CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Acool breeze startled me from my slumber.
My breath caught in a strangled gasp, my eyes snapping open to a world suddenly much darker than it should be.
The familiar contours of my bedroom were swallowed by a tall shadow that loomed over my bed, eclipsing the sliver of moonlight that usually silvered my floor.
My hand instinctively shot out, searching for the lamp.
“Do not.”
It was a command, burning with a low-simmering fury, belonging to the voice of a man I was becoming far too familiar with. His imposing form shifted, and even in the dimness, I felt the crushing weight of his stare.
“Talon?” I breathed. “What are you doing in my home?”
He took a step closer, the floorboards groaning under his weight.
“What do you think I am doing here, Kaelia?” His voice dropped, morphing into a lethal growl. “Did you truly believe you could come back to this room, lie in that bed, and sleep as though nothing has happened?”
The headache pressing behind my eyes sharpened. I lifted a hand to my temple, forcing a steady breath into lungs that refused to cooperate.
“Talon,” I said softly. “Please. The ink is dry. It is done.”
He stalked forward, and the shadows moved with him, stretching across the bed until they swallowed the pale sheets. I shifted back instinctively, the headboard cool against my spine as I gathered the blanket to my chest. It was a useless barrier, but it gave my hands something to hold.
“Bound,” he repeated, and the word sounded wrong in his mouth. “You expect me to accept that.”
“It is lawful.”
“It is not true.”
My jaw clenched at the fact.
“You saw the truth in the lake,” he continued, his eyes—twin pools of burning ice—piercing through the dark. “You saw what we are. How can you turn from that?”
“Which is exactly why I did what I did!” I hissed.
He shook his head, a frown marring his beautiful features. “You should have confided in me.”
“Would you have tried to change my mind?”
“Yes,” he answered immediately.
“Exactly!” I threw my hands up, the blanket dropping to my waist. “I saw what has become of others who defied the council. I saw the ruin. I cannot jeopardize your life, Talon. I cannot jeopardize my family’s safety. Can you not see that what I did was selfless?”
His jaw tightened. “Do you think I would ever let them condemn you? Do you have so little faith in me?”
“You are not invincible,” I whispered.
He moved closer.
The mattress dipped under his weight as one knee pressed into the edge, caging me without touching me. From the dark ink of his tattoos, shadows began to stir. They uncoiled like wispy, inky serpents—his spirits—drifting through the air silently.
Two of the dark tendrils reached out, caressing the curve of my neck with a touch like cold silk, sending a wave of gooseflesh across my skin.
Another spirit drifted toward the bedside candle.
It draped its inky form over the flame, swallowing the light until the room was plunged into total darkness.
“You were carved for me long before your first breath,” he murmured, the heat of him radiating through the dark. “And I would burn this entire realm to ash and dust to remind you of that truth.”
My nipples tightened against the thin satin of my nightgown, and the knowledge of how my pulse stuttered erratically whenever he was close sent a wave of fresh shame washing over me.
He inclined his head subtly, his eyes tracking the movement of my throat as I swallowed.
“I do not belong to you,” I replied stubbornly.
“No, but you are my other half,” he whispered. “I would do anything for you, Kaelia. I would sacrifice everything to keep you. Would you not do the same for me?”
I remained silent. I wanted not tell him that this was my sacrifice—that living a half-life was the only way to keep him whole. But that did not seem to be enough.
Talon watched me for a long heartbeat, and then he gave a slow, pained nod.
“I cannot stand beside you,” I whispered, my voice breaking. “If they see me with you, if they suspect—we will not survive the aftermath.”
“And I will not survive a life without you,” he countered.
I tried to regain my composure, rolling my eyes in a desperate attempt to hide my fear. “Do not be dramatic. You hardly know me.”
Talon bent forward and pressed his forehead to mine. He closed his eyes, his dark lashes casting shadows against his skin.
“You cannot possibly comprehend how much you unmoor me,” he murmured against my skin. “You are my direction. If I had to choose between all the centuries I have lived and one single second in your presence, I would choose you. Without hesitation.”
I went very still. The world narrowed until there was only the heat of his body and the brush of the inky spirits against my throat. I looked up into his glowing eyes and saw no performance there.
“And that is not dramatic enough,” he added softly.
“Please, Talon,” I whispered, my knuckles white as I gripped the sheets. “I cannot do this.”
His spirits uncoiled from my neck, retreating back into his skin as his hand brushed my shoulder one last time. My eyes fluttered shut as his cool lips brushed the very top of my forehead.
“Remember, Kaelia,” he said. “You belong where you are wanted. And no one could ever want you the way I do.”
When he stepped back, he filled the doorway for a single heartbeat, a living shadow against the fading moonlight. Then, he was gone. He simply dissolved back into the darkness, leaving behind only the scent of smoke and the suffocating weight of his words.
I lay there for a long time, staring at the ceiling as the moon dipped below the horizon.
I bit my cheek until the tang of blood was sharp in my mouth.
I was caught between two fires—the one that would burn my family if I followed my heart, and the one that was already consuming me from the inside out. And I was not sure which one would finish me first.