Chapter Twenty One
The tension was radiating off of Darce in waves. I could hear Loki, Enyo, and Boulder pining behind us, but I was too afraid to look away. He must have portalled them to safety earlier. Darce’s nostrils flared, his breathing was uneasy as he scrutinised me.
“What do you want me to say?” I demanded, unable to deal with his gaze a moment longer. “We both know what would have happened if I’d told you who I really was the night we met!” Throwing my arms up in the air, I gave him a pensive look.
“What did you think I was going to do to you?”
“Kill me, probably! Or use me for ransom.”
“I knew you were Dylin to start with and still saved you from that beast. When you pulled your hood down, and your beautiful, silver hair fell down your shoulders...” He closed his eyes, trying to control the emotions of remembering that day.
“Alora, you have no idea of the affect you’ve had on me since the moment I laid eyes on you. ”
“That doesn’t change anything. If you had known I was the princess, you would have captured me and used me for your own benefit.”
“No, I wouldn’t have. I still would have helped you to the sacred mountain and made sure you got home safely. Has our time together taught you nothing about me and my kind? You’re meant to understand me now. I thought we had broken through all that. My kind aren’t your enemy. We never have been.”
“You say all that now, but what if this was your plan all along? To get me to trust you and let my guard down?”
“Listen to yourself! Do you realise how fucking ridiculous you sound?” Grabbing my face in his hands, he made me gaze directly into his eyes.
“Why couldn’t you tell me the truth? Why keep this from me?
Do you really think I could ever hurt you or ransom you?
You know how I feel about you. What the fuck am I meant to do now?
Forget all about you? Do you know how impossible that is going to be for me?
You’re all I fucking dream about, Alora! You’ve left me with no choice.”
“Choice for what?”
“Why couldn’t you be honest with me?”
“There was never the right moment.”
“Alora, we’ve been doing this for over four hundred years! You’ve had plenty of time to tell me the truth!”
“I wanted to tell you, but the longer I left it...” Darce pulled away from me again, pulling on the ends of his hair. “I came so close to telling you more than once, but I feared losing what we had.”
“Do you have any idea what we’ve done? We have doomed both our races. There will be no coming back from this! You gave me no choice in any of this! If you had only told me! If you had trusted me enough!”
“Oh, this is all on me, is it?!”
“You’re the one that has been keeping the secrets.”
“You have your own secrets. Have you been able to portal the entire time?”
“We are not talking about me right now.”
“Why not? Now seems like the perfect time. Let’s get it all out in the open. How powerful are you? You must be high up to brush Xavier off so easily! Who are you? What is your ranking within the Noxlin army?”
“No, you’re not steering this conversation away from what you’ve done!”
“What are you so angry about? The fact I lied or that you almost fucked the Dylin princess?”
“Both!” My heart sank. “Alora, the things we’ve done...fuck! Zohar would skin me alive if he ever found out what I’ve done to his precious, innocent daughter.”
“I will never tell anyone. How would he ever find out?”
“He might be able to work it out by your face. There isn’t an inch of each other’s bodies that we haven’t touched.”
“I’m more than aware of that!” I spat, holding my own by placing my hands on my hips.
“You might get lost in a daydream...”
“I won’t be daydreaming about you anymore!”
Darce blew off my comment, changing the subject. “What were you even doing in the Barren Lands that night we met? Doesn’t your father realise how dangerous it is? You’re the only bloodline he has left.” Realisation hit his face. “Duska, she was your...”
“Do not mention her! I don’t want to hurt you right now. My race and I lost everything that day.”
“All this pain and aggression is because of her?”
“When I shared my mother’s death with you, pretending that she had been with Duska, it was the most real I had ever been. I bared my soul to you.”
“Your destiny is to kill the Noxlin that killed Duska?” When I nodded, his eyes dropped from my face. He looked out towards the valley. “You’re going to want to hurt me when you find out who I am.” Xavier’s comment came back into my mind. “But before I tell you, allow me one last thing.”
“Darce, you’re scaring me.” Taking a step closer, he cupped my face, running his fingertips across my bottom lip.
“This is goodbye, Alora. We will never move past this moment. I have to let you go.”
“No! We can work something out, even if we have to lie low for a little while. I will talk to my father and explain that it was my fault. I put too much pressure on you to train me. I’ll make sure my race doesn’t go to war with yours.
I’m sorry! I’m sorry I lied, but who I am doesn’t change how we feel about each other.
” The thought of losing him, of never seeing him again, was crushing me from the inside.
We had to be able to work something else out.
We’d kept this a secret for over four hundred years!
“You’re wrong. This changes everything.”
“Because we might have caused the next great war?” I asked, tears trickling down my face.
“This isn’t about an impending war.” Leaning down, he pressed his lips against mine.
I savoured the taste of him, opening my mouth to welcome his tongue as it caressed my own.
If this was going to be our last kiss, I’d hold onto it for as long as I could.
I poured all my love into it, trying to show him what he meant to me.
I was never going to be able to tell him how I felt. Our time had finally run out.
I had no idea how long the kiss lasted, but I was breathless when our lips parted. “Don’t do this,” I begged, inches from his lips.
“I have no choice. I need you to hate me. I won’t be able to keep my distance from you if I thought there was a thread of hope. You’re right, I have secrets, but there is one that has been killing me slowly from the inside.”
“What secret?”
“The Noxlin that killed your mother...” Darce’s voice was a soft whisper. “Do you remember when you asked me for a name and I told you it would be like giving my own?”
Taking a step back, I tried to look at his face, but his head was bowed. My body began to tremble, fearing what he was about to confess. “Darce, please don’t tell me you...”
“It was me, Alora. I killed your mother. I’ve been too scared to tell you, knowing I’d lose you. Now I realise you were never mine to keep. I need you to hate me so we can both be set free.”
Power surged through me and my entire body began to glow as rage flowed through my veins. All this time! It had been Darce. I had fallen for the Noxlin that had killed my mother. Pain seeped from my heart, fueling the rage.
“And you think I was wrong keeping my secret from you? You cold hearted bastard! You took everything from me. The pain I’ve had to suffer for more than a millennia.
My father’s love turned cold the day we lost her.
You might as well have killed him, too!” Channeling my light power, I aimed it at Darce.
“You let me fall for you! That is the sickest joke of all!”
“Alora, I will let you put a blade through my heart one day, if that is what you truly desire, but please, hear me out first. I’m not the heartless killer your kind believes me to be.”
“No! I’m done listening to Noxlin scum like you!
Everything you’ve told me has been a lie.
You killed our queen...my mother!” My words had wounded him.
Dropping his eyes to the floor, he stumbled back.
I took a chance as fury radiated through my body, throwing all the light power I could muster in his direction. I gave him all my pain and wrath.
Darce blocked my advances easily with his shadows, but I kept shooting light bolt after light bolt at him.
Tears were streaming down my face as I screamed in agony.
All the betrayal was soaking into my skin.
The yearning for a male who no longer existed.
Every moment we had spent together meant nothing now.
These feelings weren’t real. Darce had been lying to me from the moment we met.
“Alora! Enough!” Darce threw a strong gust of shadow at me, making me stumble back. I tripped over a rock and fell to the floor. “I do not wish to fight you!”
“You’re a Noxlin, I’m a Dylin. It’s what we do!” I screamed, pulling more power to the surface.
“Can you really forget the last four hundred years so easily?” Standing up, I dusted myself off, willing my powers back into my hands. “You seem to be wielding your power much better. Perhaps I should have told you sooner if it was going to help them manifest.”
“You care more about my powers than me!”
“You know that’s not true.” Holding his hands out, he tried to sooth me. “All I’ve ever wanted to do is help you, Starshine.”
“Help yourself you mean!” Light flooded down my arms, pooling at my fingertips. I’d never felt so much power.
“Stop! You’ll burn out. You’re not in control of those powers yet,” Darce cautioned, surrounding me in shadow.
Aiming my hands up into the air, I directed my light at his shadows, disbursing the dark mist in seconds.
I wasn’t going to allow him to cage me. “That was pretty impressive,” he said with awe.
“You’ll need more power than that to destroy me, though. ”
“Oh, I’ll work on that, don’t worry,” I snarled, hurtling another wave of light power at him. Darce easily knocked it away.
“Alora, please....”