Kade let him get in another hit before his shadows snapped forward. “Listen to me?—”
“No,” Ian said so coldly, my skin crawled.
“Ian—” I stepped forward, desperate to reach my best friend and understand what he was going through.
Kade’s demeanor shifted and he chuckled, again smiling at me. “Don’t worry, Illiana. This will be over shortly. I promise not to hurt him as long as he tells the truth.”
Truth? What would Ian need to be telling the truth about? More importantly, how would Kade know something about Ian that I didn’t?
“I am telling the truth,” Ian spat. “I have nothing to discuss with the likes of you.”
Ian punched again. Kade sidestepped and slammed a fist into Ian’s side. Then Kade swept his leg out and clipped Ian’s ankles, causing him to fall backward. “If you don’t get it under control soon, it will be too much. The darkness. It will grow and fester. You won’t be able to escape it.”
Kade’s shadows pinned Ian to the ground as he writhed beneath their grasp. “You’re infected with the darkness, admit it. I can see it in your eyes. I can see it in the way your body moves. He got to you too.” Kade held him there for a moment as Ian panted on the ground before releasing him. He stepped back, giving Ian room to compose himself once more.
“How fucking dare you,” Ian seethed, scrambling to get off of his back and onto his feet.
“Your body—it twitches, just like the dark ones.” Kade’s shadows lifted Ian’s shirt. “And I bet if we look over here, you’re going to have a scar. Just like Illiana. Just like me.” Kade lifted his own shirt to reveal the angry-looking scar on his side. “You and I are one and the same.” Ian’s eyes went wide and he stopped fighting the shadows, wiping the sweat off his brow. “The only difference is I’ve been living with this for years. I know how to control it. Do you?”
My heart dropped. “Ian?” I could barely breathe through the accusation.
Ian, my untouchable nothing-can-break-him best friend, infected with the darkness. Scarred from what? Andras? Just like me. I choked back a sob. I couldn’t let Thames and his evil take another one of my friends.
“Ian, is it true?” Raya whispered, her face pale and eyes wide.
His head moved on a swivel, looking at everyone watching him. “I—I…I don’t know.” His head slumped forward. “When I was in the dungeon, Andras stabbed me with a dagger coated ina black liquid. It looked like the same blade he used to attack Lana all those years ago.”
“Why didn’t you tell me sooner?” I ran to him, pulling him into the biggest hug. “We would have helped you.”
I may not fully understand my magic, but I did know whatever light I possessed helped with the darkness. I would make sure to eradicate it from Ian however I had to. Just as I would figure it out for Kade. Ian had suffered far too much on my behalf to endure this.
He straightened himself and took a step back. “I’m sorry. I recognized the liquid from when he hurt you, but I didn’t understand the implications of it. I’m just so angry all the time. I bit Kalliah’s and Corbin’s heads off the other day for no reason at all, just because I couldn't control it. Since we’ve been back together, I haven’t felt as angry and thought perhaps it was a fluke.”
I grabbed Ian's hands, and mine glowed briefly as we touched. “Does it feel better now? Whenever Kade has his outbursts, my touch always helps him. I think it has something to do with my light magic.”
He opened his mouth to speak and stopped, eyes widening in shock. “I feel it. That’s— How? I feel the darkness retreating within me. It’s not gone, but it’s manageable. Thank you, Lana.” He squeezed my hands, smiling, but then a look crossed his face I couldn’t quite decipher. “Wait, did you just say light magic?”
Jax, Storm, and Raya all chuckled.
“Hah, yes. Well, surprise!” I said sheepishly. “Turns out I have some sort of light magic that helps to destroy darkness. I don’t really know how to use it yet, but I did kill a bunch of dark ones in a minor freak-out. So…yeah. Turns out this magicless princess isn’t so magicless anymore.” I raised my shoulders.
Storm called from the side, “It’s pretty incredible. She’s got some work to do, but she’ll get there.”
Ian shook his head. “You leave for a week to go to a forgotten kingdom for answers about a prophecy and come back with magic. What next?”
I glanced over to Kade, who was already staring at me. The smile from him sent shivers up my spine, and suddenly, I wanted everyone to know exactly what he meant to me.
“Well…” I held my breath for a minute, looking back to Ian. “Mates exist again.”
Ian’s eyebrows shot up as his mouth opened. His immediate reaction wasn’t to balk at my words though. Instead, his gaze flitted to Raya, and he frowned, then shook his head, looking back at me. I cocked an eyebrow, rethinking how many times I’d caught his eyes lingering on her.
“Mates?” he asked. He opened and closed his mouth a few times. “How did you find that out?”
I picked at my nails, sending my nervous energy somewhere besides my voice. After his fight with Kade, I wasn’t sure how my news would be received. Steeling myself, I answered. “Kade is my mate.”
Ian inhaled slowly, not reacting at all. He blinked a few times until a smile crept across his face. He took a step toward me, then another before wrapping me in a hug.
He was accepting this, accepting us. I glanced over at Kade, who grinned so warmly I felt it heating my skin like sunlight.
