“Did you figure it out before or after we slept together?”
My eyes narrow to daggers. “You do notspeakof that.”
“Well,darling? When was it?”
“Probably when I couldn’t bring myself to kill you. Even though I wanted you dead. Still do.” For some reason, this makes him chuckle. “How long haveyouknown?”
“About us?”
Us.The word rolling off his tongue feels sounds so foreign. So wrong.
“A while.”
“How long is a while?”
“Since before you came to Vod.”
“You mean before youkidnappedme.”
“I had my reasons for doing what I did.”
“They remain to be seen!” My hiss bounces off the walls.
Kylian stares at the ground, shaking his head.
“I have always been certain of my path. From the moment I stepped in front of those mirrors as a boy, I knew that one day I would be High King. I spent my life preparing to be the ruler I saw reflected there, the one I was expected to be. But one day, I saw something else. I saw a woman with lavender eyes on a throne at my side. I sawyou. Flashes of a life together. Nothing clear. I didn’t know who you were at the time, only that I had to find you and that I had to have you.”
He pushes his raven hair back.
“When my mother reported the arrival of a witch in Aegar, I viewed it as the perfect opportunity to advance. If I could secure the last Blackblood witch and her dragon as part of my court, it would have made me unstoppable. But there was this nagging pull that I couldn’t shake, urging me to come to Aegar and see you for myself. And when I did, I recognized you from the visions in the mirrors—except your eyes weren’t quite right. I remember the moment you revealed yourself in the maze—I couldn’t look away. I wanted you.”
“No, you wanted to use me.”
“I wantedyou. Not for your power, but for me…I wanted you. That was the first time I considered the possibility that we were mates.”
“And you kidnapped me anyway.”
“I couldn’t very well let you go. I saw the attachments you formedto your friends, your little kingdom. You would never have gone with me willingly. I tried to shove my personal interest in you down. But I couldn’t deny what the mirror showed me—the two of us ruling side by side over everything. I saw the potential of greatness.”
He pauses. “I also saw what would happen if we denied our fate—the destruction that would have followed.”
“Right, because if you didn’t get your way, you would have thrown a hissy fit and burned my kingdom to the ground.” I tap my chin. “Oh, wait.”
“No.” The sudden intensity in his voice compels me to look at him. Really look at him. “I am not above killing when the end justifies the means, but that doesn’t mean I crave destruction. If I didn’t truly believe in the validity of my pursuits, I wouldn’t have bothered with any of this. I wouldn’t have ended those Guardians, I wouldn’t have brought those creatures here, I wouldn’t have poisoned my father?—”
“I’m sorry—what?! You poisoned your own father?”
“Well, technically speaking, my mother did the poisoning.”
I gawk at him. “What the fuck is wrong with you people?”
“Beside the point. Those mirrors showed me horrors far worse than the ones it showed you. Horrors not caused by my hand.”
“Oh, really? Then what caused them?”
“It’s still unclear. But this much is certain. If you refuse this—our bond—neither of us will walk away with our lives. Which is how I know I am not the villain in your story.”
I dig my fingers into my temples. “You are, Kylian. You just don’t see it that way.”
