46
Raiden
He was losing it. He had to be. Raiden paced his room as he repeatedly pulled on his locks, using the pain to root him in the truth. Kora wasn’t his. Just because she looked like Kordelia, didn’t mean that she felt the same way.
Gods damn it.
He was fucking this up. Kora had made it clear she didn’t want anything to do with him. She’d accepted his training, but other than that, he’d respected her wishes of boundaries—especially the physical ones.
But . . . there had been moments. A brush here, a nudge there. An intensity that hummed between them like the bridge of their bond. A hot, burning spark. She was still healing, her heart still broken. Could she even love again, like she had once before?
How could he feel this way about the Huntress?
It was something primal, something that consumed him every waking moment.
She was the first thing he thought of, and the last thing he dreamt of.
Raiden shook himself. They’d once been enemies—albeit misunderstood, one-sided enemies.
She hadn’t known the truth, she hadn’t known what she’d been doing.
And Kordelia was gone. The corrupted spy using Kordelia’s image and voice was taunting Kora, breaking her down, weakening her.
It still lingered, their joint efforts from preventing it consuming Kora had only been a temporary fix.
Sirona was adamant it would fade away from Barron’s influence, but lately that cold mask had been appearing, Kora’s emotions shutting down each day Zephyr’s deadline approached.
Raiden was certain his father would renege.
How could he sentence Kora and Erick? It didn’t make any sense.
His desperation to be rid of them had been wild.
Almost impulsive. Nothing like the level-headed king he usually was.
His previous deals always ended in his favour, such as employment, secrets spilled, or advantages upon other kingdoms—but never in death.
Raiden’s door flew open and he froze as Kora strode in, a wicked grin on her face.
Her eyes sparkled as she flung her arms around his neck, moulding her body to his.
Raiden blinked, pinching his leg to understand whether this was another dream or not.
Something flashed within Kora’s stare and her eyelashes fluttered, casting shadows on her high cheekbones.
“What—”
Kora lurched, her lips crashing onto Raiden’s, cutting him off. His hands hovered in the air, unsure of what to do as Kora gyrated against him. Her skin was cool, her lips stiff . . . enough for Raiden to hesitate.
“Kiss me,” she moaned, breathy tones breaking through his uncertainty.
The primal instinct in Raiden snapped and his arms circled her, lifting her as her mouth parted for him. He kissed her in earnest, pouring every ounce of desire he’d felt into it, showing her how much he’d been holding back, too scared of showing her what real affection felt like.
“More,” she breathed.
She pushed Raiden back and he fell onto his bed, too aware of his cushions dotted around for his floating dreams, interspersed by books on sediments and runes—but Kora didn’t seem to notice.
She hitched up her brown dress, and Raiden hissed at the smooth flesh of her thighs as she straddled him.
He thumbed her thighs, surprised at how cold they felt, before resting his hands on her waist instead, but that even felt cold through the fabric of her chocolate dress.
Chocolate, just like the tarts she adored.
Kora pounced, her heavy eyes sparking with something different, something dark, as she peppered Raiden with harsh kisses.
Her hips rocked and she loudly moaned into his neck before nipping at his skin.
The moans continued, breathy and somewhat annoying, growing louder and exaggerated.
He frowned, finding the bond between them quiet, the white lifeline unusually dull.
“Raiden,” Kora groaned, and Raiden’s muscles tensed, following the bond between them until he met a wall of cold tar. “Come on, baby.”
He stopped.
Raiden pushed on her shoulders and Kora met his gaze, that twisted smile still on her lips.
A shark’s smile, feral in all the wrong ways.
Not like Kora’s deadly smile when she sparred, or when she was victorious with her magic.
This one was cold, ruthless, and sickening.
Her blue eyes flashed, no longer like the depths of the ocean, but like an iced mountain in a dark storm.
He grabbed her face, and Kora cried out as Raiden peered harder.
There.
In the crevices of her irises, little rivulets of red. Like the tiniest streaks of lightning.
“Kordelia.”
She stopped resisting, and Raiden released her as she sat back, tossing her shoulder-length hair over her shoulder. Her grin settled into a smug smile and Kordelia laughed, the sound causing hairs to prickle on Raiden’s skin.
“You wouldn’t believe how long it took me to take control,” Kordelia cackled again, flicking her fingers, mimicking Kora as an annoying flea.
“You’re gone.” Raiden stood from the bed, creating space between them. “You can’t be here.”
“Oh, but I am, baby.”
He blanched. Cold detachment laced every word, dripping with everything everyone expected Kora to be. A cold captain.
“You’re not real.” Raiden shook his head.
“No?” Kordelia’s head cocked, every movement she made positively feline. “Did my hands not feel real? My lips? My tongue? Could magic fake that?” She wet her bottom lip before hitching her dress up to feel between her thighs, groaning as she slipped her fingers higher. “Have you missed me?”
Raiden glanced away. His relationship with Kordelia had been intensely physical, their connection always through sex and not their emotions.
But Kora? He strived to know that she was alive and okay before even touching her, that their bond was strong and burning bright before even pushing her fragile boundaries.
He wanted her desires and dreams, he wanted her nightmares and woes, he wanted her curiosity and intelligence, before anything else. He cherished their bond, and how it strengthened daily, her emotions an intriguing puzzle he could spend eternity solving.
And now she was trapped, her body being used against her will. Raiden shut his eyes briefly, swallowing his distaste. He’d kissed her for what he’d thought was the first time, and it hadn’t been her. She hadn’t been able to consent to the physicality.
“You’re a shadow, then,” Raiden countered.
A laugh erupted as Kordelia tipped her head back. She slid off the bed, sauntering over to Raiden with more grace than she’d ever previously possessed in her right finger. Raiden tensed, summoning his power as he mentally reached out.
“Huntress? Are you there?”
Kordelia’s lip curled with a snarl. “She’s gone. She was a false inhabitant. She was never meant to be. But don’t worry, baby, I’m back now.”
“No!” Raiden retreated until his back hit the wall. “I saw in her mind. Barron’s magic has warped what he tried to sever into something dark. You’re not you. You just think you’re real.”
“She’s too weak for this body. I embraced my immortality and my gift. She’s nothing more than a weak, pathetic, human.” Spittle flew from Kordelia’s lips as she spat the final words.
“You once stood for humans and mages alike, seeking a paradise for all like the rest of us.”
Kordelia blinked, the red streaks fading in and out. “There is no paradise. Only darkness.”
“Kordelia never believed that,” Raiden cautioned.
“No—you never believed it. The gods showed me my fate before Barron took me. I know my destiny. The answer is in the rifts.”
Kordelia’s voice warped, taking on an edge that caused a ringing in Raiden’s ears. Darkness leaked down the bond, weakening it, and his heart hammered.
“Huntress, if you can hear me, you need to break free. Follow my voice.”
“Stop it!” Kordelia hissed, her hands shaping into claws, shadows wrapping around her wrists like chains.
“You only saw what you wanted in me. You saw a leader, but I knew what I truly wanted. I wanted to replace Barron, to rule a world fit for the gods. To bring back Devania, before the humans invaded.”
“This is Barron’s magic talking,” Raiden swallowed. “I know this isn’t you . . . baby.”
The affectionate nickname caused Kordelia to pause, her anger subsiding.
Raiden tentatively reached out, brushing strands of silken white hair behind her ear.
Kordelia leaned into his touch, breathing deeply.
As her eyes closed, Raiden cupped her icy face.
For a moment, he was thrown violently into the past.
His old love stood before him, her hands wrapping around his wrist, her eyelashes fluttering as she purred at his touch. Briefly, Kordelia was real. The female that’d appeared on their doorstep, an enviable pillar of raw power, of potential and drive to win the Galenite War.
But that drive had propelled her to darkness. It’d consumed her with wrath.
Kordelia nuzzled his hands, and Raiden exhaled slowly in response.
It was time. He had to let go.
And he unleashed his power.