Dangerous tenderness.
And then, just as swiftly as she brought me to my fucking knees, she shattered the illusion, without showing me one ounce of mercy.
Akaoridammit, this antagonizing female won’t stop keeping me on my bloody toes.
Maybe that’s why I can barely focus on anything else when she’s around, even now, when she is finally giving me crucial information on which my kingdom’s fate hangs. I’ve waited so long for her to lower her guard and disclose her sister’s location, yet here I am, on the precipice of uncovering Aurora’s whereabouts, ogling her sinful body instead. My shadows itch to jump from the confines of my skin and shower her in crimson darkness, sweet and palpable.
My sweeping glance lowers to her heaving breasts, and, of course, my dick chooses this exact moment to awaken, egged on by my unruly shadows. Down, boy! Not now!
“…and that’s why the best course of action is to stay away from each other.” She finishes her monologue, and I frown. Wait, what?
“What are you on about, little umbra?” Smoky ringlets of power pour from me, nuzzling her jawline, and pushing a lock of hair behind her ear tenderly.
She swats the shadows away as if clearing fumes from the air, and narrows her intoxicating amber eyes at me.
“Did you not listen to one word that I just said?” she accuses, her tone challenging.
“Not really, no. I was otherwise preoccupied,” I sheepishly admit, like a schoolboy being scolded by his very hot, disciplinarian teacher.
“Fuck’s sake, Killian! It took me ages to make that confession. Don’t make me do it all over again!” she whispers as she becomes restless, her loud pulse feathering in her neck. Oh, that delicious-looking neck, that beckons me to worship it with my fangs. My gums ache in surreptitious hunger, as if they can almost taste the incandescent rapture that flows unflurried through her veins.
“We can always do something else, little menace, mmm?” I say, crowding her personal space, enveloping us both in a sweet crimson mist.
“Oh, for the love of the unholy Gods, you infuriating male! Can you stop thinking with your stupid cock for just one damn second?” She jabs her cute pointer finger into my chest. “We don’t have time for this.Your kingdomdoesn’t have time for this!”
The unbridled trepidation in her tone clears the lust-induced haze from my mind, my dick deflating like a sad balloon.
“Fine,” I grumble almost like a petulant child.
Blaise would have a field trip if he were here to witness my uncharacteristic behavior. “So, you were saying?”
She exhales an annoyed huff before pinning me down with a cowering stare. How adorable!
“As I’ve been saying for the last five fucking minutes, talking to the walls apparently, I. Did. Not. Lie,” she punctuates every word decidedly. “I have no clue where Aurora currently is because I haven’t seen her or my father in five years.”
My brows bunch in vexation, urging her silently to go on.
“We were never the poster family for loving, affectionate familial bonds. Our father never forgave us for our mother’s demise in childbirth.”
I feel the raw taste of dismay clinging to my insides, but I keep quiet, willing to hear her out until the end.
“He was uncaring, unforgiving in our upbringing. Completely dispassionate with me and my lack of powers, and ruthlessly strict regarding Aurora’s development as the Foretold One. Her only given purpose was to fulfill the prophecy, or at least the Faes version of it.To slay you.”
“I suspected as much, little umbra.” I sigh in acknowledgement, and she raises one finger in the air, as if to shut me up, so she can continue.
“Aurora loathed the freedom she presumed I had in being, well, not her. She mistook neglect for autonomy and started to dislike me because of it.”
Gloom dims her resplendent eyes, and I have the unshakable feeling that there is more to this story than what she is letting on. Things occurred in her past that she’s not willing to divulge to me. Not yet, anyway.
Fine, I have patience. I can bide my time slowly until the day she trusts me enough to let her inner shadows bathe in the light of candor.
“We were never close, Killian. Not as twins should be. Not enough for your plan regarding me to be fruitful. Aurora won’t care where I am, or who is keeping me prisoner. She won’t come,” she says dejected, looking entirely remorseful for her lack of succor.
There goes my scheme up in flames!
“Send your best spies, the ones not engaged in battle, to sweep Ryawarath in search for her, not leaving a single rock unturned. I can give you some names of people she frequented, at least in our teenage years, of ex-lovers, of our tutors growing up, theservants. Someone’s bound to know something,” she continues with fervor. My little umbra might not be the solution to smoke her sister out of hiding, but she is more than willing to aid me in any way she can. Warmth is filling up my chest at the clear eagerness she is displaying—to commit to our cause, and save Wrahta.
At the same time, I can feel anger rising dangerously in my blood as I bark out a bitter laugh. “And you couldn’t have told me this sooner? Like a fucking month ago?”
