Light flared from her silhouette.“Let. Go.”
The shadows around her wrists loosened, then Rune’s hands moved to brace themselves on the bed above her shoulders. “I can do anything but that.”
The quiet words were heavy with meaning and something inside of her chest ached.
Alora rolled out from under him. But she stilled when meeting her reflection in the mirror as she stood. Dressed as a queen of the damned with light swarming on her arms and neck like paths of fire. Whatever she was … was fighting to break through. And Alora felt she would never truly be free.
“A pretty bird in a pretty cage,” she echoed, turning to face him. “I have been caged my whole life. In my father’s abandonment. In my grief. In a deserted cottage tucked in the woods. Are you to be another lock on my door?”
Rune heaved a sigh as he sat on the edge of the bed, rubbing his face. “Alora, you are not a prisoner.”
“Hard to believe that when I woke to the lack of a door,” she snapped. “How dare you lock me in after you were the one to force this thing inside of me to explode!”
He stilled when the mountain rumbled, his mouth parting as he gazed upon her with fascination.
She glanced at the mirror again and inhaled a sharp breath. Her eyes… were glowing white.
“What you hold inside is old magic, Alora,” Rune said quietly. “Not made to be dormant or tamed. And after years of being contained, it was bound to unleash. Imagine if it had done so around Calla and the others? Or in Argyle surrounded by your friends and your people?
She trembled, picturing their bodies crumbling at her feet, burning.
He came to stand behind her. “Have you ever wondered why tremors pass through Karag Dûr?”
Her next breath halted as she remembered each moment, thinking it was him or the mountain simply reacting.
“That was you,” Rune murmured. “It was your power shaking the foundation of the earth or the sudden gust of wind each moment you were feeling too much. Anger. Fear. Sadness. It needed to be freed. So, I took you to a secured place where you would harm no one to finally face your magic. Now you can begin to learn how to use it.”
She looked down at her glowing palms. They shook with his words and everything else inside of her. There were so many emotions coursing through her. The ground beneath her feetrumbled. Alora shut her eyes and took a deep breath, then more until her light faded.
“I kept you in your chambers to protect you,” Rune said when the mountain fell still. “And then…”
Alora smirked bitterly when he trailed off, and she faced him. “And it was to protect your court. Why? Fear I will turn it to ash? Perhaps I should.” She smiled sharply. “Then I will return to Argyle as the princess who slayed the dragon in the mountain.”
Rune’s jaw clenched, his expression darkening. “Regardless of what power you have, you don’t know how to use it. You walked into a pit of demons with hardly a plan. You are still mortal,” he growled. “You could have beenkilled.”
“It worked well enough, didn’t it?”
He shook his head. “Politics here are much different than Argyle, Alora. You defied me in front of my court to spare some mortal who by all rights should die for trespassing into my territory.”
“His name isCaelum,” she said tightly. “And he came to rescue me because he thought I was in danger!”
Rune’s jaw flexed, the temperature rising like a forge and he said tightly through his clenched fangs.“He came because he loves you.”
Alora froze.
Yes, she had suspected as much. There was a time when her heart would have swooned at the thought, when she would have dreamed of being Caelum’s wife, but that future was impossible now for many reasons.
Rune watched her expression carefully, his own dimming with realization. “You love him, too.”
She swallowed, looking away.
He chuckled darkly and strode away toward his table to pour himself some wine.
“Youarein danger. Every time you breathe, the whole court wants to taste what lives in your veins like forbidden fruit. You think I locked you away out of cruelty?” He turned to face her, eyes flashing bright. Scales sprouted on his cheekbones, his fangs growing. “I did it for your protection.”
Alora stared at him, breathless.
“From them … or from you?” she whispered.
