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And that is when the Tele’s power flickers and dies beneath my skin.
Nooooo
“She was my A.” My throat tightens. “Ava was my Adena. But they don’t go far.” I gently lift her arm until she’s pressing a palm to her beating heart. “Your A lives here now.”
“Death himself couldn’t drag me from you.”
“There is love within duty, and duty within love. You can’t have one without the other, and yet”—she takes a deep breath, her gaze distant—“you can never truly have both. So choose, Kai Azer. The girl. Or power. And whether or not she is worth the destruction of everything you are.”
“You know, you are quite the pretty prince. In a different life of mine, perhaps I would have kept you for myself.”
“Don’t fear power. Wield it. Perhaps even let it control you.” The queen smiles sharply. “Being an Ordinary is not what makes you weak. It’s your heart.”
“Your arrogance is astounding as always, Kai.” “Thank you.” I cut him a glance. “That wasn’t a compliment.” “Then don’t say my name, and I won’t thank you for the sound.”
“You did not tell the kingdom of this marriage sooner because your new wife, Myla, was already with child. In order to ensure her safety, your union remained a secret until long after the birth of your spare.” Edric slides his skeptical gaze to the stiffening woman. “You already have a child?” “She does,” the adviser answers on her behalf. “He is still a babe—barely a year old and could easily be passed off as your own.”
I hear Paedyn scream when my body hits the deck. Then again when the bony tail connects with my spine. Pain explodes down my body.
“Damn fate, and duty, and every other word meant to keep us apart.” Tears slip from those blue eyes I would happily drown in. “I want to hide with you beneath the willow tree. You are the secret I will spend the rest of my life keeping.” Her voice quivers beneath the weight of such a promise. “Us.”
“I admire the rose and its thorns. Even the prettiest things can bite.”
He shuts his eyes to bask in the warm light. “Just admiring the sun.”
“I’ve been a bit under the weather recently. It will pass, I’m sure. Now,” Kitt pants, “have you been out here all night?”
Is he dying?
You think I would not beg to run away with you? My duty may be to the king, but my heart, Pae, is wherever you are. It is in the palm of your hands, the pad of your thumb. So if you leave, I will follow. If you stay, I will bow. Because there has never been a moment when you did not own the only piece of me that mattered—loving you made me matter. And I ache to be full again.
“I do marvel,” she says quietly, “at how incredibly Ordinary you are.”
She screams when I force her face into the hungry wall of fire.
“This wall of fire separated me from P, and by the time I finally got her out… Blair was…” Lenny swallows, his brown eyes shining. “I took care of the body.”
I can feel the exact moment my heart shatters. It’s when I turn, my eyes crashing into ones well memorized.
Omg does she have to fight Kai? Nooooo
“It’s just you and me. Under the willow.”
“I love you, Kai. I love you. I love you. I love you.”
I know what it feels like to kill him.
“You almost died thinking it was me who killed you. Thinking that I would ever lay a hand on you again for any reason other than a caress. I told you I would never fight you again, but there I was, hurting you like I promised not to.”
“I love you.”
“Paedyn, I love you. Like nothing else before, I love you. And I’ve been waiting to tell you since I realized your eyes are my favorite color and your freckles the only constellation worth looking at. I could lie—say that you’ve stolen my every thought and heartbeat like the thief you are, but all of me was already yours. Pae, you are my inevitable.”
“You love me.” “Then.” His hands cup my face. “Now.” My lips brush his. “Always. And I’ll find your shoes for you in every lifetime if you’ll allow it.”
“So who did I kill?”
Yeah who
“And maybe,” Kitt continues, “I wanted to test your loyalty to me. See if you would actually…”
“There are other Wielders in Ilya that are being killed because of it?” “There are very few,” Kitt answers on my behalf, his worried gaze on my growingly distant one. “Father discovered three during his reign, but he would”—a clearing of his throat—“take care of them to ensure that Kai was the strongest Elite in Ilya’s history.”
“Illusionist. There was an Illusionist disguised as a Sight, wasn’t there?” Kitt nods solemnly. “He was casting Kai’s image over the Wielder.”
“It’s Adena’s boy from Loot.” She chokes on his name. “Mak.”
“See you in the sky.” Eyes wide and rimmed with tears, she lifts her gaze to mine. “He was trying to say that in the arena. He was dying, and that was the last thing he wanted to say.”
“The way he was fighting… he really did want to hurt me.”
“But he decided not to kill me,” she murmurs. “He could have killed me. If we hadn’t met, I wonder if things would have been different.”
“Don’t,” Kai practically chokes. “Don’t walk toward me wearing that dress.” I’ve never heard the Enforcer sound so shaken. “It only reminds me that I won’t be the one awaiting you at the end of that aisle.”
“You buried him.” It’s not a question. But it’s not a surprise, either. Not anymore. “Nothing gets past you, Little Psychic.” Kai sighs out the words before adding, “Out in the poppy field. I figured that was a good place for him to rest.”
“Are you completely unaware of how devastating you are?” Kai chuckles darkly. “You don’t need a blade. I would bleed if only you asked.” “Then I wouldn’t ask,” I retort sternly. “No, you wouldn’t.” He steps out into the hall, tossing his next damning sentence over a shoulder. “As my queen, you would command it.”
“But I have faced far worse things than my own powerlessness.” She lifts an arm, running fingers over the scar beneath her collarbone. “I once wore this carving with shame, but now it is proof of my survival. No ability could have withstood what I alone have.” A smile touches her lips. “A king left his mark upon my heart, and now, I will leave mine across his kingdom.”
Is he paler than usual? His lips are chapped, gaze bleary above them.
he must be sick
“Paedyn, I won’t watch you marry him.” His voice is little more than a growl. “I can’t bear to lose you.” “So have me.” The tips of my fingers trace his knuckles. “One last time.”
“I’ll see you after the wedding, my Queen.” A tear rolls down her cheek at my words. “As your Enforcer,” I finish weakly. With one last regretful look, she parts the curtain of leaves and steps into her future. Without me.
“Thank you—” A raspy cough cuts the sentiment short. “Are you”—I spot something that looks suspiciously like blood splatter his handkerchief—“all right?” He wipes his mouth. “I’m fine.” “Kitt, I think you’re sick—” “I said I’m fine, Paedyn,” he snaps, eyes suddenly wild.
There was once a time when I would have done unspeakable things to steal even a single gem. Now, I get to wear them around my neck like a trophy. Or a pretty noose.
She had a lover.
Blood claims blood. And when I look at Iris Moyra, the late and beloved queen of Ilya, I see a shade of her coursing through my veins. And blood never forgets.
“But Alice was not the mother you were talking about,” I breathe. “It was the queen you loved. The one who died giving birth to me.”
omgggggg
Hello, Father.
"Paedyn, I am your father" (in Star Wars voice)
“After you killed Queen Iris,” he bites, “the king handed you off to a Silencer. That is when he discovered that an Ordinary—an Ordinary—killed one of the rarest Elites known to Ilya.”
“A Soul.” Calum utters the words he’d read from my mind. “That’s right. The ability to sense another’s emotions and alter them, take them upon herself. And her power paired with mine—a Fatal’s?” He laughs, and it is a crazed sound. “You were supposed to be formidable. But you are nothing.”
“Because it should have been you,” he growls. “It should have been you that died that day, not the queen who bled out for an Ordinary.”
“But you have her eyes. He recognized you the moment you sat down at that table.”
