I lift my chin. “The starlight is what suits me.”
He goes still at the reminder of the way I looked bathed in starlight and nothing else. When I was his and he was mine.
“And as beautiful as Letum is in the daylight, I’ve spent every moment of the past year longing for the relief of darkness.”
Niko searches my face, his obsidian gaze ruthless and guarded. Like he cannot dare to hope without being destroyed entirely. “What are you saying, Willa?”
I don’t know what I’m saying or why I’m truly saying it. His unexpected return has unmoored me, and all I know is how thankful I am those horrible moments on the Lunaedon balcony were not our last together.
“How are you here?” I ask, grasping for an anchor as my head swims—something to hold onto in the current of emotions threatening to pull me under. “How did you get through the wards? I didn’t feel them open. I…I didn’t feel you until you touched the water.”
Niko’s fingers freeze, and his body tightens against mine like he’s preparing for battle. “I was told you were a tad busy at the time of my arrival.”
My stomach plummets like I’ve lurched over a cliff. “You’ve…you’ve been here for an entireweek?”
The words are slow, a dangerous dare. For if he arrived when I was in Caelum, it means I am not the reason for his return. It means he did not rush to me the moment he stepped foot on the island, unable to stand another minute apart.
His silence is confirmation enough. I wrench myself out of his arms with a furious huff. Niko watches me carefully, tracking my movements like I’m an animal ready to pounce. And truly, he’s not far off, as the moment I step away, my relief is swallowed by hurt, by anger—by the hunger of the shadow at my back.
“Why didn’t you tell me? I’ve been—” I cut myself off with a sharp curse, as the shadow behind me draws closer. It brushes against me, a caress not to comfort, but to incite.
I see the moment Niko notices it—the moment his eyes narrow with pure, undiluted fury. Shame crushes my chest, leaden as a boulder.
My shadow leans toward it, drawn to my misery. I attempt to shrug it off, to ignore the addictive syrup of its whisper in my ear:Gods are not ashamed of their power. It is he who should be wrapped in shame. He, who should be strangled with it.
“I have been tearing myself apart with the guilt of your death, Niko. Why…” My voice breaks. “Why didn’t you tell me you were home?”
He licks his lips, drawing his eyes from my shadow back to my face, almost unwillingly. I’ve somehow forgotten how it feels to be beneath that onyx gaze—like being showered in madness and euphoria at once.
“Tell me, Darling…would you have given me a hero’s welcome if I had? Or would you have set that shadow on me the moment I stepped foot in your kingdom?”
My shadow jerks in response, the hunger of its void burgeoning in my chest.
Niko laughs, the cruel, wicked sound of the Carrion King. “Forgive me for being wary of your reaction when the last time we met, you shoved me through a ward with my worst enemies.”
Guilt sluices through me, viscous and cold, as he continues, “It isn’t as if you regretted your decision and came after me immediately. Why would I assume you’d be happy to see me when you left me on the mainland to rot for a year?”
I swallow roughly, fury and regret clogging my throat in equal measure. “Why are you here then? Why did you come back?”
For you.
A pathetic part of me longs to hear him speak the words; to soothe the jagged edges of my insecurity, and tell me he’s been as tortured by our time apart as I have.
His eyes flicker back to where my shadow lingers, malice sparking over his features. His voice is little more than a primal growl. “To get back what’s mine.”
Niko’s answer hits me square in the chest, and I stumble back like he’s hit me. “Wh—what?” I stutter, hating the vulnerable waver in my voice.
“You well know the possession of death, Darling. You’ve felt its wrath since you stole from it, haven’t you?”
He studies my reaction—watches me stiffen as a deep hunger pain shreds through me, and the shadow rises behind me like he’s called it to attention.
Pure wrath flashes in Niko’s eyes as he hisses, “Now imagine stealing something fromme.”
His fists clench at his sides, and his death spears toward where the shadow’s fingers claw at my shoulders. Niko grits his teeth,the muscles in his neck going taut as he slowly winds his ribbons back into submission. “Imagine sullying the beauty of what was once mine. Imagine ruining the light with darkness.”
Devastation showers me in a deluge, the weight of it nearly sending me crashing to my knees. The Carrion King has not come back for me; he’s come back for his kingdom.
Because heknowsI’ve ruined everything he trusted me with.
