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

by Whitney Dean

“I used to feel like you put the stars in my sky,” I mumbled, my eyebrows drawing in as my eyes went unfocused, the diamond stars blurring. “But then you burned them out.”

“The moon has nothing on you, baby.”

“Because,” he began again, staring deep into my eyes like he was touching my soul, “we’re mirror souls, Raven.” He kissed me again when my mouth fell open before pulling back just enough to whisper against my lips, “Twin flames.”

I stared at him, blinking quickly as I digested—twin flames. Two souls ripped apart, destined to find one another in every universe. Twin flames were a folktale. They hadn’t been found in a very long time.

“I knew the night I saw you at the Festival of Dreams. As soon as you stepped into the crowd, you were lit by the flames of the bonfire and my soul connected to yours like a magnet. I recognized myself in you. I had flashes of life before ours. I could feel touches and hear your name. The next day, when we met in your throne room, you stuttered when you saw me. That’s when I was sure that the person I was there to seek out and bring back with me was the very person who held the other half of my soul.”

“But that’s why you can’t hurt me with your abilities, not physically. I’m the other half of your soul. I can bring out your anger; it feels as good for me as it does for you. But it doesn’t harm me.”

Someone else in the world had magic, and it happened to be the other half of my soul.

Because we were woven into the fabric of the universe, destined to find one another here and in every lifetime, that thought comforted me. After twenty-five years of constantly feeling alone, I had a part of my soul wandering the universe with me, missing me as much as I missed him.

“Raven, the only thing you need to know is that love isn’t an adequate word to describe how I feel about you and that I will follow you world to world. Isn’t that enough?” He said it so casually, like he wasn’t promising to seek me out in every universe from now until the end of time.

“Raven,” he murmured. My body turned to jelly at his tone. “I am so deeply, so irrevocably in love with you.”

He was still buried inside of me, and I wanted to stay like this, forever, on his ship in the middle of the channel. I wanted to burn for him, always.

“You always love me best in the dark,” I said. “Because you are my light.”

I do love him, and I always will. But you…” I whispered, the pad of my thumb rubbing his cheek, “You are the feeling I get when I see new flowers blooming. You are the sound of the trees in my forest.”

“You are the flames in my palms, warming my entire body.” I touched the tip of his nose with my own. “You are the taste of rum coating my tongue. You are what awakens my soul when I smell pine.”

Our tongues twisted together hungrily because our bodies fit so well together. And yes, something about us felt ethereal. Like Zeus created a constellation where our souls crashed together in the night sky.

We shared a blissful moment as his tempo slowed, fate sketching this memory in our mind — the way our bodies moved together, the feeling of our souls colliding, finding their home again.

I sat up just enough to look again at the tattoo he marked himself with just for me. For us. I pushed my lips to it and felt what I’d always known between us — that our hearts beat together in twin rhythms — meant that this devastating man full of gloom and shadows was created for me.

“You’re the queen of my soul, and you will always be mine.”

“The fates chose wrong when they split our soul. I hope it’s rectified in the next life because I want nothing to do with you.”

I crawled away from the door because I knew he was still there. I still felt our pull to one another. His black soul wanted to soothe mine, but I needed them split. I didn’t want it anymore.