Chapter 41 #2
So, I cried, mourning my rather unconventional and complicated relationship with my bodyguard.
Alaric didn’t press me about what prompted the shift in my mood, instead he leaned over me and continued to handle my tears like they were remarkable jewels.
He sat with me as the darkness weighed on my chest, as he promised he would. Fresh, warm tears spilt from my eyes at the fact the man whisking them away kept his promise . . .
I won’t let you go through life alone anymore.
The Serpent King was a good man, one I didn’t feel deserving of.
“Alaric,” my voice broke, and it looked like I stabbed him in the gut with how his face crumpled when I cried out his name.
“I’m here, sweetheart.” He brushed my hair off my face, softly tucking it behind my ear.
That name stole my breath.
Sweetheart.
It was my undoing seventy-five years ago, and it would be again in this fragile moment.
“I’m scared,” I squeaked so softly, not wanting even the birds to hear my humiliating admission.
“So am I.” He smiled down at me.
“Why are you scared?” I sniffled.
He glanced to the golden sky. “I’m scared of a lot of things, Seera.”
“Like what?”
He paused, his brows tugging downward. “For example, losing my powers terrifies me.”
“I can relate,” I sighed, the worry of our impending mission stirring around us like the gentle breeze.
He continued to stare at the stars for guidance. “I’m scared of who I’ve become.”
I reached up, tenderly touching his cheek. “You are not alone in that notion.”
His eyes cut to mine the moment I touched him, intensely searching them.
“Above all, I’m scared of being a complete and utter fool for a second time. I’m petrified at the thought of losing the woman who made me feel again.”
I couldn’t stop my bottom lip from trembling as I dared to put myself out there again after nearly eighty long, terrible years.
“Alaric, you have no idea how much I fear that as well.”
I stroked my thumb against his soft, freshly shaved cheek, and he leaned into my embrace like Ember reveled into the crook of my hand as I pet her. His eyes fluttered closed, a heavy sigh releasing from his lips, almost like he was breathing after being underwater for an eternity.
“I never deserved you, and I still don’t,” he whispered.
The world as I knew it shattered as I watched a silver tear fall from the Serpent King’s closed eyes.
It was my turn to wipe away his surprisingly warm tears.
“Alaric, now I’m truly scared.” He cracked his eyes open at my slightly amused tone.
“Why’s that?”
“Isn’t it alarming how similar we are? Sometimes I feel like when you shared your magic with me it somehow fused us into the same person.
I feel like—gods,” I chewed on my lip, completely beside myself that I was about to be this sappy, but fuck it.
“I feel like our souls are intertwined. When I’m with you, it’s equivalent to the experience of coming home after a long day and curling up next to a roaring fire with a beloved book. ”
Alaric’s laugh roared through the jungle, a rather jarring sound for how silent it was besides us sharing secrets in the darkness.
“That is the most Seera thing you could say.” He looked at me with pure and unfiltered adoration, like I was the most precious thing he’d ever have the glory to lay his eyes on.
The way he looked at me momentarily stole my breath, and we simply stared at each other, letting our vulnerable words hang between us like the stars hanging in the sky.
“I have to admit,” he drawled. “This is all rather surprising for me.”
I arched a brow, silently questioning him to continue.
“I truly thought you hated me after everything I did.” His eyes crinkled as a small wince flashed across his face.
“I did hate you,” I admitted.
I covered my mouth to stifle a laugh at his dramatically wounded expression.
“I hated you so much that I made Reena make a rather poor sketch of your face, one where your nose was indeed broken from all the times my fist cracked it. Then, I’d proceed to throw daggers at it as target practice.
Every. Single. Night.” I raised my head slightly off the ground as best as I could, bringing my face closer to his.
He assisted my pursuit by bracing a strong hand around my neck and lowering his head the rest of the way. For the second time that night, our lips were just a breath apart.
“Does it, too, make me a monster for finding great pleasure in the thought of you brutally throwing a knife at my face?” he growled, and I could almost feel the vibrations from his lips against mine.
A shiver coursed through me when he fully leaned his entire body over me, allowing me to feel exactly how much the image of me throwing daggers at him pleased the Serpent King.
A soft laugh floated out of me, and he greedily sucked the air puffing from my lips.
“Out of everything you admitted tonight, that is the one thing that surprises me the least.” My voice dipped, growing husky with each word. “After all, wasn’t it you that reminded me how much pleasure and pain are a beautiful combination?”
His eyes flickered with delight. “I knew you’d like that remark.”
My hips hitched up, grinding against his hardness. “I enjoyed it more than you know.”
“Is that so?” He chewed on his bottom lip, his beautiful canines gleaming from the moonlight.
“It’s a shame we can’t kiss,” I whispered, running my hands down the length of his hard chest.
His eyes closed as a shudder racked through him. Once it passed, his eyes snapped open, their once bright and clear quality now dimmed to complete darkness as his pupils stretched into golden slits.
“There are other places I can kiss you.”