“It’s not fully formed yet. We’d have to accept it to complete it.” He finally looked back up at her, catching her expectant expression and sighing. “We’d have to sleep together.”
Aelia took a step backwards.
“Was that what that was about?” Aelia pointed to the wall he’d had her perched on. Would he have stopped had she not panicked? Or would he have kept going, committing them to this bond without ever consulting her?
“No,” Keeran insisted, anger permeating every line of his body. “You think I’d do that? Take that decision from you? Who the fuck do you think I am, Aelia?”
“I don’t know who you are,” Aelia snapped back, hackles rising at his tone. “I don’t have a fucking clue. You’ve lied to me every moment we’ve been together, which I can’t exactly blame you for, all things considered, but it does mean you forsake the right to get defensive when I then struggle to piece it all together.”
Keeran leapt to his feet, shoulders tense and fists bunched. How had she not realised what he was? Standing before her now, he was every inch a warrior, a beast, a Dragon.
“You may not have known what I am, but that doesn’t mean you don’t know me,” he said, with careful restraint. He couldn’t hide the black encroaching into his irises, though.
“Whatisthat?” Aelia took a step back, not sure if she was on the verge of raging at him or bursting into tears. It was too much; she felt emotionally wrung out, physically exhausted. After everything that had happened in Callodosis, this was tipping her over the edge of her control. “It’s like there’s something else looking back out at me.”
Her voice trembled. Great, her body was opting for tears. She pressed her lips together, squeezing hard as she tried to holdthem back. Keeran’s face softened immediately, the darkness vanishing as soon as he saw her distress. He took a step closer, arm outstretched towards her. Aelia recoiled, knowing she’d lose the fight with her tears if he was nice to her, if she let him take her in his arms.
He froze and lowered his hand.
“I’ll tell you anything you want to know, Aelia, just please, come here.” Worry creased his brow as he took her in, reading the panic threatening to overwhelm her.
But she just shook her head, taking another step away from him.
“I can’t think here.” Her voice broke, and she cursed her own weakness. “I need some space. Don’t follow me.”
Aelia spun on her heel and stalked to her horse.
“Aelia, wait, it’s pitch black out there.” Keeran crossed the clearing in a matter of strides, watching her untie her horse and slinging the rope around its neck to tie the loose end to the halter. “You can’t seriously be going out without any tack.”
Aelia sprang onto her horse’s back, grabbing hold of the rope and touching her heels to its flank. The horse skittered to the side, pivoting around where Keeran held it firmly beneath the chin.
“Let go,” she snarled, too desperate to get away, to hide her tears from him, to think about anything else.
Keeran looked silently up at her, a world of pain and fear buried in his eyes. For a moment, she didn’t want to go, she wanted to slip right into his arms and cry until the world started to make sense again. But then he released his hold on the rope.
They stared into each other’s eyes for a second that stretched for an eternity, before she gritted her teeth and pressed her horse on. It dropped into a canter and took off into the night.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Keeran watched as Aelia vanished into the darkness, staring long after she’d disappeared. When it was clear she wasn’t coming back, he spun with a carnal roar, sending his fist flying into the nearby stone wall. It went right through it, sending fragments of stone crashing into the grass. He shook the dust from his fist and closed his eyes, trying desperately to control the seething rage that threatened to take over him.
With an almighty battle, he wrestled the beast within him back into its cage, where it threw itself against its constraints. It wanted to take off after her, both protective and wrathful in equal amounts. She’d left him. She’d worked out what he was, and she’d bolted.
He dropped his head into his hands, wishing he could erase the way her face had paled the moment she’d realised what he was. A beast from times gone by, the tyrants her people had struggled under.
And what had he done? Had he explained why he was doing what he was doing calmly and concisely? No, he’d fucked up royally, choosing instead to make it seem as though he was some revenge-obsessed vigilante.
Which he was. But not in the way he’d made himself out to be.
He dropped his hands in exasperation, wishing he could rewind time and start again, explaining everything to her properly.
The Dragons had fucked up, causing a war that spanned decades, decimating whole families as the twin princes fought for the throne. It was a ludicrous situation. Even as a child, Keeran was aware of the madness of it.
But the night that their people had turned on them had been the night his guardian had been about to seize the throne. How different Demuto would have been with Khaled and his unit in power. They were one of the few who still maintained control over the darkness all Dragons battled with, and they could have brought the rest of their people back.
Instead, Khaled’s mate had been murdered, shattering the man he’d been permanently, leaving a shadow of what he had been.
If only the artemians had conspired with those who were still good, still honourable, the world would be a much better place. And that’s what really pissed Keeran off. That they’d chosen to poison and murder all of them, irrespective of who they were. That was what he couldn’t forgive.
