“Tilly?” I step closer, raising my chin higher.
He nods. “She will stop at nothing to have the throne.”
“And I will stop at nothing to have my revenge on her.”
His eyes shut, inhaling deeper through his nose.
I breathe out. “And I will stop at nothing to save you from her. I will die, over and over again, just to free you from her grasp.”
He exhales, “Serene.”
“Do you love me?” My eyes burn, not from the scorching land and ash-filled air. But because everything inside me thought I could have lost him today. “Or is everything I remember a lie?”
His eyes flash within a matter of seconds from dark to soft. With exhaustion, he pulls his trembling hands through his tangled curls, letting his bottom lip tug between his teeth as he looks everywhere but at me.
His emerald eyes are lost in the sea of bones and fire that surrounds us.
I step forward with no fear.
“I said, do youlove me?” My eyes flicker from his eyes down to his lips.
His chest rises, eyes closing as he pulls away from me.
“Koen!” I step closer. “I am standing here before you, asking you if you love me, and you can’t even look my way!”
He takes a deep breath. “Damn it, Spark!” His hands curl around his neck as he lifts his chin up to the ash-filled sky. “More than anything,” he breathes out, allowing his body to relax before his eyes drop to me, tracing up my body to meet my lingering gaze.
“I love you more thananything.” His eyes glisten, the fire behind him slowly sizzling out.
“Then kiss me.”
His brows pull inward, reopening the wound along his forehead.
“What did you just say?” His shoulders rise, stepping forward.
“Kiss me.” My chin rises as my heart slams against my chest.
His head shakes softly. “I’d burn.”
My trembling hands hover over his chest before allowing them to touch against it. My fingertips glide over the scales along his suit.
“I won’t burn you,” I breathe out. “Because my whole body burnsfor you.”
His eyes shut, inhaling deeply as if he is fighting every urge inside him not to do what I ask.
“Serene, we—”
But before he can continue, I lift myself on my tiptoes without hesitation, fingers entangling in his curls with a desperate urgency. I pull him closer, a longing coursing through me, and as our lips touch, the world around us vanishes.
The roar of the Royals fades. The crackling of the darklings' sizzling flesh becomes a distant memory.
All that remains ishim.
Him at last.
All of him.
Mine.
