a desperate urgency. I pull him closer, a longing coursing through me, and as our lips touch, the world around us vanishes.
The roar of the Royals fades. The crackling of the darklings' sizzling flesh becomes a distant memory.
All that remains is him.
Him at last.
All of him.
Mine.
And my man doesn't burn.
Maybe we have this all wrong. What if the Gods need us together, our hearts together, to finally destroy the curses we caused?
His hand glides up my neck, grasping my chin with a fervent hold as he pulls me closer.
His fingers are tightening, as if the thought of letting go will destroy him for good.
With a forceful tug of his other hand wrapping around my waist, our lips press tighter together.
I gasp, savoring the brief moment of air before he claims me again.
At last. Our lips meet in desperation, neither of us pausing to breathe, lost in the yearning that consumes us.
A desire that has been torturing us since I arrived.
All this time we have lost.
The Gods keeping us apart means nothing with his hands on me. With his lips consuming me.
The burning desire of revenge is sizzled out and is replaced with the burning desire to have him sweep me up right now, and take me back to his piano.
My heart flickers as I hear a soft moan escape his lips, making it impossible to not want to ever stop.
He kisses the way he fights. Ferociously, with purpose, making it impossible to do anything but surrender.
And I shall surrender, only to him.
My hands have found their way to his chest, clutching tightly at the scaly fabric of his suit, desperate to bring him closer, even though there is no more space between us.
I feel the frantic pounding of his heart through his chest, in rhythm with my own.
Only making my own heart flicker more violently.
My nose deeply inhales as our lips passionately dance together. His scent is all around me, making my knees tremble but with his firm grip, I never fall. Sweat and blood mixed with the smell of fire… him. His scent.
My Koen.
My man.
Just him, with his lips on mine, intoxicating everything inside me.
His lips tug my bottom one with a hunger, while his hand trails up my spine with a desperate urgency, fingers tangling into my hair with a tight grip, sending shivers cascading through me.
He pulls away from me for a split moment, breathing out the words, “I told you my hands shall never leave your body ever again… now that I have you. That was a dangerous move, Spark.”
My gaze flicker between his desperate eyes that beg for more and his lips that tug between his teeth.
I lift on my tiptoes. My lips part as they brush along his. “I thought you weren’t afraid of a little fire?” I tease, breathing deeply before I embrace his lips once more, without a care as to who sees.
My lips curl into a smile as he is still kissing me, knowing Lykia is watching from afar.
An electric energy courses through me knowing she is seething where she stands, and there is nothing she can do in front of the Royals.
Expect to watch his lips, on mine.
For a second, I let myself believe this is what I've always been waiting for. Not the crown, not the revenge of my sister, not the peace of our Realms being free from the curse, but the feeling of this. The feeling of him.
As his grip tightens, hearing him gasp for a breath, I pull him in. My body never wants to leave him. I kiss him harder.
But he pulls away just long enough for me to breathe, to see the wildness flashing in his eyes. His hand gently brushes along the ash and blood of my forehead. His eyes soften, and his lips slightly tug upward.
“I told you, you wouldn’t burn.” My brows lift, catching his lips tug between his lips as he smiles.
His head cocks to the side, brushing his curls behind his ears. “And how did you know this?”
And just as he reminds me with those words, my heart plummets. I love a man that has the ability to kill the last Deskyiara. Me.
Yet, his memory of it is gone. But once I have the stones in my hands, will the Realms finally remember the truth?
My lips part to speak, feeling the urge to explain what the shifter had warned me, but the chosen run up behind Koen. Theon sweeps his arms around his back, patting against Koen’s chest, making him cough in pain.
“Took you two long enough!” Theon teases, blood drips from the deep cut along his cheekbone. “How the hell did you not burn?”
Koen lets out a trembling groan, gripping his side. “Unsure.”
Theon runs his hands through his blood-filled hair, cackling as he slams his hand into Koen’s back. “Glad to see you not dead!”