Chapter 21 #2
Adriel whipped his head around, those tarnished copper locks flying back to reveal an expression so severe I might have cowered if we hadn’t all just fought off a giant sentient tree. “Who do you think?”
My stomach lurched. He couldn’t mean . . .
I didn’t want to give voice to the obvious answer. It was too terrifying to consider.
“What’s happening to him?” I asked in a shaky whisper .
“Semphrys is trying to take over his body. Force him to reveal his location.”
“Can he do that?” Sorsha hissed.
A muscle in Adriel’s jaw ticked. “Usually he can fight it. But after expending so much power . . .”
A sick feeling roiled in my gut.
Semphrys had chosen to attack when Kaden was already depleted from sending out that wave of death magic. But it seemed too perfect to be a coincidence.
“That’s why he didn’t want us using magic,” Sorsha murmured, following my exact train of thought. “It’s not our power he was worried about. He doesn’t care about Alfrigg or —”
“Semphrys is one reason,” Adriel admitted. “When Kaden uses his demon magic, he becomes . . . something of a beacon.”
My chest squeezed as I stared down at the prince, whose body was rigid as he fought a silent battle to keep his father out.
All this time, he’d avoided using his powers — tucked them away to protect our location. Our motives.
It was a sacrifice he’d made to protect me from Semphrys. But when Sorsha had nearly been devoured by that tree, he’d used his magic in one last-ditch attempt to save his sister’s life.
“What do we do?” Sorsha asked, her voice wavering.
Adriel shook his head. “Nothing to do except hope he can fight him. Hope he can remember who he is.”
The royal guard moved to stand but froze with a hiss of pain. My gaze dropped to the hand he had pressed to his side, which came away slick with blood.
“Shit. One of those damn roots got me. ”
“Do you need me to —”
“It’s fine,” said Adriel with a shake of his head. “It’s not that deep. There’s a med kit in one of the bags.”
“Let me,” said Sorsha, wiping away her tears and springing into action.
She led him by the arm toward the mess of supplies strewn about our makeshift camp, and I almost envied her sense of purpose — of having a task to occupy her rather than sitting here doing nothing.
Not that I could have moved from this spot. I couldn’t leave Kaden. Not like this. I was afraid to take my eyes off him in case that was the moment he finally succumbed to the demon trying to invade his mind.
“Come on,” I growled, just low enough for him to hear. If he was even listening. “Talk to me.”
Hot tears stung my eyes as I watched him writhe on the ground, his face screwed up in concentration as he fought the connection between him and his father.
I couldn’t stand to see him like this.
Kaden might have been the Taker of Souls, but he wasn’t a monster. Not to me.
He might have killed my mother, but not out of cruelty. He’d done it to spare her suffering and save my life, just as he’d saved me countless times since we’d first met.
As fucked up as it was, it had been the honorable thing to do.
He’d deceived me, yes, but I trusted his intentions — trusted him , I realized.
“Damn you,” I murmured, swiping under my eyes. It figured I’d catch feelings for the one male in either realm I should want absolutely nothing to do with. “Fight this,” I hissed. “He isn’t stronger than you. You have to fight . ”
My insides thrashed with a desperate hope, and I reached out to grasp his gorgeous face, pressing my lips to his.
That decadent mouth was cold and lifeless against my own, but I poured everything I felt into that kiss.
My fear.
My frustration and fury.
The tangled mess of . . . whatever it was I felt for the demon prince. Something more dangerous than Semphrys himself — a surge of warmth and need that filled my body whenever Kaden was near. The bizarre sense that, when I was with him, I was . . . safe.
The realization of what I felt rocked me to the core, but I didn’t have time to dwell on that shock. An insidious darkness unfurled around my mind, stalking the perimeter of my defenses like hounds who’d caught the scent of prey.
Only these shadows didn’t tease and caress as they searched for a weak point. They swirled around me with a predatory determination.
The dark tendrils of power didn’t belong to Kaden. They belonged to his father.
Panic surged in my chest. If Kaden had been able to find cracks in the walls I built around my mind, surely his father would too.
And so I didn’t imagine a mental fortress made of stone or shadow. I pictured a snarl of vines like the ones that had strangled the corpses of those who’d died at the enchanted well. I sent out long green shoots blooming with roses, which concealed the deadly thorns beneath.
I wound them tighter and tighter around my mind, creating an impenetrable hedge designed to ensnare any who tried to invade my thoughts.
I could still sense that shadowy presence searching the perimeter of my mind, but I merely allowed my defenses to grow thicker, creating a tangle of woody barbed vines.
One of those dark, oily tendrils plunged through a gap in my mental hedge, testing for weakness. I felt, rather than heard, its hiss of fury before the sinister presence retreated.
To where, I did not know or care, because Kaden’s lips had begun to move — tentatively at first, then with insistence.
What were we doing ?
Did this mean he’d finally broken free of the demon king’s hold?
I couldn’t bring myself to care.
I clutched Kaden to me, and his fingers speared through my hair, freeing it from its unruly knot. His other hand drifted to my waist, tugging me down so forcefully that my chest slammed into his.
Strong fingers dug into my side, fusing our bodies together.
A low groan rumbled through me, but I was too stunned to question whether it had come from him or me.
I was lost in the kiss. Lost in him.
Dark fae, demon, enemy, lover . . . Whatever he was, it didn’t matter. Only that Kaden was still in there somewhere.
Then his tongue lashed out, and I opened my mouth to let him in. He explored me gently at first, his tongue stroking mine, though his grip around my waist was firm. Possessive.
Kaden moaned from beneath me, rolling his hips into mine, and I felt his hardness through our leathers as he ground against me.
A warm ache throbbed between my legs, but then I remembered we were not alone.
I broke the kiss with a loud smack, and the relief that barreled through me was so overwhelming that I nearly burst into tears.
Kaden’s eyes were no longer that shimmering black. The irises were still onyx, but I could see a ring of silver chasing away the darkness.
“I’m still not back,” he growled hoarsely, his hungry gaze flicking to my mouth.
I stared down at him, chest heaving, acutely aware of Sorsha and Adriel watching nearby.
The corner of Kaden’s mouth lifted, and he broke into a wicked grin. “Don’t stop, little huntress, or I might be lost forever.”