Chapter 26
Twenty-Six
Slamming the door behind me, I slide the lock into place and try to calm my pounding heart.
My mind is racing and I’m struggling to think clearly.
Breathe. Closing my eyes, I take several deep breaths until I feel my body start to relax.
Leaning against the door, I allow myself these few minutes of peace as I know it will be the last I get for some time.
Amir wants to marry me. I’m so conflicted.
When I first kissed him in the garden I never would have even dreamed that I would be in this position now.
I cannot deny that my heart flips in my chest when I imagine us together.
He makes me feel seen. However, this lie is not how I want to find my husband.
My stomach lurches painfully, dragging a gasp from my lips. Opening my eyes, I push away from the door and move into the centre of the room. I can’t think about Amir right now, I have to figure out how to appease his father’s appetite for magic.
“Kit?” I tilt my head back, looking up at the ceiling. I don’t know why I always want to look upward when calling him, but it’s a habit I don’t think I will break now. Nothing changes and I begin to feel trepidation. “I know you can hear me,” I accuse, my voice louder now. “I need you, please.”
“You just can’t get enough of me, huh?” His smooth voice sounds from behind me.
A small, needy sound comes from my mouth and I whip around to find him standing behind me with a smirk.
The attack last night affected me more than I had wanted to admit aloud, and now the added pressure of the kings words are pushing me to my limits of what I am able to cope with.
I’m so grateful to see him that I hurry over and throw my arms around him.
He is the one person I can be honest with.
“Woah.” He is clearly thrown off, but he doesn’t stumble or faulter, tentatively wrapping his arms around me.
His body is like a slab of rock, but after a few moments I feel him relax into the embrace.
We might have danced together, but I’ve never been close to him like this before, and it’s awakening something inside me.
This shows he’s capable of human emotion and kindness.
“My dance skills are just that good huh?” His joke breaks the moment and I remember why we are both here.
Sighing, I pull back from our embrace and step back, preparing myself to ask for his magic.
However, when I meet his gaze, his eyes are narrowed on my throat.
His anger crackles in the air around us yet his expression stays the same.
Reaching out, he brushes his fingers against the bruises on my throat, his fingers barely touching my skin but causing it to tingle nonetheless. “Are you okay?”
Am I okay?
Not, who did this? Or, what happened? No, he knew that someone was hurting me, yet he did nothing. Anger courses through me, burning through my veins. I could have died, yet I suppose it doesn’t matter to him as he owns my soul dead or alive.
Knocking his hand away, I snarl at him. “The Queen has gone crazy from demon magic.” My voice is accusing but I dare not ask what I fear.
If Kit is the one the Queen was involved with.
If he is the reason she is like this now.
Swallowing the lump at the back of my throat, I gesture to my bruises.
“She almost killed me and you did nothing to stop it!”
In reality, I could have called him, but we both know that he can speak into my mind, that he can feel my emotions whenever he likes. His comment had just confirmed that he knew everything that was happening. He’s a demon, I shouldn’t trust him, but I did and now I’m feeling betrayed.
My accusations seem to hit him hard and for a second I swear I see hurt written on those feline features. I must be imagining it though as he is snarling right back at me, those dagger sharp fangs gleam in the light and he leans toward me menacingly.
“Who do you think caught the attention of your maid? You didn’t think it was strange that she turned up in your room in the middle of the night?
” He throws his arms up in the air and makes a noise of disgust. Storming away, he paces the length of the room.
“Me appearing then would have made everything worse.”
Watching him, I let his words sink in. He did try to help, in a way he thought was best at the time. I should apologise, but I’m not going to. Not yet. Hurt still rules my emotions and it will be a while until I feel back to my usual self.
“Is that what I can expect to happen to me?” I surprise myself with the question. Until now I have not really allowed myself to think about this. The attack by the Queen brings it into focus though. Will I lose my mind, constantly craving a taste of Kit’s power?
He sighs and shakes his head, continuing with his pacing and avoiding my gaze. “No, you are different. That brings its own threats with it though.”
His answer has only given me more questions. Why is he always so confusing? Frowning, I huff a noise of frustration. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“That’s not why I’m here.”
Is that all he’s going to say? No explanation, just a clear expectation that I will drop the topic. This demon seems determined to drive me crazy. Fine, he doesn’t want to discuss that, then I will get to when I summoned him in the first place.
“No, I called you here because I need you. The king ordered me to make more magic.”
This grabs his attention. Pausing, he slowly turns to face me, brows raised and smile twisted into a smirk. “So, you thought you would snap your little fingers and I’d appear and do your bidding, just like that?” He clicks his fingers for effect and I can feel his anger radiating from him.
“I thought that was our deal?!” I protest. He’s making me seem like an ungrateful wench, demanding things of him whenever I please. “You were going to provide magic for me…”
“Yes,” his words are clipped as he slowly stalks toward me, “and you were to learn more about conjuring it. That was part of the deal.”
He’s right, it was in the deal, a part that I had completely forgotten about. However, it is impossible for me to learn without a teacher, and his interactions with me have had nothing to do with learning to use magic.
I’m feeling defensive, and the way he’s moving toward me is making me uncomfortable. “Then you have to teach me!”
“Not with him touching what is mine.” His voice has changed, infused with power and my skin prickles with the magic in the air. “Not here. You aren’t safe anymore.”
Him? It was the Queen who hurt me, not… unless he’s talking about someone else touching me.
Like the prince. Everything Kit has said since I have been here comes together in my mind.
He has been warning me that he’s possessive, that my life here is a lie.
He’s jealous of Amir. Thank the gods I’ve not told him what the King told me, that Amir plans to ask for my hand.
“What are you talking about?” My voice cracks, my whole world starting to unravel. “If not here, then where?”
Something is happening here that I don’t understand. Something big. Everything is about to change, I can feel it in my bones.
“Kiara, you promised me one favour of my choice. I now claim that favour.” Magic swirls around me, binding us, his mark on my back burning and sealing my fate. “You will come to my realm immediately and live in my home. While there you shall learn to wield magic.”
Realisation hits me. He’s taking me away. Ella, the prince, Abbie, Caleb and everything else I had begun to build here. He’s stripping it away from me, piece by piece.
The magic in the room continues to build, feeling as though it will consume me whole. My body lifts from the ground by an invisible force, Kit’s beside me, and bright golden light wraps around us both. I can’t fight this; this is the price I paid for that first time he created magic for me.
“No,” I whisper, barely able to speak from the power of the bond tightening around me. I won’t go, at last not easily. Clawing at his magic I grit my teeth and thrash, determined to get free.
He stares down at me with pure conviction, not bothered by my show of force. “Only when you have learnt that will I allow you to return.”
Snarling at him I attempt to lash out but I am fully gripped by his power.
Reaching out, he takes my hand, and sniffs the back of it.
A deep growl emits from his throat and I realise what’s happening.
That is the hand that Amir just kissed. With his teeth gleaming, Kit sinks his fangs into the back of my hand, possessively claiming me, tearing through the skin the prince had touched.
I scream with pain and anger, glaring at him with hate in my eyes.
Kit is beyond caring as he meets my stare, those dark eyes shifting. “Mine,” he snarls with my blood smeared across his lips.
The golden light between us swells and becomes blinding, there is nothing I can do. There is one thought that circles around my mind though. Ella is going to think I abandoned her.
My head falls back, a single tear tracking down my cheek and with a huge pulse of magic, Kit and I disappear.
THE END