Page 67 of Her Ivory Flame

She decided to walk away while Silas was slightly distracted and moved towards Kaden, his eyes met hers as soon as she started walking. He knew she was in distress, she could tell by the look in his eyes he was worried, but didn’t let it show on his face.

“You must be worried about our travel?” she said in a lighter tone, trying to distract from the tension around her.

“I want to be prepared for anything.” he muttered, her body stopping just in front of him and looking down at the table.

She could smell the lilac on him again, her breath shuttering as she tried to keep herself together and she watched his arm tense against the table.

The pain from Silas’s betrayal was still fresh, she had just been hiding it since he had left and with him back, it seemed it reopened.

“It would be smarter and safer to have both of us go with you.” Silas started behind her and she glanced hesitantly over her shoulder.

“I don’t trust you Silas, therefore I don’t want you around.”

“But you trust him?” Silas gestured to Kaden.

“I don’t trust anyone.” she scoffed. “So far he hasn’t shown me a reason not to take him with me.”

“You're ignorant if you think you can trust him.” Silas sneered.

She turned fully towards him now, his golden eyes blazing with fury and she knew it was time to force him to leave, whether he liked it or not.

“We are done, Silas. Don’t talk to me unless it's business or an emergency.” She kept her tone even, anxiety riddling through her but she wasn’t going to let him see her break.

“Guards!” she yelled, the door soon opening and two men stepped into the room. “Please remove Silas from my chamber, he is no longer welcome and if the king has a problem with it he can come talk to me himself.”

Silas was now shaking with anger but he knew he couldn’t refuse to leave now, not when the guards were involved. She should have done it sooner, but she didn’t think if she was here long term it would be allowed. It was her last night, so she could piss the king off all she wanted.

“You’re making a mistake.” Silas seethed and stormed past her out the door, the guards nodding and then followed him out.

Once the door shut, she leaned back against the table with her body shaking from exhaustion and let out a long breath. Kaden moved beside her, leaning against the table with her and nudged his shoulder against hers.

“I did say you were trouble,” he whispered.

She coughed out a laugh, her head turning to look up at him and saw a small part of his lip curve up the side of his face.

She smiled back at him with tears starting to run down her cheeks. Sobs erupted from her chest and she felt the weight of everything crash down on her in a single moment.

Her knees hit the floor and she covered her face with her hands, her tears soaking her palms. The overwhelming stress and anger spilled out of her and she could no longer hold it in.

“Can I?” Kaden’s soft voice made her glance through her fingers and saw his arms stretched out to her.

It was a silent invitation, a gesture she never thought he would make but here she was on the floor seeing it. She paused for a second, the way he wordlessly offered comfort while still respecting her boundaries made her realize he really did pay attention to her needs.

She wasn’t sure what she would have done if he had grabbed her like other people would have, but now she knew there was at least a level of trust she couldn’t ignore. Her tear-filledeyes glanced up at him, the maroon color staring back at her dark and she nodded to him.

Warm hands cradled around her slowly and then she was lifted into his arms with one swift movement. Her breath caught for a moment at the anticipation of panic coursing through her, but nothing happened and she couldn’t bring herself to look at him again.

He set her down on the bed and she rolled onto her side facing away from him. She couldn’t speak, couldn’t move other than to grab a pillow and pull it to her chest.

His finger grazed her cheek, wiping some of the water from it and then pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

She didn’t care if it was odd behavior for him, or that it felt good to be shown some affection, she wasn’t going to let herself read into it.

“Everything will be ok Alyra.” He repeated the same words from earlier and she could only squeeze her pillow tighter.

She couldn’t look at him, couldn’t process what had happened or why their dynamic had changed so much in the recent days.

She still didn’t have all her power, Silas had taken what he wanted and discarded her, and now the king was making her leave to another town to save his people. She understood the king's motives, but everything else was draining her.