Chapter 11 Kade
Kade
Lana's light soaked into my soul and filled every dark corner, expanding and cascading over me like nothing I’d ever felt before.
I shuddered, trembling with concentration as I latched on to my shadows and let them force the remaining darkness down, deep enough to cage.
Together, we’d done it. Lana had succeeded at the hardest part: breaking through the black. Enough for us to shove down the evil so that I could take control again.
But it didn’t matter.
The peace only she brought me, the utterly consuming obsession and love for her hadn’t been enough to stop me from hurting her.
Fuck.
I hurt her. Again.
I moved to stand, but my Little Rebel clutched my shirt, not bothering to hide the frantic look in her eyes.
“No, Kade,” she sobbed, tugging at my tunic. “Not again.”
Helpless against her, I froze, this time shaking for a different reason. I lowered my hand to her neck, gently running my fingertips over where I’d gripped her too tightly. “He infected me with more of this darkness. More of his power. I’m not safe. I don’t know how long I have until it returns.”
I may have control now, but things had changed. The darkness lingered, only contained by my shadows.
“You’re safe with me,” she argued.
I rubbed her skin tenderly, caressing her with the tips of my fingers. “I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I did something to you. Fuck, Lana, I’ve already hurt you too many times. I can’t let it happen again.”
“You fought it. You came back.” She cupped my cheek but didn’t release her other hand from the white-knuckled grip she had on my clothes. “He can’t have you. I refuse to let him take you, whether by force or from your guilt.”
I shook my head at the resolve on her face. Her light skin was scratched from running into branches through the woods. A few scrapes almost looked healed. Because my mate had unlocked her magic.
Fates, I’d been so proud of her, in awe of her at that moment back in the king’s study.
Now, watching her use her light to save me mended some of the broken pieces of my soul that had shattered from knowing what I’d done under Thames’s influence.
Streaks of light hovered around my arms, curling around my wrists like they’d hold me here alongside her.
I was a fool to think I could leave her. Even death wouldn’t keep me from her now.
“Your light seems as bossy as my shadows.” I smiled down at her, hoping my renewed devotion and amazement were clear. I’d thought she was a powerful force, unmatched, even without magic, but now, with the fearsome way she wielded her light—Fates, she was a reckoning.
“It refuses to let the darkness claim you,” she said. “Just as I do.”
The world around us halted. Those perfect blue eyes stared into mine, glistening with unshed tears as she stroked a thumb across my cheek.
“Say it again,” I whispered.
A slow smile spread over her face as a tear fell from the corner of her eye. “Mate.”
I leaned forward, kissing away the tear. I didn’t stop. Each one caused me pain, and an overwhelming urge to erase her sadness and fears tore at me. I had to ease all of it.
“Again,” I said against her skin.
She cried out and threw her arms around my neck. I shifted and pulled her against me. Leaning back, I dragged her up and she immediately wrapped her legs around me. I settled her on top of me as I kneeled on the ground.
“You’re mine. You’re mine and you’re here,” she sobbed against me as I clung to her. Every word breathed life into me, reforming my entire being.
I ran my hand through her hair, gently tugging on it to pull her face from my neck. “And you, Little Rebel.” My voice shook with raw emotion. “You are my everything.”
“So we’re agreed.” She sniffed. “You aren’t leaving, or telling me to run.”
I sighed, closing my eyes. My heart thudded in my chest, and that tether to Lana thickened, expanding as I held her, relishing in her physical contact. Though I knew the darkness remained inside of me, believing I could leave her now was foolish. “I suppose I can’t defy my queen.”
“No, you may not.” She leaned forward, brushing her lips against mine. This time when she pulled away from the soft kiss, she met my gaze with a burning light reflected in her eyes. “I love you, Kade."
Every fragile piece of resolve I had conjured up snapped at her declaration, and I pulled her to me, claiming her lips as if they were the key to my survival. Fates, it felt like they fucking were.
“I love you,” I panted against her mouth. “I love you so fucking much.”
She laughed, a beautiful sound filled with relief and hope. She shifted in my lap, kissing me just as fiercely while pressing her body into mine.
I groaned. “Careful, or you’ll shatter the last remaining strand I have on my control.”
“Consider it shattered,” she argued. “Right now.”
Her hands trailed down my neck, tracing over my chest and stomach. Her smile reappeared before she returned to kissing me. Gripping her hair in my hand, I inhaled everything about her. Her scent, her whimpers—all of it was mine.
Mine.
“Fucking Fates.” I rose on my knees, holding her in place while she loosened her thighs and allowed her hands to trail lower, unfastening my belt and pants as they fell to the ground.
I brought my hand around from her perfect ass, skimming it up her thigh as she shivered beneath me. Running my fingers over the top of her pants, feeling the heat from between her thighs, set my skin ablaze.
I groaned and tugged her pants down, both of us shifting and maneuvering, only breaking our kiss once until she was bare.
“So wet for me, aren’t you?” I traced my fingers around her clit before pressing one into her.
Lana threw her head back. “Always for you.”
I laughed, leaving a trail of kisses down her neck.
“Harder.”
“You are so demanding.” I nipped at her neck this time, gently biting her.
“Clearly, you aren’t understanding how much I need you.”
I tsked. “I know exactly how much you need me. I know exactly how much I need you too, but I want this to last. It’s the first time I’m taking you since you learned I’m your mate. And despite being in the woods, I will take my time with you.”
She paused grinding on my fingers and looked at me. “Since I learned? You mean since we learned.”
I shook my head, slipping a second finger inside of her and making her shudder. I ran my thumb over her clit, moving in and out as I watched her. “I knew long before you, love. You just needed time to catch up.”
She whimpered as her hands gradually made their way down my chest and wrapped themselves around my hardened cock.
She stroked the entire length of my shaft once, while I stared into her hungry eyes. She licked her lips, and I knew holding out was done.
“Take me, Illiana.” I slid inside of her, both of us groaning.
She moaned. “I missed you.” She tilted her hips, moving faster until I gripped her tightly, stopping her mid thrust.
“Slower,” I begged. “Please, Little Rebel. Slow. Let me feel you stretching around me. I want to feel every part of this.”
She obeyed, slowing her pace against me. I trailed kisses over her collarbone before licking up her neck. Lana shuddered, clinging onto my shoulders and marking me with her nails.
I took one of her hands from my shoulder and pressed it to the center of my chest. Right where I knew our bond rested. “I feel you everywhere, in every part of me,” I said, not stopping the slow, deliberate thrusts inside of her. “But I feel you most of all right here. Your soul is here.”
She let out a strangled sound. “Don’t ever leave me again, Kade. Never.”
“If I had to go, never doubt that I’d find you again. I’d hunt down the Fates themselves and demand they return me to you.” I gripped her hips and plunged into her harder, sheathing myself fully as she tilted her head back.
Fire lit in my chest as the tether between us tightened and wove into a nearly tangible thing, so much larger than it had been before.
“Kade,” she whispered. “I feel it.”
“I know,” I said with a strained voice. “I know.” I chanted it over and over as we both devolved into panting, moaning messes.
She tightened around me, hot and wanting, and as I slammed her down on my length one more time. She shattered, coming undone. The sound of her delicious orgasm sent me over the edge as I emptied everything I had inside of her.
She fell forward onto my chest, breathless and sweaty.
I lifted her hair from her neck and slid my hand there to hold her close. I never wanted to leave, even if we were in the middle of the damn forest.
She pressed her lips to my chest after a few minutes of silence except for our thudding hearts and heavy breathing.
“We should go back,” I whispered against her hair before kissing the top of her head.
She nodded. “Only if you promise to do that again.”
I laughed, lifting her from my lap. Grabbing her pants, I slipped them on her, reverently kissing her thighs as I slid them to her waist.
I rose, adjusting my own clothing, but stopped, frozen at the sight before me. My shadows spanned around Lana and the soft glow from my skin told me her light was wrapped around me. Between us, our magic lay intertwined.
“Apparently our magic wants each other too.” Lana snorted, noticing their movements as well.
Ours. All of her is ours.
“I know,” I said out loud both to her statement and my shadows. “My shadows talk to me.”
Lana blinked, staring with surprise. A sly grin spread across her lips before she laughed, the sound warming me again. “I know, they talk to me too.”
“What?” I stared at her, feeling the furrow in my brow forming. “They talk to you? They just started talking to me.”
“No, I think they’ve been talking for a while. Maybe you were ignoring them or just couldn’t hear them.”
An indignant feeling rushed through me. Evidently, she was right.
I grasped her hand in mine, kissing her knuckles. “All right, know-it-all. Catch me up on what’s happening. You have until we’re at the inn, before your mouth is occupied with something far more interesting.”