Chapter 13
NARYA
Daigen’s heartbeat thundered against my cheek as he lifted me into his arms.
Water streamed from my hair and skin, soaking his clothes, leaving a slick trail across the wooden floor.
I blinked the droplets from my eyes, struggling to make sense of what was happening.
One moment I was in the bath and the next I was being pulled from the water over to the chaise lounge next to the bed.
“Get out!” Daigen bellowed as his guards tried to enter the room.
He tore his cloak from his shoulders and threw it over my body.
My voice was hoarse from screaming when I tried to speak.
“What—”
“Silence!” His eyes were blazing, the rage in them hot enough to scorch. “I leave you barely an hour, and already you try to kill yourself. Are you really so desperate to die?”
I clutched the cloak to my chin, shivering beneath the heavy warmth of it.
“I wasn’t… that’s not what I was doing.”
He scoffed at that. “Pray tell, what were you doing?”
My gaze flicked over to the tub, frowning at all the water that had been spilled across the floor.
“I was bathing,” I said, lifting my chin to meet his glare.
He wasn’t buying it. His eyes cut through me like blackened shards.
“Under water? Screaming?”
He… Well, he had me there. But I wasn’t screaming or trying to hurt myself in the way he thought.
The only person I wanted to hurt was éllia, though I couldn’t say that—even if it was just a flash of jealousy.
I could barely admit it to myself. I’d never felt jealous before, least of all possessive, and I knew it was all because of my crystal.
Daigen straightened, the rage of his eyes flaring.
“If I knew you craved death so strongly, perhaps I should have let you die at the Tree.”
I snapped my gaze from him, my eyes straying to the window, where a small bird hopped onto one of the balcony’s gold railings.
The swallow turned around as if to face me, and flapped its little wings.
Weren’t swallows a symbol of good luck? I wanted to laugh at the irony of that.
I didn’t feel lucky at all. I felt caged.
“Perhaps you should have,” I whispered, trailing my gaze back to him. “Why didn’t you?”
He’d stood watching me, but when I met his narrowed gaze, he spun around.
“Where is it?!”
I knew what he was searching for. The traitorous part that beat inside my chest knew before my mind did. My crystal. He found it on the floor beside the bath.
He crouched, fingers curling around it as steam rose between his knuckles.
As he dried the necklace with a towel, I glanced toward the bed where a pile of clothing had been laid out for me.
I wanted to pull them on, but I didn’t dare move from the chaise.
I was afraid the cloak would slip, afraid he would see the shame etched into my back.
So I sat still, hating how vulnerable my nakedness made me feel even with his heavy cloak around me.
“Why didn’t you let me die?” I pressed again. “I do not believe we’re fated.”
Daigen’s shoulders went still, the muscle in his jaw ticking once before he looked away.
“No,” he bit out without looking at me, “just my prisoner.”
I nodded but stayed silent. The truth was, I didn’t want to believe we were fated to each other.
Believing meant I’d given in. And I wasn’t ready to give in just yet.
Something didn’t feel right about our mating.
It felt… wrong somehow. When I imagined being fated to someone, I imagined it would bring a sense of comfort inside, a calmness that deepened in their presence.
Instead, all I felt was fire and hate and a need so fierce that it consumed me from the inside.
Daigen took a long moment to answer, his attention fixed on the towel in his hands.
There were ash-grey marks on his white shirt where my wet hair had clung to him.
My heartbeat hammered as I looked at his face.
It was like being squeezed by an invisible force as thin beams of red light shone through the gaps in his hand.
My crystal was trying to reach the one around his neck.
It hurt to look—beautiful, mesmerising, and terrifying all at once.
Something I did not wish to acknowledge.
“You don’t have to believe it,” he said at last. His tone had lost the edge of fury, replaced by something quieter, heavier, as he walked towards me.
“In the eyes of the gods, you belong to me. I claimed you. You’re mine.
” He leaned closer, his mouth a breath from mine.
“There is nothing I won’t do to protect what's mine. I will lock you in a cage if I have to. Perhaps then you’ll stop testing how far you can fall. ”
I tried to move back, to put some distance between us, but the chaise caught the edge of my spine and held me underneath him. I could barely breathe, his scent thick with iron and heat, filling my lungs until they burned.
“I am not your possession,” I managed, though the words tangled like a lie in my throat. They tasted like one too.
“No,” Daigen murmured, brushing damp strands away from my temple. “You are far more to me than that.”
He draped the necklace over my head and touched the crystal resting between the valley of my breasts. His mouth tightened, jaw flexing as if it pained him to stop. The faint red pulse of our crystals shimmered between us, heat trembling across my skin.
“This is a bond you cannot fight. A battle you will never win.”
It took everything in me not to let tears burn through my eyes.
If only he knew I was already losing—that he was already conquering me on a battlefield I was never equipped to fight.
And I wanted to fight him. Gods, I wanted to fight him.
But I’d been fighting my whole life, and I was so tired.
Tired enough to crave the peace he promised even if it came with chains.
I bit down on my lips, refusing to give in.
Daigen’s mouth curved into a smirk like he already knew the war raging inside me.
He straightened, adjusting his cuffs, his shirt still clinging where my head had rested. My eyes betrayed me, tracing the wet patch upward to his throat. His pulse thudded there, and for a moment I wondered if he could feel mine answering it.
“Never endanger yourself like that again.”
He spoke with a quiet authority that froze the air between us, making me shiver.
“Must I set guards at your every step?” His voice stayed even, controlled, yet the calm was worse than shouting. A slow snarl curved his lips. “Do not tempt me, Narya. I will bite, and you’ll be the one to bleed for it.”
Despite the threat in his voice, there was a hidden note that sounded almost… like he cared.
Or maybe he did just see me as property, and had a duty to protect that property for the sake of his reputation. He had claimed me before three kingdoms, and kings have been known to burn cities for less. Like dragons hoarding gold, they are ruthless in protecting what’s theirs.
And Daigen was every inch the dragon they whispered about—merciless, magnificent, and coiling through walls I’d spent years building around myself. As I looked up into his face, I knew with abject certainty that if anyone was destined to make me fall, it was him.
I had to end this. Now. I had to protect myself before it was too late.
“You’ve already taken everything from me,” I said. “Lock me in a cage if you must. I’m little more than a prisoner here. A slave. I’d expect nothing more from a savage.”
The words burned as I said them. Crueler than I meant, but necessary.
I needed him to hate me. It was the only way to save us both.
“Is that what you think?” he asked, each word slow and careful.
I lifted my chin. “Is it not true?”
His jaw locked, throat working with barely contained fury. His silence was scarier than if he had shouted at me. He took one long, hard look at me, then he turned and left the room, slamming the door behind him, hard enough to rattle the walls.
A moment later came a hiss of magic, the scent of burning leaves rising sharp in my throat. I looked down and gasped. My crystal—it was gone. My tether ripped away, like he’d stolen the last breath from my lungs.
What was I thinking? The prospect of Daigen calling out my bluff and caging me was more terrifying than yielding to him. I shook my head, moving to the bed on unsteady legs.
That was just it. I wasn’t thinking.
The lack of rest and sustenance was finally taking its toll on me.
I dropped Daigen’s cloak and folded it over the chair at the dresser. The night garments Thràena had left glimmered pale blue on the bed. The silk was cool against my skin as I pulled them on. They felt nothing like the shifts I once sewed from curtains. Even comfort felt like betrayal here.
Once dressed, I walked to the table of food. My stomach grumbled; I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten. My eyes lingered on the banquet laid out before me. If this was to be my only night here, then I was going to damn well enjoy it.
I piled a platter and carried it to the bed. I’d never eaten in bed before. The small rebellion made me light-headed with giddy defiance. I slipped under the cover and pulled the tray onto my lap, pillows gathered around me like a fortress.
I stared down at the tray. I’d been waiting for this moment for so long, yet when I picked up a pork pie, my mouth dried. I couldn’t eat it. My hand froze, my jaw locked, and my stomach lurched. After several days on the road, I should’ve been starving.
I was starving, before my appetite went.
I tried again, knowing I had to eat something to keep my strength.
I replaced the pie with a chocolate cake that melted in my mouth.
Sweetness flooded my senses, a brief mercy.
I quickly picked up another, and another, barely leaving time to breathe between bites.
Something I would have scolded Rueren for, I realised.
The thought brought a smile to my lips as I pictured her eating beside me—licking the icing from her fingers, a dab always on her nose.