Chapter 47 #2
Dainan placed his hand over mine, never rushing me. He waited for me, just as he always had.
“I’m mortal. For whatever reason she has chosen me, it does not change what I am.
Who I am.” As much as everything refused to make sense, part of me knew this did.
Pressing myself into him, he felt like the warmth of the sun, the kiss of a breeze, the first smells of spring, everything my soul yearned for. “But if you will have me…”
To my surprise, Dainan laughed. A full, deep-hearted, belly-shaking laugh. Something I’d not ever seen from him. “I’m sorry,” I mused, “but I don’t believe I said anything particularly humorous.”
Dainan wiped the tears from his eyes before placing both hands on my cheeks, “I have wanted you from the moment I saw you. I would have taken you from that courtyard outside the gates of Azmeer if it hadn’t interfered with the rules of the Courting.”
“I thought you were the most beautiful man I’d ever seen,” I whispered, trailing my fingers down his chest, yearning to touch more of him.
“I sensed something was different the moment I saw you, which is why I had Addie pulling books for me from the archives. Anything she could find on the Primals, mated pairs. There was a connection, something I did not understand. Something I still do not fully comprehend.”
“Do you mean to tell me when I first saw you in the library that Addie was doing that research for you?”
His thumb continued to caress my cheek. “My powers had started to change a year prior, and I was desperate for answers. Everything felt as if it was collapsing around me, the world I knew had ceased to exist, fading into obscurity. That is, until I saw you. My eyes cleared, the veil lifted, the skies opened. Everything came back into focus, and guided me to you.”
I felt the dampness in my eyes swell, my tears making their way down my cheeks before Dainan thumbed them away.
“I knew I was yours that day on the mat…”
“The day Rai took you down? The sparring mat?”
He nodded, “It had been years since that bastard had bested me. But one look at you, and I felt something inside me snap. A pain and longing that I’d never experienced.
It was as if your scent embedded itself into the core of me.
Every beat of my heart was a tug towards you, and yet, I couldn’t have you.
You had no idea who I was, other than a Fae prince.
A Lord of Shadows.” He nuzzled his nose against mine.
“So I kept tabs on you throughout the trials. Ensuring you were okay. I wanted, no, needed you to stay in Azmeer, so I sent you messages any time I could.”
You have to go back now, Brida.
“Did you infiltrate my trials, Dainan?” I laughed, “I’m not entirely positive, but I would be willing to bet that the Master of Trials would have your head for it.”
“Yes, and no.” He continued to graze my cheek, “In the first trial, I found my way inside, I watched you. And when you were in the vision with your father, I tried to reach you.”
“I heard your voice. It helped break the spell.” I whispered, leaning into his touch.
“But later that day,” I said, lifting my eyes to his, “when I was faced with the Court of Shadows trial, there was a man of shadow in there waiting for me.”
“Hmm.” He murmured with a cheeky grin.
“You wouldn’t happen to know anything about that, would you?”
“I am gifted with shadow magic after all.”
“Go on.” I laughed.
“My physical form remained where it was, but to anyone who looked, they would have seen I was an empty vessel. I transported part of me into that room with you. I was in awe of you. You showed little fear, practically no trepidation. I was happy enough to watch you figure it out but…” he cleared his throat, “I needed to touch you.”
Leaning in close, I inhaled the smell of citrus, smoke, and salt, reveling in all that it meant. “It was a good kiss.” I laughed. “For a man made of smoke and shadow.”
“It was tentative, yet desperate. I don’t know if I have ever yearned for anything more. Not until recently. Being away from you, I did everything in my power to find my way to you.”
The furrowing of his brow, the rigidness of his posture, “Dainan, you have nothing to apologize for. I knew you were trying to get to me.”
“Si talu me, amirale sig te afu mi. I know you. Every part of my being knows you. Knows that you are goodness, wit, charm, beauty.” His hand wove its way into my hair, pulling me towards him. “I am yours, Brida.”
A shudder tore through me. So similar to that at the ball, but this time, there was no pain, only warmth, joy, happiness.
As if the rips in my soul were in the midst of being mended, the tears in the fabric were being woven once more—the world set right.
It was the smell of the grass after a fresh rain, the balm of a kiss after a cry, the first breath on the coolest day.
It was invigorating, it was everything. It was life.
“I am yours,” I whispered, holding his gaze. Eyes that once held fire, smoke, and shadows were now dotted with sparkling diamonds, the night sky mirrored in his eyes. “Every part of me is yours, Dainan. And you are mine.”
As soon as the words were spoken, glowing tendrils of light and shadow stemmed from our chests, like the roots of trees.
Interweaving themselves in patterns akin to a spider’s web, woven together for time and eternity before embedding themselves into the chest of the other.
A large gasp escaped me as it penetrated my soul, not because it hurt, but because the part of me that had felt so fractured, so alone, was now whole.
“I know you,” I said in a voice that wasn’t my own, pulling away from Dainan to look at him. To truly see him.
“Erevos,” I said.
Dainan smiled. It was slow, deliberate, curving across his lips like a secret unfolding in real time. A smile of gratification, of satisfaction so deep it sent a shiver racing down my spine. It was the kind of smile that didn’t just express a feeling but claimed something.
His gaze darkened, heavy-lidded, lingering over me as if committing every inch of me to memory.
The space between us crackled, thick with the unrelenting weight of his desire, and that smile—gods, that smile—was pure carnal lust. A silent promise.
A warning and a challenge. It sent my pulse thrumming wildly beneath my skin, a traitorous response to the way his lips curved just so, the way his breath hitched like he was restraining himself, like he was barely holding back.
And yet, he was in no rush. He was savoring the moment, the power of it, the knowledge that I saw it too—that I felt it too. Because how could I not? That smile unraveled something in me, made my stomach twist, made my skin burn, made me wonder just how far he would go if I let him.
“The darkness to my light. My balance.” The voice that was hers said.
“Hello, Ilia,” a voice that wasn’t Dainan’s purred.
We stood wrapped in each other’s arms, gazing at the other as if for the first time, and in a way it was.
For Dawn had found her Dusk, at least in this lifetime.
The ember of light in my chest glowed before swelling to encapsulate us in its brilliance.
Everos, or Dainan’s, shadows swirled around us, purring and hissing all the while.
They were content, as we listened to the song of Dawn and the hymn of Dusk, and settled into a peace.
Our peace for however long we would be allowed to have it.
For a war was coming, and its charge would do everything to stop us.