42. Chapter 42 #2
“He let the fae witches have me then.”
Have him?
Audrie said there had been rumours of Kaed’s father punishing him.
A humourless laugh chuffed from him as he got lost in the dark memories. “They’ve all but left these shores now. But not before they left their mark.”
Witches hadn’t been a part of the Corners originally as far as books knew. Audrie had said they’d fought in the war on both sides. And they left? Perhaps the violence and the bloodshed were too great to bear witness to anymore.
“I think Hart mistook my father’s … interest”—he snapped the word off—“for favouritism. Whether Hart wanted what I had or just wanted his father, a parent …” Kaed still didn’t look at me.
His eyes were like glass orbs, searching for answers as they scanned the skies.
“And I had robbed him of both his mother and father. As brothers, we were never anything other than what Tir made us after that …”
Silence stretched like a dark horizon.
My heart ached for the family he’d lost in so many ways.
“I don’t know what happened, and you don’t have to tell me. But I know it wasn’t your fault.” I reached for him tentatively.
Kaed pulled away, his entire body rigid. “You don’t know that.” Anger seeped into his words. And it vibrated his magic, causing it to flow out. Coils of shadow crept up the window frames and through the beds of moss.
“I let her do it. I did nothing. I watched. I watched as my mother and sister were swallowed by a darkness, and all I could see”—his eyes finally fell to me—“all I could see was her bright hair and piercing eyes.” His voice had risen, and it barrelled into me like the clattering of boulders across the sky.
“She haunts my sleep. She follows me in the day. And there is nothing I can do to block her out. I am as much to blame for the war by not saving my mother ans sister.” He was towering over me, rage slashing across his features.
He was like a wild cat whipping its tail back and forth. Prepared to lash out if needed.
“Kaed.” I tried. “I know you won’t hurt me.”
My voice was moondust on the air, and no part of it landed on him.
The magic from his palms now covered the stone slabs in the ruins where we stood. There was night above us and darkness below us as his shadows began to crawl up the walls.
The two engulfing powers would meet, and it would be utter blackness.
A flash blazed across the sky as lightning struck in forks of red and purple in the strange after-sunset glow.
It must have jolted him from the emotion of his memories, because his magic receded. And I felt him lock it away inside him.
Lightning continued to strike. Over and over again, like violent heartbeats.
They came sharp and fast, and the rain followed.
Lines of light shattered the sky and lit up the night until pale white forced the endless night back.
I gasped when a bolt crashed into the steeple of the ruins overhead.
Before the flash had even evaporated, a hail of stones and shale crashed down.
I crumpled to shield myself, my arms coming up to protect me.
Nothing hit me. Nothing even came close. Debris scattered around me, rocks shattering to the slabs already cracked with moss.
Kaed was in front of me. Close. So close. His arms caged around me, wings opened wide.
He had shielded me.
I looked around at the strewn pieces. More than a few would have broken bones and cut deep enough for me to bleed out.
My skin felt hot like it might vaporise the rain as it crashed into me, and my heart raced.
There was a charge in the air that had nothing to do with the storm that was growing around us.
He panted heavily as he looked at me trapped in his arms. His heart was thundering with the shattering storm. “You might say you’re not mine to protect, but I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Lightning flashed in his eyes, and thunder hammered in my chest.
He didn’t have to say it. But I knew it wasn’t about the scattered rocks. If his father or Hart were coming, Kaed would stand in their way.
“You can fight me all you want on that.” He practically vibrated when he spoke. “But I will protect you. Ever since I took you from that meadow, I’ve been trying to protect you.” His voice sounded pained at that last admission.
“You took me …” I was a little dazed from the lightning strike, the crumbling ruins and the arms that still encircled me. He was so careful not to touch me, like he might ignite a fire if he did.
“You can fight me for eternity, until the sands of forever and never meet. Until the Crown Oaks are ash on the wind. But I won’t stop protecting you.” His eyes pierced into mine and pinned me there.
In my heart, I knew they were more than just words, it meant something more.
Something had been building between us. The way his words settled into me.
He was forthright in his declaration. Maybe this was always meant to happen like this, or perhaps we’d shaped it to happen, moved the pieces of fate with our actions.
How much could one influence the stars? Every move we made was a step in a dance that was already set in motion.
Kaed’s words made it seem inevitable. How could he be so sure, so unrestrained?
“Protecting me from?” I looked up to his eyes, through the strands of dark hair he hid behind.
“I didn’t tell you about my Crown when I met you.
I let you believe what you wanted to believe.
Because I knew you’d hate me for it if you knew.
But being with me, being seen with me, it was the safest place for you.
I was protecting you from people who would hurt me.
” Kaed stilled. So silent were his breaths, I wondered if he had been cast in stone, until his heart beat loudly in his chest. “Hurt you.”
I shook my head and my eyes scrunched against the mesh of thoughts latticing their way over me.
“But you took me? You bound me. You kept me …”
None of this made sense. He was like a different person now. Gone was the armour. Gone were the dismissive comments, the barbs. This wasn’t him? Or was this really who he was?
“I know. And I cannot say I am sorry for that,” he ground out, like he was pulverising rocks to powder.
A single, heavy heartbeat crushed through me. “I know. Neither am I.”
And there it was. The truth that had been growing inside me. From the moment he’d touched me, laid eyes on me, I felt a pull.
The choices I’d made that day made this as much my will as his in a way.
He’d done what he believed to be right for his Crown, and I did what I knew to be right for my home.
I had sabotaged my only hope of finding my blood family to protect the adopted family who cared in their way and the town that hadn’t cared at all.
But staring at him now, I wasn’t sure either of us knew those truths anymore.
Kaed stood in front of me, his chest undulated with heavy breaths, and the rain soaked his hair.
What was right anymore?
This felt right. For longer than I cared to confess, I’d wanted him.
Physically. I could admit to that. But seeing Kaed go willingly to the Cage …
Seeing him bound and in agony. The facade he wore was an intricate mask so beautiful you’d never think to look under it.
But he had lifted that now, he’d shown me something deeper than the exterior I’d first met.
“What happens now?” My voice shuddered under the warm rain.
His hands finally touched me. They were like scorching wild wyvern fire as they ran down from my shoulder to my back and settled on my hips.
“Now …” He let out a breath. “I’m going to kiss you. If you still want that.” His fingers moved to trace the line of my jaw.
“I want that.” I didn’t hesitate. I couldn’t take my eyes off his lips.
His eyes searched mine for any hint of doubt and he looked right into me.
I forgot to breathe as the storm raged and rain washed over me.
And then he claimed me.
Kaed pressed his lips to mine, one hand cupping the back of my neck. I couldn’t have pulled away even if I wanted to.
His hand guided me to stay in the kiss, to get lost in it, to be devoured.
And I did just that.
I lost all sense of time, all sense of touch except for him.
Seven seasons could have passed, and I’d have stayed crystallised in that single moment.
Every stroke of his tongue had me wanting more. He searched, hungry, tasting me.
His need was that of famine, and it made me ravenous too. The incurable urge to taste more of him came over me like I was no longer myself but a creature of the moon and night, and I was worshipping at the altar of darkness.
I could hear the rain, but I couldn’t feel it anymore.
A thousand diamond drops crashed to the ground around us and I pulled from the kiss to see his wings overhead. Their ethereal veil of his wings shimmered in the storm light as they absorbed the silver needles that fell to them.
“I wasn’t finished.” He guided my gaze back down, his thumb and index finger gripping my chin.