A Touch of Gold and Madness (Celestials of Arcadia #1)

by K.L. DeVore

“Stay with me, Rainbow,” he murmured, desperation and fear in his voice as he pressed his forehead against mine.

“Where you go, I go.”

“I’m here, Chrome,” I reassured. He exhaled a quivering

However, after a hazy moment, a piece of my soul softened at the realization that he was protecting me with his life while I lay vulnerable, something no one else had ever done before.

“Oh, I have Mushweed. Take some. I can feel your reserves are low.” Chrome’s jaw clenched. “Thank fuck. I was struggling not to…”

“Hey,” I said, snapping him from his thoughts. “You got this. I’ve got you.”

Just as quickly, he pulled away. Blood and some type of gelatin substance clung to his chromatic strands of hair. It was entrails. Entrails were in his hair.

abdomen of a warrior behind me. “Fucking on a battlefield,” I said, throwing an elbow into the ribs of a woman. “That would be a first.”

“But he hurt you.” He whirled. “Pissed me off. Told you I’d kill anyone who ever dared to hurt you again.”

“You might want to move. Something is happening.”

“Fucking bastard. It looks like a form of electromagnetic energy. You’re gonna have to let it go.” “Chrome, I’m scared.” “I know, Rainbow. But you gotta do it. Trust me.”

“What the fuck happened? Are you okay?”

“I just absorbed the electromagnetic energy expelled from the lightning.”

“In doing so, I was able to control it for you.” “Share it with

“Let go, Gray. I got you.”

“Take it, Gray. Open that pretty mouth of yours.”

“You did your best. It was chaos, River.” “I wasn’t enough,” she whimpered.

Something was wrong; I could feel it. Where the fuck was she?

“Fuck!”

“Where. The fuck. Is she?”

Tremors began to return to my hands from the panic about not being able to find my little savage when she most likely needed me. How long had she been gone? I could always just leave now and try to follow the bond, hopefully leading me to her.

“Fuck!” I yelled. She was at the King’s Palace. That’s why I couldn’t sense her. She was too far away. She did exactly what I’d done on the battlefield upon hearing the news about her friends’ imprisonment.

Pieces of ash swirled together and began to form a corporeal body, beginning at the feet. As soon as he stood beside me, he grabbed the back of my head and pulled me into a hard kiss with a desperation that ached

my heart. The relief from his agonizing fear struck me.

“Thank ...

“Yeah, it’s what I’m officially terming our new teleporting ability.”

“No shit, little savage. I’m not here to save you. I’m here to help you.”

“Touch her,”

“I fucking dare you.”

“You think a simple stab wound will slow me down? Remember how you used to cut and stab me with your blades when you’d rape me because I cried? And then said, if I didn’t find a way to heal, I’d prove how weak I was and didn’t deserve to live?”

Why the fuck didn’t she have a godsdamn shield up?

“Put that poison in her body, and you’ll wish I had never been fucking born… Mother.”

I locked eyes with my little savage princess. No, my savage queen.

“Stay with me,” she whispered.

A growl climbed from the darkest depths of my chest. Gray didn’t belong to anyone. Above all else, she was her own person. But I had her heart, her soul. She was mine to protect and serve. Not to fucking own.

“No, no, Gray. You’re gonna be okay. You hear me?”

“Don’t you fucking leave me, Gray Monroe. I swear to…” I bent down and peppered her with urgent kisses. “Stay with me.” My voice broke, choking on clawing panic. “You promised to stay with me!”

“I’ll fucking find you. I promise,” I whispered against her blackened lips.

My chest heaved, as I went to the darkest place I’d gone yet. I wanted the fucking world to burn. If she wasn’t in it, then the world didn’t deserve to stand.

“I got you, Rainbow. You hear me? It’s gonna be okay,”

“Stay with me,” I whispered, my voice cracking from the emotion clogging my throat. I blinked away the moisture blurring my view of her perfect face so I could commit it to memory, holding her face in my hands.

Gray closed her eyes in resignation, a sob breaking free despite her effort to stifle it. After the first one broke free, she didn’t try anymore. Her shoulders shook as she gave into reality, each sob ripping me open more and more. “I love you.” I melded my lips with hers, coated in black blood. I absorbed her salty tears, taking anything of hers that I could. I felt her air shield go up, then I reached down the bond we shared and added my newfound strength to it.

This was what I wanted her last memory of me to be. If I was going to bring the world to ruin, I’d do it with her in my arms, even as she wept into my goodbye.

“I’ll always find you.” With my thumb, I wiped the wet streaks from her face before I tore my gaze from her. Against everything inside me, I turned around, clenching my jaw tight against the agony in my heart. My feet crunched in the rubble, leaving her broken and alone in the wreckage as I walked away from my destruction.

Gasping for air, I clutched my chest, wishing I could reach inside and snatch it out. I’d do anything to make the pain stop.

Chrome saved me. He sacrificed himself and the world to fucking save me.

“Now bow before your fucking queen.”

“Touch another fucking hair on her head, Forest, and see what happens…”

“I can imagine you’re pissed but I’ll explain everything once we get the fuck out of here. Celanea will be here to collect

Guard her with your life. Then, you’re gonna be there for her.”