Chapter 102 Serena
SERENA
“Plenty of room in here. Care to join me?”*
Kylian’s voice floats down the hall, deep and rich. I roll my eyes, stopping just outside the iron bars of his cell.
“You’ve already lost, Kylian. Give it up.”
“Give what up?”
“The other half of the star.”
His eyes flash. “How do you know about that?”
“Doesn’t matter, I do. Now tell me where it is.”
“Say you’ll come home with me, and perhaps I will.”
“You’re in no position to be making negotiations.” I cross my arms.
“Aren’t I?” He gives me a wicked smirk, staring up at me from the floor. “Haven’t I been telling you all along that you belong to me? That you’re mine and that we’re fated?”
Shaking my head, I slide down the wall opposite him. “I still don’t quite believe it.”
“Did you figure it out before or after we slept together?”
My eyes narrow to daggers. “You do not speak of that.”
“Well, darling? When was it?”
“Probably when I couldn’t bring myself to kill you. Even though I wanted you dead. Still do.” For some reason, this makes him chuckle. “How long have you known?”
“About us?”
Us. The word rolling off his tongue feels sounds so foreign. So wrong.
“A while.”
“How long is a while?”
“Since before you came to Vod.”
“You mean before you kidnapped me.”
“I had my reasons for doing what I did.”
“They remain to be seen!” My hiss bounces off the walls.
Kylian stares at the ground, shaking his head.
“I have always been certain of my path. From the moment I stepped in front of those mirrors as a boy, I knew that one day I would be High King. I spent my life preparing to be the ruler I saw reflected there, the one I was expected to be. But one day, I saw something else. I saw a woman with lavender eyes on a throne at my side. I saw you. Flashes of a life together. Nothing clear. I didn’t know who you were at the time, only that I had to find you and that I had to have you. ”
He pushes his raven hair back.
“When my mother reported the arrival of a witch in Aegar, I viewed it as the perfect opportunity to advance. If I could secure the last Blackblood witch and her dragon as part of my court, it would have made me unstoppable. But there was this nagging pull that I couldn’t shake, urging me to come to Aegar and see you for myself.
And when I did, I recognized you from the visions in the mirrors—except your eyes weren’t quite right.
I remember the moment you revealed yourself in the maze—I couldn’t look away. I wanted you.”
“No, you wanted to use me.”
“I wanted you. Not for your power, but for me…I wanted you. That was the first time I considered the possibility that we were mates.”
“And you kidnapped me anyway.”
“I couldn’t very well let you go. I saw the attachments you formed to your friends, your little kingdom.
You would never have gone with me willingly.
I tried to shove my personal interest in you down.
But I couldn’t deny what the mirror showed me—the two of us ruling side by side over everything. I saw the potential of greatness.”
He pauses. “I also saw what would happen if we denied our fate—the destruction that would have followed.”
“Right, because if you didn’t get your way, you would have thrown a hissy fit and burned my kingdom to the ground.” I tap my chin. “Oh, wait.”
“No.” The sudden intensity in his voice compels me to look at him.
Really look at him. “I am not above killing when the end justifies the means, but that doesn’t mean I crave destruction.
If I didn’t truly believe in the validity of my pursuits, I wouldn’t have bothered with any of this.
I wouldn’t have ended those Guardians, I wouldn’t have brought those creatures here, I wouldn’t have poisoned my father—”
“I’m sorry—what?! You poisoned your own father?”
“Well, technically speaking, my mother did the poisoning.”
I gawk at him. “What the fuck is wrong with you people?”
“Beside the point. Those mirrors showed me horrors far worse than the ones it showed you. Horrors not caused by my hand.”
“Oh, really? Then what caused them?”
“It’s still unclear. But this much is certain. If you refuse this—our bond—neither of us will walk away with our lives. Which is how I know I am not the villain in your story.”
I dig my fingers into my temples. “You are, Kylian. You just don’t see it that way.”
“You’ve yet to reject me.”
“Are you kidding? I don’t know how many other ways I can reject you! You just can’t take no for an answer.”
His fingers close around the iron bars. “Listen to me, Dragon Rider. We are stronger together. But I cannot protect you if you won’t allow me to.”
“Protect me from what? What out there can be worse than you, Kylian?”
He sighs, pulling back.
“You’re lying,” I decide. “You didn’t see shit in those mirrors. You are relentless, you know that? You will stop at nothing—”
“I’m telling the truth. Despite what you think, I am not the villain. I am not your enemy.”
“Yes, you are. You are the devil. And to top it all off, you’re my goddamned mate.”
“Which is why I would die to protect you.”
“You don’t care about anyone but yourself.”
“I care about you. Why do you think I’ve been so desperate to get you back?”
My mocking laugh echoes down the hall.
“So desperate that you threw the people I love right in the crossfires.”
“You needed some kind of motivation. Can you honestly say you would have accepted me without the threat of your loved ones? If I had gotten down on one knee and asked nicely, would you have abandoned them and married me?”
“No.”
“Then you see why my actions were necessary.”
“You may think you had a good reason for doing what you did, but people died because of you. Ilsa, Derek—countless innocent lives taken because you let the Stryga loose. Your soldiers are ransacking our villages to get us to release you!”
“A small price to pay.”
“You’re a bastard.”
“You don’t have to believe me. You just have to trust that things are different now.”
“Oh, don’t tell me I’ve changed you. That you suddenly turned good and no longer care about ruling.”
“Of course I still care. Ruling is my divine right. I was bred for this. I have been blessed by the gods with rare, powerful gifts for this purpose. And until recently, I never had trouble falling asleep with blood on my hands. They say the best rulers are the ones unhindered by emotion. Well, I’m living proof. But you—”
The sudden passion in that single word has me lifting my gaze to his. Those haunting eyes lock me in, cutting off all the circulation in my body.
“I never knew what emotion was. Not until I met you. You are the only feelings I have. You are my only sense of morality, you are my conscience, you are my heart.”
My stomach flutters.
“You know nothing about me,” I whisper, fighting to cling to my anger.
“Our souls know each other. They always have,” he mumbles, sounding tired.
I watch him, my fingers absentmindedly toying with his locket. It’s oddly warm to the touch.
As much as I hate this, knowing he’s my mate has eased some of my guilt. This is why I’ve been drawn to him. It’s why I couldn’t kill him. Why I couldn’t resist him. Why I let him find me time after time.
I shake my head. “What am I supposed to do with you?”
“You don’t plan on keeping me in here.”
“How do you know that?”
His head tilts back against the wall. “Because you want me too much. And you need me in ways you don’t even know yet.”
“Don’t flatter yourself.”
“That isn’t what I meant. You need me in a practical sense,” he corrects.
“We were paired together for a reason. Because believe it or not, you and I are evenly matched. There is no one else on this earth whose power could rival your own. That could come close to being able to shield you from what’s coming.
You may think me a tyrant. And that’s fine.
I don’t need you to like me, I just need you to hear me when I say that all I have done, I have done for you. ”
“You’ll forgive me for having a little trouble taking your word for it.”
I study this male, this horrifying monster wrapped in exquisite packaging. I study the soulless, heartless creature that wears the most perfect skin I’ve ever laid eyes on. The beast who claims he’s changed by true love.
Another fairy tale I can’t marry with reality.
I hate him with all my heart, and yet somewhere within that loathing exists a strange and infinitesimal kernel of love.
My enemy. And my mate.
“If you don’t believe me, then just end me now.”
“I should.”
I stand, unlocking the cell door. He stares up at me from the ground as I draw my dagger, tapping the point against my lips. With every step I take toward him, my locket hums with energy, heating against my chest. Kylian watches me, making no move to escape. I angle the dagger to his breast.
“Do it,” he whispers. His fingers wrap around my wrist, driving the tip of the blade into his smooth chest. A drop of scarlet squeezes out.
“Do it and see that there is a heart there, despite what you believe. Do it and see that even devils bleed. Carve it out and mount it on your wall, because it is already yours.”
Blood leaks out around the knife as he breathes harder, locking my hand in place, his eyes scalding mine.
My palm opens, and the dagger clatters to the ground.
And without a second thought, I kiss him.
* Cue: Million Dollar Man by Lana Del Rey