Chapter Twenty-Five
Love is a complicated thing.
We meet someone and become convinced that no other soul could ever stir our heart in quite the same way, that no one else could make the world feel so vivid, so alive.
And when they leave, they take the air with them, leaving us hollow, breathless, certain that such a feeling will never return.
But then, someone new appears, quietly, unexpectedly, and tilts the world all over again.
Tabitha Wysteria
‘Don’t you find it rather odd that the king hasn’t summoned any of us?
’ Kai mused, reclining against a silk cushion in a room steeped in quiet opulence.
They had gathered for supper at Mareena’s invitation, an occasion Kai suspected would involve more interrogation than indulgence.
Yet curiously, no mention of the king had been made.
‘Mareena has asked me to dine with her family on numerous occasions,’ Alina replied, one brow arched in subtle amusement. ‘I simply never accepted because…’ Her words trailed off, hanging like incense smoke in the dimly lit chamber.
The room, carved deep within the palace’s heart, was windowless.
No terraces, no breeze, only the warm flicker of firelight from grand torches that lined the sandstone walls.
The stone, the soft gold-yellow hue so distinctive of phoenixian craft, gleamed beneath the flames.
Unlike most palace chambers, there were no intricate mosaics or painted depictions of phoenixian legend upon the walls.
Instead, the solemn columns bore the stories, each one etched with masterful carvings, of the Sun God, angels and beasts spiralling skyward in silent reverence.
At the far end of the space, a broad set of steps led to a pair of immense double doors, carved with symbols Kai longed to decipher. They loomed, ancient and mysterious, like guardians of secrets he wasn’t yet invited to know.
In the centre of the chamber, a long, low table had been arranged for their meal.
Plates of beaten gold shimmered beneath the torchlight, and goblets, some gem-encrusted, rested in clusters between platters of exotic fruit and spiced meats.
Around the table were scattered cushions, vast and plush, sewn with golden thread that caught the light like fire woven into silk.
Kai’s fingers absently drummed the stem of his goblet. Something about this feast felt too calm. Too quiet. And like everything in the Kingdom of Light, it was beautiful. But beauty, he’d learnt, was often a disguise.
To the right of the chamber, nestled beneath a delicate arch, an interior pool shimmered beneath the torchlight.
Its waters glowed with a soft, inviting luminescence, and Kai found himself sorely tempted to slip in.
Alina, meanwhile, was pacing the perimeter of the room, her fingers occasionally brushing the bare stone of columns as if the carvings might whisper something back.
She moved like someone haunted by restlessness, unable or unwilling to be still.
Kai drifted closer to the pool, drawn to it like a moth to flame.
The surface mirrored the amber glow of the chamber, and he could already imagine the relief it might offer his aching limbs.
Alina, still meandering like a caged flame, was clearly trying to outrun something that lingered beneath her skin.
‘Shall we get in?’ he asked, a roguish smile tugging at his lips, the memory of another body of water, cool waves, night breeze, and a softer Alina, surfacing in his mind like a tide returning to shore.
He saw the exact moment she remembered too. The flash of something in her expression. A momentary stillness. Then it vanished, masked beneath composure, and she turned her attention to the doors, as if expecting Mareena or a servant to interrupt the moment.
‘Still prudish about swimming naked?’ he teased, beginning to tug off his dusty boots, well-worn from weeks of travel.
‘I’m still a drakonian,’ she replied, eyeing him with a measured look. ‘Even if I no longer fully resemble one.’
Kai chuckled as he pulled his shirt over his head, revealing the lean strength beneath.
Dust clung to his skin like a second layer.
He felt worn and weathered, like old parchment left in the sun.
Since their arrival, he hadn’t strayed far from Alina’s side, not even when the palace servants offered him a room, clean clothes, or the comfort of a hot bath.
He’d been half-convinced she would vanish if he blinked.
‘You’re perfectly capable of bathing alone,’ Alina said, arching a brow as she crossed her arms. ‘You do not require my assistance.’
Kai shrugged. ‘It’s not nearly as entertaining on my own.’
‘You’re not five years old, Kai.’
He grinned, utterly unrepentant. ‘Thank the gods for that, princess.’
She rolled her eyes with a sigh of long-suffering amusement, but he caught the faintest twitch of her lips. She didn’t blush anymore. Those days were gone. Now, she met every jest with fire, every challenge with steel. She had become something else entirely, and gods help him, he adored it.
Kai discarded the final piece of clothing and descended the smooth steps into the pool, the water lapping at his skin like a silken balm.
He let himself sink until the warmth cradled him entirely, and with his head resting against the edge, he exhaled a long breath that carried the dust of their journey with it.
His back was turned to Alina, and for a while, he simply closed his eyes and listened to the gentle lap of water against stone. His heartbeat slowed, soothed by the quiet knowledge that she was alive. That she was here.
Then came the soft rustle of clothing being set aside, followed by the delicate sound of feet slipping into water. Kai opened his eyes just in time to catch the ripple of movement. Alina Acheron, naked and ethereal, stepping with unhurried grace into the pool.
He coughed, startled, and quickly averted his gaze. That made her laugh.
‘Now who’s the prude?’ she teased, amusement curling in her voice.
He opened his mouth to speak, but the words tangled in his throat. A blush crept up his neck as he focused very hard on a distant wall.
‘You can look, Kai,’ she said, the water around her shifting softly. ‘The world won’t end because of it.’
‘It might,’ he muttered. ‘Mine might.’
Cautiously, he turned and the world, indeed, seemed to tilt. She was breathtaking.
The sun had kissed her skin a deeper shade of gold, and her blonde hair cascaded in soft waves down her back, as if woven from sunlight itself. Her brown eyes sparkled with mischief, their warmth framed by a face that might have been sculpted by divinity.
Even the brutal remnants of her once-majestic horns, broken, raw, and bared for all to see, could not dim the beauty that radiated from her. To him, she was still the most stunning drakonian the world had ever known.
And yet, as he drank her in, another image flashed unbidden behind his eyes: a pair of vivid purple eyes, fierce and sharp, staring into his soul.
His heart tightened. What would Dawn feel, if she saw him now with Alina?
Alina must have followed the thread of his thoughts, for a knowing smile curled on her lips as she mirrored his pose, resting her arms upon the edge of the pool with easy grace.
‘What’s her name?’ she asked, voice soft as silk, her attention fixed not on him, but on the water rippling gently between them.
Kai hesitated, the name lodging like a stone in his throat. He remembered what Ash had told him, and what Dawn herself had confessed, that Alina had never learnt the witch’s true name.
‘Dawn,’ he said at last, the word barely more than a breath, breaking like fragile glass between his teeth.
Alina’s smile deepened. ‘You care for her.’
‘I don’t.’
‘You’ve always been a dreadful liar, Kai Blackburn.’
Perhaps. But it didn’t matter. He couldn’t let it matter.
Whatever feeling he harboured for Dawn, dangerous, tangled thing that it was, had to be extinguished.
If Alina ever discovered the truth… if she realised he had brought the very girl responsible for Ash’s pain, one who had helped bring her kingdom to ruin, into the sanctity of this palace, she would never forgive him. And he wouldn’t blame her.
The thought made him move, breaking away from the edge where he had been lounging. He waded through the water, closing the short distance between them until he stood before her, so close her breath became his own.
Without pause, without asking, he reached for her. His hands gripped her legs beneath the water and pulled them around him, drawing her body to his until she was flush against his chest. Her lips hovered a breath from his.
So near he could almost taste the memory of them.
‘Kai…’ she whispered, and the name trembled in the space between them like a spell not yet cast.
Kai kissed Alina with a devotion carved from the deepest parts of him, as if the very act could bind their souls together once more.
He folded her into his arms, pressing every heartbeat, every breath, every fragment of himself against her until there was no space left between their bodies, no silence left between their souls.
Through the kiss, urgent, reverent and infinite, he made a vow without words: that he would never again let her slip through his fingers.
That he would shield her from every shadow the world dared to cast.
And Alina responded with a fervour that matched his own, her hands gliding over his body as though memorising it anew.
Their mouths danced, a slow-burning union of breath and heat, until she broke away to gasp softly, tipping her head back in surrender.
His lips followed the curve of her throat, trailing reverent kisses down her skin, worshipping the path to her breast with a hunger both tender and fierce.