A Kingdom of Flame and Fury (The Four Kingdoms, #1)

by Whitney Dean

“If you’re who I think you are, stop causing trouble.” It hissed and left me standing there.

Fuck Mira. This was all because of her. If I wasn’t fearful for my family, I would tell Raven everything. But Seolia didn’t have the army to back me up if I wanted to invade Reales. It would bring our deaths. And sacrificing Raven, as painful as staying away from her was, wasn’t worth it to me.

“But then something snapped in her when Rudolf started to get sick. All she could talk about was her mother, how she had a sister in another kingdom that was snatched away from her. The more she talked about it, the more it seemed to eat away at her.” “Why did she send you here? What’s the point of it?” Jeanine shrugged again, expelling a deep breath. “I honestly don’t know. All I could get from her was that she wanted the people here to fear Raven. I’ve never understood why she’d want her sister’s kingdom to turn against her.”

“Mira doesn’t realize that their greatest motivator is love.” I met Jeanine’s eyes. “Her people will do as she asks because they adore her. They don’t need to fear her to fall in line.” And it would destroy her if she had to ask that of them.

He won her over. She let him possess her. I wiped my mouth with my hand and jogged toward the forest. That image of them was going to plague my nightmares every night. Her beautiful body belonged to him now. I had to stop jogging to lean against a tree and vomit again, coughing as my eyes watered. This was what I wanted. I needed it to happen. But fuck, it hurt. Seeing my girl with someone else the way I used to have her.

I was almost out of the village when I heard screams. I turned, watching Raven fall to the ground, an arrow piercing her side. My chest burned from fear as I took another step toward her, but someone gripped my arm roughly and pulled me backward. I thrashed against the arm, needing to get to Raven and help her. “Zeke, stop. She’s going to be fine.”

“Didn’t Jeanine tell you that Mira wants her people to fear her? Some of them do. I’m in the village almost every day, and while most of them love her, a few are afraid of magic returning to the island.” I waited, trying to figure out what his point was. “They needed to see for themselves that there is no evil in that girl, not when it comes to them.” “So why shoot her?” I growled, itching to get back to her. “Because they needed to know that she’s not invincible. If her darkness threatens them, there’s a way to stop her. And they needed to know that if a war came, they’d be useful to fight for her. I’m doing all of this for her. We’re running out of time.” “You could have killed her.”

“It won’t kill her. But she will have nightmares, son. Her magic will be paralyzed, but you must let her feel that. She needs to feel the pain of not having it.”

“Because she is fading without you. There’s no fight left in her. She doesn’t come to meetings and does nothing but walks lifelessly around the castle. Cade is the only person keeping her going daily, and she shouldn’t even trust him.” At that, I dropped my hands. “What do you mean by that?” John chuckled as he shook his head. “You’re desperate to be the villain in her story when she already has one.”

“He’s known about who she is her entire life.” I nodded because, again, I knew that. “But she doesn’t know that.”

“He’s never told her, but Leonidas informed him of everything on his seventeenth birthday. I knew that Raven would need someone young in the castle to rely on, to get close to. I’d become friends with August, Cade’s father, who told me that Cade saw him bring Raven in as a baby. So, I told Leonidas to bring Cade to court, make him protect her, make her feel safe.” I was going to be sick again. “Cade made the decision never to tell Raven. Instead, he followed her for a year with Leonidas, learning her quirks and what she could do. He’s known exactly who she is her entire life, but he wanted her to rely on him. She might have tried to leave and go to Reales if he had told her. He didn’t want to let her go.”

“I promise she’ll be okay. But you have to let her feel the pain, Zeke. She needs to figure out who she is without anyone else trying to tell her. She must find her fight again, or she’ll never survive Mira.”

“John, she may not want to return if your statement is true. She may not feel like there’s a reason to return if there’s no fight left in her. I have to.” I shook my head slightly. “Arthur warned me about this.” “About what?” “Twin flames,” I sighed, glancing at him. “We’re twin flames. And he said that twin flames go mad if they’re apart after they’ve been found.” “Twin flames,” he repeated, awe in his voice. “That’s… that’s something else. A pairing. It’s been… well, a very long time.”

“It’s aconite!” Grace screamed. “The arrow was laced with it!” “Why the fuck would aconite be doing this to her!?” Cade yelled again. “Because it’s used to kill witches.”

I turned back to Arthur with a raised eyebrow. He simply shrugged. My eyes rolled. Bartenders and their secrets. So, he was back then. I wasn’t hallucinating. “I hope you told him he’s an asshole,” I told Arthur. He laughed, giving me a slight nod. Holding the rose flat, I tried to call on my fire. I frowned and wrapped my fingers around it, extending them again. Burn. Breathe, Raven.

I knew that walk. I took a step forward, and he took another step back. Again. Again. I stomped my foot. I’d had it with every man on this island. His raspy chuckle in response sent chills everywhere. “Why are you here?” I called out, my voice carrying in the empty air. “Why are you doing this?” “Come here, baby,” he responded, his voice predatorial. He turned and started to run. And I chased him.

Suddenly, a body was next to mine. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me up. Before breaking the surface, I knew who it was, which wasn’t who I wanted.

He kissed the top of my head and stood with my body in his arms, cradling me to his chest and weaving us through the trees. I picked up on Zeke’s scent, and my tears continued to fall. He didn’t want me to find him. He was toying with me, and I hated him for it. He saw I was alone out of the castle and wanted to know if I’d still follow him. And I was the idiot who would. He knew the power he held over me. And I had Cade, who loved me so much that he wouldn’t let me out of his sight, and I couldn’t escape him.

I cried out as I came, my eyes falling shut as I rocked my hips, riding my wave. I found my release, and my entire body relaxed. And it was still because of Zeke.

“You have to stop. If you change what I created, we’ll get stuck.” “I want to be stuck,” I bit out, pulling him to me again and clamping down on his bottom lip with my teeth.

“This isn’t real, Raven,” he murmured to me. I stared at him, pleading silently to let us find a way to be together. “Wake up, baby. Please.” “Why don’t you love me?” I whispered. His face broke, but he said nothing else as he threw me out of our dream and back into our dark reality.

I’m enough, I kept saying to myself. I could do this on my own. I didn’t need Zeke or Cade to fix me. There was nothing to fix. My broken pieces mattered. I mixed strength with my pain for everything I had overcome my entire life. My magic wasn’t something that needed to be hidden. It was something to be proud of. I would never push it down again. Please just come back.

No one would want a ball of ice landing on their face, let alone one that erupted into flames. I had an actual weapon of my own creation to use.

“I saw you dying, Raven. And then in the spring… you weren’t coming back up. I realized then that if you died, I wanted to die, too. I don’t want to live a life without you.”

A tear slipped down his cheek. I put both hands on his cheeks and shook my head. I wanted to take away his pain. “To live without your touch,” he continued, taking my hands in his. “Without your heart.” He moved a hand to my heart. “Your smart-ass mouth.” He gave me a slight grin, but there was still a pain in his features. “To never get to feel you again. Hear you giggle. See you roll your eyes at me.” I tried to kiss him again, but he turned his head away from me. It stung, and I frowned. “I’m so madly in love with you, Raven. I can’t live without you.”

“After this is all over, Raven… I’m going to demand that you spend your life with me.”

“You have to get her away from him, Zeke. Or he’s going to bury her.”

“He learned how to torture. His dad was a general and taught him how. He knows how to break people down. He knows how to manipulate them. And he spent a year learning who she was before she became queen. He’s kept her close for fifteen years and reacted when a threat came in to take her away. If she leaves him now…” she trailed off.

“Why didn’t you tell me about him?” He stopped and faced me. “Because you’d kill him.” I leaned against the wall, nodding. “I still might.”

“I wanted to help her since she lost work because of the fire.” “The fire you started?” Sighing softly, she nodded. “John said it was for Raven. I couldn’t say no.”

“Let me take you to Raven,” he said. “She can heal it. Zeke, this is infected…” “No,” I growled. “I want it to hurt, John. It reminds me of her every time I move.

I wanted Raven to see how I’d made her a permanent part of me, irritated that I couldn’t.

Before magic was banned or destroyed, finding your flame or mate was considered a sign of goodwill from the gods. It meant you were blessed and in Aphrodite’s favor. When magic disappeared, so did the celebrations. Rules became stricter about leaving your kingdom once you pledged your allegiance, making it difficult to meet anyone new.

“I’m beating myself up every minute for setting this plan in motion, okay? But it’s too late. They’ve become close. I can’t make her love me again. And I can’t make her stop loving him.” It tasted bad on my tongue as I said it. “You can at least help her try. If you’re dead set on maintaining this ruse you’ve created, you can at least change how it ends. Let her see that you still love her.”

I let Jeanine’s words soak in before I responded. I wasn’t planning on letting her see me until the ball, but maybe Jeanine was right. Perhaps I should make an appearance, wet her tongue. Keep her mind on me. But I couldn’t be nice about it. She still needed to hate me, for her sake, and when she met Mira. Mira couldn’t know we were in love.

Of course, I had a reason to say no. Because even as much as I adored Cade, I wondered if I would always think about Zeke and wonder where he was or if he’d fallen in love with someone else.

“You’re the one who shot me with the arrow,” I spoke slowly as the realization dawned on me. He frowned. I tried to push out from underneath him, but he didn’t let me budge. “You let him touch what’s mine.”

“Tell me, baby. Do you scream for him like you screamed for me?” “Does she?” I asked through gritted teeth, my envy awakening my fire. “I love it when you’re enraged.”

“Do you love him as you loved me?”

“You starved my heart for too long, and it had to learn to feed from another.”

“Tell me you love me, baby. Tell me about how you see me in your dreams.”

And I wasn’t ready to say goodbye because I was wholly centered around him, even after months apart. He broke from me, kissing me softly once more. “Happy birthday, baby,” he whispered against my lips. And when he disappeared over my balcony, I was convinced it had all been a wonderful, chasmic dream.

All the time we’d spent trying to purge him from my body was gone. He lived in my very bones again; my body was raw. And now, the scar from his arrow would forever stake his claim on me. He knew exactly where to shoot and not kill. He was making a point. I was his. He wasn’t going to let me go without a fight.

“Do you love him?” My mouth fell open at the question. Please don’t make me do this. He waited, never moving, his gaze resting on my sex. “I love you,” I whispered, urging him to look at me. But he didn’t. Because that wasn’t what he was asking, we both knew it. “Do you still want him?” Another question that I didn’t want to answer. “Cade,” I cried as my voice broke. A tear fell and dropped into the water. The look on his face broke my heart. He was fighting a battle. We’d only just found our way to one another, and now he knew that I didn’t belong to only him.

It was not enjoyable. He was trying to punish me for something that couldn’t be helped. I didn’t ask Zeke to come to my balcony. I didn’t ask to love another man.

“Say it, Raven.” I could barely comprehend what he was telling me. He slapped my ass with the palm of his hand. “Tell me who you belong to.” I lifted my head off the mattress just enough so he could hear my cries. “You.”

He pressed a light kiss to my mouth. “I love you.” I wanted our future together. Somehow. I didn’t want to be the cause of his anger. I didn’t want him to hurt me anymore. And I didn’t want to keep chasing Zeke through my dreams. Cade was here, loving me and begging me to love him back. Zeke was a ghost, haunting me, and never fully forming. “Yes.”

My eyes narrowed slightly on Jeanine as she came up next to Luisa and curtsied to me. Cade wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me to him, assuring me. Luisa continued, “And I have been sworn to secrecy about this next surprise for months. This birthday celebration has only been possible because of him.” Him. My mouth fell open as I followed her hand that was motioning toward the entrance. I stepped toward the door as Cade tried to hold on to me. “No…” I breathed as the doors opened. Standing coolly at the entrance was Zeke.

I told her that I hadn’t wanted to hurt her — that I was sorry for making her feel like she wasn’t enough for me. I kissed the tip of her middle finger, listening to her breathe soundly. I wished I could hold her and promise never to disappoint her. But I couldn’t do that because I would let her down. She was going to hate me for not telling her who she was. She wouldn’t understand. Jeanine was right: Raven wouldn’t know who to trust. But I had my risks to weigh. I had a mother and a brother who relied on me to keep them alive. And this was the only way I could keep all three of them safe. I had to complete my mission. I had to get her to Reales, and then I’d need a new plan. I’d have to keep creating as I went. Keep trying to warn her.

“Why do you care so much? Leonidas murdered your queen.” “Raven is my queen. Celestina was my sister-in-law, and I loved her. I wanted to avenge her death; the best way I could do that was to protect Raven. When Mira suggested binding our kingdoms together, I thought that would be a good way to settle it. Make it right. But then I started noticing traits in Mira that I saw in Celestina. She wants revenge. Raven is the best way for her to get that.” “And Leonidas became your friend.”