Chapter 74 Dianna
DIANNA
Samkiel pressed a kiss to my head, his hand running over my hair before he left our bedroom to find Cameron.
Uneasiness curling in the pit of my gut as I finished getting ready.
This all seemed too easy, but I was glad the assassins clearly wished to work with us.
Or I guess more so me. I didn’t save Faye’s brother with any expectation of repayment, and a part of me thought she knew that, too.
So, I didn’t understand the sudden loyalty.
We hadn’t seen them since Kaden’s return, but we continued to reach out to them.
Nismera’s palace was off the table. Apparently, they had been searching for it for hundreds of years, to no avail, so our next option was creepy bone cavern and that damn chalice.
According to lore, the preferred way to contact an assassin of Sumaril was to place your request or dead list in the darkest part of the room.
Supposedly, they would answer, but we’d been waiting for days for an answer.
The wait was torturous, and to occupy itself, my mind kept pondering the location of the chalice.
I spent much of the time staring out the window at our beautiful city, afraid I would have to watch it burn.
I kept a vigilant eye on the skies and clouds, waiting for the moment her remaining warships found us. They didn’t.
It wasn’t until last night that we woke to the feel of power creeping through our home.
We found the map in Samkiel’s study. A blade pinned it to the wall in the darkest corner, the shadows so thick I could feel them against my skin.
I ignored the slithering sensation, excited and anxious that I finally have a hope of finding that fucking chalice.
I sighed and headed out of our room and down the hall. It was only going to be Samkiel, Reggie, and me going. Enough of Reggie’s fate powers remained that he could monitor both the city and us, just in case we needed to rush back.
A few steps and turns later, I arrived at the main floor.
I followed the sound of whispered voices to the large dining area, but they stopped talking as soon as I stepped into the doorway.
Isaiah held a spoon above his bowl and looked behind me, probably checking for Samkiel.
Not seeing him, Isaiah glanced at Kaden, relaxing on the thick wooden chair beside him.
“I need to talk to him,” I said, nodding toward Kaden. “Alone.”
Isaiah’s brows rose, but he just shrugged and stood up.
He picked up his food and stepped out, closing the door behind him.
I waited until his footsteps receded down the stairs, heading toward the dungeon and Imogen again.
It didn’t matter what we did or how many lectures Samkiel subjected him to, Isaiah wouldn’t stay away from her.
Isaiah shifted into a large furry beast every night and would sleep outside Imogen’s cell.
He hadn’t slept in his room once since he’d brought her back.
Last night, when I’d gone downstairs to check on them, Isaiah had cracked open his red eyes and peered at me before huffing and curling into himself once more.
It could have been exhaustion or the stress of the last few weeks wearing on me, but as I turned to head back upstairs, I could have sworn that I saw Imogen blink.
I didn’t have to ask Isaiah about his near-desperate obsession with Imogen because I had seen that look before. But that would be a conversation for another time, and I wasn’t going to get into it with Samkiel. It would just give him a migraine.
Kaden waited with his arms folded as he regarded me. “Let me guess. You’ve come to scold me for what I said, considering you haven’t spoken to me since.”
Gods, was he keeping track? I shook my head. “No, I—”
“Listen, your husband,” he said the word like a curse, “already did. Might I add how inconvenient it is to regrow a tongue?”
“Can you let me get a word out before you assume? Gods, you always—” I stopped, curling my lips around my teeth.
I stared at him, and it took a second for me to realize he was talking about the fight we’d had before we left to rescue Samkiel.
He hadn’t told me he had confronted Kaden about what he had said, but a part of me was completely unsurprised.
I shook my head and stepped forward, stopping two chairs away from him.
“Yes, and no. I’m not here to scold you. I said something kind of bitchy, too. To hurt you, actually,” I said.
Kaden’s brows furrowed as if he were surprised that I would admit to purposely causing him pain. Kaden grunted and kicked his long legs out, folding one ankle over the other. “What is this?” he asked, the muscles under his long-sleeved shirt bunching.
“Samkiel thinks we have a connection,” I said.
Kaden all but rolled his eyes as he folded his arms across his chest. “Great, your boy toy is jealous. As if I couldn’t tell. He can just—”
“And he’s right,” I cut in.
The air was sucked from the room, and I was reminded once again that he, too, was a son of Unir.
Shock suffused his face, and the emotions that followed were chaotic and nearly palpable.
I wasn’t sure if I had ever managed to elicit such a response from him.
I watched in surprise as his throat bobbed and took a step closer, my hands held loosely at my sides.
“You get under my skin,” I said. “You always have, and you know it. I lashed out that day, and you retaliated. You always knew how to hurt me, exactly where to hit and how to make me feel less than. You did hurt me that day, then and for many long years before. I have wounds left by you. Trust issues that go soul deep and will take years to heal.”
Kaden flinched as if my words of truth were worse than a slap. He stood so abruptly that the chair almost fell. “I don’t have time for this,” he snarled.
He went to storm by, but I caught his arm, stopping him. “But that’s not all.”
He looked down at my hand before meeting my eyes.
“You came into my life when I desperately needed someone to save me, and I latched on to you and what you offered. I was na?ve then, but I am no longer that girl. When I met Samkiel, I hurt him in the same ways you taught me how to hurt others. He doesn’t deserve the fractured, bruised parts of me.
I will not be you. I will not love him cruelly. ”
I expected him to react violently and brutally.
It was what I was used to from the man who’d once held so much power over me, but he only looked at me as if he didn’t really recognize me, and maybe he didn’t.
I had grown in ways neither of us could have ever predicted, and I didn’t think he could even begin to recognize or relate to this me.
“Everything has changed, Kaden. We are bound by Death, and what happens to us affects those we love. We have to stop hurting each other.”
Kaden said nothing.
“I don’t know what happened with Nismera, and I know you won’t tell me, but you fought back. You saved your brother, and now, even with the bond, you are trying to help.”
“I have no choice,” Kaden said, his eyes burning into mine.
“That’s not true.”
He scoffed, about to make some remark I was sure would annoy me. “I saw it,” I said before he could ruin everything.
He frowned. “Saw what?”
“What I always thought you had in you. The potential.”
“Dianna,” he said, his eyes softening.
“It’s there, buried so deep and sheltered by whatever she did to you and Isaiah. You have it, and I think if she hadn’t twisted you, broken you so cruelly, you would have been a good man.” I shrugged, a half smirk twisting my lips. “Well, maybe not good, but semi decent?”
Kaden looked at me, and I realized perhaps our broken pieces were the same.
Done by different people, yet still jagged and sharp enough to hurt everyone we try to get close to.
I released his arm and gave him a small smile before turning to leave.
Behind me, Kaden finally took a breath. “Dianna,” he called out.
It was just my name, but it was fraught with unspoken emotion.
I paused with my hand on the open door, turning to face him again.
“If it means anything … I’m sorry.” He paused, his jaw working as if tasting and discarding his words. “For everything.”
My soul was gone. I had willingly sacrificed it to save the love of my life, but I wondered, if I still had it, would I feel pity for the once formidable and cruel Kaden? After everything he did and took from me, I doubted it.
“It doesn’t,” I said simply.
Kaden’s eyes lost a fraction of their warmth, and I knew the moment was over. His gaze flicked up, focusing on something over my head. I didn’t need to turn to know who stood at my back. He was always there, my faithful sentinel.
Samkiel’s hand slid over my waist, placing a kiss on the top of my head as he spoke. “Are you ready to go?”
I nodded, turning into his embrace and grabbing his hand. We barely made it through the doorway when Kaden called out to us.
“Careful where you venture, Brother,” Kaden said to Samkiel. “Searching for the dead sometimes leads you closer to the afterlife than you want to get.”